It is hard to believe a computer program could do this. Check it out. (If you really don’t have any time, start at 3:00.)
All posts by Steve Stern
The NYT and Fox on the same story: no wonder we don’t understand each other
My Google Homepage referenced Fox and the New York Times on a story.
From Fox Nine suspects tied to a militia in the Midwest are charged with
conspiring to kill police officers, then attack a funeral in the hopes
of killing more law enforcement people, federal prosecutors said Monday.
In the entire ten paragraph story, Fox names the group - Hutaree, in paragraph two – and says that they are an extremist group.
From the NYT Nine members of a Michigan-based Christian militia group have been
indicted on sedition and weapons charges in connection with an alleged
plot to murder law enforcement officers in hopes of setting off an
anti-government uprising.
As I started to read the story in the NYT, I wondered how they knew it was a Christian organization. Then the article referenced their website as saying that they were Christian. If they self identify as Christians, I am willing to agree they should be identified as Christians. I began to wonder if I had overlooked it at Fox. So, I went back and, no reference to Christians in the Fox article.
Did Fox not think it was important that the group is Christian? – I'll bet they would think it was important if the group were Muslim. – Did they think it was important but we shouldn't know? I have no idea, but the Fox reader and the NYT reader will walk away with different facts, and, probably, different opinions on what happened and why.
I'll stick with the New York Times.
Taking the weekend off and looking for flowers on the Carrizo Plain
This is supposed to be a good year for flowers in Southern California and, especially, on the Carrizo Plain
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Bob White, RIP: probably the greatest pilot you have never heard of*
* with the same caveat that I had for Lynn Hill
Bob White, or – if you like – Robert Michael White, died last Wednesday, March 17 2010. He died peaceably, presumably in his bed, at the age of 85.
Given Bob White's life, that was a pretty unlikely event. When he was twenty, he was flying P51 Mustangs in combat over Germany. He was still only twenty when, after 52 missions, he was shot down and taken prisoner. Then he flew in combat over Korea. Then he became a test pilot, eventually flying the X-15.
While flying the X-15, on November 9, 1961, White flew at 4093 mph. That is over 68 miles a minute. That is six times the speed of sound. At one point, the shock waves and vibration did this to his canopy.
And White still landed the plane safely and lived to die, peacefully, at 85. I hope we are all so lucky.
Seven happy seconds with a shiny Ferrari GTO
a short clip from a video on how to keep you Ferrari like new.