Wow, tiny!

Ryan Devany, a member of staff at Butterfly World, near Edinburgh, Scotland, gets a close look at two new baby green Yemen Chameleons hatched in the last two weeks Thursday, May 26, 2005. The chameleons may reach up to two feet in length. (AP Photo/David Cheskin / PA)

Source http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=2&u=/050526/481/lon80905261309

Bruce Yamashita

I came across a film, "A Most Unlikely Hero", today on PBS.  I'm glad I found it and got to watch it.  It's a film about a man named Bruce Yamashita, and his experiences of racial discrimination at Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in the early 1990s.  The film was both troubling and inspiring.  It was troubling to be reminded about how racism and discrimination are still relevant issues that affect people today, even after the social and legislative improvements America has made over the past few decades (Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., etc.).  It was inspiring because this one person did not give up in silence, but instead, he fought the injustices and with the help of supporters, made a positive impact on society by increasing awareness of the problems, and spurring the adoption of correctional measures.

The sad thing is how here he was, trying to serve his country.  And yet, the officers belittled his efforts and set him up for failure.  At one point, before an important review meeting when he was supposed to appear in a clean uniform, he was all prepared, but then, an officer ordered him to change back into a dirty uniform.  Yamashita had to no choice but to comply with orders, but then got into trouble when he showed up in the dirty uniform.

One part that I found particularly interesting was when he first tried to take care of the issue "in house", but the military dismissed his complaints by making up excuses and then basically ignoring him.  Thankfully, he brought his story to newspapers and television shows, which helped bring this issue to the attention of the general public, eventually forcing the military to take corrective action.  It was cool seeing clips of him getting the chance to tell us his story on Good Morning America.

Another point the film made was that this case is not limited to just Mr. Yamashita, or even, just Japanese Americans.  Racial discrimination against one particular group actually affects everyone.  Accordingly, the fight for justice for one particular group, is actually a fight for justice for everyone.  In the same way, going back in time, the historical efforts to counter racism against one particular group should be appreciated for how they helped many other groups as well. 

The film was very engaging, and I recommend you check it out if you get the chance.  It is much more interesting than my little blurb here.  And watching the video has a fuller impact than reading the short synopsis posted on the website.  But I'll post and link to it here anyway in case you'd like a good summary.

The Story of A Most Unlikely Hero

Source: http://www.unlikelyhero.org/story.html

Branded from Day One

   

When Bruce Yamashita arrived at Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, one of the first things he heard was a staff sergeant yelling, "You speak English? We don't want your kind around here. Go back to your own country."

Another sergeant ridiculed him, saying, "we have no tea and sushi here, Yamashita." Another spoke to him only in broken Japanese.

The racial and ethnic harassment continued for all nine weeks of the program until, two days before graduation, Bruce, along with three other minority candidates, was kicked out of Officer Candidate School.

"It would have been easier for Bruce Yamashita to remain silent and quietly move on, but that would have been a grave mistake for Bruce and for the entire United States military." --Norman Mineta, Secretary of Transportation and former Member of Congress, speaking at the commissioning ceremony for Capt. Yamashita

Fighting for Justice

He didn't make that mistake. He spoke up, and fought to right the wrongs he had suffered to make sure others like him wouldn't suffer in the future.

It took years, but Bruce Yamashita finally uncovered the secret that brought him justice. It was a secret that proved he wasn't alone. A secret the Marine Corps didn't even realize it was keeping...   

The Smoking Gun

He uncovered data that proved a pervasive, consistent pattern of discrimination against minorities at Officer Candidate School for years and years. It was evidence so persuasive that Congress and the White House couldn't ignore it.

And when his findings became key to a "60 Minutes" investigation, the Commandant of the Marine Corps fueled the fire with his comments that, "minorities don't shoot as well as non-minorities...they don't swim as well, and when you give them a compass and send them on a land navigation exercise, they don't do as well at that sort of thing either."

A Victory for Civil Rights

Weeks later, Bruce Yamashita became Captain Yamashita, and his case became the catalyst for statutory and procedural reform to prohibit racial and ethnic discrimination in the Marine Corps and in all the branches of the military service.

It was, as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy observed, "a vindication not only of Capt. Yamashita, but a vindication of the process of a democracy." And it was, as Sen. Daniel Akaka noted, "a victory for civil rights in this nation."

