December 2010 archive

One of the more revolutionary innovations in lighting is the Light Emitting Diode, or LED.  This cutting edge technology was first discovered 103 years ago!  However, only comparatively recently have LEDs been either efficient or cheap enough for wide use.

LEDs operate just like any other diode, allowing an electric current to pass, for the most part, in only one direction.  They are built by placing into contact a P-type (positive) and an N-type (negative) semiconductor and passing a current from the N to the P materials.  In the case of LEDs, when the electrons and holes recombine, light is emitted.  In most diodes, heat is emitted.  Actually, LEDs do produce some heat as well and this becomes important for reasons to be discussed later.

Iggles @ ‘Boys (yes, yes I do hate the ‘Boys more.  Thank you for asking.).  Amazing Race (three teams left).  Simpsons and American Dad (premiers), Family Guy (hour long Holiday Special premier).  Nutcracker.

Otherwise just premiers.

• AMC– White Christmas x 2 ( is this all we’re going to see between now and December 25th?)
• Animal Planet– Planet Earth marathon
• Bravo– Real Housewives marathon (with premier)
• Disney– Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation, Good Luck Charlie, Shake It Up, Sonny with a Chance (premiers)
• Discovery– Mythbusters marathon
• ESPN– Bowl Mania Special
• ESPN2– Poker Stars x 2 (premiers)
• FX– Eagle Eye x 2 (again and again and again)
• History– Ax Men, Top Gear (premiers, not nearly as good as Swamp Loggers)
• Lifetime– James Patterson’s Sundays at Tiffany’s (again), Marry Me x 2 (World Premier)
• National Geographic– The Spear of Destiny and Rome x 2, all premiers
• Oxygen– Titanic
• Sci Fi– The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (still not as good)
• TBS– Fred Claus x 2 (another movie I’ve seen enough of, again and again)
• Turner Classic– Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (no, not that one)
• TLC– She’s A Great Shot (absolutely a must see, Sarah proves she’s incapable of operating a bolt action rifle.  A real Mike Dukakis moment.  Go back to clubbing fish.), a premier (Sara hosts Kate and her 8 for a rainy miserable picnic)
• TNT– Leverage x 2 (Holiday Special premier)
• Toon– A Very Venture Brothers Christmas
• Travel– David Blaine marathon (2 premiers)
• USA– Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Later-

• ABC Family– Christmas Cupid (World Premier)
• AMC– Holiday Inn (exactly like last night)
• Oxygen– Beaches
• Sci Fi– In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Warehouse 13 (this week’s Holiday Special)
• Turner Classic– Cinderella Jones, Intolerance (shhhh.  More ‘Why can’t you tolerate my being a bigoted racist asshole?’ by D.W. Griffith)
• Toon– Family Guy, Robot Chicken marathon (with premier), Moral Orel, Metalocalypse, American Dad (Holiday Specials)
• USA– Hairspray (still not the good 1988 version)

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Guess who’s back?

1 Six police among 14 killed in Iraq suicide attacks

by Bassim al-Anbari, AFP

Sun Dec 12, 10:50 am ET

285 Stories served.  40 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 12/5
• Monday 12/6
• Tuesday 12/7
• Wednesday 12/8
• Thursday 12/9
• Friday 12/10
• Saturday 12/11

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 12 is the 346th day of the year (347th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 19 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1787, Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the Constitution, by a vote of 46 to 23. Pennsylvania was the first large state to ratify, as well as the first state to endure a serious Anti-Federalist challenge to ratification.

Pennsylvania drafted the most radical of the state constitutions during the War for Independence. By excluding Quakers and all other pacifists unwilling to take oaths of allegiance to the Revolutionary cause, a fervently anti-British and anti-Indian Scots-Irish faction had seized power for the first time in the remarkably diverse state. Only when pacifists were again able to exercise the franchise in peacetime was it conceivable that the more conservative U.S. Constitution might pass in Pennsylvania. Large states had the most to lose by joining a strengthened union. James Wilson’s genius in describing the nature of layered sovereignty in a federal republic, using the solar system as an analogy, was invaluable in convincing Pennsylvanians to ratify. Anti-Federalists found themselves in the hypocritical position of criticizing the federal Constitution for failing to codify the freedom of religious practice they had actively denied their fellow citizens during the War for Independence.

The likely winner, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. If this sounds implausible to you, then read this

President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he’d lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

The biggest reason for Obama’s fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November’s midterm elections. At the same time, he’s gained nothing among independents.

“He’s having the worst of both worlds right now,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in New York, which conducted the national survey.

