Blue Chip Review

This blog has joined the Blue Chip Review as a friend and contributor. For those who may not be aware, the BCR offers a great array of articles on national issues, popular culture, business, and topics that are important to Cincinnati in particular.

A big thanks go to editor Steve Fritsch for offering a square deal on links and content. Posts will continue to appear at Spacetropic, but some readers may arrive here from the BCR, and in the future I hope to contribute some content exclusive to BCR, especially on topics with a decidedly local bent.

For any new readers here - yes, Spacetropic has a funny name, and an eclectic focus that announces itself upfront with that portentous "incongruous" byline. Politics are not my primary bailiwick, although I come down right of center on most issues. Keep in mind this is still to the left of many Republicans here in the great Middle-West. Nevertheless I usually sidestep the firebrand topics of the day in favor of a snarky angle on culture, technology, and business, added together with the occasional tedious personal reflection.

Enough about me. Bounce over to the Blue Chip Review and have a look.

Everybody Loves Protests!

For your convenience, Spacetropic is offering this handy summary of people in action fighting the proverbial power. So c'mon everybody! Bring your street puppets, phone cameras, and lithe, socially 'conscience' girlfriends. It's protest time!

Protesters: Hispanic teenagers In Northern Virginia.
Complaining About: Congressional legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
How Many Strong: About 250
Fun Fact: They used the MySpace social networking site to organize the protest, and they join the hundreds of thousands of protesters who have already held demonstrations on the West Coast.

Protesters: Smelly French kids
Complaining About: The ability to drift along for a few years working 32 hours a week and not get fired.
How Many Strong: A couple of hundred thousand, with support from labor unions.
Fun Fact: Cradle-to-grave socialism sounds nice on paper but isn't really a very good idea.

Protester: Twee alternative rock icon Morrissey.
Complaining About: Canadian seal hunting.
How Many Strong: Morrissey and a handful of other activist celebrities like Paul McCartney and Brigette Bardot.
Fun Fact: Animal rights isn't a new cause for old Moz - as anyone who owns the classic Smiths postpunk fave 'Meat Is Murder' is aware.

Protesters: City employees in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Complaining About: The forced removal of a stuffed Easter bunny from the lobby of City Hall to prevent the possibility offending non-Christians.
How Many Strong: Nobody knows ... but they are leaving marshmallow 'Peeps' in protest.
Fun Fact: The original name of the settlement that became St. Paul was Pig's Eye. It was named for the French-Canadian whiskey trader, Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant, who had led squatters to the settlement.

Protesters: Former boy band stars, grim social justice professors.
Complaining About: The Iraq war.
How Many Strong: Looks like almost a dozen on a streetcorner in downtown Cincinnati.
Fun Fact: Some people seriously think there is a planned conspiracy on the part of the "corporate" media to avoid giving coverage to non-events like this.

HD Mad TV

According to BusinessWeek the marketplace could be waking up to the reality that the new competing formats of next-generation DVDs (HD-DVD and Blu-ray) are a practical joke at the expense of consumers. Full disclosure: I'm a high-tech nutcase - a staunch supporter of the latest and greatest. But this time I think the technology and the corporations are completely misaligned with the marketplace for these products.

The only functional differences between next-gen DVDs and the current-gen variety are a better picture and sound quality. (And consumers are always complaining about the crappy quality of today's DVDs, right?) Keep in mind, though, that to enjoy this staggering increase in cinematic fidelity you must possess not just a high-definition TV but one of the highest-end models - TVs so sophisticated that most haven't even come on the market. Then the price point for the next-gen players themselves begins at around $1000 - and the movie discs clock in at around $40 each. Thus the prospect of sitting back for a high definition viewing of Turner and Hooch begins to resemble, in strictly financial terms, the equivalent of a first night in prison.

Sure, the market will drive prices downward - but keep in mind that there are competing formats, backed aggressively by different consortiums of consumer electronics manufacturers, each of which have sunk millions into research and development. These negative carry-forward amounts on the ledger won't go quietly into the night.

Consumers - some of whom still remember with bitter clarity the days of VHS versus Beta - would be wise to pass up these formats for years to come. They are nicely served by the existing market: A low-end DVD player at WalMart costs $35 - a price point so low that average wage earner can own several. And who needs another format? Must we buy the same movies, over and over? How many people still have shelves lined with perfectly usable videotapes? In fact, the time might be right for a grassroots campaign about consumer rights and fair-use, since the average Joe might be ready to understand that media companies have instituted a clever system whereby ownership is illusionary and more and more of their disposable income is spent for marginal entertainment value.