Earthquake Fun

A few minutes ago, I was sitting here at my desk minding my own business, when all of a sudden I felt a brief (under a second), but pronounced shake.  I wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or if the house, like, sneezed.  Okay, so maybe not sneeze.  Maybe a cat was running full speed and hit the garage door head on.  Okay, that's perhaps even weirder.

Anyway, while I was wondering this, I immediately typed "earthquake" into Google.  And I get an USGS earthquake site.  Lo and behold, a "Latest Quake Info" link, where you can see real time earthquake maps (http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recent/index.html).

"How 'real time' is this," I wondered.

Wow.  Real time, indeed.  Here was a report about an earthquake that occurred about one or two minutes ago! http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/nc40174200.htm

A microearthquake occurred at 2:56:49 AM (PDT) on Wednesday, April 27, 2005.
The magnitude 2.8 event occurred 8 km (5 miles) ENE of Alum Rock, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 7 km ( 4 miles).

I'm not sure how long the link above will be valid, since it has "recent" in its URL

The moral of the story: Internet applications are cool.
And a 2.8 earthquake feels like a cat running into your garage door.

Peregrine Web Cam

Source:
Endangered Peregrine Falcon Lays New Eggs in Nest Atop the PG&E Building in Downtown San Francisco
PG&E and UC Santa Cruz Debut Peregrine Webcam to Follow the Falcons Live Online
PG&E Press Release
2005-03-07

A pair of endangered peregrine falcons, nesting atop Pacific Gas and Electric Company's building in downtown San Francisco, laid new eggs on the ledge of the high rise late last week. PG&E and scientists from the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group (PBRG) recently installed a webcam to keep an eye on the peregrines and their offspring.

• The peregrine is the fastest animal on the planet. Scientists estimate the speed of a diving peregrine to be more than 200 mph.
• Peregrines eat birds that they catch in the air.
• Peregrines nest on tall city structures that are similar to the sheer cliffs they prefer in nature.
• The peregrine is one of only a handful of birds that nest on every continent and major land mass except Antarctica.
• The peregrine population declined to zero known nesting pairs east of the Mississippi, and just two known nesting pairs in California by 1970.
• Today, there are an estimated 235 peregrine falcon nesting pairs in California.

Here is a sample shot:

Click here for webcam: http://www.pge.com/peregrinenestcam

It's interesting that a couple of wild birds have managed to find a living in the middle of an urban area.  It's also good to know that these endangered animals have made a comeback in numbers since their near extinction in the 1970s.

I wonder how feasible it could be for other endangered species to coexist with us in our human made environments.  Sure, it wouldn't be as nice or ideal as their natural habitats which we've been gradually destroying.  But at least if they could survive as a species that would be good.

Okay, now I'm imagining pandas walking up and down city streets.  Sitting on Bart, reading the paper.

Digression

That reminds me of this one TV show I saw a few times.  What was it called.  It had people dressed up in animal costumes head to toe, and they were just walking around making a scene, confusing the passersby.  Somewhat humorous.  Very random.

Okay, just googled it.  It was called Trigger Happy on Comedy Central.  Bizzare show.

But it got some laughs from me.

If a page has many links pointing to it, then that page will appear higher in Google's search results.  That is my understanding.

I googled "Google effect", and the first article was this (cached version): 'Google effect' reduces need for many domains.

Source:
'Google effect' reduces need for many domains
Posted on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2002
By Dan Gillmor
Mercury News Technology Columnist

Here, the author, Dan Gillmor, said:

Google's main method of referring people to sites is based on the sensible notion of asking where the Net points. In general, the more links there are to a particular page from other pages, the higher it ranks in Google's hierarchy on that search term.

That is a valid observation.

On a separate note, to further extrapolate the Google Effect, I would contend that the Google Effect is self reinforcing.  That is, if someone searches for a term and good results are returned towards the top, that person is more likely to link to those top results.  Thus, the top results (which were on top because of their previous links) now get even more links, thus, making them even stronger.

For example, on this very page, I just linked to Dan Gillmor's article on the "Google Effect", thereby adding one more link to the top search result for "google effect".

Anyone have any comments on this?  Any Google gurus have knowlege to the contrary?  I wonder what checks and balances Google has put into place to account for this "Google Self-Reinforcement Effect".