It’s refreshing to see a major news source take issue with the way the Clintons are twisting the words of Barack Obama, their primary political foe in the primaries. It’s certainly not a new tactic for the Clinton camp, but it seems as though most mainstream news media rarely call them on it, not wanting, it would appear, to rain on their parade. It helped get Bill elected and it’s probably helped Hillary to this point in time.

I’m not surprised that Obama told South Carolina’s The State newspaper that former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, are lying about him and his record purposefully. “There is a concrete strategy by the Clintons,” Obama said.

What surprised me was the response by ABC News Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper. In the article, he writes, “Any objective review of how Bill and Hillary Clinton have been twisting comments Obama made about Ronald Reagan and the Republican party would concur.”

Tapper provides a link to the interview of Obama by the Reno Gazette-Journal that, though lengthy, is well worth viewing. Listen to what Obama said. Contrast that to what the Clintons claim he said. It leaves little room for doubt that Hillary (and Bill) will say anything to win.

Just a few instances where having the “World’s Thinnest Notebook” could save the day…

For those of you lamenting that Apple didn’t include voice recognition in its latest iPhone software release, your prayers may have been answered. Makayama is offering a free trial of its VoiceDial application with a $5 discount ($28) if you buy before February. Sounds good, especially for iPhone users facing California’s “hands free” cell phone law taking effect July 1. According to Makayama’s web site:

“Record voice samples for any contact in the address book. Just speak to dial the number. Open any application with your voice. So you can check your emails or start Google Maps by just saying it. And you can even surf to your favourite websites by assigning voice tags to your Safari bookmarks.The software uses a modern speech recognition algorithm which gives excellent results in real life situations.

The software works with all languages. It does not depend on a dictionary or vocabulary, but it stores your speech samples and links them to contacts, applications or bookmarks. When you’re on the go, VoiceDial lets you keep in touch even when your hands are full. It’s as easy as saying, “John Smith” or “Mail”. And you’ll be automatically notified of free updates via Installer.”

I hope Apple will address this issue before July. But if for some reason they don’t, we may be taking this route with Dawn’s iPhone (as long as we don’t have to schlep that big honkin’ microphone around…) However, we’ll wait for Apple to release the announced SDKs so that the folks at Makarama can port the app to run on factory iPhones. We’re not ready to hack ours… yet.

Due to rising domestic wages, many American parents are saving money by using unregulated overseas workers. Michael D forwarded this shocking report.

Got this from Grouchy Old Cripple. I suppose it was inevitable.

When you spend your life in the water, you tend to develop a good intuition for its subtleties. Dolphins have been observed creating bubble rings by, among other techniques, carefully exhaling air in the middle of the vortices caused by the motion of their fins through the water.

Besides being fun to watch and an impressive demonstration of fluid mechanics, the phenomenon may throw some light on dolphin cognition since the skill to create the rings is subtle and tends to be passed from one dolphin to the next by careful observation and practice.

Also intriguing is a report that dolphins appear to be using sonar to locate the vortex in the water, an impressive feat of audio analysis. More

Scuba divers have long blown bubble rings for fun, watching them rise to the surface. Some I know are quite good at it although I’ve never quite grasped the technique. But dolphins have learned to control the direction of their rings and even divide them into smaller segments. It’s fun to watch them at play!

I finally got around to addressing the various technical hurdles (the server I use doesn’t host domain names) required to associate this blog with its proper domain, so now you can simply key in the actual domain name - inessentialmusings.com - to reach this blog. Makes it easier to remember and easier to tell all your friends!

I have to say that the process was easier than I had imagined. Had I realized how simple it would be, I would have done it long ago! But it’s done now, so bookmark it for easy access, and change it in your news readers. The old (temporary) domain - dougarrington.squarespace.com - will remain active for a while but will eventually be dropped.

I hope you find using the new domain name more convenient.

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Day. I ran across a well written article by Carolyn Garris that I recommend everyone read in its entirety. Take a few moments and remember, if you can, how racism once so divided our nation that we were, quite literally, at war with ourselves, and how King carried the banner of unification that ultimately led us to the better America we enjoy today. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Martin Luther King, Jr. was no stalwart conservative, yet his core beliefs, such as the power and necessity of faith-based association and self-government based on absolute truth and moral law, are profoundly conservative. Modern liberalism rejects these ideas, while conservatives place them at the center of their philosophy. Despite decades of its appropriation by liberals, King’s message was fundamentally conservative.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, triggered by Rosa Parks’ refusal to abide by local segregation laws, sparked King’s rise from ministering a small church in Montgomery to national renown. King’s primary aim was not to change laws, but to change people, to make neighbors of enemies and a nation out of divided races. King led with love, not racial hatred. From a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, his message inspired the nation. And his message and achievements inspire us today.

