If it's Amex, it's all good. Any other institution? Anxiety kicsk in when I pick up the phone to fix/negotiate/arrange/change/complain/dispute something. Honestly? The systems are built to frustrate you, from the long menus to the in-the-box thinkers you finally talk to.
And they are programmed to be dumb. They read from their scripts like soul-less robots, immune from any urgency or frustration you may be experiencing. I've certainly had my share of yelling matches and threatening expletives.Well, thanks to brother Alex, I was pointed in the direction of one FairLoanRate.com. They have an example of a conversation between a service representative (and manager) and a man who is informing them their client, his family member, had passed away.
Continue reading Posthumous Credit Card Bills.
Architecture is just getting sassier and sassier. People like Calatrava, Herzog & de Meuron, Hadid, Gehry, Piano and Koolhaas have set a new standard. Beyond functional and beautiful, the building, itself, can be the reason someone visits the building. Heck, the bulding can even give a new lifeline to its city... check the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain or the Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee.
This level of sophistication has reached international sporting stadiums. For some reason the two new baseball stadiums in NYC aren't doing anything "special." Internationally, though? Look at the Olympic Bird's Nest or Allianz Arena in Germany. And now... we have... Mexico’s Club Deportivo Guadalajara. Designed by the french architect company Massaud, this is the Volcano Stadium.
Awwwwwwww, yeah. There's a stadium in there. What happens when you walk through one of those little slots at the bottom of the "volcano?"
This level of sophistication has reached international sporting stadiums. For some reason the two new baseball stadiums in NYC aren't doing anything "special." Internationally, though? Look at the Olympic Bird's Nest or Allianz Arena in Germany. And now... we have... Mexico’s Club Deportivo Guadalajara. Designed by the french architect company Massaud, this is the Volcano Stadium.
Awwwwwwww, yeah. There's a stadium in there. What happens when you walk through one of those little slots at the bottom of the "volcano?"
Continue reading The Volcano Stadium.
Mars. The Red Planet. The War Planet. All that. What people don't seem to know is that Mars has a moon. It's called Phobos, and it's just as inhabitable as our cheese-filled one.
Mars, our closest planet neighbor, was originally discovered a quadrillion years ago by the Ancient people who were bored at night and just looked up. It became a symbol to almost all cultures, including a symbol of the God of war for the Romans, Greeks and Sanskrit cultures; fire, war and destruction for the Babylons; Mangala in Hindu culture; Horus the Red for Ancient Egyptians; "the one who blushes" for the Hebrews; the God of faith for the Persians; and the fire symbol from the five elements for Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese.
With all of that staring and worshiping and doting, it wasn't until 1877, in the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., that someone looked and said, "I see a moon off that red dude."
This is one of the first detailed photos of the moon, courtesy of Exxon Mobil. Wait... I mean NASA. Phobos, the God of Fear, is the son of Mars in Greek Mythology. First seen by Asaph Hall, Sr., Phobos is strange because it's really
porous, it orbits closer to Mars than any other moon to its planet and
is incredibly not reflective. Light hits this guy and gets sucked in. Essentially, it's more like an asteroid than a planet. It's also extremely NOT symmetrical. (It's also extremely NOT Mars' only moon.)
Mars, our closest planet neighbor, was originally discovered a quadrillion years ago by the Ancient people who were bored at night and just looked up. It became a symbol to almost all cultures, including a symbol of the God of war for the Romans, Greeks and Sanskrit cultures; fire, war and destruction for the Babylons; Mangala in Hindu culture; Horus the Red for Ancient Egyptians; "the one who blushes" for the Hebrews; the God of faith for the Persians; and the fire symbol from the five elements for Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese.
With all of that staring and worshiping and doting, it wasn't until 1877, in the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., that someone looked and said, "I see a moon off that red dude."
