Justice Dylan

Well Bob Dylan has long been hailed as a great lyricist, if not always as a great vocalist. And it turns out that judges in courts throughout the land agree.

Back in July (the things you miss when you're on vacation huh? Um, totally worth it) Chief Justice John Roberts of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS, like POTUS) cited Dylan in his dissent to a case that the NY Times described as "an achingly boring dispute between pay phone companies and long distance carriers"

The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing, ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).

Rolling Stone chimed in as did the online self described legal tabloid Above the Law. Everyone was all too happy to point out that the quote isn't quite right. While online lyric sheets, including Dylan's website, agree with the cite Rolling and the others say if you listen to the words its actually a double negative cause really 'When you ain't got nothing...'

In another interesting tidbit you'll find in the stories Dylan is the most cited musician leading his closest competition, Paul Simon, 26-8.

I got to this story while catching up on the Freakonmics blog.

If you want to see the whole researched paper follow this link.

Every time I see Dubya speak I hear the lyrics to Idiot Wind in my head...

Foto Friday - The Return

Not quite back with a blast because the image that I want to bring you today is actually a flash doohickey on the NY Times website.

So follow the link for an awesome view from atop the 10 meter (highest) platform at the Beijing Water Cube. Once again the NYT web team has provided an excellent interactive experience online they're definitely leaps and bounds ahead of any other newspaper website in terms of utilizing the opportunities provided by the web.

I got there via Kottke.

Next week real pictures, I promise.

Vacation Time - and Shameless Promotions to Boot

Ok kids, I'm out of town for the next 5 weeks so don't expect much from me.

Feel free to check out the efforts of some of my longtime friends and compadres...

Eric Hutchinson (he's almost sort of famous a little bit)

And

Good Not Great

or if you need some photos taken

Moment In Action

Late night food

In DC, when you want a bite to eat at 3 in the morning, you grab a Jumbo Slice on 18th street, or get a grilled cheese at an all night diner. In Italy, you go in the back door of a bakery selling sandwiches and cream filled brioches on the sly. In Madrid you can get a falafel or a kebab. But in Istanbul when you make your weary way out of the disco, you eat steamed mussels stuffed with delicious rice and plenty of fresh lemon juice from the guys selling them on every street corner. I don't even like shell fish all that much, but this was an unforgettable experience; so good that even the vegetarians I'm traveling with ate a couple. Fantastic. And even if Rough Guide says not to eat them under any circumstances, I think I'll risk it again next time I pass through.

Foto Friday, er Monday Actally.

So I'm late again, sue me. Maybe three people are paying attention (how come none of you emailed to see if I was ok?) so I don't think that life ground to a halt anywhere.

With this installment of Foto Friday I'd like to direct your attention to another blog that you'll enjoy and will pretty much ruin any high opinions you had of Foto Fridays. So follow the link to The Big Picture at Boston.com (the Boston Globe's site) and feast your eyes on gallerys of huge pictures.

In the past couple of months, since The Big Picture debuted, they've run some of the same shots as we have only much bigger and better. Enjoy.

Here is a shot from the recent 'Martian Skies' gallery.

The air is certainly thick enough to fill a parachute. On May 25th, 2008, the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this dramatic oblique image of the arrival of its sister probe from NASA, the Phoenix Lander, descending on its parachute. Phoenix and its parachute can be barely seen in the larger image with 10 km wide crater informally called "Heimdall" in the background. Although it appears that Phoenix is descending into the crater, it is actually about 20 kilometers in front of the crater. Given the position and pointing angle of MRO, Phoenix is at about 13 km above the surface, just a few seconds after the parachute opened. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

Cranes

Like giant erector sets or insane Lego creations tower cranes, or T cranes as I call them, are seemingly everywhere in the DC area these days. (I think it has something to do with all the construction)

I've never heard of an accident involving one here in town (it must have happened at some point though) but up the road in NYC they've had a rough time of it this spring. (heard about that did ya?)

The WaPo had an article on the cranes on Monday, which while pretty basic is worth a peek. The paper also ran this cool graphic (a shame they didn't make it interactive online).



Any one else a little nervous when they saw that its all held up by a five foot thick slab? Or that the diagram doesn't cover heights? According to the article the tower part is simple and can rise up to 250 feet without any additional support or anchoring.

I think these cranes are great, I remember growing up with them and the 'Skins winning the Super Bowl ('91?) and there being huge banners along the crane arms that said Go 'Skins! and the like. Even after reading the article though, it seems a little preposterous that they don't just fall over.

Foto Friday Two-fer

I know 'two-fer' sounds like a fun and exciting deal, so I apologize by following it up with two sobering photos. Both of these impressive shots involve devastation, or at least damage, caused by flood waters.

(Both also come from the NYT)

First, here is a before and after of the Chinese city of Beichuan: As it stood with substantial earthquake damage, and after the draining of a 'quake lake' flooded much of the city.

(NYT story)

Closer to home, this is what downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa looks like today.

(NYT story)