Archive: August 6, 2003

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Revisiting the Nest

Wednesday,  08/06/03  11:27 PM

(click for larger pic) Many of you will remember "the nest", a comedy of errors in which I nearly killed five baby birds but ended up successfully reuniting them with their single parent, after the unfortunate demise of their other parent.  Here's an update. The picture at left shows the parent - female, I think, from the fact that she's all brown and the dead parent had a red neck (see "the nest" for details) - sitting happily on her nest.  She has been most diligent and feeds her clutch without fail every morning and night, stopping only to flit about in an aggravated manner whenever we come near. One of the babies didn't make it, we found her dead on the patio below the lamp.  Whether this was an after-effect of the nest incident or simply Darwinian selection in action I cannot say.  The remaining four babies have grown nicely - they have wings and feathers and look like miniature versions of their mother -and experiment with flying from the lamp to nearby trees. The flying lessons were pretty interesting.  The mom would make a bunch of noise inside the lamp, flapping her wings and flitting about, and then would fly over to a nearby tree, making a bunch of noise all the while.  A bunch of other birds joined in the chorus.  Then a little one would peek out of the lamp, and go for it, flapping furiously straight for mom sitting in the tree.  Upon arrival in the tree, the mom flies back to the nest, and the baby follows.  Then it is another kid's turn.  They did this all afternoon one day. We think perhaps three of the kids have now "flown the coop", because only one seems to be in the nest with any regularity.  There's always one, huh?

 

Wednesday,  08/06/03  11:45 PM

So - Arnold is running!  In fact so is everyone else...  what a wild wacky gubernatorial race we're having!  Anything but Gray, in fact :) This will be a field day for columnists and pundits, already the headlines are being written.  My favorites: "Total Recall", and "I'll Be Back". Speaking of pundits, here's a great idea: Roger Simon proposes term limits for op-ed columnists.  I love it.  Even better, post hit counters on their websites :0 Mike Hawash, the Intel programmer accused of aiding the Taliban, has pleaded guilty.  I notice the tone of www.freemikehawash.org has changed considerably...  they went from being virulent critics of the Department of Justice to stating "we hope justice has been served".  (Check the Google cache...)  Guess they must feel kind of betrayed, but then, by his own admission Mike is a traitor.  [ via Blaster's Blog ] Check out these photos (1, 2, 3) of Iraqi MIGs buried in the desert.  Amazing!  Newsmax has the story, these are brand-new Russian fighters with French radar.  (Wonder why they were buried :)  One reaction I have looking at the pictures is that Iraq has a lot of dirt.  If an informant hadn't come forward with the coordinates at which these planes were buried, what is the chance we would have found them?  Iraq is bigger than California... Say what you like about Michael Robertson, he thinks big.  Not content with taking on the music industry (MP3.com), and Microsoft (Lindows), he has just formed a new startup to take on the 'phone companies (SIPphone).  This is a voice-over-IP play which uses broadband Internet connections to replace 'phone circuits.  It makes all kinds of sense, especially for people (and companies!) which makes lots of long-distance calls.  This is an important new market with Vonage already makes waves... Andy Grove has a great article in Fortune: Churning Things Up.  He notes that company's strategic decisions can have "linear" effects (the general market structure in which the company operates remains the same), or "non-linear" effects (the general market structure changes).  In the latter case a "good" strategic decision may ultimately hurt the company, by hurting the overall market in which it competes.  Interestingly, he identifies health care as the next candidate industry to undergo non-linear change... So - I've upgraded to AOL 9, have you?  Looks nice.  They seem to have cleaned things up in the GUI (it is much less cluttered than it was), and incorporated video all over the place.  AOL 9 clearly is designed for broadband users.  The NYTimes has a complimentary review. godless on GNXP notes Digital Rights Management is Inherently Doomed.  I've had the same thought; in the end music and movies must be played, and hence can be recorded.  It is what it is. SI's Rick Reilly has a great article up on the weirdness of NCAA justice.  "I support the small-mindedness of the NCAA.  In fact, my hope is that someday the NCAA will get so small -- so microscopic -- that it will slide down the holes in its shower drain and be gone for good."  [ via Silflay Hraka ] Andrew Anker considers Bootstrapping your Company.  "a VC who changes a company's strategy as part of his own portfolio rebalancing should have his wallet privileges revoked."  There are two good points in this short post, first, not all good companies fit a VC investment profile, and second, there is a gradual thaw within the investment community, starting with more mature companies and working their way back to early stage deals. Looking for new blogs to visit?  Then check out the 46th weekly Carnival of the Vanities, which this week jumped Across the Atlantic.  The theme is the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, which seems very appropriate.  Happy blogsurfing!

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