James Brown following his arrest.
(Photo: Reuters)

movie: girl with a pearl earring

griet, played by scarlett johansson of lost in translation fame, is a poor young gal living in 1600's holland. her mom and dad no longer can afford her so they send her off to work as a house maid for a dutch master painter, vermeer. she arrives at vermeer's home/studio and at this point 80% of walt disney's cinderella was co-opted.

let me set the stage: griet (scarlett) is 500 times hotter than vermeer's wife, his mother in-law, all of his daughters, and the rest of the house cleaning crew. everybody treats scarlett like a bitch, except for the poor butcher's son, who later gets to wax scarlett -- standing-up -- in some dark, nasty back-alley behind some sketchy pub. the butcher's son, after the act, asks scarlett to marry him. duh! (dude! she came looking for you in the pub, pulled you out into the alley and gave you full landing rights! don't buy the cow when the milk's free!)

scarlett has some artistic inclination, so vermeer let's her help him around the studio with paint mixing and gophering. scarlett gets a gig as a reluctant model, and the rest is history (the piece by vermeer: girl with a pearl earring).

this movie is boring. it wasn't sad. it wasn't happy. it surely wasn't exciting. the lighting was dim. the colors, for a fine art-centric movie, were dull. the sets looked fake. the costumes were stereotypical period clothes; granted the 1600's were not the times for high-fashion, but there should have been something striking at least. the acting, even scarlett's, was mediocre.

grade: C-


np: The Best of Jill Hives, from the album Earthquake Glue by Guided By Voices, which I like this much: 5/5 stars

(nasa tv)

jennifer trosper, engineer for mer spirit, appears to have a new do.

jennifer was a lot more blonde at yesterday's rover news briefing. at today's briefing she's sporting a darker earth-tone color with some blonde highlights and what appears to be a whole new ensemble. (looks good, jt!)

check-out jennifer as mit's volleyball captain her senior year.

it's great to know that our $800 million investment is being managed by smart people with good taste and enough courage to try something new with their hair.

a film of "epic portions" records effects of eating only mcdonald's for a month.

morgan spurlock of new york decided to make a documentary on america's obsession with obesity and fast food (or as the industry likes to call it: quick serve restaurants), which made him a {clearing throat} big star at sundance this year.

for a month, spurlock ate three meals a day at mcdonald's accompanied by his camera crew. the physical end results of his movie idea are well-documented on celluloid.

the movie isn't all about spurlock, either. he travels around the states interviewing regular users of fast food products as well as the u.s. surgeon general, and others affiliated with the slinging of beef patties.

the movies has yet to find a distributor, but i'm ready to see it now. whoa, maybe not; this could be scary movie iii.

accoding to kenneth chang of the ny times, if we "shut down NASA, fired everyone and turned off the lights, that would reduce the federal budget deficit from $447 billion to $432 billion. Or everybody in the U.S. could get a $50 refund."

np: Too Young from the album Lost In Translation by Phoenix, which I like this much: ^r/5 stars

(REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)

(wow) that's scarlett johansson, who co-starred in lost in translation, one of my top-3 movies of 2003. she's pictured here in hollywood attending the premiere of her new movie "the perfect score," which opens january 30th. scarlett, scarlett, scarlett. you rule, girl.

np: Kaze Wo Atsumete from the album Lost In Translation by Happy End, which I like this much: 5/5 stars

you gotta be kiddin' me...

i came across this in today's ny times and found it rather interesting that a person, a ny times reader to boot, had not yet heard the cure's pictures of you. the song is used in hp's new television spot for their digital cameras, printers and computers. it's an uninspiring commercial to me. the song, however, carries the spot.

from the new york times comes this:

A Reader Asks : I really like the song about "pictures of you" in one of the new commercials for Hewlett-Packard. Can you tell me who sings it?

Stuart Elliott : "We've gotten tons of calls on that," says Ed Woodward, a spokesman at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, Calif., who says the song — titled, not surprisingly, "Pictures of You" — is by the rock band the Cure.

