« August 2005 | Main | July 2010 »

September 29, 2005

Harvard Street Blocked

Hmmm... walking up Harvard Street near the corner of Windsor Street, it seems that one of Cambridge's rotting trees fell over in the wind storm:

Wait a sec... let's see what is going on here...

THAT'S MY CAR!

More pictures after the jump:

Continue reading "Harvard Street Blocked"

Posted by Dean at 2:00 PM | Comments (3)

September 27, 2005

On Additional Hurricanes

From The Daily Show, September 26th:

We begin tonight with Hurricane Rita which proved the old rule, no matter how anticipated, sequels are always less compelling than the original. I mean Katrina-- you got your mayhem, your devastation, your city wiped out. Rita--- mmmm. There was damage, but where was the zazz? Rita, I feel, was the Ghostbusters II of hurricanes.

Posted by Dean at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2005

Things that make you go "hmmm..."

Via slashdot, we have this interesting coincidence featuring a 1954 transistor radio:

Posted by Dean at 2:04 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2005

Katrina: The Game! (and other inappropriate humor)

Modeled on Magic, we have Katrina: The Gathering!

Also, as small towns on the North Carolina coast are forced to evacuate in the wake of an oncoming hurricane, a former New York Daily News writer is tempted to offer up the headline "Hamlets Warned of Ophelia."

Posted by Dean at 9:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2005

New Toys from Apple!

Ok, you've probably already heard about the release of the iPod nano. Also announced was the release of the iPod pico:

See also: The iPod Flea.

Posted by Dean at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2005

More Mac Mini Mods

Via Gizmodo, we have this Millenium Falcon case mod for a Mac Mini:

Compare to other architectural integrations of a Mac Mini.

Posted by Dean at 12:32 AM | Comments (1)

September 6, 2005

Catharsis

Keith Olbermann takes a step back from the mess in New Orleans now that the worst of the humanitarian crisis is (apparently) over, and he is not impressed (video):

Politician after politician, Republican and Democrat alike, has paraded before us, unwilling or unable to turn off the I/me switch in the heads, condescendingly telling us about how moved they were or how devastated they were, congenitally incapable of telling the difference between the destruction of a city and the opening of a new supermarket somewhere. And as that sorry recital of self-absorption dragged on, I have resisted editorial comment...

Apparently he resists no longer:

[The Government] promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.

It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

...

Instead of hiding behind phrases like "no one could have forseen[sic]," had he only remembered Winston Churchill's quote from the 1930's. "The responsibility," of government, Churchill told the British Parliament "for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."

Posted by Dean at 2:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 3, 2005

Video of Civilian Relief in New Orleans

"Telling a bunch of Cajun men that we need you and your boats is like telling a group of kids at a fat camp that you have an enormous pizza surplus you need to get rid of."

Civilians launch their boats into New Orleans to do search & rescue.

Apparently this project had trouble getting off the ground when the FEMA controlled LA Department of Wildlife & Fisheries refused to let the boats in until the governor finally demanded that they be allowed to go through. By the afternoon after the boat launch, the project was canceled when one of the rescued hiajacked a boat.

Posted by Dean at 10:00 PM | Comments (1)

September 2, 2005

New Orleans on TV

I don't normally watch much TV news, but I watched some today, and the reporters on the ground are outright angry about what they're seeing. On Countdown, cameraman Tony Zumbado was visibly shaken by seeing people dying outside the Superdome and watching people go without food and water. It got so bad from politicians saying, "I'd just like to thank all the help we're getting" while at the same time people were dying from dehydration in the streets that CNN's Anderson Cooper lashed out at Sen. Mary Landrieu after listening to her "all is well" platitudes.

On a similarly serious note, on craigslist, people are posting messages looking for information about friends in New Orleans.

I might as well add another thing-- why, when I normally write about stuff like "look at this old comic book I found" or "I found this movie amusing, today," am I writing blog entries about the news? First, since my nose is to the grindstone trying desperately to finish thesis, I'm not going out as much, and I don't actually do anything other than do work and check the news, these days. Next is that I'm just really, really upset at seeing a national disaster in the US being handled as though we were a third-world nation, particularly with respect to a city I've actually been to.

Posted by Dean at 1:04 AM | Comments (0)