Return of the Salad Days

Earlier this week the WSJ reported on a new trend among high-tech venture capitalists of preemptive funding. (HT Bizzyblog, Nixguy) In this scenario a cash-strapped young start-up company with a hot technology is spared the indignity of formal dinners, presentations, and pleading. Instead they are surprised by an unannounced influx of several million dollars in investment from some random VC.

It's the American dream, accelerated: One day they are coding their nifty AJAX/Web 2.0 application - and they step away to grab some Taco Bell - and someone clocks them with a bucket of cash as they are getting in their Jetta.

Now Robert Mitchell, correspondent for Computerworld, is making the case that American industry is underserved by experienced technologists, and degree-minded youngsters should consider it a viable career. Overseas outsourcing is limited by communication and culture, and higher-end applications require localized, hand-on experience. And tech changes very, very quickly.

Information is the lifeblood of commerce, and this increases exponentially each year. It may be premature to party, once again, like it's 1998 - but another investment-fueled intermingling of technology and business may be moving into higher gear.

Troublesome '06

Surely some cultural milestone has been crossed, with the news that Tupac Shakur will now be joining the ranks or the luminaries and infamous who inhabit Madame Tussaud's in Las Vegas.

In which category does he belong?

Tupac was waxed ten years ago, in another sense. But now legions of families from Tulsa on a break from running up credit debt at the tables can try and find the unifying theme between this headbanded innovator of West Coast rap, Princess Di, and Dracula. History is brimming with bad guys who might have been good guys. And Tussaud's features these folks, frozen in time. But somehow I don't think this new display will capture that fatal moment when the bullets tore through the limo door as Messrs. Shakur and Knight cruised the strip after the Tyson fight.

God bless the dead.

Cooking for Congenital Morons

It should come as no surprise that fewer and fewer people in America know how to cook. The Washington Post reports the extreme confusion and ineptitude that food manufacturers face when trying to give home cooks the most simple instructions - for example, the numb-nut who saw "grease the bottom of the pan" in a baking recipe and slathered the underside of the dish with butter. Needless to say, a fire ensued. The article didn't say - but we can only hope the aspiring chef perished in the blaze.

I don't have any patience for men or women who are baffled by the simplest forms of food preparation. One of the reasons why our country is so massively overweight is related to our inability to chop up a vegetable or boil pasta. I suspect some people are truly mystified by these tasks, while others are just lazy, and prefer to outsource meal after meal to Chipotle, Burger King, and the conglomerate dining cabal behind strip-mall restaurants - trusting their ongoing health and nourishment to strangers and teenagers in these restaurant kitchens.

It shouldn't be a gender issue either. Any man who can't make a simple plate of spaghetti and Ragu sauce without the help of his mother, girlfriend, or wife hasn't really become a full adult. And the same is true for women - some of whom claim ineptitude because they are also working professionals, and see basic cooking skills as a sign of the type of home-maker domesticity they hope to avoid, or at least delay. But this too is an excuse. Every full-fledged adult should know how to cook something - even if it's a simple dish: French toast, chili, an omelet, rice and beans. I'm a believer in bringing something to the table - figuratively, and literally.

In the Spacetropic household this chore is divided more or less evenly, and every weekend we usually try something new. For dinner she chops vegetables while I burn stuff on the stove, or perhaps the other way around. She does most of the baking - but I've got some skill with Italian food. Some efforts are unsuccessful - such as the time I attempted Japanese tempura - but those are the exceptions to the rule, and they build character. You never really know someone until you've worked as a team to throw a blackened sauté pan outside into the snow and raced around the house to pull the batteries out of the smoke alarms.

Teaches of Impeaches

The best question for Democrats in advance of the 2006 midterms is concerned with the possible censure or impeachment of George W. Bush. Do they think such measures are necessary? Would they vote for censure - such as Senator Russ Feingold has proposed in response to wiretapping in the name of national security?

Staunch liberals may rejoice - thinking that Democrats have finally screwed their courage to the sticking place - to quote Lady Macbeth's little pep talk on the eve of regicide. Finally a political endgame to rid ourselves of the neocon tyranny - without the costly distraction of a national election!

