Scott Bittle

I Knew It!

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:41:17 -0500

Barack Obama got Bruce Springsteen on the phone and handed the phone to NJ Governor Chris Christie. Previously, Springsteen had refused to have anything to do with Christie, who is a superfan of The Boss.

Chris Christie’s life is now complete.

Bipartisanship, at last.

smithsonianmag: The Accidental History of the @ Symbol The...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 20:53:11 -0400

smithsonianmag:

The Accidental History of the @ Symbol

The symbol’s modern obscurity ended in 1971, when a computer scientist named Ray Tomlinson was facing a vexing problem: how to connect people who programmed computers with one another. At that time, each programmer was typically connected to a particular mainframe machine via a phone connection and a teletype machine—basically a keyboard with a built-in-printer. But these computers weren’t connected to one another, a shortcoming the U.S. government sought to overcome when it hired BBN Technologies, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company Tomlinson worked for, to help develop a network called Arpanet, forerunner of the Internet.

Tomlinson’s challenge was how to address a message created by one person and sent through Arpanet to someone at a different computer. The address needed an individual’s name, he reasoned, as well as the name of the computer, which might service many users. And the symbol separating those two address elements could not already be widely used in programs and operating systems, lest computers be confused.

Tomlinson’s eyes fell on the @, poised above “P” on his Model 33 teletype. - Continue reading at Smithsonian.com.

Illustration: Erik Marinovich

Ed note: Here is the history of the exclamation point!

huffingtonpost: Wednesday evening was the last time that New...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:00:51 -0400

huffingtonpost:

Wednesday evening was the last time that New Yorkers will see a full-sun Manhattanhenge this year, and the weather was perfect.

Unlike the year’s first Manhattanhenge back in May, clear skies made for spectacularly clear views of one of the world’s greatest urban phenomena, when the sun aligns itself with Manhattan’s 201-year-old street grid.

New York City’s photographers (or anyone with Instagram) took to the streets, often blocking traffic to get the best shot.

Louis J. Montulli II, who helped create the early Web browsers Lynx and Netscape, also provided the spark of inspiration behind the tag. Here's how he remembers it happening:

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:55:22 -0400

Louis J. Montulli II, who helped create the early Web browsers Lynx and Netscape, also provided the spark of inspiration behind the tag. Here's how he remembers it happening::

The danger of joking with humorless people…

shortformblog:

Sometime in late summer I took a break with some of the other engineers and went to a local bar on Castro street in Mountain View. The bar was the St. James Infirmary and it had a 30 foot wonder woman statue inside among other interesting things. At some point in the evening I mentioned that it was sad that Lynx was not going to be able to display many of the HTML extensions that we were proposing, I also pointed out that the only text style that Lynx could exploit given its environment was blinking text. We had a pretty good laugh at the thought of blinking text, and talked about blinking this and that and how absurd the whole thing would be. The evening progressed pretty normally from there, with a fair amount more drinking and me meeting the girl who would later become my first wife.

Saturday morning rolled around and I headed into the office only to find what else but, blinking text. It was on the screen blinking in all its glory, and in the browser. How could this be, you might ask? It turns out that one of the engineers liked my idea so much that he left the bar sometime past midnight, returned to the office and implemented the blink tag overnight. He was still there in the morning and quite proud of it.

Montulli says that he won’t name the engineers that actually implemented his joke idea. But he wants to make one thing clear: “I would like to publicly state that at no time did I actually write code or even seriously advocate for the tag.” Poor guy, having to live down a terrible idea his co-workers took seriously. (via Hacker News)

An interesting argument, and I partially agree. Any kind of...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:44:00 -0400

An interesting argument, and I partially agree. Any kind of anger eventually burns itself out. But the fact remains that we’ve now had an unprecedented three “throw the bums out” elections in a row: 2006, when people were sick of the Republicans in Congress; 2008, when they were sick of George W. Bush; and 2010, when they became sick of Obama and the Congressional Democrats.

The sum total of those elections turned out to be more bums and less action. Backlash isn’t working. But the polls show public opinion remains volatile, and all the incentives for Washington to stay gridlocked remain in place. So I’m not sure whether the public just gives up, or does something really unexpected.

thenewrepublic:

Could political anger really be on its way out?

“When politics is not saturated by crisis, the months after a presidential election generally bring a cooler climate to Washington. We’ve been in a hot phase since about late 2005, when anger over the Iraq War peaked, and three massive change elections followed, in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Anger has been the prevailing tone of politics since the recession began, and the failure, before the arrival of the Occupy movement, of the President, Democratic politicians, and most progressive organizations to master the politics of anger has been central to the story of the last few years. But anger is a difficult force to sustain. Whether it’s left-populist anger, right-populist anger, or the anger of bankers whose bonuses are smaller than expected, it burns bright and eventually burns out.”