The spot is one in a series by a principal Hewlett-Packard agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, part of the Omnicom Group. For those looking for the lyrics, here they are:

I've been looking so long at these pictures of you
That I almost believe that they're real
I've been living so long with my pictures of you
That I almost believe that the pictures are
All I can feel

np: Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) from the album Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto & Stan Getz, which I like this much: 4/5 stars

this came in today...

the congressional budget office estimates the following projections:

• $477 billion deficit in FY2004 (a record number)
• $2.4 trillion deficit through FY2013, or 10 year projection
• ($1.4 trillion deficit through 2013 projected last august 2003)
• $6.4 trillion national debt through FY2013

$11 trillion = American's total income (gdp); budget deficit is 4.3% of total income

what's a few billion dollars between friends? the bush administration for the last two years have sang the chorus: "we're gonna cut the deficit in half in five years." as anyone with 20/20 vision can see, the deficit is continually getting larger.

you never know what kids think-up these days, and maybe mr. bush has been sneaking in a little paris hilton and the simple life. perhaps "cut it in half" is the new "grow it by three?"

mr. bush. the cialis for your limp deficit.

np: Asleep at the Wheel from the album Worse For The Wear by The New Amsterdams, which I like this much: 5/5 stars

where you're not gonna get a very good deal

the 10 california cities and communities with the highest median home prices during December 2003 were:

• Malibu, $1,178,750


• Los Altos, $1,165,000


• Manhattan Beach, $1,100,000


• Palos Verdes Estates, $1,065,000


• Beverly Hills, $1,062,000


• Burlingame, $1,030,000


• Calabasas, $936,000


• Laguna Beach, $927,500


• Newport Beach, $925,000


• Saratoga, $870,000

the 10 cities and communities with the greatest median home price increases in December 2003, compared with the same period a year ago were:

• Calabasas, 49.8 percent


• Malibu, 44.8 percent


• Sanger, 44.2 percent


• Desert Hot Springs, 43.9 percent


• Palm Springs, 41.2 percent


• Perris, 41 percent


• Beverly Hills, 39.7 percent


• Newport Beach, 37 percent


• Chino Hills, 36.7 percent


• La Verne, 36.5 percent

data furnished by the california association of realtors

one and out

bill clinton sent only two e-mails as president of the united states. one of the two emails, however, was a test message. this new information is utterly unbelieveable, especially since vice president gore created the damn internet.


(reuters photo)

bios bios bios

NASA Quest Space is home to some interesting bios of people working on mer.

an alarm that didn't alarm

"Alarm bells should have gone off when everyone believes the same thing. No one stood up and said, `Let's examine the footings for these conclusions.' I think you ought to have a place for contrarian views in the system."

that's what Dr. David Kay said when he spoke about the c.i.a. as they went about gathering intelligence on iraq and their supposed weapons of mass destruction, the major reason why we went to war. all of the intelligence agencies within in the united states believe the iraqis have or had illicit weapons of mass destruction, which Dr. Kay now says were largely abandoned in the 1990's.

nasa's mars exploration program, an organization overhauled after the crash of the polar lander due to a mix-up of metrics and inches, should be the model for the c.i.a.'s reorganization. in the new mars organization, questions are good. even stupid questions.

when everyone believes the same thing, alarm bells should go off.

np: God Bless The Child from the album Verve Jazz Masters 12 by Billie Holiday

lost in translation, in my top three favorite movies of 2003, won best comedy at the golden globe awards this evening. bill murray won best actor/comedy for his role as bob harris, an insomniac in tokyo who may or may not be home sick. director sofia coppola got the best screenplay award.

my other favorite movies of 2003 (in no particular order): seabiscuit, american splendor, secret lives of dentist and 21 grams.

awards aren't particularly important to me; however, when a good movie wins one, perhaps producers will take a new look and abandon the old formula of movie making, which seems to prevalent at first-run theatres.

np: Sometimes from the album Loveless by My Bloody Valentine

mars has two "moons," or satellites, named phobos and deimos.