“As he moves to the center, he’s not picking up support among independents and he’s having some fall-off among his base. If his strategy is to gain independents and keep the Democrats in tow, it isn’t working so far.”

and look at this

Have things gotten better since late 2008, when Democrats took over? The answer is, not really. Unemployment went from about 8.5 percent when Obama took office, to 9.6 percent now. Millions of Americans’ mortgages are underwater. And despite wasting over a year on health care reform, almost no one has gotten new or better insurance as a result. In fact, the number of people with health insurance is even lower now than prior to passage of the Affordable Care Act.

The Republicans won back the House this past election not because they have a better idea or that Americans trust them, but to send a message to the President what he’s been doing hasn’t made it better. Raising taxes on on the poorest Americans and giving the top 2% free money that they won’t invest in jobs in this country, Obama will continue to alienate not just progressive, but independent voters and moderate Republicans. Obama can continue to turn his back on his supporters, break his campaign promises and negotiate with the “enemy” behind closed doors or he can move back to the left and start fighting for the people who put him in office. His choice. If he continues on the path he has now taken with this his tax cut bill, we will be watching President Mitt Romney take the oath of office January 20, 2012.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

This will be a full court press to get the Obama tax bill approved. Set your BS meters.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: David Axelrod will be front and center with Ms. Amanpour defending the Obama attack on 98% of America.

The saving grace for this hour will be Paul Krugman at the Round Table with George Will, Cokie Roberts and Matthew Dowd.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guests David Axelrod, Senior White House Adviser (This guy is really making the rounds), Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee Chair and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

This could be interesting.

The Chris Matthews Show: Tweetie’s guest this week are pretty much the usual suspects: Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine Assistant Managing Editor, Helene Cooper, The New York Times White House Correspondent and Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Senior Editor.

They will discuss these topics:

Did Barack Obama Get Back on the Right Track This Week?

Top Ten Political Gaffes of the Year

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Joining “Lurch” will be the “other Glen Beck with a white board”, Austin Goolsbee, trying to defend Obama’s latest cave exploration. Also, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another politician that hasn’t seen a regressive tax he didn’t like, giving his corporatist opinion about Beltway gridlock. (I-195 has always sucked at rush hour).

The Round table should be a lively affair that actually might get me to watch. NY Rep. Anthony Weiner, who strongly opposes the Obama tax cuts, sits down with Fmr. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN), Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot, and NBC News White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie.

Axelrod gets a break

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Oh Noes! Here he is again! David Axelrod discussing guess what.

At least Candy has some balance with guests Reps. Elijah Cummings and Jim McDermott, two Democrats who are speaking out against the president’s compromise and telling the White House to stand up to the Republican Party and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who is one of a number of Democrats who have expressed their disappointment with Obama’s deal, but he’ll vote for it anyway.

The last guest will be Dennis Blair, the former director of national intelligence, who will babble about the tensions with North Korea and justification for staying in Afghanistan and, finally, call for Julian Assange’s hanging.

Gotta get that Wilileaks shot in there

Fareed Zakaris: GPS: It seems Mr. Axelrod missed Fareed’s show. Eh, too “international”

The President cut a deal with the GOP to continue the Bush tax cuts while extending unemployment benefits. Fareed’s take on the issue? It’s a missed opportunity to invest in America’s long term growth. And he’ll tell you about a country that seems to be setting itself up for the future, while the U.S. is putting more on the credit card.

Next up, he’s the most decorated soldier in Israel, a former Prime Minister, and that nation’s current Minister of Defense. Ehud Barak sits down with Fareed to talk about what we all know — thanks to Wikileaks – his country and a few of its Arab neighbors might have in common: the fear of a nuclear Iran. Barak also talks about how to move the peace process forward.

Then, one of the Republican party’s top women on why the GOP has the wrong attitude after its electoral victory. Former member of President George W. Bush’s cabinet and former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman on fixing that attitude problem…and on Sarah Palin’s chances for 2012. And what in the world: Glenn Beck says 10% of the world’s Muslims are terrorists. Could that be true?

After that, a GPS panel on how China handled the Nobel Peace Prize controversy and what’s behind that nation’s aggressive foreign policy moves?

And finally a look at the Star of David, in the last place on earth you might expect to find it.

WikiLeaks’ advocates are wreaking ‘hacktivism’



By Ian Shapira and Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writers

In England, a 26-year-old advertising agency employee caters to multinational clients but on the side has been communicating with a secretive band of strangers devoted to supporting WikiLeaks.

Halfway around the world, a 24-year-old in Montana has used a publicly available – and, according to security experts, suddenly popular software program called Low Orbit Ion Cannon with the goal of shutting down Web sites of WikiLeaks’ perceived enemies.