An MTV Style Video about United Breaking Guitars

A musician produced this video after he tried and failed to get United to reimburse him for a broken guitar.

Metro and its Train Problems

As details continue to come out about Metro and its train problems, it's becoming clear to me that Metro is not careful enough with passenger safety.

This article says that Metro believes that the defect in the train circuitry would have been "impossible" to detect.  I beg to differ.  While perhaps someone staring at the screen might not notice something, one of the advantages of having a computer monitoring things is that you can use the computer to stare at the screen (or watch for strange things happening).  What the computer should have been programmed to notice is a train suddenly disappearing.  Even on Metro, trains don't mysteriously disappear.  They move into the next signal block further down the line.  If a train disappears without moving into the next signal block down the line, then that, to me, signifies a Problem.  The computer should have been programmed to notice disappearing trains and report them.

BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) had the same problem.  Rene posted to Twitter about this.

MLB.com Article by Thomas

My brother did an article on the Yankees for MLB.com

Chicken and Corn Fried Rice with Lemon Spinach

I saw this recipe awhile ago on NPR's website.  I've cooked it twice and it's tasted pretty good.  I've altered the recipe a bit, though.  I used lemon juice from a bottle, used frozen spinach, used garlic powder instead of minced garlic and omitted the ginger -- ginger is expensive.

Cracking Down on Downloading Music Illegally In France

I heard this piece on Marketplace the other day on downloading music illegally in France.  While I think it's important that artists' rights are protected, I'm not entirely sure that I agree with the method that France is using.  Summarily disconnecting someone from the Internet, without a court order, strikes me as a little bit draconian.  The idea of monitoring someone's Internet use without a court order also strikes me as a little bit creepy.  Comments?

Bank of America and the Ransom

I got a brochure from Bank of America about their pricing changes, and I learned that if you want to transfer an IRA to another financial institution, they will charge you $50 (!) to do so. They shouldn't hold someone's retirement savings for ransom. Here's a link (to a PDF) for it. You should probably transfer the funds out of a Bank of America IRA before 5 June, when the pricing changes go into effect.

Hiking Across Maryland

Last Saturday, I hiked forty-one miles across Maryland in the Hike Across Maryland.  We started at 5:20 a.m., when a school bus disgorged us at the start of the trail.  After a rock scramble at 6:30 a.m., I was at the second checkpoint (and had hiked 5 miles) by 6:57 a.m.  According to the statistics, of the people that finished this hike, I placed in the first quarter.  I was hoping to finish faster than I did (11 hours and 49 minutes), but I'm still pleased.
I've posted pictures to Flickr.  It's definitely an experience I won't forget.

Trademarks and March Madness

Although it is after March Madness, I wanted to post about this story on NPR the other day about how aggressively the NCAA and its attorneys pursue trademark infringement relating to March Madness.  Unfortunately, it looks like you'll have to listen to the audio to get the whole thing.  From my conversations with someone who knows a lot more about trademark law than I do, I can understand why they are so aggressive about it.

An April Fool's Joke on an Ant

This NPR story is funny, although I feel slightly bad for the ant.

A Public Service Announcement About Tornadoes

I was talking to a friend who was near a tornado, and when I advised him to get underneath an overpass, he told me that the radio had told him not to.  He was right, although the misperception is pretty widespread.  This website from NOAA has a lot of information on why an overpass is not the place to be in a tornado.

On User Notifications in Browsers

One of the designers of Firefox did an interesting post on just how well-designed software should interact with the user.  It's interesting to see how things that I really don't give much thought to in Firefox or Internet Explorer have quite a bit of thought put into them.  It helps explain why Clippy was not the success that Microsoft wanted him (it?) to be.  The discussion of their prototype for a new tab page is neat.  It's pretty neat to see how far Internet browsers have come in the last few years.

Harmonious Blacksmith

Yesterday I went to the National Gallery of Art's free concert series to see a performance by Harmonious Blacksmith, who played renaissance and baroque music. They were quite good. Afterwards, I discovered that they had free mp3s on their website.

Black Bean Soup

I made black bean soup following this recipe from the Times, and it came out quite well (even though I omitted the salt).  Cilantro was the only ingredient I was not familiar with, and it was found alongside the parsley and lettuce in the vegetable section.  It was $.99 for a bunch, so relatively inexpensive.  Just be careful not to let the beans scorch, you have to stir it somewhat often.

Funny Trial Techniques Article in the ABA Magazine

There's a funny article in this month's ABA magazine about trial techniques, and how an attorney has won cases by using some unorthodox methods.  There is not much legalese in it, so it should be funny even for a non-lawyer.  Be forwarned, the article does contain profanity.  Here is a link.

Quieting Title to a Copy of the Declaration of Independence

There was an interesting post on Boston 1775 (a blog I read) about a Virginia Supreme Court case that involved a copy of the Declaration of Independence that was stored in the attic of a house in Maine.  It looks like Maine's attorney, by not preserving issues for appeal, lost out on arguing a number of things before the Virginia Supreme Court.

Zealous Representation: What Does It Mean?

There was an interesting article in the Times today about a Manhattan assistant district attorney who intentionally lost a case where he did not believe in the conviction.  According to the Times article, the responsible court agency (which I presume is the First Department Disciplinary Committee) chose not to purse a case against Mr. Bibb.  The case raised the question of what zealous representation means when one is a district attorney.   

Country Music Song About the Economy

A country music singer, John Rich, who, according to Wikipedia, used to play in the country music band Lonestar, has come up with a song about the current economic situation. While I don't think it's ever going to gain the same historical traction as some of Woody Guthrie's songs, I do think the song is pretty good. His website has a streaming version of it.

Another country music song that discusses economics is Cafe Down on the Corner by Sawyer Brown. That's much older.

Handy Things the IRS Can Do For You

By calling one toll-free number:
800–829–1040, you can get answers to your tax questions, order free publications and order transcripts of information you entered on previous tax returns.  All of these services are free. 

With regard to publications, may I suggest Publication 17, both for its utility in answering tax questions and helping you fall asleep.

The automated system for getting transcripts will ask you for your address, so I'm not sure how it will react if you want things sent to a new address because you've moved.  In any case, though, the phone system is quite efficient, and you can order multiple transcripts with one phone call. 
See:
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq/0,,id=199557,00.html

Status Page for Google's Cloud Applications

Google has set up a status page for its applications (like Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk, etc.)
See:
http://www.google.com/appsstatus
They really ought to have had such a status page since the beginning of Gmail, but I suppose late is better than never.

Poached Salmon

Yesterday and tonight I poached salmon fillets for dinner.  To make this, I did the following:
1.  Took a frying pan and put a little bit of water into the bottom of it.
2.  Brought this water to a boil.
3.  Put the salmon in the water and covered it with a lid.
4.  Waited until the salmon was done (flaked easily with a fork and was light pink).
I also made a side dish of pasta (small pasta works better, like orzo if you have it or elbow macaroni), and served it with lemon juice, which you can pour right over the fish and the pasta.
You could also, I suppose, use rice instead of pasta, although then I suppose the lemon juice wouldn't work so well.
It was quite easy to do and did not take long at all.