Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Sunset - October 22, 2011 - Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Penn State Collapse

If it wasn't, essentially, my finals week (the next 9 days), I would have a much, much longer comment on the Paterno/Penn State disaster...lots of thoughts there. I'll say this though, Paterno said he will retire at the end of this season. I would be very surprised if he is allowed to do so. I wouldn't be shocked if he coached only one more game, this Saturday, vs. Nebraska.

The Next 13 Days

I won't have much of a life for the next thirteen days, but I may find some things to share on here during research for my two final papers. One of those papers is on Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen who was targeted and killed in Yemen on September 30, 2011. He is featured prominently in a book called Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam, by J.M. Berger, that I just read this weekend and I just wanted to quote from a CNN article he cited in the book. To give you some context, Awlaki used to live in California and this is a conversation he had about possibly returning to California:

“He said, “I’m going back to Virginia, and shortly after that, I’ll be going to Yemen.” And I said, “Well, I do hope you’ll be coming back to San Diego soon.” And he says, “No, I don’t be coming back. And in a little while, you’ll understand why.”

To give you some more context, this happened not too long before 9/11. Awlaki is suspected of having direct contact with two of the hijackers while in California and later on in Virginia. So the "And in a little while, you'll understand why" just makes you sick.

Instagram: MKE and Late Summer

So good.

Only in Wisconsin. If you find yourself there, try some.

A pint of PBR and a burger at AJ Bombers. Perfect together.

A summer afternoon at Rootdown

Loveland Pass. August.

On a bike ride. Lake Dillon. August.

First Snow

Some pictures of our the first snowstorm this winter from twelve floors up.

Milwaukee's Best in 48 Hrs

Lake Michigan, we've missed your shores.

When in Milwaukee, the only place to stop for coffee.

A little Third Ward action.

The best burger in MKE, with a tall boy? Yes, please.

Post burger trip to Kopp's Frozen Custard. The best custard around.

Our View

We can now enjoy it a little more since Jarrod bought our grill. Thanks!

Triple Threat

Katelyn Sellers Hoge

8 lbs. 7 oz. 21"

11 October 2011 4:35pm

I am thrice an uncle. 

Steve Jobs' Passing

Steve Jobs did the impossible. He got me to work in a mall. I only lasted 10 months, but that’s ten more months than I ever thought I would be working in a mall. His passing somehow brought me a greater sense of pride that I was part of the company than working in the store actually did. I was truly saddened last night. I think everyone expected his death, but not so soon, not five weeks after he stepped down.

I have been struck by the magnitude of his death. From President Obama releasing a statement last night to floral tributes outside Apple stores, most tributes have been appropriate, but others have been cringe inducing. Jobs oversaw every detail of his company and intimately cared about each product the company produced. What current CEO does that? Not a one. However, he was no MLK, Jr., a comparison I heard last night that made me spit up my milk and cookies all over my MacBook Pro. Coincidentally, I had watched MLK, Jr.’s anti-Vietnam speech earlier in a class yesterday, reinforcing the point that his impact on intellectual thought, humanity, freedom, and rights is immeasurable and never was anyone so damn eloquent in bringing that about.

Nevertheless, as I sit here, studying (which I really should be doing right now) I see a few iPads, many iPhones, an 11-inch MacBook Air, and a handful of other MacBooks. Jobs’ influence is everywhere and it’s stunning that in a person’s absence we are more acutely aware of their legacy and we immediately yearn for their presence more than we ever did when they were alive. And that is why death hurts so much.

Godspeed, Steve.

Tributes

Apple's homepage has a nice tribute to Steve Jobs. It will probably change soon so go check it out. 

Even wired.com is all black tonight.

Living in the Future

If you didn't visit a news website,  listen to NPR, or watch TV today, you might not know that Apple announced its iPhone 4S today. It includes Siri, which is, at it's simplest an assistant you can talk to. Just read this from Gizmodo. It sort of blows my mind. It's crazy actually. Sci-fi movies are slowly becoming reality. 