- Mark Schmitt, “Why 2012 May Mark the End of an Era of Political Anger”

Photo courtesy of The Boston Globe

‘I am just going outside and may be some time’: Oates and the rest of us

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0400

One hundred years ago today, a man lay dying in an Antarctic tent, his feet frostbitten. His companions wouldn’t leave him behind. They were dying too, just more slowly than he was. Their food and fuel was running out, and any hope they had of making it to the nearest cache of supplies was dwindling because the man was slowing them down.

So he left.

“I am just going outside and may be some time,” he said, and stumbled out into a blizzard.

The man was Lawrence Oates, and he was part of Capt. Robert Scott’s doomed last expedition to the Antarctic. They hoped to be the first explorers to reach the South Pole, only to find Roald Amundsen had beaten them there by a month. Then on the trip back, it was “tragedy all along the line,” in Scott’s words. In the end, even Oates’ sacrifice wasn’t enough to save them. The last survivors died just 11 miles away from a supply depot.

I first encountered Oates’ story (and the painting of it above) in a children’s book about explorers, and was enthralled by his courage and nobility. As a grown man, there is something else that strikes me even more strongly.

Oates was the expedition’s wiseass.

We know about Oates’ sacrifice because of Scott’s diary, found alongside the captain’s body. Scott was nothing if not an Edwardian gentleman, and he told the story the way an Edwardian would. You can practically see him squaring his shoulders when he’s writing it, the naval officer keeping his log: “Should this be found I want these facts recorded.” There’s a certain assumption, the same one you also get in stories about the Titanic (which sank just a few weeks later). A gentleman should know how to die.

But if you read Oates’ letters, you see something different. To use a modern term, he’s snarky. He also comes off as the expedition’s Cassandra. Oates knows the expedition’s problems, and his ideas are mostly ignored. “Myself, I dislike Scott intensely and would chuck the whole thing if it were not that we are a British expedition,” he wrote.

And all of a sudden Oates is very familiar. We know this guy. Most of us have been this guy at one point or another. He’s the one grumbling in the back of every conference room, convinced the project is going off the rails and that he knows how to do the job better. But he believes in the mission, so he sticks it out and does his best.

I can’t tell you how many people like this I’ve met in public interest work and journalism. Ask a teacher. Ask a cop. Ask a social worker. Ask people in just about any nonprofit, government department or social service agency you care to name.

Most organizations undervalue their wiseasses. If you’re in charge, they can be tiring and troublesome. (Although, to Scott’s credit, he seemed to value Oates, even if Oates didn’t like him). Don’t think for a moment, however, that I’m making light of Oates, or people like him. Oates laid down his life for the expedition and his comrades. It’s a sad irony that the person who saw the expedition’s flaws so clearly ended up being the one who took himself out in an attempt to save it.

Oates the hero is inspiring but remote, a man from another time and in a situation most of us will never face. Oates the guy who soldiers on is another story. He’s got a lot in common with the people who keep the world running every day. And while that role may not be dramatic, there’s nobility in that, too.

For the first time since 1949, the United States is a net...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:03:16 -0400

For the first time since 1949, the United States is a net exporter of petroleum products. Feel any different?

Probably not. Which is why energy independence may be less important than most politicians admit.

pastisthepresent: March 10th - On this day in 1876, Alexander...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:02:21 -0500

pastisthepresent:

March 10th - On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell makes history by making the first successful call on his invention, the telephone.

On March 10, 1876, three days after his patent was issued, Bell succeeded in getting his telephone to work, using a liquid transmitter similar to Elisha Gray’s design. Vibration of the diaphragm caused a needle to vibrate in the water, varying the electrical resistance in the circuit. When Bell spoke the famous sentence “Mr Watson—Come here—I want to see you” into the liquid transmitter, Watson, listening at the receiving end in an adjoining room, heard the words clearly.

Since it’s invention in early 1876, the creator of the telephone has been questioned as it was first developed by several people, but Alexander Graham Bell was the first to successfully use the device.

"I read a fair number of conservative and liberal blogs. While each is pretty good at explaining..."

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:06:55 -0500

“I read a fair number of conservative and liberal blogs. While each is pretty good at explaining their respective political philosophy, they all are absolutely terrible at economics. By terrible, I mean that, without a doubt, they are abject failures of the highest order. Let me give you a few examples.”

- Hale Stewart, The Big Picture. Memo To Political Bloggers: Please Stop Writing About Economics; You Really Suck At It.

FJP: But sometimes charts and graphs look so nice.

