Ethier

From Tony Jackson at ESPNLosAngeles.com

"My salary is increasing each year," Ethier said. "I would say the likeliness of me being here beyond this year, it's not just my decision. ... I have been kind of lucky to be in one spot in baseball for as long as I have been, for six years now. That is a long time to be in one city playing for one team. There is no inclination now other than to go out and play this year and see what we've got.

"If I don't play well, we have seen them non-tender guys here. If you do play well, sometimes they don't offer those guys arbitration because their salaries are too high."

As I was reading the article I had all I had all kinds of things floating through my head and then as I got to my computer I see that Mike at MSTI pretty much said them all.  Like he said, there is 0% chance Ethier gets non-tendered.

I do wonder if this bubbling malcontent makes Colletti take a different view on the future of the Dodger outfield.  If Ethier really doesn't want to be in LA then now would be a good time to look into trade options, while his value is the highest.  Maybe X-Paul will be sticking around a little longer, worse things could happen.

FCC official: ‘No way chairman’s office rubber stamps’ AT&T’s T-Mobile acquisition

From The Wall Street Journal

AT&T Inc.'s $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG could be facing an uphill climb at the Federal Communications Commission.

"There's no way the chairman's office rubber-stamps this transaction. It will be a steep climb to say the least," said an FCC official on Wednesday. The official declined to comment on the record.

So if the FCC doesn't approve the sale aren't they kind of saying "No I'm sorry.  You have to go out of business instead."?  If T-Mobile USA (my understanding is that Deutsche Telekom is doing fine in the rest of the world, they just want to purge the US division) does just fold up shop the Unites States consumer still in the same place.  The only difference will be how much money is in the AT&T coffers.  Guess we'll have to wait and see.

[via BGR and TUAW]

San Onofre nuclear plant can withstand up to 7.0 quake, is protected by a 25-foot tsunami wall, Edison says

Los Angeles Times

Operators of the concrete-domed San Onofre nuclear plant Monday were trying to reassure jittery Southern California residents that the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan won't happen here.

The 84-acre generating station in the northern corner of San Diego County is built to withstand a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the generation station's operator, Southern California Edison. 

Slightly disconcerting as the massive quake that just rocked Japan was originally reported to be a 8.9 and has since been upgraded to 9.0 magnitude.  The designers did plan for a tsunami so at least that is under control.

A 25-foot-high "tsunami wall" of reinforced concete was also erected between the plant and the adjacent ocean, a height based on scientists' best estimates of the potential threat, he said. The geological fault most likely to directly threaten San Onofre lies about 5 miles offshore, Alexander said.

And again it seems the designers are a buck short.  The tsunami created by the Japanese earthquake was reported to be 33 feet tall.  Looks like there needs to be some retrofitting done in San Onofre, "Dolly Parton" is at risk.

[via BoingBoing]

$10 drug now $1500 after FDA grants monopoly

Rob Beschizza for Boing Boing

A progesterone hormone injection, used to prevent preterm labor, used to be $10 a shot. Now that the FDA has assigned an exclusive right to create the easily-made formula to one company, KV Pharmaceuticals, the price has risen to $1500. Almost all of it is pure profit, and KV Pharma did not develop the drug or pay for its trials: the taxpayer did, via the National Institute for Health. It is said to be the only drug proven to prevent pre-term birth, and an expert cited by ABC News suggests that the profession was snookered into supporting the assignment as a quality standardization measure.

Pure, disgusting greed.  I understand drug companies charging large amounts for drugs they have developed, they need to pay for their R&D somehow.  This is just wrong, KV didn't even develop the drug.  Reminds me of a book I read recently, Money-Driven Medicne.

[ABC News]

Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation

Barry Brook at Brave New Climate has a great breakdown of what happened and is happening at the Fukushima Nuclear Facility in Japan after the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Before you listen to anything from FoxNews or even CNN please read this article.