This thing actually seems smart, judging by the demos. It actually interprets what you are saying. You don't talk to it using commands. You just talk to it like you would talk to another person. So instead of asking "tell me the weather today" you can just say "Do I need a raincoat?" and it will reply "It sure does look like rain today!" Or if you say "Wake me up tomorrow at 6am" it will automatically set up the alarm for you. Or "hey, remind me to buy milk later" and it will remind you to buy milk as you pass near a grocery store—yes, Siri is location aware.

A Sober Reminder of Where Your iPhone Comes From

Read this.


Look at this.


It's worth mentioning, this is essentially where all electronic gadgets come from. Like the guy in the Times piece says, this is what happens when you outsource to a fascist country with no human rights.

100 Million Degrees

I have been reading a fairly dense history of U.S. foreign policy over the last two weeks. Ahead of each chapter, there is a quote, which relates to the topic of the chapter, but may not be found within. The lead quote for the chapter on the Pacific front of WWII was powerful. It paints a picture that is impossible to imagine. 

When the first atomic bomb went off, at Alamorgordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, the temperature at Ground Zero was 100 million degrees Fahrenheit, three times hotter than the interior of the sun and ten thousand times the heat on its surface. All life, plant and animal, within a mile radius of Ground Zero simply vanished. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, turned to his deputy and said, "The war's over. One of two of these things and Japan will be finished."
- Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, Enola Gay

Boom

Apple sent this out to media outlets today. It's coming. October 4th. Whatever it is, it's coming.

Iced Coffee

My new best friend in grad school.

Such Foresight

From my reading this weekend, a quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address. He warns of the influence of the military-industrial complex:

The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence--economic, political, even spiritual--is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government...We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, our resources and livelihood all are involved; so is the very structure of our society. 

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.  

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

Eisenhower would be very disappointed with the present-day saturation of our government by the military-industrial complex. Nevertheless, this is an astounding prediction. Thanks for blowing my mind, Dwight.

Clean Glass

The windows of my home were cleaned today by this guy.

Speechless

An amazing picture from 9/11 that I hadn't seen.

Remembering 9/11, Again

My thoughts after reading through the 9.11.11 New York Times.

The dominant themes of the paper this morning seem to be: 

1) It’s been ten years. Let’s make this the last big memorial and then let’s move on. Again, it’s been ten years. How long do we have to do this? 

And 2) Beginning September 12, 2001, America started down a path that has brought us unnecessary, prolonged wars in countries that are now more unstable than they were in 2001. In addition, anti-Americanism has flourished in a lot of the Middle East, which, in turn, hasn’t made it a safer world for anyone despite the homeland not being attacked in the last ten years.

And, on this 10^th anniversary, I have found, not a new respect for, but a renewed respect for President Bush. This is simply a respect for the President of the United States of America. Being the president on that day and in the following weeks must have been an unimaginable burden and one Bush least expected to bear and one I am sure he will deal with for the rest of his life. As it turned out, I don’t agree with most of Bush’s reactions to 9/11, but I think we can all appreciate his stoicism on that day, his visit to the WTC site, and his speech from the rubble while he had his arm around a NYC Firefighter. 

With my breaks today from reading for grad school, I will be reading more of the Times and special editions of Time and The New Yorker that sit on my coffee table. I won't be watching much TV because the visual remembrance of 9/11 is the same every year because it can offer nothing new. Meaning, the images can't evolve like our reflections on that day can and so I think the best medium to reflect upon this day is, undoubtedly, the written word. 

Listening to 9/11 Unfold

The media is saturated with 10th anniversary 9/11 stuff right now and it is hard to make your way through it just to find one genuine piece of journalism. However, this morning I went to nytimes.com and they had posted, and made available to listen to, a bunch of transmissions from 9/11 as it happened. I listened to the first one and I was riveted by what I heard. I stayed in my seat until the last tape was done, the one in which the order is given to shoot down any planes if they are not responding to directions, but by that time, as we know, all four planes had crashed. 


The tapes are worth a listen.