This is one of the first detailed photos of the moon, courtesy of Exxon Mobil. Wait... I mean NASA. Phobos, the God of Fear, is the son of Mars in Greek Mythology. First seen by Asaph Hall, Sr., Phobos is strange because it's really
porous, it orbits closer to Mars than any other moon to its planet and
is incredibly not reflective. Light hits this guy and gets sucked in. Essentially, it's more like an asteroid than a planet. It's also extremely NOT symmetrical. (It's also extremely NOT Mars' only moon.)
Continue reading Yeah, Mars Has Moon.
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm taking on Bush's State of the Union...
John continues an 8-part series that explores President Bush's addresses to the U.S. population called State of The Union, from his first inaugural speech in 2001 to his State of the Union in 2008. John brilliantly pastes Bush's words. Just his words. He left it up to us to figure out what to make of them. I had to comment on our General's comments. Enjoy. The bold is necessary for my fury, especially since we're a few months out from Iraq's invasion.
Click on State of The Union (there, or to the right) to see all posts.
President George W. Bush
State of the Union
2003
State of the Union
2003
"During this session of Congress, we have the duty to reform domestic programs vital to our country; we have the opportunity to save millions of lives abroad from a terrible disease. We will work for a prosperity that is broadly shared, and we will answer every danger and every enemy that threatens the American people." Except China, Iran, North Korea, poverty, energy crisis...
"...our faith is sure..." Our? Your? Both are questionable.
Continue reading JLF: State of the Union, Part III: 2003. JLF's Response..
Every once in a while, something pops up on the web that even
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
Hurricane Fay may have caused flooding in Florida, but it certainly was gentle with its touch on the dangling state. (Compared to Katrina & Wilma.) The most interesting way to look at it, I say? At a macro and a micro level. Luckily for you readers, I have two videos to pull it in perspective for you, thanks to one of HAWT's favorite site, Live Leak.
Awwww, yeah.
First, the macro. This is a video from the International Space Station... up.. in space...
To capture this, the ISS was, luckily, in the right place with the camera at the right angle. The result is a unique shot of the giant water-pillow that was raining on the panhandle.
The second video takes on the micro, and it's amazing.
Continue reading Web_geM: Hurricane Fay.
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm pissed...
We've had explosion after explosion during the Bush administration's run... including a fake war, outing a CIA agent, Katrina, walking away from Kyoto Protocol, ignoring the environment, a boom in energy company profits and prices, 9/11, two misled wars, approved torture, housing market collapse, looooooots of vacation time, government spying on its citizens... and on and on.Well, the past 7.67 years might seem like a dream compared to the next 0.33 years. Upcoming, we have the 11th hour manure dump.
Continue reading JLF: Bush's 11th Hour Manure Dump.
The Guardian runs a kick ass site. They have an entire section of their site dedicated to the environment and it's chock full of info. Within that ":environment umbrella," there is a section dedicated to water usage, and it's chock full of info. Again, it's total HAWTaction [hot ak-shuh
n].
Water is used in this world like... well... like it grew on trees. We've covered the topic of water usage on this blog:
Yes, that's 140 liters (40 gallons) for every 125ml (4.25 ounces) of coffee. That's an efficiency of 0.089%.
n].Water is used in this world like... well... like it grew on trees. We've covered the topic of water usage on this blog:
- Saving The World. First Stop: Laundromat.
- Desalinization? Meet Kamen. He Might Save the World.
- Largest Pool in the World (Well... not REALLY relevant, but water related)
Yes, that's 140 liters (40 gallons) for every 125ml (4.25 ounces) of coffee. That's an efficiency of 0.089%.
Continue reading How Much Water is in That Pig?.
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm pissed...
I've written and written about how our government is for sale. Just check out the Corn and Agribusiness series I did pointing out how the agriculture industry is in bed with the government and actually helps write policy on their own industry.- JLF: The American Agribusiness Industry
- JLF: The Corn Industry's Killing You - PART I, Corn Syrup et al.
- JLF: The Corn Industry's Killing You - PART II, Ethanol
Even as Exxon continues to post larger and larger profits than ever imaginable (they keep breaking their quarterly record... going on seven quarters, I believe), some believe petroleum's profit margins are too low and they should be making more money. Regardless of what you think, you can't deny the Bush administration is in bed with the petrol industry.
