http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com Observations, commentary, and reviews by Ian J. Barton Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:36:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ah, election day, when American citizens can exercise their constitutional right to mostly determine who will be annoying them by mismanaging public affairs for the next couple of years… When the poll worker reached to hand me my ballot, at first I thought it must be one of those instructional posters…I ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/11/07/election-day-thoughts/ I’ve long been intrigued by adaptations of Shakespeare and other classics that take a non-traditional route to costume and design, from the minimalist, semifuturistic A&E production of Antigone we watched in high school to Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet. (Part of me wants to cringe to admit the latter, but ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/10/10/ninjitsu-in-the-round-bard-style/ In the last two months of this dismal, astonishing season I’ve made a deliberate attempt to watch just two Cubs games in their entirety: one in person against the Cardinals in August, and then the last game of the season. Fortunately, they won both, and I was especially ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/10/02/bad-baseball-and-business-follies/ The principal role of the science and technology community is to advance human understanding. But there are times when this is not enough. Scientists and engineers have a right, indeed an obligation, to enter the political debate when the nation’s leaders systematically ignore scientific evidence and analysis, put ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/09/28/scientists-engineers-for-america/ Earlier this week I trekked out to Downers Grove to attend a three-day training course. Perhaps it was there because Sun Microsystems thought that a location by an expressway interchange near the geographic center of Chicagoland would make it maximally convenient, or perhaps it was just the best real ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/27/urban-residential-trees-vs-suburban-commoditization/ While it was interesting to see astronomy be front-page news for a few days, I can’t help but shake my head over the tribulations about the status of Pluto over the past few days. For what it’s worth, I think the IAU’s draft proposal that would have granted Pluto, ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/24/the-politics-of-pluto/ With the exception of overcast rather than clear blue skies, everything else about our afternoon at Wrigley seemed to come together nicely. Public transit moved fairly smoothly all the way to the ballpark. Carlos Zambrano, the only truly consistent star the Cubs have had in 2006, was the ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/19/417/ Like most today, I awoke to hear the breathless news of a disrupted plot to blow up London-to-USA airliners. My thoughts were not of fear, but more of commendation. Kudos to the investigators, it’s good to see some of the work is actually done by competent people. ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/10/foiled-plots-political-fatuity/ U of I ugies troll through the camputown bars. One decided to relieve himself on a frat house bush. Campus cops give tickets. Why does such a mundane item rate a story in the Tribune? Apparently because one of the yahoos was tracked down via the ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/03/kids-these-days/ Like others of a scientific bent, I was definitely heartened to see that the fight in Kansas over science education standards appears to be heading back in a sane direction. Yet one wonders if it’s just a temporary victory like those of recent years. How sad it is ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/02/proof-bedtime-stories-and-being-right-in-kansas/ What’s this?  A post?  Two even?? Well, at long last I’ve started to whittle down that TODO list that seemed to grow ever longer after moving into the house.   More importantly, I think I’ve managed to piece together a method for taming the even longer list of links that I’ve bookmarked ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/08/01/hark-rhe-lives/ Cubs land Izturis, send Maddux to LA Always sad to see a great player traded, especially one who genuinely seemed to like the team and fans, but such is pro sports.  It’s not like the Cubs are going anywhere this year, and unlike the fiasco during his first exit in 1992 ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/07/31/moving-maddux/ If the new, Metra-based travel arrangements (schedules?!? ugh!) for our annual July 3 & 4 Grant Park rituals didn’t further confirm that we’re not in Lakeview any more, today yet another significant break with that era arrived as I put the new city stickers on the car windshields–without accompanying Zone ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/07/05/maybe-773-forever-but-383-certainly-not/ Saturday we escaped the noise of the roofers for dinner at Vinci and The Unmentionables at the Steppenwolf. This show originally caught our eye as John Mahoney and Laurie Metcalf were supposed to be in the cast, but alas both had to drop out about a month ago. ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/07/03/the-unmentionables/ As Vincent said to Jules, “It’s the little differences.” Notes from a yank’s first trip to England… The UK is certainly trusting of their vistors: the immigration form requires only name, nationality, passport info, and local address–a far cry from the more paranoid forms presented by the US and ... http://rhebartonia.blogsome.com/2006/06/16/an-american-engineer-in-london/