Dr. King believed in the principles of the American Founding. He maintained, “We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.” Throughout American history, racism has posed a peculiar obstacle to the achievement of that goal. However, Dr. King believed that the Founders had set the nation on the right course. He did not reject the principles of our nation because contradictions existed; instead he hoped that racial groups would put aside their differences and acknowledge the principles that unite all Americans. Today, it is conservatives who seek to unite. In a nation divided by cultural diversity, conservatives defend and celebrate the characteristics that we share as Americans. As America drifts from the ideas and ideals of the Founders, conservatives stand with King as believers that the principles of the American Founding are as relevant today as in 1776…More

Remember that today isn’t just another day off. It stands for something important in our nation’s history, a time when we made a wrong turn and yet managed to find our way back. It’s a day to celebrate just how far we’ve come since then.

When getting things done involves making phone calls, you want to spend the least amount of time and money on the horn as possible — and several tricks and services can help you do just that. For example:

I’m usually tuned into Google’s innovative new services but I guess I missed this one. It’s a free 411 service! Instead of calling regular telco or cellular 411 services for information (and an extra charge on your bill), use Google’s new 411 service by calling 1-800-GOOG-411 to get a street address or phone number, even a map of the area via text message. It’s free, fast and easy to use. We’re adding the number to our cellphone, home and office speed-dials! Watch the video, then give it a try!

Lifehacker has compiled a list of Top 10 telephone tricks to help you skip through or cut off long-winded automated voice systems and humans, access web services by voice, and smartly screen incoming calls. I haven’t tried the other 9 but probably will in the near future. Let me know how they work for you!

Last weekend, Dawn and I took a drive to West Sacramento to visit the IKEA store. Dawn has taken up scrapbooking and needed a work surface for her new hobby, and we thought “something Swedish” might work. Besides, we’d never visited the store and thought it might be a fun outing.

For those unfamiliar with IKEA, it’s an international chain of giant, blue and yellow “big box” stores specializing in the sale of Swedish assemble-it-yourself furniture and accessories. The West Sacramento store occupies 265,000 square feet on 20 acres just off I-80, and presents 50 different room settings, four model homes, a supervised children’s play area and a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes. One can easily spend a day just touring the store!

It’s a unique, well thought out concept, the scale of which neither of us had previously experienced. We grabbed our cart and soon learned that, to reach almost anything in the store, one is encouraged to follow the arrows on the floor which also serve to keep traffic moving in a logical and controlled, albeit slow, manner. I call it shuffling along, Dawn calls it shopping. Either way, it’s effective — considering the number of people sharing our experience, everyone and everything seemed to move smoothly.

Once we’d located the office furniture section and made our selection, a friendly and knowledgeable sales person prepared our “shopping list” and pointed us in the right direction to retrieve our items which were boxed and stored in numbered aisles and bins. A few things, it turned out, we were expected to grab and cart ourselves, while the larger, heavier boxed pieces would be waiting for us in “Will Call” after checkout.

Following the floor arrows once more, we shuffled made our way through checkout and on to “Will Call.” While Dawn waited for the larger boxes to be carted, I retrieved the Range Rover and, by the time I’d backed into the loading area, Dawn had everything ready for me to load. Another five minutes and we were on our merry way, none the worse for wear.

I have to admit, considering the voluminous quantity of merchandise, the sheer number of shoppers and the bulkiness of their orders, IKEA has the industrial engineering and customer service facets of the operation worked out well. We were duly impressed. Admittedly, shuffling  meandering following arrows this kind of shopping isn’t something we’re used to, but considering the scale of things, IKEA runs like a finely tuned watch.

Once home and unloaded, Dawn began assembling the file cabinet while I worked on the table (the cabinet, it turned out, was by far the more tedious job!) I’m always amazed at the things Dawn tackles and I’ve yet to see anything she can’t handle. It took some time, but everything went together properly thanks to solid engineering and easy to follow pictorial directions.

And in the end? Well, Dawn has a hobby work surface in our spare bedroom, and we earned our IKEA  shopping wings!