Continue reading JLF: Big Oil's Sleeping With the U.S. Government, We're Paying.
... From your news headquarters ... at HAWTaction ... we bring you ... Breaking Knews ...
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A couple of days after Star Wars: The Clone Wars successful $15 million opening weekend, George Lucas held a press conference at Skywalker Ranch to lay out plans for additional Star Wars projects. "We're very excited," Lucas said. "We think, like the Clone Wars, the original movies hinted at events in the Star Wars universe that fans are anxious to explore. Star Wars: the Clone Wars, an upcoming TV series on Spike, proves that Star Wars does not have to be limited to the film genre. We are excited about a plethora of media options, and we think fans will be too."
The first project Lucas presented was Star Wars: The Kessel Run. Mentioned in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope by Han Solo, Lucasfilms will explore the the famous spice run with a twenty-seven-part mini-series on ABC family. The story will focus on the Kessel Run and the traders that risk their lives for their trade. "Think Ice Road Truckers in space." The project will combine live actors with puppet shadows in front of green screens. The story will mainly focus on Greedo, but Han Solo is expected to make a cameo. There are rumors the original Greedo and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) will voice their puppet shadows.
Continue reading Breaking Knews: George Lucas Presents Additional Star Wars Projects.
I have totally been watching these Chinese Olympics. I usually just love the Olympics with their story lines and their rivalries and stuff! (Phelps is sooooo cute and tall! Who cares if he has ADHD!?!?) I usually focus on swimming, gymnastics, track & field and curling.I was watching the gymnastics, though, and they are just painful because the judges are horrible! Yuck!
Continue reading J.C.: Olympic Judges are Terrible!!.
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm pissed...
In July, President George W. Bush presented a record-setting budget deficit of $482 billion, and that doesn't include the tens of billions of dollars Iraq and Afghanistan will cost. In addition, the total could climb if the economy doesn't recover as the administration is predicting. Honestly, though, all of the administration's predictions seem to come true, so why bother? (We're screwed.)Bush has never been able to balance a budget. He took the largest surplus in U.S. history from Clinton and turned it around into the largest deficit ever. Despite the incredible knowledge Bush gained at Harvard Business School, he's managed to bankrupt almost everything he touches, including this country.
Continue reading JLF: Bush Bankrupts Everything He Touches.
Every once in a while, something pops up on the web that even
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
Videos have dominated the Web_geM series of late, but that's before I ran across engrish.com.
Spending time overseas, you are bound to come across botched English (and I'm not just talking about the U.K.). Once in Spain, for me, it came from a wannabe-Top 40 D.J. saying something like, "From U. S. or A. Number one top hit, New Kids on the Rock con Hanging Touch." Or, there was Arantxa Sánchez Vicario who, upon wining the French Open, said, "I am feeling very happiness. I am very joy."
Well, a website has been made for such mistakes. It's brilliant, and it's engrish.com.
Like it? There's a universe of these out there.
Continue reading Web_geM: Engrish.
Technology Review, my alma mater's magazine, is always chock full of sassy science stuff. That's kind of what you'd expect, though, from that bunch of nerds.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time.
Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time. Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Artificial Pancreas.
Some things are essential to our everyday lives, yet their ORIGINS have escaped us. The names of the days of the week? The months? Our "Arabic" numeral system? Giving someone the
bird? 60 seconds in a minute? What defines the length of a second?
The game of chess? It goes ON and ON... HAWTaction [hot ak-shuhn] will bring you those histories in ORIGINS.
The computer keyboard, called the QWERTY keyboard, is almost a global standard (correcting for differences in alphabet). Yet, look at it. Look at that thing beneath your hands. It is a sloppy mess. A sloppy mess! There are classes dedicated to using it. Classes! How the hell did this thing become the world standard? What are the computer keyboard ORIGINS?
