I’m With The Conservative On This One January 11, 2010March 16, 2017 A MILLION FREE BOOKS NEXT MONTH Mark L: “Looks like Ray Kurzweil has been busy. Check out the video on Blio and the blio site itself. I love my Kindle, but this stuff looks pretty cool. Making books more interactive is the way to go. Books improved.” ☞ Kurzweil says that Blio (pronounced like Bibliophile without the ib and the phile) will be available for free download next month – and will come with a million free books. (And just who is Mark L, who clued us in to this? He signs his emails: “I am nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect!”) FREE BUSINESS 411 I just added 800-466-4411 to the “favorites” on my cell phone. Now if I touch that number and wait a few seconds, Google asks me to say the name of the business, city, and state, and then connects me. (Click for a demo.) I can also say “map it” or “text” and – presto! – a map or details about the business show up on my phone even as I’m being connected. Not bad for free.* MOBILEME Gordon Thompson: “I was just gearing up to buy yet another flash drive when Dropbox etc. came up in your column, seeming like a great alternative to piles of key chains. So I mentioned Dropbox, Sugarsync, and Jungledisk to my iPhone-wielding friend, who said, ‘MobileMe does all that and more.’ Now I’m baffled as to which service to choose, and am hoping your readers might offer advice.” ☞ My guess is that they’re all good. But . . . Readers, over to you. TED OLSON ON MARRIAGE The man who took George Bush’s side in “Bush v. Gore” writes in Newsweek: Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social and economic partnership. We encourage couples to marry because the commitments they make to one another provide benefits not only to themselves but also to their families and communities. Marriage requires thinking beyond one’s own needs. It transforms two individuals into a union based on shared aspirations, and in doing so establishes a formal investment in the well-being of society. The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it. Legalizing same-sex marriage would also be a recognition of basic American principles, and would represent the culmination of our nation’s commitment to equal rights. It is, some have said, the last major civil-rights milestone yet to be surpassed in our two-century struggle to attain the goals we set for this nation at its formation. ☞ If you can find the time, read his whole argument. E.g., “So there are now three classes of Californians: heterosexual couples who can get married, divorced, and remarried, if they wish; same-sex couples who cannot get married but can live together in domestic partnerships; and same-sex couples who are now married but who, if they divorce, cannot remarry. This is an irrational system, it is discriminatory, and it cannot stand.” DÉJÀ VU YESTERDAY I don’t post Sunday columns, but one appeared yesterday anyway. In case you saw it, and wondered at the references to anthrax and such, here’s what happened. Eight and some years ago I was posting the October 11, 2001, column, which should have been entered in my little contraption as 011011 (“year/month/day”). I must sleepily have entered 100110 instead (month/year/day) and – when it didn’t “take” – just gone back and reentered it properly. Well, apparently the first attempt sat patiently inside some digital brain until, sure enough, on 100110 – yesterday – up it popped. *Tomorrow or soon: Beware Free Stuff
Report Cards and the CFPA January 8, 2010March 16, 2017 INCY Suggested in June at $3.40 and again at $5.62 ten weeks ago as part of a “basket” of three speculative drug stocks that might double “in a year or two,” INCY has nearly doubled already. My guru says it’s doing great, with bright prospects and terrific management – but that much or all of that is now reflected in the price. So I sold most of mine yesterday at $10.81. (Thank you, guru.) I wouldn’t be surprised to see it go higher. So after I sold (think, Andy, think!), I realized there might be a smarter strategy. For a friend whose spare change I manage, I didn’t sell. Instead, I had him “write covered calls” against his INCY shares. Someone paid my friend $1 a share for the right to “call away his stock” at $12.50 a share – nicely higher than the $10.81 I got – any time between now and June. If the stock heads back to $3, this will not have proved wise – but I don’t see that happening. If instead it rockets through $12.50, my friend winds up with $12.50 plus that $1 premium – $13.50 – which is a good bit better than the $10.81 I got. And if it sits more or less where it is today, and he were able to do this every six months (it never works this smoothly, but just to make the point), he’d be picking up an extra $2 a share every year until he sold. OBAMA’S ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT CARD From the National Resources Defense Council (in very small part): In his first year in office, President Barack Obama and his administration have taken a remarkable number of actions to address a wide variety of environmental challenges. From investing in clean energy technology through the stimulus bills to increasing energy efficiency, the Administration has done more in its first few months to protect our air, water and communities than we’ve seen in the last decade. . . . REPUBLICAN REPORT CARD So Chris Matthews asks a top Republican strategist the best things the Republicans have done for the country in the last 20 years, and, well, it was awkward. I know some of you are Republicans – and I honor your open-mindedness in visiting this site – so feel free to email me your list. A BOY NAMED SUE Transgender people made me very nervous before I actually knew any. Now that I count several as friends and have seen their courage and deep basic human dignity, the nervousness is all but gone. Isn’t that the way? (Flying is unnatural and nervous-making at first, too, but soon the only issue is whether you get an aisle seat.) Don’t miss Rachel Maddow’s two minutes on the President’s recent transgender appointment. CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION AGENCY Under attack by the Republicans, the proposed CFPA is about more than just enlarging the fine print of mortgage applications. As Elizabeth Warren tells Rachel Maddow, it would have prevented the financial meltdown. Well worth your six minutes. Have a great weekend.
GPS January 7, 2010March 16, 2017 WORDLE Fun for the entire lexicon. You cut and paste your diary, favorite poem, or anything else, and it constructs a “word cloud.” Try it. LAW AND ORDER Care to see David Boies and Ted Olson (as in Bush v Gore) go at it again? Only this time, they’re on the same side, arguing for equality. The trial starts Monday. Click here if you’d like it to be televised. GLUCOSAMINE C.D.: “I started taking glucosamine when I saw an old porcupine at the zoo where I’m a docent be able to climb branches again. Helped her, helped me, has helped lots of zoo animals.” CHEAPER GPS? Kevin Knopf: “GPS Drive is an awesome GPS – for only $2.95. MotionX GPS is a great one for hiking or biking – also for $2.95. These are very cool apps – although personally I’m against the habit of everyone looking at their iPod or Blackberry when they should be talking to each other about global warming and how to solve it (or healthcare, or politics) – to the point where I go out to dinner and see couples looking at their devices rather than each others eyes and I feel like a real Luddite. I silently rebel by talking to people in line when I can, even when they’re playing Moxie.” ☞ Go away – I’m trying to get a 300-point bonus for “MOOSE.” ☞ Actually, I’ve downloaded GPS Drive and – at first blush – like it better than $60 Navigon. But Navigon downloads 1.5 gigabytes of mapping data onto your device itself, which may be why it’s more expensive – the data reside on your phone, which must have some advantages. GOOGLE NAVIGATION – FREE! Doug Simpkinson: “(Disclosure: I work for Google, but not for this team – I am only sending this as a Long Time Subscriber to your column.) I saw you raving about Navigon and thought you might like to know that Google has a navigation app, currently only for Android phones. Includes: voice search which you love so much (‘navigate to Su Hong Restaurant in Menlo Park’), current traffic conditions and alternate route selection, and search along route (e.g. find the nearest IHOPs to your navigation route).” BZ Goldman Sachs issued a report on the paper sector Tuesday in which it downgraded International Paper slightly (though still rates it a “buy”), downgraded Weyerhaeuser to neutral from buy, downgraded Louisiana Pacific to sell – and upgraded Boise to buy from neutral. I am absolutely not suggesting you run out and buy it, or its warrants, here. The big run is definitely over. But if you bought them in the past and still hold some, this is nice to see. As recapped in August, when the warrants were up from 2 cents to 32 cents (today, 76 cents, with the stock at $5.91) . . . The warrants give you the right to buy the stock at $7.50 anytime between now (when you wouldn’t want to, because it’s selling for $4.53) and June 18, 2011 (when you would, if it were selling above $7.50). Were the stock to recover to $10 by then – a “were” so subjunctive it gives new depth to the mood – the warrants would be worth $2.50 each, up a further eightfold from here. So I’m holding almost all of mine, even knowing that the stock might well never approach $7.50 between now and June 18, 2011. ☞ Since writing that I’ve sold more, about 70% in all, totally prepared for a wipe-out on the rest but hoping that we might continue to get lucky.
