We All Suspected McCain and Palin Didn't Get Along

From their awkward interactions during the few televised moments they were together, it was obvious that McCain and Palin made an odd couple. He could barely look at her, and they didn't seem ever to be on the same wavelength, prepared with the same sound bites or with any kind of coherent response to the media.

From this New York Times article:

"The disputes between the campaigns centered in large part on the Republican National Committee’s $150,000 wardrobe for Ms. Palin and her family, but also on what McCain advisers considered Ms. Palin’s lack of preparation for her disastrous interview with Katie Couric of CBS News and her refusal to take advice from Mr. McCain’s campaign.

But behind those episodes may be a greater subtext: anger within the McCain camp that Ms. Palin harbored political ambitions beyond 2008."

Tina Fey joked about Palin "going rogue" at the end of McCain's appearance on Saturday Night Live...

...but the Times reports that Palin wanted to make her own speech before McCain's concession speech on Tuesday evening. Now that's one ambitious pitbull with lipstick. As disgusting as that experience would have been, I'm happy McCain's advisers shot Palin's idea down, like a hunter from a helicopter.

Netbooks: Do You Really Need a Laptop?

Back in July, Michael Arrington and his friends at TechCrunchIT launched an effort to build a "web tablet". Arrington wants a "dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web" for $200 or less. Here's the announcement. His spec list is:

• as thin as possible
• single button for powering on and off
• headphone jacks, built-in camera, speakers, microphone
• wifi, one USB port, battery
• 512 meg RAM, 4 gig solid state hard drive
• touchscreen for browsing and keyboard
• Linux for OS and Firefox for browsing

Here's Arrington's list of updates on the project's progress, including this working prototype.

But Arrington's web tablet has already got some competition, a new kind of slimmed-down laptop called a "netbook". Many companies are selling these things. From the name, I'm assuming netbooks are primarily intended to be used the way most full-on laptops are used now: for checking email, surfing the web, maybe watching videos and listening to music. 

As one example, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 runs Ubuntu Linux using a 1.6 Ghz chip, 512m RAM, 4 gig solid state drive, and wifi for $350. Of all these machines, the Asustek EeePC sounds like the best value at $200 (release expected 2009). 

Personally, I'm still pretty happy with the netbook I already own. I use it for email, websurfing, watching online TV and movies, and some light photo-editing. It's got very familiar specs: a 1.7 ghz Intel P4, 1 gig RAM, two USB ports, and Wifi. Oh, and it's got a 20 gig hard drive and a DVD burner. 

That's 'cuz it's a used HP Compaq NC6000 laptop that I got on eBay for $275. 

FDA agrees its August statement on BPA was wrong

From this Washington Post article (10/31/08):

"A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel agreed Friday that the agency had erred in August when it said that a chemical widely used in baby bottles and other plastic packaging for foods and beverages posed no health risks."

"On Wednesday, a panel of toxicology experts said the FDA hadn't properly assessed the potential health risks posed by the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which some studies have linked to cancer, diabetes, heart disease and developmental delays in children. The toxicologists said the FDA had relied too heavily on studies funded by the chemical industry to make its decision."

"On Friday, the FDA's Science Board, which consists of scientists from academia, government and industry and advises the FDA commissioner, seconded the toxicologists' concerns about the FDA's August ruling."

"The FDA's position on BPA has been controversial because it contradicted more than 100 studies, as well as a finding by the U.S. National Toxicology Program, that there was "some concern" that BPA may affect the brain and behavioral development in fetuses, infants and small children."