Essentially, you are typing on a dinosaur from a different era. This keyboard was developed was in the 1870's in Milwaukee. 1870's. Milwaukee.
n] will bring you those histories in ORIGINS.The Computer Keyboard
The computer keyboard, called the QWERTY keyboard, is almost a global standard (correcting for differences in alphabet). Yet, look at it. Look at that thing beneath your hands. It is a sloppy mess. A sloppy mess! There are classes dedicated to using it. Classes! How the hell did this thing become the world standard? What are the computer keyboard ORIGINS?Essentially, you are typing on a dinosaur from a different era. This keyboard was developed was in the 1870's in Milwaukee. 1870's. Milwaukee.
Continue reading ORIGINS: The Computer Keyboard.
We here at HAWTaction love NASA and the Hubble. Before I celebrate Hubble's 100,000th orbit around our Green/Blue planet with you, let's take a look at our "space" coverage so far.- The Voyager Spacecraft Kick Ass! Prove Solar System is Not Straight! (12/11/07)
- NASA's Blue Marble, Next Generation Project (1/30/08)
- Hubble Telescope Turns 18. (Says Will Vote for Nader.) (4/24/08)
- NASA's Documenting the World: Myanmar and Chile (5/7/08)
- There's Water in Urine. NASA Finds It. (5/15/08)
- NASA: Water on Mars! wOOt! (6/20/08)
- Web_geM: The Earth and Moon (7/23/08)
Continue reading It's So Easy to Love the Hubble & the NASA.
Johnny Lead Foot here, and I'm pissed...
The Olympics have been jam packed with highlights. I mean, the swimming has been fantastic, but I take that with a grain of salt because I have webbed toes and a 5,400 RPM tail. I can cruise at 30 knots from Staten Island to Hilton Head.One of the most outstanding thing I've seen this Olympics is Bob Costas interview of President Bush. It was just under ten minutes and it was the first live interview I've seen of Bush, and it was amazing. Fantastic. Given the short amount of time, Costas covered a healthy amount of topics. Now, a lot of people were criticizing that Costas shouldn't have brought politics into the Olympic celebrations, but Costas strapped on his balls and shot out questions that probably had Bush's handlers shivering in the corner. Don't believe me? Watch for yourself. Watch how Costas shows up all reporters covering the political scene.
Continue reading JLF: The Only Idea Bush Has is That Invading Iraq Was Right.
There are a lot of Tall Building posts on HAWTaction, but where's the love for the little guys? We find them here, in the ArcHiT3cT: series
where we profile outstanding architects whose works don't fall under
the Tall Building parameters. Enjoy the works of architects like Zaha
Hadid, Santiago Calatrava, Herzog and de Meuron, Renzo Piano, Frank
Gehry... Oh, this is going to be a fun series.
There's a buzz about China's architecture right now, mainly because China is crawling out of its conservative stylings and embracing modern structures that are causing drool at HAWTaction headquarters. This evolution is apparent in some of the 53 new buildings that shot up to support the Olympics. While CCTV and TVCC Towers, Bird's Nest and Water Cube were being built, Paul Andreu brought a new Opera House to Beijing (I promise ArcHiT3cT series won't be opera house exclusive). It's nickname is the Egg.
Holy shmoley. That is some building. The dome has no angles or beams and soars The 212 meters in east-west direction (695 feet), 144 meters in north-south direction (472 feet) and is 46 meters high (151 feet). It's 200,000 m² in size (2.15 million square feet).
Paul Andreu's work usually comes in the form of an airport, but this time, he dropped out a truly beautiful... well... non-airport. The first thing that's amazing about this building is its surroundings. This modern building sits right int he middle of Beijing, flanked by the Great Hall of the People, Tian'anmen Square and the ancient Forbidden City. Holy moly. China's shaking things up.
There's a buzz about China's architecture right now, mainly because China is crawling out of its conservative stylings and embracing modern structures that are causing drool at HAWTaction headquarters. This evolution is apparent in some of the 53 new buildings that shot up to support the Olympics. While CCTV and TVCC Towers, Bird's Nest and Water Cube were being built, Paul Andreu brought a new Opera House to Beijing (I promise ArcHiT3cT series won't be opera house exclusive). It's nickname is the Egg.