He Thought He Had a Smart Horse January 6, 2010March 16, 2017 A DECADE OF INFLATION It may not have seemed like an inflationary decade just passed, but click here to see. The squeeze was on, even as middle-class income declined. FEDEX GROUND I hate checking luggage, not least because there’s now a charge to do it; so sometimes I FedEx light bulky stuff ahead to a hotel. Back when I felt rich, I sent stuff three-day air, figuring I was an ‘express-saver’ – and how much more could it cost than FedEx Ground or UPS? Well, like a billion dollars more, as it turns out. Last month I FedExed a 14.4-pound box for $11.19 that arrived, by ground, three business days later. It would have cost $40.61 to arrive the same day if I had used express-saver air … $62.97 if I had gone for 2-day air … $98.17 for “next afternoon” … $112.56 for next morning by 10:30am …$139.31 for next morning even earlier. Same box. Plan ahead. Save big. (I had intended to run this item two weeks before Christmas, to be more useful to you. I guess it’s not enough simply to plan ahead, you have to act. Who knew?) DROPBOX Ken Doran: “Mark Knapp is living in a fool’s paradise. What if a 50-mile-wide asteroid hits? It will wipe out Dropbox and SugarSync and Jungle Disk and his desktop and his laptop. What will he do then?” ☞ Good point. WOOF WOOF Russell Turpin: “Dogs don’t know placebos. But their owners do. In a single-blind study, patients don’t know whether they are receiving a placebo. In a double-blind study, the caregivers don’t know whether they are administering a placebo. Double-blinding is important – though not always possible – because there is a documented placebo effect merely from caregivers knowing that a treatment is ‘real.’ This is so for animals as well. It’s not hard to imagine why this might be. Even when a caregiver is careful to give individual patients no clue whether they are receiving placebo or treatment, even for patients who lack the ability to know, the caregiver might give more attention to one group, might differently evaluate changes seen, or might otherwise treat one group different from the other. Often unconsciously. When drugs are tested on animals, researchers use a blinding protocol, so they themselves don’t know which group is receiving the drug being tested. It doesn’t matter that the animals don’t know. If the people involved do, that is enough to create false results.” ☞ All true and well noted. But there are so many reports of nearly immobile pets springing back to into action that, unscientific though it is, I’m guessing there’s something to it. And to what it’s done for my knees. Peter Kaczowka: “In a true double-blind study the dog’s owner would not know whether the dog was getting glucosamine or a placebo. Without that control, the dog reacts to the caregivers expectations, and in this case climbs the stairs. We know dogs get sophisticated cues from owners, and so do horses. Note that the owner of ‘Clever Hans’ was unaware he was giving cues; he believed he had a very smart horse.” ☞ Hans could only guess right when his owner knew the answers. My pal The Amazing Randi offers “a story about a fake scent-tracking dog who, along with its handler, John Preston, helped wrongly convict and send people to prison.” Tomorrow: Cheaper GPS
Woof Woof! SugarSync! January 5, 2010March 16, 2017 THE NEW YORKER: HEALTH CARE The liberal senior editor of the liberal New Yorker Magazine, suggests in the current issue that liberals disillusioned by the health care bill – MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann calls it a ‘betrayal’ – are too gloomy by half. In part: … When Congress reconvenes a few days from now, it will be on the cusp of enacting a sweeping reform of American health insurance and health care that could be, as the President put it on Christmas Eve, just after the Senate passed its version of the bill, ‘the most important piece of social legislation since the Social Security Act passed in the nineteen-thirties and the most important reform of our health-care system since Medicare passed in the nineteen-sixties.’ Perhaps he was exaggerating, but not by much. Jonathan Cohn, the New Republic’s health-care correspondent, calls the bill ‘the most ambitious piece of domestic legislation in a generation-a bill that will extend insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans, strengthen insurance for many more, and start refashioning American medicine so that it is more efficient.’ Paul Krugman, the Times‘ resident Nobel laureate (and a frequent Obama critic), calls the bill ‘a great achievement’ that ‘establishes the principle-even if it falls somewhat short in practice-that all Americans are entitled to essential health care.’ Princeton’s Paul Starr, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history ‘The Social Transformation of American Medicine,’ calls it ‘the single biggest measure on behalf of low-income Americans in more than forty years.’ … ☞ The piece certainly acknowledges the negatives, too. But I’d urge you to read the whole thing if you share what he calls ‘the subdued, sometimes even angry, mood among many of President Obama’s wavering, if not quite erstwhile, supporters.’ GREEN-LIPPED MUSSELS Jim Roberts: ‘Jane Brody, New York Times personal health columnist, had an observation (March 2006) similar to yours.’ I’ll start with the easiest of the three challenges to my current life: the daily consumption of three capsules of glucosamine (1,500 milligrams) and chondroitin sulfate (1,200 milligrams). I’ve been using this product, more or less religiously, since it transformed my 11-year-old spaniel from an arthritic wreck into a companion with puppylike agility, giving him nearly six more active years. Since the dog had no idea what the capsules were for, or even that he was getting them (they were hidden in a meatball he swallowed whole), I knew there was no placebo effect. ☞ Well, I’ve been taking G&C for a long time, and as I wrote here, it seems to have worked for me, too. Early results for the mussels are similar, but of course there is a large element of voodoo in my analysis. But at least as regards dogs and glucosamine, could it all be coincidence? Gil: ‘Several years ago someone recommended Glucosamine for my daughter’s large dog. She was having so much trouble climbing the deck steps she was not eating. (Of course, they started feeding her at the bottom of the steps.) After a couple of weeks of the Glucosamine, she resumed climbing the steps. Dogs don’t understand double blind studies.’ DROPBOX – AND SUGAR SYNC David Davis: ‘I absolutely love Dropbox. It is a dream come true. I have three desktops and a notebook (all Mac) and an iPhone and it is just what I have been looking for!’ Mark Knapp: ‘Yes, Dropbox is great, but I don’t think I would ever rely on just one service to protect my data. The Dropbox server goes down and your desktop HD corrupts and your laptop is stolen. It COULD happen. What I’d say is more likely to happen is Dropbox’s syncing logic decides an older version of a file is the latest version and overwrites the current file with an old one and propagates that out to all of your machines. Dropbox keeps previous versions of files, but during this blip, it mis-recognized something and you lose the current version of something. To protect against this, you can use multiple services for backing up / syncing data. I use a combination of the following to sync and back up data: Dropbox for syncing and keeping backups of synced files; SugarSync for syncing and keeping backups of synced files; Jungle Disk for backing up files primarily. They all keep previous versions of files. And at least twice, I’ve had one of the services hiccup and had to go back to another service to retrieve a previous version of a file.’ ☞ When I asked what could possibly require such security – is he CIA? – and how glitchlessly the three systems play together, Mark pretended not to be CIA (but why wouldn’t he?), and elaborated: ‘My data’s not super secret or super important, it’s just important to me. If a file is lost, then I have to spend time recreating that file (if that’s even possible). I like my data to be (#1) accessible and (#2) protected. ‘Any one of the services below can satisfy #1 by syncing the files across multiple computers. I travel a fair bit and like having current versions of files always on my laptop without having to copy the files there before leaving. And then when I get back, the files are immediately current on my workstation. No copying. Syncing in this way has nearly completely eliminated any need I had for USB flash drives. I currently use SugarSync as my primary syncing tool. It’s a toss up between Dropbox and SugarSync, but SugarSync offers some important advantages at the