Daily Fixes for the Podcast Junkie

Some of you may know that I'm somewhat of a podcast junkie. I listen to podcasts of many a different topic, length and episode frequency. This post will be the first installment in a three part series on my favorite podcasts. Today I'd like to list my favorite daily podcasts. My other posts will include my favorite weekly podcasts and my favorite podcasts that aren't delivered with a defined pattern. All are free, and subscriptions to all of these podcasts are available in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader by following the links below (or searching in iTunes).

In no particular order:

The Onion: A quick dose (1 minute) of the "news" from The Onion.

The Washington Post's Baghdad Briefing: A ~3 minute piece by one of 7 or so Post correspondents in the Baghdad bureau. Most correspondents are Iraqis. Topics range from day to day life in Iraq to politics to terrorism.

NY Times Front Page: A 5 minute overview of the stories on the front page of the NY Times.

Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing: This podcast actually has a morning and evening edition, each about 5 minutes. If you're a geek and interested in the stock market, this is a concise way to stay current.

Buzz Out Loud: CNET's podcast of indeterminate length. ~30 minutes. For true geeks, an entertaining review of the day's top tech stories by Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.

KEXP Song of the Day: Some of it is great, some of it is ok, some of it is skipped before the song finishes. But a lot of it is music I normally wouldn't stumble upon myself, so it's a great outlet for finding new music. And KEXP is based in Seattle, so it must be cool.

60 Second Science: Length as advertised, a "did you know" type tidbit from Scientific American.

Update 02/08/08:

There are a couple others I have found to be great daily resources:

BBC Global News: This podcast comes in twice a day and usually lasts somewhere around 20-25 minutes. Yes, ~45 minutes a day for one podcast is a lot, but they begin each show with a summary of the stories for that podcast, allowing you to skip to what you want to hear or cut it short altogether. I usually find at least the top story interesting though, and sometimes listen to the whole thing. The BBC has excellent reporting in all corners of the world, and I haven't found a better way to stay informed.

The Real Story with Frank Curzio: As of this posting you will actually find this under the title "The Real Story with Aaron Task". The show is a product of TheStreet.com, and Task hosted it until the end of 2007, when he left for a job with Yahoo!. Task was good, but not good enough to make the original list of my daily favorites. Curzio has picked up the job, and does it very well. He delivers sound analysis in a manner that is easy for the amateur investor to grasp. He does great interviews, isn't cocky, and most importantly, isn't boring. And while this has nothing to do with the quality of his content, there's something believable about listening to a guy with a thick NYC accent talk about money.

Geno in the news (finally)

Friend of TLATL and Right-Winger for minor-league hockey team The L.A. Barges, Gene explains why breast-feeding makes kids smarter.

Anonymous donor to TLATL and Left-Winger for major-league political party The Democrats, Hillary contends that the phenomenon is not isolated to kids.

Holy Education, Batman!! (or perhaps not-so-holy?)

In between all the cartoons I watched this weekend, something caught my eye: The King of Saudi Arabia is sinking $12.5 billion into a new university. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, or KAUST, which will make for awesome T-shirts like "I got HOUSED at KAUST!", is being built from the ground up in Jeddah.

OK, that headline in and of itself won't pull many people from the draw of a Superfriends marathon, but here are a few points of interest that should:

• The school will be co-educational. Revolutionary, right? Like many fundamentalists, the Kingdom's wahabi clerics aren't too keen on women's lib. Women can already attend some schools there, but they're not allowed to learn too much.
  
• The country's religious police, the Mutaween, will be barred from the campus. The Mutaween are the fun guys who arrest people for not abiding by the sharia, or Islamic Law. Behavior that falls into this category includes dress code and dietary violations, as well as male and female socialization. Something tells me people are going to want to live on campus.
  
• Funded by Aramco (and not the Kingdom's education ministry), the school's curriculum will apparently be geared towards Science & Technology, sharply contrasting education in the rest of the Kingdom, which of course focuses on Islam.
• The King's reasoning for this endowment? This might be the juiciest of all: "The king has broken taboos, declaring that the Arabs have fallen critically behind much of the modern world in intellectual achievement." Broken taboos is right, and I have to say this is surprisingly ballsy for a monarchy that tiptoes around the Kingdom's clerics.

The bottom line is this: The Saudi King and Aramco dumping $12.5 billion into a university is no more newsworthy than Google buying another plane. The Saudis have historically opened up the never-ending checkbook to solve their problems. It's the exclusion of the wahabi element that raises the eyebrow.

And while the frat houses have yet to be built so they can be trashed, and the faculty has yet to be staffed (which the article wisely notes may be the biggest challenge), this is still a notable step in a direction entirely the opposite of most other nations in the region. A small step, to be sure, but in a fundamentalist nation such as Saudi Arabia, it is a path I will watch with keen interest.

And, of course, I can think of only two words with which to sum up the message of this post:

ROAD TRIP!!!

