Adrian McCarthy, a coworker of mine, had this observation:

Paramount silencing portions of Indiana Jones in theaters? - Boing Boing
While at the cinema yesterday, I read a notice posted by the box office that Paramount has intentionally silenced bits of the soundtrack of _Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull_ in order to deter and track piracy. The notice acknowledged that the momentary silences were annoying but that it was out of their control. Basically it said, please don’t bug the manager if the sound drops out, unless it lasts more than a minute.

I searched this morning, but I can’t find any mention of this on the web. I was going to snap a picture of the notice to post on my blog, but my cell phone battery had died–and I probably would have been chased off by a security guard.

Blanking out chunks of audio seems a rather crude way of watermarking the film. Once again, it’s the paying customers who suffer.

For reference, it was the Regal Cinema at Hacienda Crossing in Dublin, California. I was there to see Speed Racer in IMAX, so I didn’t directly witness tampering with Indiana Jones.

I saw KotCS last Thursday during the day courtesy of work. And indeed I did notice two distinct audio drops - but I naturally assumed it was the theater’s fault (I’ve had some pretty bad experiences at the theater on Shoreline.)

Perhaps it was by design it seems.

The Informed Patient - WSJ.com
Patients suffer higher rates of death, complications and medical errors when they are treated during thinly staffed off hours. Now, some hospitals are taking steps to improve safety and reduce their own legal liability from mishaps.

Institutions that long relied on having doctors on call at home are hiring physicians known as nocturnists, who work only night shifts. Some hospitals have begun staffing intensive-care units round-the-clock with critical-care specialists who do double-duty coping with a crisis anywhere in the hospital. And new policies are being put in place to improve communications at the hand-off between the day and night shifts.

“People get sick 24 hours a day, but there is a stark discrepancy in the quality of care on nights and weekends” when 50% to 70% of patients may be admitted, says David Shulkin, chief executive of New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center. Dr. Shulkin has been making midnight rounds at his hospital on a regular basis to evaluate the quality of care and the need for additional staffing. In a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, he called on counterparts at other hospitals to do the same.

[snip]

The risks of seeking after-hour care are well documented. Recent studies show higher death rates for patients who arrive at the hospital with strokes after hours. This is also the case for patients who have a cardiac arrest at night when they are already in the hospital. And Stanford University researchers who examined close to five million hospital admissions in three states reported last year that rates of complications are significantly higher on weekends for surgeries including vascular procedures and obstetrical trauma during cesarean sections.

Night-shift nurses often have bigger patient loads than nurses during the day, and may feel under pressure to take unsafe shortcuts. David Longnecker, an official at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C., says he was in a New York hospital for a diagnostic procedure recently. A nurse came in to change the bag on his IV medications twice during the night, he says. Even though he was awake, the nurse didn’t ask him to identify himself or check the name on his wristband against the medication, which is standard procedure. “Fortunately, there was no bad outcome, but it was a perfect setup for a major accident,” Dr. Longnecker says.

This isn’t particularly surprising. Actually one of the things that really frustrates me is the availability of some doctors - 3-4 day work weeks, etc.

I can’t really blame the system. 1) People generally don’t want to work those hours. 2) It costs more and isn’t profitable.

Another reminder to never get sick or injured.

The other day my Samsung monitors at work suddenly started showing everything with a strange yellow tint - especially in Windows Live Photo Gallery. This turned out to be the solution:

Windows Vista Photo Gallery Yellow Tint Background Problem » My Digital Life
The symptom is likely to occur after update of incompatible monitor driver, especially on Samsung LCD flat panel monitor driver update via Windows Update. The cause for the error is the usage of incorrect color profile for the monitor in Color Management setting.

To solve the problem and restore normal colors in Windows Photo Gallery, you can try one of the resolutions below. All actions will be done at Color Management tab, which is accessible by right click on Desktop, and select Personalize on the contextual menu. Click on Display Settings link in the Personalization menu. In the Display Settings window, click on Advanced Settings… button. Then click on Color Management tab, and finally click on Color Management… button. You will need to select (tick) Use my settings for this device to be able to remove, change or set new color profiles.

The first workaround is by removing any existing ICC or WCS color profiles that are been associated with all display devices or monitors. Else, you can also try to change the default color profile for your system’s monitor to sRGB IEC61966-2.1, simply by clicking on Add, and then select sRGB IEC61966-2.1 from the list of profiles installed on system. After adding, click Set as Default Profile button. Exit from all dialogs and reboot your computer, and the color problem on Windows Photo Gallery is fixed.

Well this was certainly an interesting piece of spam:

Um. Ok.

To get ready for the upcoming changes to California laws regarding driving while using a cell phone (something I rarely do BTW), I bought a new Jawbone (Jawbone 2?).

The package is really slick:

I love the name NoiseAssassin.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to try it out. Perhaps tomorrow. Initial fit though isn’t all that great - maybe I’m just not using the right accessories, but it doesn’t feel super comy yet.

Yesterday this was the big headline:

Survey: Passengers call airline service ‘dismal’
CHICAGO (AP) — Passengers are more dissatisfied with airlines’ customer service than they have been in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released Tuesday by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry’s overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

Today?

AMR to Cut More Flights Amid Soaring Fuel Costs - WSJ.com
AMR Corp. became the first U.S. carrier to make more moves to deal with still-surging fuel costs, announcing additional U.S. capacity cuts, the planned retirement of at least 75 aircraft and more fees — including charging some fliers $15 for their first checked bag.

The full list of fees can be found here.

One of my long term predictions is that eventually air travel will be like buses vs cars. Well off people will have affordable access to microjets and fractional jets. Everyone else will have to take Greyhound-equivalents of airlines, and those companies will be barely solvent. It seems to me that transporting people just isn’t a very good (easy?) business to be in.

I’m not a big fan of MSG as I generally get headaches of varying degrees when I consume it. I also just… well… don’t like the taste. I can generally taste it as well. Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled when I saw this:

Yes, MSG, the Secret Behind the Savor - New York Times

Since the 1970s, MSG has sidled back onto American supermarket shelves, under assumed names: hydrolyzed proteins, yeast extracts, protein concentrates and other additives that are not labeled as MSG but, according to nutritionists and the United States Department of Agriculture, are essentially the same thing: synthetically produced glutamates.

The whey protein concentrate and liquid aminos that many Americans buy at health food stores are also, essentially, pure glutamate, Dr. Chaudhari said.

According to U.S.D.A. guidelines, “labeling is required when MSG is added as a direct ingredient.” But other glutamates — the hydrolyzed proteins, the autolyzed yeasts and the protein concentrates, which the U.S.D.A. acknowledges are related to MSG — must be identified under their own names.

Alternatively, they may also be included under certain terms, like vegetable broth or chicken broth. Thus, these ingredients are now routinely found in products like canned tuna (vegetable broth is listed as an ingredient; it contains hydrolyzed soy protein), canned soup, low-fat yogurts and ice creams, chips and virtually everything ranch-flavored or cheese-flavored.

Thus, the richest source of umami remains your local convenience store. Grab a tube of Pringles or a bologna sandwich, and glutamic acid is most likely lurking there somewhere.

Nacho-cheese-flavor Doritos, which contain five separate forms of glutamate, may be even richer in umami than the finest kombu dashi (kelp stock) in Japan.

This is not a trend that I am in favor of.

Earlier this week I read about the fact that McDonald’s is introducing chicken sandwiches as breakfast foods in Consumerist (one of my favorite sites!).

Needless to say, I was mildly amused when this landed in our mailbox today, addressed to my wife:

I wonder how she got selected to receive this mailing. We’re not exactly the most Chinese of people.