For many youngsters, lessons have a tendency to feel long, interminably boring and difficult to sit still through. Not, however, if you’re a cheetah cub in Africa undergoing a masterclass in hunting from your very impressive mother.

This extraordinary photograph and the series that accompanies it were taken in Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve by environmental photographer Andy Rouse. The images show a female cheetah demonstrating to her young the first rules of survival in the wild - how to hunt and kill. For the cubs, this is the most important lesson they will learn from their mother. Their survival depends on being able to hunt for food and avoid predators.

In this stunning series of images, Rouse captures the entire cycle, except whatever follows the young gazelle’s last attempt to escape. A part of us hopes for its successful getaway, yet we understand this vital part of nature and marvel at its brutal perfection.

Andy Rouse is a professional wildlife photographer based in the U.K. His professional credits include hosting the Discovery Channel’s Wildlife Photographer TV series, and the publication of six books.

The Lexus LF-A Roadster concept, unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show, is a stunner! Mid-front mounted 500 hp V10, speed adaptive rear wing and a carbon fiber and aluminum body add up to a top speed over 200 mph. Photos

Regular contributer Michael D is in the market for a flat screen TV and has been doing the requisite due diligence. In the process, he came across an article in c/net about Sony’s OLED technology, shown earlier this month in Las Vegas at CES, and graciously passed it on for IM readers’ perusal.

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) promises better picture quality, smaller size (the XEL-1 measures just 3mm thick!) and more efficient operation. Sony claims a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, indicating amazingly deep black levels. Since OLED can turn the light emitted from the diodes on and off quickly, Sony also claims rapid response times for “smooth, natural reproduction of fast-moving content.”

The XEL-1 is supposedly 40 percent more efficient than traditional LCD panels in terms of power consumption, and unlike other LCDs, its manufacturing process doesn’t require the use of harmful mercury.

It’s the same concept utilized in Apple’s new MacBook Air introduced earlier this week at San Francisco’s Macworld which uses LEDs to backlight the notebook computer’s screen, provide “instant on” when the lid is opened, and uses no mercury in its manufacture. Clearly a sign of greener things to come.

Although Sony already introduced its 11-inch OLED HDTV in Japan, the company’s big splash announcement at the 2008 CES is that the model, dubbed XEL-1, is now available in the U.S. for the cool price of $2,500. While the relatively tiny, exorbitantly expensive HDTV itself won’t attract many buyers, it represents an important milestone by shepherding in the latest flat-panel TV technology, which may eventually replace plasma and traditional LCD.

Have you ever found yourself in a social situation where you encounter people you’ve met and need to quickly recall their names but draw a complete blank? Sure you have and, if you’re like most of us, it can be downright embarrassing.

For some of us, the encounter may place acquaintances in unfamiliar surroundings; we know them from somewhere, but can’t make the association. Others of us psych ourselves out in social situations, fulfilling a self-imposed prophesy that we’ll forget everyone’s name. Why does this happen? Most likely, it’s because we simply fail to properly commit names to memory when we’re first introduced.

There are myriad techniques to help us remember names and you’ll find many of them in articles on the Internet and in countless other publications on the subject. But most are centered around some variation of these five simple (easy for me to say!) steps:

• Pay attention when you’re introduced to someone. A few minutes after you meet the person, say his or her name to yourself again. Use their name in conversation. If you’ve forgotten it, talk to the person again and ask for their name.

• Write down the new name three times while picturing the person’s face; do this as soon as possible after meeting someone.

• Ask how to spell a difficult name or glance at the spelling on the person’s business card if it’s offered. If you know the spelling of a name and can picture it in your mind, you’ll remember it better.

• Connect a name to a common word you’ll remember. For example, the name “Salazar” could sound like “salamander,” “bazaar” or “sell a jar.”

• Make a connection to the person’s hobby or employment. “Bill the pill” might help you remember the name of your pharmacist, for example.

Follow these steps and I’ll bet you’ll see improvement in name recollection. Work diligently at implementing them and, with practice, you can become one of those people you know that always seems to know everyone’s name. Make it a priority for 2008. You’ll surprise even yourself!

This Randall Munroe cartoon may ring the bell of self-recognition in some of you. But now you know the secret, and it no longer has to.

Click on the linked image and move your mouse across the face to choose backgrounds…

James Koehnline is a Seattle, Washington based freelance illustrator/designer specializing in book and magazine cover art and text illustration, as well as posters, t-shirts, mousepads, postcards, notecards, bookmarks, signage and advertising art. You can see more of his work on his home site.