And yet Hillary, Barack, Chuckie Schumer, Kerry, they're all falling awkwardly all over themselves trying to avoid these questions. According to Dana Milbank at the Washington Post the most entertaining game for the Capitol Hill reporter is to ask about the motion for censure - and watch Senators up for re-election scramble to hide in the broom closet. They know the polling numbers - and aside from the faculty at Columbia and the thinning ranks of MoveOn.org the American public has no patience for shoot-to-kill partisanship. The average citizen may feel disgust towards Bush, but somewhat amazingly, they are capable of holding the Democrats in even greater contempt.

The WSJ editorial page today is convinced that if a Democrat-led congress takes power after the midterms they will almost immediately authorize special prosecutors to lay the groundwork for impeachment, regardless of mainstream public opinion. The same editorial suggests that the press should demand answers from the Democrats in advance of 2006 so they are on record with their true intentions.

My wife and I are both in our mid-30s. We are gainfully employed professionals with young children. We can help with math homework, attend a school commitee meeting, or write the delicately-worded email about the situation at work. We read books and newspapers, know something about wine, attend independent movies, and are conversant on the issues of the day in politics.

And - brace yourself - we also play video games. Some nights Mrs. Spacetropic won't surrender my PSP - she is absoarbed by Lumines, a sophisticated variation of the old Tetris that demands quick, thoughtful puzzle-solving skills. She likes to decompress in the evenings after work with a few minutes playing a game.

But this is one of a very small pool of games that isn't designed and marketed toward the piss-and-vinegar 20-someting male audience. A failure of imagination combined with an aversion to risk have caused the electronic gaming industry - which rivals the size of Hollywood in terms of gross revenue, remember - to leave profits burning in a trash can. Game after game consists of GTA ripoffs, racing games, and the most juvenile role playing excercises. The generation that has matured with Atari - now considerably older - is left with our entertainment dollars left in our pockets.

Games like Ico, Katamari Damacy

In the words of B-movie villians: You fools.

The Eclectic Nightstand

Old School, Tobias Wolff - Amazon, B&N - This tale of literary formation at a preppy boys school might only appeal to a narrow demographic. It's the story of an outsider, a Jewish boy amid northeastern WASPs in the 1960s who takes an unfortunate shortcut to scholastic eminence. But the story ends on a note of deep and honest affection for this antiquated and patriarchal system of education. If you can name-check John Galt and Nick Adams in casual conversation, you might appreciate this one.

Lewis Carroll: A Biography, Morton N. Cohen - Amazon, B&N - Three hurrahs for unfathomably repressive Victorian sensibilities! Because if Lewis Carroll was born today he'd very likely end up on one of those 'perverted justice' MSNBC specials. Instead the renowned children's author, scholar, and trailblazing photographer led a harmless and melancholy existence. The biography brings England in the 19th century to life with Carroll at the center. But you may end up thinking that Alice and Wonderland belong on the same cultural shelf as Michael Jackson's 'PYT' and Neverland.

American Gods, Neil Gaiman - Amazon, B&N - Genre fiction without a genre, Gaiman's Nuevo-gothic novel is rewarding if you paid attention to mythology, and even better if you've had a few helpings of cross-cultural Joe Campbell somewhere in your literary background. The narrative twists and turns towards a satisfying conclusion, but the payoff is lessened by Gaiman's failure to fully connect the reader with the more human characters in the story.

Inescapable Data, Stakutis and Webster - Amazon, B&N - Reading this right now. All of the technology in this book by two researchers from IBM is familiar. And if you've been following along you know that our society - individuals, corporations, government - is increasingly exploiting bandwidth, disk space, data, and metadata with almost every commercial and private transaction. But the authors synthesize the implications of this convergence in ways that are insightful and original. This book reads like an exclusive, early-look analysis - the type of thing for which industry leaders pay a premium to the brightest minds.

Planets On the Table

Back up for a moment.

• Mars is a planet that is rather cold and unpopulated. And it's still difficult to acquire real estate. But the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter slipped into place around the planet over the weekend (bravo engineers) to begin snapping the most detailed pictures to date.
• We now can view the property online with Google Mars - awesome technology that will make it easy to add scientific details from missions like MRO, and eventually, Pizza Hut locations when the time comes. Aerolocation anyone?
  