(via futurejournalismproject)

Stewart’s six questions for bloggers (three for conservatives, three for progressives) are right on point.

"All the adults are saying, ‘We need to improve science in the world. Let’s train the kids.’ I’ve..."

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:56:55 -0500

“All the adults are saying, ‘We need to improve science in the world. Let’s train the kids.’ I’ve never heard an adult say, ‘We need more science in the world. Train me.’”

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, on America’s lack of science literacy (via theatlantic)

revkin: On Cronkite, the Web and two kinds of comfort food: An...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:55:05 -0500

revkin:

On Cronkite, the Web and two kinds of comfort food: An excerpt from my recent Duke talk on the role of the Web in smoothing the journey for humanity in this crowding, complicated century. This is one of a few downer moments in an upbeat spiel:

“For those who grew up in the twentieth century, which is a shrinking number of people in a room like this these days, we had supper with [Walter Cronkite] or with his peers – these white men on TV would dole the news as if it was mac and cheese comfort food for dinner…. There was something very reassuring about all of that… And he signed off in such a reassuring way. People just told us, “That’s the way it is,” and we didn’t have to think. If you picked up The New York Times, it was the same way…. Now, whether you’re thinking about climate or the Middle East or whatever, we’re still dining on comfort food, but it’s like the world’s largest buffet. If you like sushi or Indian or Tex Mex, if you’re libertarian or liberal you can find a Web site to feed you what makes you feel good. So we’re in an environment in which information is largely self-reinforcing rather than challenging or enriching.”

Help by transcribing any moments you like, or dislike.

My favorite Truman photo, but only my second-favorite Truman...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:03:06 -0500

My favorite Truman photo, but only my second-favorite Truman quote. The first?

“A statesman is a politician who has been dead 10 or 15 years.”

ourpresidents:

“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”

Harry S Truman

Bacall and Truman are at the National Press Club canteen, February 12, 1945.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Lauren Bacall and Harry S. Truman

Should musicians be worried about technology taking their jobs,...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 16:04:46 -0500

Should musicians be worried about technology taking their jobs, too? Then again, somebody’s got the compose the music, as well as program the robot musicians.

Presidents and the Price of Oil

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:06:05 -0500

What’s the worst thing that can happen to a politician who promises to cut oil prices? Maybe getting elected.

From The Great Energy Challenge blog:

If you’re a primary voter, you’ve got your pick of candidates who’ll promise to bring down the price of gasoline. Unfortunately, whoever wins is going to run up against the limits of presidential power pretty quickly.

The fact is that presidents don’t have that much authority over the price of oil, for a number of virtually inescapable reasons.

Photo: Agencia Brasil

Where Did the Jobs Go?: The Iceman Goeth: Technology and Jobs

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:23:44 -0500

Where Did the Jobs Go?: The Iceman Goeth: Technology and Jobs:

From my book site with Jean Johnson, wheredidthejobsgo:

(Library of Congress photo)

Once, there was an iceman working nearly every street in every town in America, including one of our grandfathers. The disappearance of the iceman and the rise of the refrigerator says a lot about how technology affects jobs — and points out what the…

When do we get to 'yes' on something?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:23:21 -0500

There’s an old saying that “to govern is to choose.” This New York Times piece on power lines gets to one of our core problems as a society: nobody wants to accept that making choices also means making the tradeoffs needed to get things done. No energy source is perfect, not even the clean ones. So we need to make the best bargains we can. Stopping bad ideas isn’t enough. You have to move forward on the good ones too — and even the good ones will make some people unhappy.

If we can’t do that, then we end up deciding our energy future by default. And believe me, you won’t like what default looks like.

todaysdocument: Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:29:32 -0500

Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066

Executive Order 9066

todaysdocument:

Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps.

The U.S. Government would eventually be compelled to compensate surviving internees for their treatment in 1988.

Executive Order 9066 dated February 19, 1942, in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt Authorizes the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas, 02/19/1942

Read more at Our Documents

Where the Jobs Debate Has Gone Wrong

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:15:22 -0500

Every candidate seems to have a five-point jobs plan. My co-author and I thought voters should have a five-point plan for defending themselves against the disingenuous jobs debate.

futurejournalismproject: Ratio of Mobile to Fixed Line Phone...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:54:15 -0500

futurejournalismproject:

Ratio of Mobile to Fixed Line Phone Subscriptions Around the World

Mouse around, click about or visit one of the links below for a larger, more user friendly size.

Via Slate and the New America Foundation.

crfb: See the difference between CBO’s baseline based on...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:25:27 -0500

crfb:

See the difference between CBO’s baseline based on current law and CRFB’s baseline based on realistic expectations of what policymakers will do. Read more.