30 Years of Law & Order: Part V - Young Guns

The following is part 5 of a 51 part series on "Law & Order". Other parts can be seen here:

• 30 Years of Law & Order
• Who's the Real McCoy?
• Aye Cap'n
• Let's Make a Deal
  

You remember when you were in 7th grade and Young Guns was the coolest movie ever? I don't. It was loved by the same kids who loved G.I. Joe in 4th grade. Not me. I was into Strat-o-matic baseball. They loved Charlie Sheen and his brother Emilio Sheen, while I was more into Fred McGriff and Mike Greenwell. By the way, does anyone know why the Red Sox wear red socks? Answer at the bottom.

Oh right, this is a Law & Order post. Well, welcome back from the break. Most Law & Order episodes start out with Law. The cops. A Crime Scene Unit is processing the evidence as the detectives wander up and our ears perk up for a Lenny Briscoe one-liner. Unbenownst to us, the two detectives are actually classified, junior and senior detective. This certainly makes our job easier. Instead of evaluating 9 different detectives, we can focus right now, on just 4. The juniors.

Some know him as Big, but anyone worth a salt sees Chris Noth as detective Mike Logan. Through 5 seasons and 3 partners, Mike Logan was the staple at the 2-7.

Logan has been described as somewhat of a short fuse, so it comes as no surprise that he didn't get along with Jack McCoy. One half of one of the better detective pairings in TV history, Noth apparently thought his character was more valuable than NBC, and his character was written off the show in 1995. I suppose it's that he was paired with 3 senior detectives that makes his tenure on the show seem longer than 5 years.

Logan's mistake was Rey Curtis's gain. Benjamin Bratt came on board to play detective Rey Curtis. It seemed that every female interogatee had some sort of Briscoe-like quip for the hunky Latino.

The picture to the left exemplifies everything you want to believe about Benjamin Bratt the actor, and thus Rey Curtis the Detective. I mean, come on, his last name is Bratt.

The show smartly played the other side of the coin, though. Unlike bachelor Mike Logan, Rey Curtis was a devoted family man (except for one little slip-up with Jennifer Garner - oops) and a by-the-book cop. His vocal displeasure at some of Briscoe's greasing of the legal engine lead to some friction with Briscoe, another contrast to Logan.

He and Briscoe eventually developed a friendship, but soon after Curtis left the show after 5 strong years.

Jesse L. Martin joined the show as Detective Ed Green in 1999 and at 8 and counting, has more years than any other Junior Detective.

Changing gears once again, Green's character returns the show to the brash, arrogant, whatever-it-takes attitude made popular by Mike Logan. Cultured and in tune with the youth, Green has a keen ability to adjust his interrogatorial style to fit the perp.

When Senior Detective Joe Fontana retired in 2006, Green became the first Detective on the show, and so we can only assume in all of NYC, to be promoted from Junior Detective to Senior Detective. Upon hearing he was a Senior, Green vowed to do nothing but cut class and bag chicks.

When Ed Green was promoted, the Junior Detective spot opened up for Nina Cassady. Imagine the one-liners from Briscoe if the two had been paired. It's like a whole other season of Law & Order in my imagination.

Cassady is from a police family, and has butted heads with Lt. Anita Van Buren, who apparently had her own replacement in mind for the position.

Cassady has only one year on the show, and apparently her character is on shaky grounds at the department. She probably slept with Cragen or something.

That's it, right? Well, not quite. It was only four shows, but while Det. Green recuperated from a gunshot wound, Det. Nick Falco came on board to assist Detective Fontana. On HBO you could see Michael Imperioli killing people and on NBC you could see him catching killers. Bizarre.


Coovo's take: Nina Cassady? Please. She was on the show for a half cup of coffee in which she forgot to put in cream. It's hard to go against Mike Logan. He's an old school cop who actually was demoted for striking a defendant. He's got some gonads. I love cops with gonads. His character has resurfaced a couple times. Most recently as a detective on Criminal Intent, and before in as a member of the Staten Island Harbor Patrol in Exiled: A Law& Order Movie. Rey Curtis was a good cop. A wuss, but a good cop. Ed Green seems to be the easy Choice given his stellar run. I'm a big fan. So it's down to Logan v. Green.

Logan wins points for working with three different partners and for two different captians, but loses points for being on criminal intent.

Green gains points for taking a bullet on the job, but loses points because the reason he was shot was because had to leave the show to film Rent.

Logan gains points for cleaning up the 2-7 in his TV movie, but Ed Green gets points for getting promoted on the job, not demoted.

Logan loses points because the actor who plays him was on Sex and The City, but Green also lose points for his actor being on Ally McBeal.

The deciding factor is that Green gets points for working with Lenny Briscoe longer.

Roller's take: Obviously, this is the Nina Cassady show. The other gentlemen are about as memorable as the last 3 dudes to get bounced on the 4th season of Who Wants To Marry The Bachelorette?

So yeah...This one isn't too tough for me, but I don't want the easy decision to mask the runners-up. I'm a fan of Logan, Curtis, and Green, but in my mind Logan is the original and one of the characters that made the show as memorable as it is.