Mars is orbited by two small, potato-shaped satellites, Phobos and Deimos. These tiny Martian satellites are thought to be captured asteroids composed of dark, carbon-rich rock. Each satellite has been heavily cratered by impacting meteoritic debris. (smithsonian national air and space museum)

image of phobos, one of mars' two satellites (courtesy of mars global surveyor - malin space science systems/nasa)

np: All The Right Reasons (Alternate Mix) from the album More Rain by The Jayhawks

immediately after landing opportunity safely onto the surface of mars, pete theisinger mentioned how much more important and satisfying landing the second vehicle was: the first landing could have been considered "lucky" by the rest of the world; however, getting lucky twice-in-a-row in regards to one of mankind's most difficult endeavors -- landing a vehicle safely on mars -- isn't the case for the talented and dedicated rocket scientist at nasa. (kudos to the mer team!)

during last night's press briefing, pete theisinger was asked about the successes of landing two vehicles on mars and how nasa can continue with these types of achievements. theisinger replied with one of the most thoughtful responses so far -- he hoped nasa doesn't have to go through this type of mission again (wow!?!)

for the past three years, team members spent little time with their families and dedicated every ounce of their beings into the mer project. pete does not want this type of extreme effort going into each project, which would have a negative affect on the team and their families. only on special and important misssions should this type of effort be exerted. (amen, pete. amen, brother)

np: Stars And Sons from the album You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene

the mars program overview discussion, a news briefing with a panel made-up of nasa and jpl managers, was an opportunity to hear about the structure and philosophy of the mer initiative. business and organizational consultants should take note of how nasa/jpl structure their organization in order to learn from the mistakes of the 1998 mars mission.

the key difference for mer, according to the panel, is opening 360 degrees of communications. asking "stupid questions" was made safe, and modeled by leadership for young scientist and engineers in meetings. (wow!)

keeping calm and maintaining a clear head in a difficult situation is key to solving problems. "removing the noise" is one of the ways to keep calm.

spirit has been upgraded from "critical" to "serious," according to pete theisinger, spirit project manager, speaking now during the spirit news briefing in pasadena.

"there's something involved in the flight software" that's causing the problem, said theisinger, confirming that the engineer's working hypothesis is largely correct. (yes!)

"we're three weeks away from driving" spirit again!

spirit finally slept last (mars) night, for the first time since last wednesday. is spirit a "tweeker?"

the new york times reported:

In the last two days, the computer on Spirit has rebooted itself more than 60 times, but the software crashes every time. "For you at home, this is just like resetting your computer," Mr. Theisinger said. "We should boot up fine."

the key takeaways from today's spirit news briefing is:

chances are very low that spirit will never operate or will operate perfectly, that according to pete theisinger, rover project manager at nasa's jet propulsion laboratory.

theisinger, looking to the future, said the spirit team is somewhere in that middle area as they attempt to determine the root cause of the communication problem and its fix.

who is this spammer Allied Marketing Promotions, LLC, and why is my spam/junk/bulk email filters NOT working against them? (more)

the folks at jpl got some data back from spirit during a transmission session earlier this morning. i hope more good news are in store.

tune into the jpl/spirt news briefing this morning, and send good tidings to that testy teenager, spirit.



while we're waiting for spirit to end its self-imposed silent treatment, check out the latest postcard from mars.

nasa press release:

Ground controllers were able to send commands to the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit early Wednesday and received a simple signal acknowledging that the rover heard them, but they did not receive expected scientific and engineering data during scheduled communication passes during the rest of that martian day.

Project managers have not yet determined the cause, but similar events occurred several times during the Mars Pathfinder mission. The team is examining a number of different scenarios, some of which would be resolved when the rover wakes up after powering down at the end of the martian day (around midday Pacific time Wednesday).

it's become a sad day when i heard of a "very serious anomaly" with the communications to and from spirt.

randel lindeman (engineer) and jennifer trosper (mission director) talked today at the nasa news briefing about what it's like to operate on mars time.

