Isn't this the Truth?
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Let’s recap the news for the past few days… EARTHQUAKE IN THE EAST !!!!! Call me jaded, 40 years living in California will do that, but I found the big earthquake story pretty funny. I was amazed by the hysterical coverage of this non-event by the various news outlets and politicians. Perhaps my favorite was new York Mayor Bloomberg’s press conference to announce that “Nothing had happened!!!” Then there was the the great media Moving on to pop culture, every time I think ‘Dancing With the Stars‘ has reached a new level of absurdity, they manage to top themselves again. Disclaimer: I do not watch DWTS, and there is nothing about season 13 which is going entice me to start. It sure looks to me that this motley collection of has-beens, wanna-bes, and never-weres is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. How can they top this? Maybe with Casey Anthony and O J Simpson? Like Josh Wolf said on ‘Chelsea Lately‘ “13 seasons, and not 1 star”. Moving on to business news, the big story last week was Hewlett Packard. Disclaimer here, I am an HP user. Both my home desktop and laptop, and Irene’s laptop are HP machines. Personally, my experience with HP has always been good. The one time I had a problem, HP customer support was helpful, and sent a replacement via FedEx 2 day service on December 22. Compared to my experiences with the other big brand, Dell, I liked HP. Well, as you may (or may not) have read, HP has made a series of strange announcements and decisions lately. Among them, they killed off their new tablet after only 48 days on the market, then sold their inventory at a ‘fire sale’ price of only $99. List price for these tablet PC’s was $499! Yesterday, HP announced that they would be producing more of their tablets, and selling them for the less-than-cost price of $99. Many analysts are confused by HP’s strategy. The best article I read was this WSJ story. Today there was a little bit of possibly good news on the business front, the Justice Department announced that they opposed the AT&T / T-Mobile merger and were filing suit to stop it. In general, big corporate mergers are never good news for consumers, and this seemed to be especially the case with this merger. After all, AT&T is known as the biggest bully on the block, and consistently ranks lowest in customer satisfaction and service. But, the cynic in me believes that AT&T will just rev up their political donations and buy enough congressmen and senators to legislate their merger.
As I get older, I naturally think (worry) about my health more than I used to. But, being a skeptic, I am wary of doctors and the medical ‘industry’. This new article from Newsweek magazine, tends to support my skepticism of the health industry. Go ahead and read it. 1964, the year I graduated from high school, and probably the last year a ‘jazz’ song was number 1 on the Billboard hot 100 list, and the year of this video:
 Getz/Gilberto (1963) Ahh, Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto, the epitome of cool, in 1963. I often insist that I don’t like making lists, but if I did, this album would be in my top 5. It’s hard (for me) to believe that this album is almost 50 years old! It was recorded on March 18 & 19, 1963. All of the songs on the album were written by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim who also played piano on the album. Guitar and vocals were Joao Gilberto, and additional vocals by Astrud Gilberto. The song “Girl from Ipanema” made a recording star of Astrud, who considered herself just a housewife. As all iconic songs tend to be linked to one artist, no one has been more closely associated with ‘Girl from Ipanema’ than Astrud. Many people thought that the Gilberto in the title of the album referred to her, but it didn’t. According to the booklet in the remastered release of Getz/Gilberto (1997), she was added to the album over the objection of her husband because she new the lyrics in English, and Getz liked the English lyrics. On her ‘official’ web site (astrudgilberto.com) she says her husband invited her to be on the album. Whatever the truth, the song became a classic, launched a singing career for Astrud, and I believe was getz’ best selling album. It is certainly the album most remembered by people when they think of Getz. I keep waiting for some politician to say this… because it is true! and, like Alan Alda says, there are a lot of political phonies in religion. And conversely, MANY religious phonies in politics.
Seems strange to me, that so many people swallow the lie! Well, I had heard about this, after I moved here, but I really didn’t know the details. This year a documentary film about the incident was released, and I watched it on DVD this weekend.
Of course there have been other brutal crimes in other towns, but what makes this one seem especially heinous is that of the 7 people shot execution style in the head, 4 were young children, ages 13 to 2! The film, ‘Nightmare in Las Cruces‘ is not groundbreaking, or going to win any awards. It is a straightforward account of the events using archival footage, reenactment and interviews with police, relatives, and the two surviving victims including the 12 year old girl (now 32) who made the 911 call. To this day, no one has ever been arrested, and no suspects named in this crime. The ‘Bowling Alley Massacre’ as it is still called happened over 20 years ago. Aside from the occasional news story on the anniversary, it is little remembered except by those who were involved and effected by it. As I said, I never heard the details of it until I watched this movie. Sadly, today there are similar stories of brutality and inhumanity almost daily from Juarez, our neighbor in Mexico, just 45 miles away.