moment: 1) I can specify folders to sync and 2) I can specify which folders sync to which computers; it’s not all or nothing. It works great almost all of the time. I also use the free version of Dropbox for sharing folders with friends and providing public download links to files I have synced. ‘Arguably, the syncing tool provides #2 from above as well as #1. SugarSync and Dropbox both store the synced files on their servers and store multiple versions, but I don’t like relying on only one service to back up all of my data. So, as a secondary measure for all data that is synced in #1, I use a tool whose primary function is backing up files: Jungle Disk. Jungle Disk backs up my synced files and keeps all versions of those files. If the syncing tool (SugarSync or Dropbox) makes a mistake somewhere and removes a file I need or if I need a file older than what the syncing tool keeps, then I can go back as far as I need to grab the file from Jungle Disk. I also use Jungle Disk to back up all of my photos and things (which will end up being more expensive than Mozy once I get a certain amount of data backed up), but I prefer Jungle Disk. The data is actually stored on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage, which I personally feel is about as reliable as you can get. ‘I primarily use a Windows XP desktop PC that has all three tools installed. They play nicely together and each has settings to use only a part of the available upload bandwidth. I also use a Vista laptop that has no problems with all three installed.’
One World January 4, 2010March 16, 2017 Last decade (well, Thursday), I told you about dropbox. Manny Sodbinow: “I am not the sort of person who says that something ‘changed my life.’ But Dropbox has made my life much easier. I have two old laptops, one of which I keep at the school where I teach. So while I am scrupulous about printing any test or assignment I write at home, I am comforted to know that if I don’t, I can open that same file at school and print it there.” I also told you some things I’d learned about my iPhone. Here are some more iPhone tips. Among them: Hold down the .com key when entering Web addresses to bring up options for .net, .edu, and .org. (You can also do this trick when entering email addresses in Mail by tapping and holding the . (period) key. Did you know the iPhone has a scientific calculator as well as the normal calculator? I didn’t, until one day I accidentally rotated my iPhone sideways into landscape orientation while using the calculator. Ever wondered how iPhone screenshots are taken? Simply press the Sleep/Wake button (the button on the top right of the iPhone) and the Home button at the same time, then release. The screen flashes, and your screen shot is stored in your Photos library in the Camera Roll album. Here are a whole lot more. E.g.: swipe to the left of your Home screen and use SEARCH to find anything on your phone – contacts, songs, sure, but even a word in an email subject heading. Ronald P. Sierzega: “You probably already know this, but press and hold the round button on the bottom of the face of the iPhone until it says ‘Voice Control.’ Then say ‘Call [Dad]’ or ‘Play [Yellow Submarine]’ and watch the magic happen.” ☞ Neat – but on the 3GS only. (I haven’t made it that far up the ladder.) GREEN LIPPED MUSSELS Pat Ogle: “I have no direct experience with the product you wrote about as consumed by humans, but for about a year and a half, I’ve been giving a supplement containing green-lipped mussel to my 13-year-old pair of small dogs. The male (and heavier) of the sister-brother pair had been showing signs of joint distress in having more trouble jumping on and off couches and chairs. I bought a multi-ingredient product called ‘Joint Guard’ from www.drsfostersmith.com and, after a month or so, the boy dog returned to normal. I suppose any of your readers with old dogs could try the product out on their animals and, if results proved positive, secure some of the human-grade variety for themselves through the site linked in your commentary.” Dana Dlott: “You might as well slaughter a chicken and burn its entrails while chanting to the sky. Their web site sums it up perfectly: ‘These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.’” ☞ Yeah? Tell it to boy dog. ONE WORLD What a great way to start out the decade. Sung simultaneously in 156 countries.