Coovo's re-take: You know Roller, if you want to mock Law & Order, do it on your own blog, but if you want to have serious discussion about our Television's legal system, then do it on this blog.

Roller's re-take: For a look at the lighter side of Law & Order, check out my new blog www.laughingatlawandorder.com.

Answer: Because Mike doesn't wear green well. Geno made that joke up in 7th grade.

Back from Hiatus

I've posted apologies on this blog before but none are as profound and heartfelt as this one. My blogger in crime has repeatedly urged me to get my act together and get back to bloggin'. I even promised a post after awesome enough to rearrange his work schedule to take in a businessman's special at Wrigley Field. That was three weeks ago.

I have excuses. My work schedule permits me much less time in front of the computer. Thus less time to blog and more actual work. I have also been studying for the GRE. I'm shooting for my Masters in Blogology. I took it today. Results were fair. To be posted in the comments section. Lastly, the Cubs are in the midst of a pennant race for a change, so focus and energy that could have been spent blogging was spent drinking mai tais on the rooftops.

But in the end I could have carved out 10 minutes her or 15 minutes there to let everyone know what I thought about Detective Ed Green. Or comment on a rare Cubs post from Roller. Which I will read as soon as I sober up.

So all I can say is, Roller, please forgive me . . .

Life is a Rubik's Cube

and if you can solve Life blindfolded in 2 minutes, you just might make the front page of TLATL, too.

This is a cop-out of a post to be sure. I have nothing to offer intellectually. That's ok; it's Friday. But I promise these videos will impress, and the last video will warm your heart for the weekend, and reinforce your stereotypes that Asians are smart.

Matyas Kuti, a shy 14 year-old Hungarian, solves a 5x5 Cube (officially known as the Rubik's "Professor's Cube") - blindfolded. At first I didn't think this would be overly impressive - it's just a matter of muscle memory. Wrong. Notice that the kid doesn't actually put on his blindfold and start solving the cube until his timer has reached 2:45. He spent the first 2:45 memorizing the position of each of the 150 pieces. He then put on his blindfold and made easily over 1000 moves all the while remembering the exact position of each of the 150 pieces. In 8 minutes.



If you don't think you're dumb yet, watch this 3 year old solve the 3x3 Rubik's Cube. It doesn't look like a memorized routine either, there seem to be parts where she stops and examines it.



Have a good weekend, everyone.

What Can Google Do For You? (Part I)

It goes without saying that Google has become everyone's answer-man. In fact, Google's proficiency in this has earned it "Kleenex" status, where it has actually become a generic word for its product category.

Coovo, did you get the xerox of my butt?
It made you cry? Here's a kleenex.
No, I don't have another. Try using this q-tip.
Woah - that looks like it hurt. Here's a band-aid for that.
If you're still upset, I'll get you a coke.
What do you mean you already saw my butt when you google'd it?

I know. That was stupid. I'm sorry. That's why I make Tim do this thing with me, gotta have some talent on this zeppelin.

Anyway, Google has plenty of other functions besides search, mail and maps.

Simple tools

• Perhaps I want to find all urls with "theloopandthelou" in it (coincidentally, one of the more common searches on Google). Entering "inurl:theloopandthelou" as my search criteria will do that. Notice that in the example there is no space between your colon and theloopandthelou.
  
• Want the definition of antidisestablishmentarianism? Use "define:antidisestablishmentarianism". Of course, you don't have to actually include the quotes in the search criteria. But if you're trying to define a multi-word term, make sure you put quotes around all the search terms, such as define:"al qaeda". Unfortunately, entering the term define:"Google" does not trigger an infinite loop that breaks the space/time continuum like I hoped it would.
  

There are many other search operators available for use for your amusement and/or education. And honestly, I think those operators will work on other search engines, too. But that's simple stuff, on to the bigger and better...

Google as your home page

Besides just being a search engine, Google can act as a portal for your content. "Portal" has many meanings. In the I/T world, a portal is a means to deliver personalized content to a user and allow the user to customize his or her experience. Do you have your own MyYahoo or MSN page? Have you told it that you want to see certain sports scores in the left column or stock symbols in the right column? That's it.

Google has the same capabilities. For the average user, I think iGoogle (the name of Google's portal), MyYahoo, and MSN are equally good. I use iGoogle because I use numerous other Google services and they all integrate nicely.

To try it out: sign into Google and start here. You can add as many Google "gadgets" to a page as you want (using the "Add Stuff" link) and create as many tabs as you want as well. Of course, if you want an easy way to stay updated on the ever-changing blog, The Loop and the Lou, you can add a TLATL gadget to your page. In fact, it's as easy as clicking this link:

That's all for this edition of "roller the geek". Tune in next time when we'll look at some of the other cool tools Google has developed and gives away for free. And please feel free to share your own ideas for improving the web experience!

Closing poll: iGoogle, MyYahoo, or MSN?