Saw this today and thought it was pretty funny. I guess that means I am an antique collector! While I don’t have as many books as I used to, I still buy them on paper. I don’t think I will ever change to an “E-reader”. I like the feel, portability and durability of real books. Plus when I buy them, I actually have something tangible I own. And, I can take my books down to the used book store here in town, and trade them in for different books, or credit. Try doing that to a ‘Kindle’ book. Well, the web site upgrade is finished. I now have the latest version of WordPress and the latest version of the Atahualpa theme. Since I was all updated, I thought it was time for a change to the image on my website. The new photo is Lucy. Lucy is our family mutt. She is part Basset or Beagle, and part ??? I took this photo in March of this year. Lucy was laying in the driveway, soaking up the sun on an otherwise chilly day. I also changed the sub-title of the blog. I figured I’ve been retired for over 7 years now, it was time for an update. I know I haven’t added any posts in a while, but I am not ignoring the old website. I am working on the site. I have updated to the most recent release of WordPress, version 3.2. The theme I use for the site is a very old version that was originally designed for WP 2.7. I am a good dozen releases behind on the theme. There have been so many changes to the theme and WordPress, that I lost a lot of my formatting when I tried to update to the current version. I am working, trying to keep the site looking
 The Museum of Science and Industry MATM-2 When I was a kid, growing up in Illinois, one of my favorite family excursions was a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I could have spent days there. A day trip was never enough time to see all of the exhibits that interested me. Plus, MSI had some of the first (that I had seen) and best interactive displays. And what other museum had a REAL WWII German U-Boat that you could explore? (the answer is none.) Well, the museum has the answer to my (youthful) desires by ofering a Month at the Museum-2. For the second year (I never heard about the first), the museum is offering the opportunity for one lucky applicant to live at the museum for a month. That means spending all day AND all night in the museum for 30 days! Sounds like a fun opportunity, and the answer to youthful dreams. If I wasn’t old, overweight and 1800 miles away, I would apply. But, maybe you’re interested. Read more about it, and get your application here.
Well, after that last downer of a post, I was tempted to post the AP article about how the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been relaxing rules to allow US reactors to continue running past their original estimated life span (40 years). But, that’s just too dismal. So lets forget our troubles and turn to the entertainment world. As you may know, I like movies. They were my primary entertainment option growing up. So I was a little pleased and surprised when I ran across this trailer the other day:
In my early working life in the late 60′s and early 70′s, I worked night shift for quite a few years. When you work nights you watch daytime television. So, I was familiar with the Muppets from watching ‘Sesame Street’. I was very happy when Muppet creator Jim Henson decided to appeal to a larger audience and created ‘The Muppet Show‘ on TV in 1976. ‘The Muppet Show‘ was Henson’s attempt to prove that he and the Muppets could appeal to a more adult audience. The show was a hit, ran for 5 seasons, won 5 Emmys and was really funny! Henson also made several Muppet movies. The first in 1979 was a critical and commercial success, but lacked the edge that the TV show had. Jim Henson died in 1990, and Disney acquired the Muppet franchise in 2004. Frankly the thought of a Disney made Muppet movie is less than appealing. However, the movie was written by Jason Siegel and Nick Stoller, with music by Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords), and directed by James Bobin (the other half of Flight of the Conchords), I am hopeful. If you check out the movie on IMDB, it appears that just about every ‘hot’ comic actor in Hollywood is in this movie. The trailers look promising. But, if I had a buck for every trailer that looked promising, and the film turned out to be crap, well, maybe I wouldn’t be rich, but I could afford those vacations I like to take! The official trailer:
Scientific experts believe Japan’s nuclear disaster to be far worse than governments are revealing to the public.
![Many Japanese citizens are now permanently displaced from their homes due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster [GALLO/GETTY]](http://larryc.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Fukushima1-300x198.jpg "Fukushima1") Many Japanese citizens are now permanently displaced from their homes due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster [GALLO/GETTY
Well, I’m still here. Jeez, yet another one down, who knows how many yet to go! You too can get this tee-shirt, but $20 seems a bit high, considering how often the “raptures” seem to come around. Well, while I was waiting, and on a similar topic, I found this interesting bit of news… Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists
Finally, after 6 PM passed without any earthquakes, and the old TV was still broadcasting, I tuned in to the Saturday Night Live season finale. I haven’t been a big fan of SNL this season. There have been moments of humor and originality, but there have been moments of sloooooowwwww agonizing embarrassment also. This show however was one of the better efforts this year and hit on most of the skits, although the ‘Barry Gibbs Talk Show’ skit missed the mark. There were several I really liked, including the “3-Way” music video, but this one, with musical guest Lady Gaga really had me laughing: |
Las Cruces, NM
February 7, 2012, 10:07 am
 Sunny 46°Freal feel: 40°F
humidity: 49%
wind speed: 16 mph NNW
sunrise: 6:57
sunset: 17:44
Forecast February 7, 2012
night
Partly cloudy 35°F Forecast February 8, 2012
day
Mostly cloudy 56°F wind speed: 7 mph ESE    
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