bookofjoe

White noise and deck chairs

Symbols of the boring and bogus, these handy, snappy two–word phrases serve to quickly help me file things into the appropriate mental rubbish bin so that I'm free to concern myself with stuff that interests me.

White noise: most of what's in the newspaper, on TV and in the air.

It masquerades under the guise of being important but is only important to the extent it serves as a scaffolding for something else, like ads or requests in some guise or other for your money.

Jon Stewart called out the "Crossfire" gang about it and you saw how fast that balloon deflated.

Deck chairs: my term for what companies and businesses do when they really don't know what to do.

It's shorthand for rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as something to keep busy and stop oneself from thinking about other things.

Like Verizon with all its announcements of price cuts for its dismally slow "high–speed internet" or "employee pricing" on cars, when each car sold at a loss only accelerates the crash–to–come of Ford and GM (did you notice that both companies' bonds were downgraded last week to junk?).

How to apply these terms in a practical manner?

Okeedokee, artichokee: let's do it with what's in the room, a la Edwin H. Land.

Let's have a look at today's New York Times Op–Ed page, shall we?

Maybe you've got the hard copy in front of you like I do but probably not: no problema, that's why you pay me and my team big bucks.

The page appears (segmented for reasons beyond boring) above and below in this post.

Click on it and blow it up.

What do you see?

Here's what I saw:

1) On the left, Paul Krugman beating his "Alan Greenspan is a very bad man" drum.

Here's his first paragraph:

Most of what Alan Greenspan said at last week's conference in his honor made very good sense. But his words of wisdom come too late. He's like a man who suggests leaving the barn door ajar, and then — after the horse is gone — delivers a lecture on the importance of keeping your animals properly locked up.

And so on and so forth.

That's Paul Krugman's song and it's the only one he knows.

So then we move into the middle of the page, where there's an essay by one Georgia Ka'apuni McMillen about how a recent court decision allowing a white teenager to attend the up–to–now exclusively native–Hawaiian–descendents–only Kamehameha Schools is wrong.

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week ruled in San Francisco that the school policy violates the Civil Rights Act.

McMillen's column's message is that the court should rehear the case and then reverse the decision.

All very well and good but why is this essay taking up valuable real estate in the center of the Times Op–Ed page?

I don't get it.

More white noise.

Then we continue on across the page to regular columnist Bob Herbert, who does his version of the white noise rain dance.

His first two paragraphs:

First the bad news: Only about two–thirds of American teenagers (and just half of all black, Latino and Native American teens) graduate with a regular diploma four years after they enter high school.

Now the worse news: Of those who graduate, only about half read well enough to succeed in college.

OK.

We know these things and have for a long time now.

Why chant the bad news again?

Does anyone in the world learn anything from doing it one more time?

But maybe the fourth and final candidate, a piece by Mr. Steven J. Spear of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, will redeem the sorry page.

Although one doesn't hold out a lot of hope, what with that awfully bureacratic–sounding place he works.

Alas, it's what we feared: a mighty roar about what dangerous places American hospitals are.

The first paragraph:

Today, going to an American hospital seems about as safe as parachuting off a bridge. An estimated 98,000 Americans die each year as a result of a medical error, and a nearly equal number succumb to infections they acquire in hospitals. Those rates are unacceptable in the world's most medically advanced country.

Then he wastes the rest of his piece on a recounting of how some hospital in Pittsburgh solved a problem and how every hospital should just use the same approach and everything will be better.

He tells us that hospitals should "just follow the example of the world's most successful industrial organizations."

Yo, Steve: stopping the assembly line by pulling on a cord is not the quite the same as stopping the patient's ventilator to see what's impairing her ventilation while her belly's open.

No, try changing the fan on a turbojet engine while the plane's flying and you'll get a better sense of why people don't seem as amenable to time–and–motion studies as machines.

Once again, white noise and deck chairs.

So there you have it: four out of four, the entire Op–Ed page of the Monday, August 29, 2005 New York Times, perhaps the most valuable mind–space real estate on the planet, filled with not very much.

Is it any wonder old media is dying?

Combination Lid + Spoon Rest

Everybody's got one.

You know exactly whom I'm referring to.

The friend who's so obsessive about following recipes, she not only measures each ingredient precisely but prepares each one individually, slicing, dicing, chopping and mincing before the frying pan ever hits the fire.

Well, guess what?

She hates messes — especially when she's cooking.

She even washes the pots and pans as soon as she's done using them so that when dinner's ready the heavy lifting's all done.

Amazing.

And scary.

Anyway, she would be beside herself with pleasure to receive this nifty combination spoon and lid rest.

From the website:

Finally — a place to rest both my lid and spoon without messing up my countertop.

Securely holds even oversized lids.

Stainless steel.

8.5" tall, 7" wide.

There's going to be one happy cook this Christmas should she find this under the tree.

$14.99 here.

Got Wood?

From ailanthus to zebrawood, a look at 95

of the world's most popular woods.

Invaluable.

From the top down: Kentucky coffeewood; makore; limba; paldao.

Cableyoyo™

Ultra–thin cord management.

In black, white

or silver.

$4.99 here.

Nice.

Wooden Mirror

Daniel Rozin builds wooden mirrors.

His first one (above and below), created in 1999, was made of 830 1.5"–square pieces of wood, each controlled by its own servo motor.

Watch the video and see for yourself.

Analog met digital and the result was a mashup years before anyone thought of the term.

Last year he created one with 1,500 wooden pixels and motors.

It costs $120,000.

[via Tom Vanderbilt and Wired magazine]

Espressocraft.com — 'Designed by Baristi for Baristi'

Ken Nye — no relation that I know of to Bill Nye the science guy — has just started a new espresso accessories venture.

His flagship product (above) is Espressocraft's tamper: 16 ounces — 1 pound — of highly polished American stainless steel, much heavier than most professional versions.

Nice paperweight even if you're a tea drinker.

Nye is the proprietor of Ninth Street Espresso in New York City's East Village.

There he's acquired a national reputation for expertly prepared espresso drinks.

Peter Meehan wrote an article about this "Mad Scientist of Espresso" for Wednesday's New York Times Dining section.

bookofjoe on TV

Last week was my first podcast and then Friday afternoon a camera crew from my local NBC affiliate (WVIR, Channel 29 in Charlottesville) came by to interview me about the Drive Alert.

What's that?

Back on January 8 I wrote about the device (above), created to awaken and alert a somnolent driver wearing it before it's crash time.

A producer with NewsProNet down in Miami happened upon my post and emailed me to ask about my experience with it.

Then she called and we chatted a while and I guess I must've made a good impression 'cause she asked if she could send over a camera crew to interview me about it.

You know me, I'll do anything so of course I said yes.

And so it was that an interviewer and cameraman came by Friday morning last and spent a while interviewing me, following which we all went on a pleasant drive during which I put the Drive Alert on and then proceeded to pretend to fall asleep so they could film, in a real–life setting, how it worked.

No, the cameraman wasn't strapped to the top of my car with his camera poking in the window: he sat inside the car filming.

So look for me on a news feature segment sometime in the near future.

I have no idea when or where it'll be on: the company that shot the feature syndicates its products to whomever wants to buy them, but the producer said that the features are usually seen on most stations around the country at one time or another.

Woo–woo: looks like things are starting to pick up around here media–wise.

Time to hire a press agent and publicity team, don't you think?

Or should I give it a little more time?

Jimi Wallet

"The wallet for people who hate wallets."

Watch the snappy demo video.

In Aqua, Clear, Magenta,

Safety, Sea Glass and Smoke.

What — no mirror?

$14.95 here.

[via AW]