Matt’s Blog

Our apartment’s GE Nautilus Dishwasher should be called the “Thunderstorm” or the “Cyclone” because of the incredibly loud noise it makes. Unfortunately it doesn’t really clean the dishes at all due to fundamental design flaws.

Here is a remarkable video:

The video shows assasins landing in Dubai and tracking a Hamas leader. The assasins follow the Hamas leader from the airport and case out his hotel room. Then they reserve a room across from him, enter his room with a forged card, and fly away. This is the stuff you only read about in books…but it is real.

Today Congressman Murtha died. I extend my sympathies, probably a nice guy. But I think he is emblematic of everything wrong with Washington DC. Because he was the most senior member of Congress, he had big power. He channeled billions of dollars in pork to Pennsylvania. And is that the way the US should work? He just kept on getting re-elected because of the pork.

And did it even help PA? The next congressman from PA will not have seniority, so they will start from scratch. No more porky for PA.

Incidentally, was this a case of medical malpractice? He died from a minor operation because his bile ducts were cut.

I think teachers are great!
But if I have a book and a powerpoint presentation, do I need someone to read me the material?
Seems like I could go through it myself about 50 times faster …

We need Martha Coakley as the next Senator from Massachussetts !

In Pittsburgh I had to work like a dog to get 10 people to show up to an OSA (Optical Society ) meeting. In Lexington, 60 people show up to hear an IEEE Photonics lecture. And the people in the audience are all knowledgable scientists. Big difference !

I am very optimistic about the Obama Administration in 2010. I think 2009 was a startup year and now it is time to put points on the board.

• Healthcare. For all the handwringing about healthcare, I think the Christmas passing of the health care bill was a great victory for Democrats. Democrats stuck together, worked hard, and we didn’t back down against Republicans. And now it is reported that Democrats will avoid the Conference Committee and use the ping-pong technique, therby avoiding Republican obstructionism.
  In my view, this indicates Democrats are finally playing hardball. They are using their majority power and screw what the Republicans do, we will pass this thing !!!
  I would love to see the Republicans complain as Obama announces in his State of the Union that healthcare is passed.

• The economy is showing signs of life. The last unemployment figures were improving, and the stock market doing quite well. Obama’s economic plans seem to be paying off. If the economy improves it will give Obama considerable leeway to push his other initiatives.
• War.
  For the first time, no Americans killed in combat-related deaths in Iraq this month.
  Obama is putting many troops into Afghanistan which is controversial, but at least I know he has spent months carefully analyzing the issue.

• Terrorism. At least a failed terrorist attack is much preferred to a successful one. This will be an opportunity for Obama to retool the intelligence agencies and security arrangement. Hopefully this will give us the tools to stop the next attack.
• Iran. By his work with China and Russia and Europe, Obama has developed relationships that will allow him to impose sanctions on Iran. Obama has spoken forcefully on the rights of the protesters in Iran.
• And Obama is coming off a Hawaii vacation, so hopefully his batteries will be charged up.

  The midterm elections are coming up which will be a big headache. But I think overall 2010 will be a very productive and exciting year for President Obama !

Kal Penn joined the Obama Administration to work in the office of public liason. Since then he hasn’t been in the news. Which is often a good thing, by Washington standards.

Previously he was Cutler, a resident for Dr. House. Well today I watched the Dr. House marathon. I can tell you that things are not going well for Dr. House ever since Cutler (apparently) committed suicide. Dr. House is having a very tough time. He is seeing things and taking too much medication.

Kal Penn- Dr. House needs you back !

So we are on a United Flight with maybe 60 empty seats. So we figure we will move to an empty row, get a little extra room. But the stewardess tells us that the empty seats are “business class” rather than “economy class”, and we have to spend $70 for an upgrade.
So the whole flight, everyone is crammed into the 50 seats in the back, leaving the front seats empty.
Very nice ! psst– United Airlines– the empty seats ended up in LA just like the full seats…

Replace your cable with internet TV

NPR story about a woman whose life was saved by a stroke drug. You can listen to this story which contains dramatic live audo. Someone heard this story- and it may have saved their life !

NPR story- apparently there was 1 critical sentence that Obama and the Chinese premier worked hard on in the Copenhagen negotiations !

NPR story- this guy apparently tricked the Pentagon into believing that there were secret plots being communicated on Al Jazeera television…