Holy shmoley. That is some building. The dome has no angles or beams and soars The 212 meters in east-west direction (695 feet), 144 meters in north-south direction (472 feet) and is 46 meters high (151 feet). It's 200,000 m² in size (2.15 million square feet).Paul Andreu's work usually comes in the form of an airport, but this time, he dropped out a truly beautiful... well... non-airport. The first thing that's amazing about this building is its surroundings. This modern building sits right int he middle of Beijing, flanked by the Great Hall of the People, Tian'anmen Square and the ancient Forbidden City. Holy moly. China's shaking things up.
Continue reading ArcHiT3cT: Paul Andreu. The Egg..
Anyone who holds a handful of change for over five seconds wants to chuck the warm coins in to the Hudson river and set their hands ablaze to sanitize there. (No? Am I the only one?) There's nothing quite like the creeps I get from contact with metal that has seen asphalt, pockets, dirty water, sewage, bathroom sinks, dust, vending machines, mouths, phone booths, the space under a dryer in the laundromat... anything, really, except a dishwasher.Every once in a while I see a bill that looked particularly haggard and chills slip up my back, but mainly the insane disgust is isolated to coins. Well, the periodical Trends in Analytical Chemistry has changed that.
Continue reading Money is Very Dirty.
08-08-08. The Olympics are going to hit Beijing like a political
sledgehammer. One thing the world can agree on, though, is that
Beijing's Olympic buildings are stunning. The Bird's Nest and the
Water Cube? They have no precedent. They are totally
ground-breaking. You'll see.
From what I remember, Olympic swimming competitions are held in a giant box with no discernible sassiness. Sydney changed things up a little in 2000 with a roofless stadium, if I remember correctly, and the camera's aperture had to keep compensating for the insane bright sun and resulting shadows. What I'm trying to say is that nothing has made a mark on the ol' architecture meter. China, though, for this 2008 Olympics, is whopping you over the head with a creation they are calling the Water Cube.
But that looks like a bunch of bubbles, you say! Wha? Well.... it actually is a bunch of bubbles. This is the most complicated design I've ever seen. Take my hand, we'll take a look inside.
The Water Cube
From what I remember, Olympic swimming competitions are held in a giant box with no discernible sassiness. Sydney changed things up a little in 2000 with a roofless stadium, if I remember correctly, and the camera's aperture had to keep compensating for the insane bright sun and resulting shadows. What I'm trying to say is that nothing has made a mark on the ol' architecture meter. China, though, for this 2008 Olympics, is whopping you over the head with a creation they are calling the Water Cube.But that looks like a bunch of bubbles, you say! Wha? Well.... it actually is a bunch of bubbles. This is the most complicated design I've ever seen. Take my hand, we'll take a look inside.
Continue reading Olympic Building: The Water Cube.
Every once in a while, something pops up on the web that even
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...
I grew up in Spain and eeeeeeevery once in a while they'd take a break from the soccer, F1 racing and bull killing to show an artist lip-syncing on the two state-owned TV stations, TV1 and TV2. In order to confuse the viewer into thinking that the person might actually be singing, they used a playback technique where they'd freeze a frame for a second, then jump to the next frame. It made it appear slow motion, yet it maintained pace with the track being played.
It confused the heck out of me. I couldn't figure out what was going on. How did they make something constantly freeze, yet still keep pace with the song? It wasn't until I was a chemical engineer student at MIT that I figured out that TV1 (Spain's first TV channel) had the ability to control time/space worm holes and could tickle the flow of time with the push of a button.
That brings us to this Web_geM. I had no idea what was going on until I read what was going on. Doesn't make sense? Watch this. (Don't be turned off by the first few seconds of the video... it just keeps getting wonkier.)
Continue reading Web_geM: Chronotopic Anamorphosis.