• They think they might have found Noah's Ark.
• We're using satellites to track flocks of birds infected with H5N1 as they make their way from Siberia to Alaska, and into North America. This amid news that the U.S. secretary for agriculture is now suggesting we stockpile canned food.
  

These are a few things to contemplate as you go about your Monday.

Pimps, Popes and Other Controversies

This website has been unavailable for the past day. You see, an old credit card was left on file at the hosting company. The automated billing process noted a decline and quietly shut things down. My dozens of readers kept me appraised, but I've been extremely busy the past two days, with little time to sort things out.

I was worried about my brother, who is busy at college, and once admitted (to my horror, actually) that Spacetropic was one of his primary news sources. University can be a cocooning experience, sure, when we are walled away from the world at large. Nonetheless, I am reminded of a guy I knew at school who ate canned corned beef for most of a semester, and at the end he was smelly and despondent. Variety is important to your diet, intellectual or otherwise.

And on that note, some random ideas, links, and observations that don't constitute a full-blown post, but are worth mentioning:

• The Oscars were painfully boring. As much as I despise the Hollywood liberal jackasserati - I can't imagine why John Stewart didn't win over the crown with some Bush-bashing.
• The winner for best song, a hip-hop number about pimping, appears to have touched off a controversy. Many African-Americans feel like it promotes a gratuitously negative image.
  
• It's warmer and rainy in the Midwest this week. I really like Springtime and all of the biology and renewal.
• Spring also coincides with the solemn season of Lent, for us Catholics. Consider this photograph of Andy Warhol, pop artist and famous practicing Catholic. The photograph is entitled Goofing Off During Lent.
• Pope Benedict XVI is now an iPod user. This should come as no surprise to anyone. The pontiff may be in his 80s, but he has a noted flair for fashion, and counts Gucci and Prada among his favorite designers.
• Nat Comisar, former proprietor of the five-star Maisonette offers his perspectives on the restaurant business and city/exurban demographics trends in the Blue Chip Review. (I plan to highlight this analysis in forthcoming post about the New Dubliner.)
• They killed Edgar on 24! As many commenters on the Dave Barry blog wondered - why didn't he simply eat the canister of nerve gas?

More uptake as time permits.

Naptime For Justice

Today in session at the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg conked out face down on the bench. A courtroom sketch:

The artist captured the bored expression of the Justice to her right (can't tell who it is), and the worried glance on Souter's face as he observes. It could easily be the beginning of a children's story - 'The Super Sleepy Judge'.

A tale which might begin the day before, when the gold-digger with the lavish boob job visited the court to plead for her millions. The subject of today's hearing was gerrymandering in Texas, which is decidedly less interesting than Anna Nicole, and no doubt Ruth was up late with all of the fuss.

According to the AP story none of the others wanted to wake her up - although there are differing accounts of whether or not she was snoring. I'm guessing these things are much more commonplace over in the Capitol building, where the sept- and octogenarians that populate the House and Senate probably doze off regularly after a heavy lunch with lobbyists.

Army of Danishes

As a token of support towards the Danish editorial cartoonists in their struggle against censorship-minded and homicidal jihadis I bought some Carlsberg beer and havarti cheese. What can I say? If deeply held precepts of Western civilization such as free speech require that I sacrifice $8.00 for a six-pack to the Danish economy in the name of solidarity I'm willing to go that extra mile.

The beer was underwhelming. But I can never tell, with a pricey export, whether the taste is what is brewers intended, or if the bottles were allowed to get warm somewhere during transportation process. I suspect Carlsberg might be a different experience fresh from the tap in downtown Copenhagen. The picture above is taken from the company website - and these gentlemen sure seem to be enjoying themselves.

Havarti, though, is quite a cheese. If you follow the link above you will see that the dairy farmers, on their website, advise cryptically that we should "never underestimate" havarti. I guess this is a cheese that might, at any moment, show off a few dangerous karate moves at the cocktail party - or maybe sit down at the piano and begin playing a sentimental ballad. Impressive!

And while we're on the topic of our mysteriously interconnected world where an ink drawing in Denmark can spell death in Nigeria - I received in the mail my copy of Glenn Reynold's Army of Davids, a late birthday present from the missus. My nightstand is heavy with books, but I intend to bump this to the front of the line and post a review, since the professor from Tennessee generally has insightful, prescient ideas about how media power structures are being inverted and transformed by this new information economy.