Author: Chris Barrus

Edward “Visual Explanation of Quantitative Information” Tufte has a great point-by-point analysis of the PowerPoint slides used by Boeing and NASA engineers in evaluating the possible tile damage during Columbia’s lift-off.

Basically, the slides suck – very hard to read.

I prepared for war by stocking up on beer, food, topping off the gas tank in my car, and clearing some space on the TiVo.

Is it in bad taste to have a countdown party?

Business 2.0 makes fun of them all.

It’s official now, so I can post this finally. The Lollies are opening up for two of the Bangles reunion shows in the UK – March 19th in Manchester, and March 20th in London.

Congrats Kate, Jane, and Matt!

Boing Boing links to post from a Hong Kong doctor to Dave Farber’s Interesting People list on SARS — the mystery pneumonia that’s sweeping Asia and has been spotted in Canada and elsewhere.

Unresponsive to various combinations of cefotaxime, chlarithromycin,
levofloxacin, doxyclycline and Tamiflu. All microbiology is NEGATIVE (after
one week)…

So far 2-3 of our older patients with chronic disease have deteriorated
fastest. Medical staff – younger and fitter have faired better. Their
radiological findings have deteriorated in all but one case…

We receive 2-3 admissions per day. So far no-one has shown any improvement.
Once intubated however they remain relatively static but very oxygen and
PEEP dependent. Those ventilated have solid lungs. Interestingly one
patient developed a pneumothorax on the medical ward and after chest drain
and re-expansion his pneumonia involves only the side without a chest drain.
Another patient (ventilated) has developed surgical emphysema.

ICU is now closed for all but atypical pneumonias. All our other “clean
cases” have been transferred to other ICUs. All elective surgery is being
cancelled and wards are being closed and evacuated. Al ambulances are being
diverted…

Masks are worn throughout the hospital. Staff are not going home to
children.

Please take the warning below seriously. My impression is that even with
minimal contact with an infected person people have been becoming ill.

I’ve got several articles/rants/manifestos bouncing around in my head at the moment and I wonder if by the time I get the necessary background info down, the situation will have changed yet again.

Some sites to check out over the weekend.:

First off, download the audio/video of Bruce Sterling and Derek Woodgate’s at SXSW from Lisa Rein’s Radar.

No Sense Of Place links to Watchmovies Cerebellum an incredibly comprehensive collection of film history from 1895 to present day.

The cricket reporter for the Guardian goes insane while reporting on the New Zealand/India match.

And finally, MetaFilter check out New Rome, Ohio. The town that exists only to hand out speeding tickets.

The New York Times reports thtat Natalie Merchant is the latest artist to walk away from a major label deal and instead sell directly over the net.

File sharing. Crap bands. Monolithic major labels. What else is killing music? Bad recording – specifically CDs that are too loud. An article at prorec.com looks at the problem.

So you can guess that it was with much anticipation that I awaited my first real listen to the band?s newest CD, “Vapor Trails”. Reviews heralded this album as one of the hardest-rocking Rush albums in some time, with a strong focus on guitars, powerful drumming, excellent bass work, and some of the best songwriting to come from the band in years. And, in listening to the CD, I found all of these things to be true. This is easily my favorite collection of Rush songs in years, maybe decades. It’s incredible work and I earnestly hope it reflects a new and sustainable direction for this great band.

However there was one fact that the reviewers had all left out: this CD sounds like dogshit.