"normal life is no longer normal life," trosper, who is married and a step mom, said. jennifer said that spirit is like a teenager who needs constant attention.

the jpl team are for the most part very excited about their work and want to come into mission control in order to get the latest information from mars.

randel talked about the concern managers have for their reports. the managers don't want over-worked and tired people to be driving home and risking accidents, though it's tough because it's exciting to work on the project.

is there a word that's the opposite of murphy's law? if there is one, the mer spirit mission would qualify because whatever can go right has gone right.

"The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

Article II, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution

for all you different drum marchers, 2004 marks the 20th year of the macintosh computer. a discussion on just that will happen during the 2nd half of npr's talk of the nation today.

when it comes to the scientist working on the mer project, sleep

may become more of a challenge when the second rover bounces down (jan. 24th) and adds yet another wrinkle to the fabric of mars-earth time-shifting. with a landing site on the opposite side of mars, opportunity's local time will be 12 hours offset from that of spirit.

when (steve) squyres shifts from one team to the other, he said, he is expecting the world's worst case of martian jet lag. (from the washington post)

mars' day/night cycle last 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than earth's, which means the crew will not be getting to bed at the same earth time each day. (whew) that sleep schedule would be pure hell.

jessica collisson, mer's flight director, made another appearance at today's press briefing and did a great job. jessica appeared very comfortable as she spoke about spirit's next steps in the upcoming sols. the first time she spoke she appeard a bit nervous, or possibly excited. both times, however, she spoke with knowledge and looked great doing it.

in case you didn't know, you too can watch the live press briefings online by clicking here. the next one is scheduled for monday at 10:00 a.m. pst.

matt and kavitha, of the pasadena, calif. peters', hooked-me-up big time with a jpl/nasa spirit and opportunity mer tee! thanks, dudes! (i soooo rule now.)



get to know this great blog for marsophiles. the louisiana mars society have an awesome blog. very bright, knowledgeable and funny (at times), too. check 'em out here.

do you know of which democratic candidate running for president best matches up with your views? take the quiz here.

how it works:
1. read the plans without knowing which candidate wrote which response
2. click "view details" for the candidates' longer explanation of their platforms
3. select the one with which you most agree
4. continue through each of the 14 questions
5. see the results
6. register to vote and do your thing

based upon my viewing of nasa tv's morning news briefing, many more of the scientist appearing on there seem a lot younger than the rocket scientists of the apollo or pathfinder missions from the past. until now, i thought is was purely my imagination.

nasa is actively recruiting a younger work force because currently they have three times as many employees over the age of sixty as it has under the age of thirty.

julie townsend and her 20-something colleagues are among NASA's prized ranks of "fresh-outs" (as in fresh out of college) -- young engineers and scientists in great demand at an agency whose workers are retiring faster than the next generation can be recruited and trained.(more)

ann johansson / houston chronicle - julie townsend of jpl

evidence of fossil life on mars?

inspiring people worth considering

nathalie cabrol is a planetary geologist on the mars exploration rover team. the french-born scientist is one of the gusev crater landing site proponents.

Nathalie Cabrol. Photo courtesy of Seth Shostak.

We're always very excited to look at Mars. We don't even say we're going to work, because "work" is never a word I would associate with what we are doing. It's really more of a passion. We are here very early each morning. We are excited like kids in a candy store.

Since september 1998, Principal Investigator at the SETI Institute, NASA Ames Research Center
May 1996 to May 1998: NRC renewed at NASA Ames
1995-1996: NRC at NASA Ames Research Center
1994-1995: French Ministere de l'Education Superieure et de la Recherche post-doctoral grant. Position at the NASA Ames Research Center, Space Science Division.
1991-1994: Post-doctoral grant from the "Actualites de l'Hydrologie" Association at the Observatory of Paris-Meudon

nasa bio | interview | papers

np: Dirty Diesel from the album Come Feel Me Tremble by Paul Westerberg

my hometown is hog heaven.



a cool business-related story is being made in my hometown of rantoul, ill. a co-op that's made-up of family hog farming operations is about to go online with a new processing plant. the plant is supposed to be state-of-the-art in terms of food safety and humaneness. (more)

rantoul, a small town located two hours south of chicago, has been slowly trying to stand up after the closing of chanute u.s. air force base in the 1990's. the university of illinois is about 15 minutes south from there.

audio post powered by audblog

jury duty today; "failure to appear without excuse or postponement is punishable by contempt and/or fine pursuant to the code of civil procedure, section 209."

location: superior courts, county of san diego, california.

