In the same vein as my recent smackdown of the Independent comes news that another mainstream media pundit has no clue about the blogs and the Internet. Elon journalism professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Skube apparently wrote an op-ed piece in the LA Times blasting blogs, yet freely admits he’s never read any. Josh Marshall and Greensboro’s Ed Cone called him out on it, with Ed having even done it once before.
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Croup!
Just found out that Travis has croup, which sucks (literally – ha!) but is preferable to pneumonia. I can ease my troubled mind a bit, though I wish I was with them to help out.
Too Far Away
I had a good day at work. I got done early and got a chance to tour neighboring Independence Hall. It even stopped raining here in Philadelphia. Then Kelly let me that Travis’s fever hasn’t broken all day and he is being taken by ambulance to the UVa emergency room.
I can think of nothing else right now. Dammit, I wish I wasn’t hundreds of miles away.
Cheap Thoughts: Acoustic Cooling?
If exciting molecules generates heat, would it not be possible to create cooling by somehow resonating those molecules, perhaps through the use of sound waves? If you could get air molecules lined up, for instance, using acoustical harmonics, would they not immediately drop in temperature as a result of their lessened interactions with each other? Even if only some molecules are harmonizing?
Its my understanding microwave ovens work similarly, only they add heat by exciting molecules. If a microwave was tuned to instead resonate those molecules, I would think it could be made to actually cool things, rather than heat them.
Ah, the things I don’t know and wish I did.
Step Out Of The Car, Officer
I was delighted to read about Garner’s Citizen Police Academy in the paper the other day, especially since I was one of its first graduates. Garner uses its Citizen Police Academy to give people a valuable look at the work done by police officers. I wound up gaining a new respect for our police.
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Independence National Historical Park
The client site overlooks the Independence National Historical Park. The Liberty Bell is literally right across the street. While we were working I was drawn to the conference room window, overlooking the spot where President George Washington lived in the original President’s House (the pre-White House).
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Rain?
It’s been drizzly ever since I arrived in Philadelphia. Around the time we were done at the client site it began to really rain. I packed for drought and blazing heat, not for heavy rain and 65 degrees!
Luckily a street vendor sells umbrellas not far from the hotel. I’ll wait for a break in the weather and hope to catch him before he vanishes.
Club Quarters
I’m staying in downtown Philadelphia at the Close Quarters … er, Club Quarters on Chestnut Street (slogan: Your Belongings Stay Within Convenient Arm’s Reach!). It was another Hotwire deal and one whose “star rating” I might question. The rooms are small, perhaps 10′ by 18′, though it does have a great location, is nicely furnished, has impressive free Internet, and is about $100 cheaper (!) per night than neighboring hotels. Since I’m the only one traveling its no big deal, but if there were two people in this room they’d better be on friendly terms.
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In Philly
Got into Philly about two hours ago. My flight here was delayed 2.5 hours due to weather here. Missed the first train from the airport by seconds, so that added an extra 30 minutes to my night.
I checked the flight status before leaving but only found out about the delay upon arriving at the airport. I chose to return home and spend the extra time with the family. I got to help tuck the kids into bed before returning. I’m still savoring the feeling that gave me.
I was very hungry once I got here so I stopped by Little Pete’s, a neighborhood diner, for a late-night dinner. My cheese steak was incredibly good (fresh bread!), though most anything would be to me at this hour.
I meet my colleague around 8 tomorrow and we go meet the customer. Should be a fun and relatively easy visit.
Book Night
Light blogging tonight – its a good night to read. I’ve had Bill Bryson’s A Short History Of Nearly Everything checked out for weeks and have had a hard time putting it down. It’s filling in a lot of the blanks that remained in my science education. Bryson’s writing is so entertaining he can make being blown up by a supervolcano sound like fun.
I don’t have a full weekend this weekend as I’m off to Philadelphia for three days beginning tomorrow evening. I’ve flown through Philly many times but never gotten a chance to look around the city itself. Since reading Walter Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life I’ve wanted to walk the same streets that Franklin walked. They’re also the same streets that Rocky Balboa walked, or jogged at least. At any rate tomorrow I’ll get my chance.