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Jessica Collisson of JPL is a hottie.


Jessica Collisson: (from her bio) when not working in the lab, she enjoys skiing and spending time at her home near the beach reading. For her, the best part of being an engineer is having the opportunity to build a device that will someday be on a different planet, and to have it teach us something in return.

At this morning's Spirit news briefing, Jessica talked about the rover's stand-up process and how her team is working-out the problem of further retracting an airbag at the front of the lander. Jessica wore red and looked great in it. Red's your color, Jessie. And your Parker Posey hairdo is fizzabulous.

Jessica is an engineer on the MER team. She earned two engineering degrees (B.S.) from UC Davis in 1999.

Dear Jessica: I enjoy reading by the beach, too. It would be so cool to pickup a pastrami sandwich from The Hat Deli and then catch an intelligent indie movie with you.

np: Dirty Diesel from the album Come Feel Me Tremble by Paul Westerberg

for designers, adobe systems' announcement that their pagemaker software application will be discontinued isn't a surprise, but it does mark an end of an era.

pagemaker for years has been a staple of desktop publishers and designers since the 80's; however, adobe's in-design and my favorite, quarkxpress, have the corner on the pre-press publishing market. pagemaker had a core group of dedicated users who will have to either stay with their legacy app or switch to one of the big two.

progress being progress, sometimes things go away. this time it's pagemaker.

(click to view medium resolution image)

the first image from mars by the nasa rover spirit.

after the death of the space shuttle columbia and her crew last year, nasa have hit two straight home runs: (1) the stardust mission to capture and return particles from a comet's tail and (2) the landing of the mars rover spirit.

space exploration costs a lot of money. (over $800 million just for the mars rover spirit.) having some success gives me a lot of pride in being an american. when it relates to space exploration, nasa and the united states are equivalent to the michael jordan-led olympic dream team. it's not easy doing what nasa's doing. look at the recent beagle 2 vehicle, the european space agency's problematic probe.

spirit has landed.

the first of two united states rovers, spirit, has landed safely on mars. most people with whom i have spoken care little about space exploration, but this is a big deal.

more to come...

starting the new year right with an all-day beer buzz is the mark of a good start to 2004, or twenty-oh-four as dfactor would like us to address it.

the guided by voices rock show/party, aka "new year's hoot" underwritten by local radio station 94/9, was a book-end to a totally imbibed turning of the years.

where are my drunken phone call audblogs from last night's party?

this is gonna be the year for mars planetary exploration. the red planet has taken the front seat as the new object of my interest. last year two nasa probes--spirit and opportunity--were launched and this month they are scheduled to both land on the planet. they're on the search for liquid water. if there's water somewhere on the planet, humans can someday inhabit there. maybe.

one big reason why the moon isn't looked upon as habitable for us humans is because of the water issue. mostly it's lack thereof. no water. no subdivisions.

when i think of inhabiting another planet, or anywhere for that matter, topography is important. mars doesn't appear to have any san diego qualities--beaches, mountains, deserts (well maybe) and tijuana. how does one get inspired on a planet like mars? the arts will undoubtedly suffer on a settled mars. there will be colonies, but very little of those artist colonies.

this year i resolve to not drink bare knuckle dark beer. well maybe. it's less expensive than guiness (good), but made by the makers of budweiser (not too good). this year i resolve to be conflicted by dark beers.

this year i resolve to drink more manhattans and less beer.

go forth and do great things.