Along with reliable sources such as the IAEA and WNN updates, there is an incredible amount of misinformation and hyperbole flying around the internet and media right now about the Fukushima nuclear reactor situation. In the BNC post Discussion Thread – Japanese nuclear reactors and the 11 March 2011 earthquake (and in the many comments that attend the top post), a lot of technical detail  is provided, as well as regular updates. But what about a layman’s summary? How do most people get a grasp on what is happening, why, and what the consequences will be?

Below I reproduce a summary on the situation prepared by Dr Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT, in Boston. He is a PhD Scientist, whose father has extensive experience in Germany’s nuclear industry. This was first posted by Jason Morgan earlier this evening, and he has kindly allowed me to reproduce it here. I think it is very important that this information be widely understood.

Please also take the time to read this: An informed public is key to acceptance of nuclear energy — it was never more relevant than now.

[BRAVENEWCLIMATE]

Massive earthquake hits Japan

Houses are swept by a tsunami in Natori City in northeastern Japan March 11, 2011. A massive 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan on Friday, causing many injuries, fires and a ten-metre (33-ft) tsunami along parts of the country's coastline. There were several strong aftershocks and a warning of a 10-metre tsunami following the quake, which also caused buildings to shake violently in the capital Tokyo. (Reuters) #

It's like a movie.  I can't even imagine being in the situation.  

[The Big Picture]

The Early iPad Reviews Are In [Roundups]

I know it says [Roundups] but all I see is [The only thing worse than our coverage of Apple is our webdesign]

Gizmodo linking to Engadget's iPad 2 review is like going to Burger King who then sends you to McDonalds to try the new McDLT.  I wonder what the link ratio is between Gizmodo and Engadget, it has to be at least 20:1 at this point.  I can't even remember the last time I saw Engadget link to Gizmodo.

The funniest part of the whole story has to be that even though Gizmodo paid the price for the iPhone 4 story, Engadget still scooped them.  No such thing as bad press huh?

[Gizmodo]

Salary Inflation Calculation

March 8, 1930 — Babe Ruth signs a 2-year contract for $160,000 with New York. Yankee’s GM Ed Barrow, wrongly predicts “No one will ever be paid more than Ruth”.

Earlier this year Bartolo Colon, a one time AL CY Young winner, signed a minor league deal with the New York Yankees. The deal could be worth $900,000 plus incentives if he earns a major league roster spot.

These are different time.

Adjusting for inflation (approximately 3.21% annually) that contract for the Babe would be worth $1,632,172.67 or about $100,000 less per year than Colon gets if he makes the 40 man.  

To put it another way, Babe Ruth was paid for a whole year what Alex Rodriguez makes in less than five games (approximately $169,753 per game).

[Chitwood & Hobbs]

Woz to educators: "be brave, use the new technology"

Woz's last bit of advice for educators and students was to embrace technology as it evolves. "Be brave, use the new technology, because it's going to change our lives so much."

I had no idea it was cowardice that was holding back American teachers.  Guess teachers need to man up and embrace technology.

[ars technica]

Summer Glau Curse?

It seems to be semi-official that The Cape has been dry-cleaned and folded for the last time. And we've heard people talking about a "Summer Glau Curse," in which no power in the 'verse can keep her on the air.

I don't know about that io9.  Every single show that Summer Glau has been on for more than one or two episodes have been cancelled (Firefly, The Unit, The 4400, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse and The Cape).

Okay, seriously? First of all, does anybody really believe that The Cape would have been a runaway hit if Kristin Kreuk had played Orwell instead? Or some other cult genre actor?

I would have to agree with io9 here, it's not that Ms. Glau is a bad actor.  I think this more has to do with the company she keeps, the decisions she makes and the general business of Hollywood.

Most sci-fi fans know Joss Whedon has a knack for quality writing and cancelled shows.  A quality actor is going to be drawn to the scripts and work the rest out later.  Hey, Buffy was on for six years so maybe the next project has a shot.  With Firefly the quality was definitely there, for some reason the ratings weren't.  As for Dollhouse, I never saw the show personally but there were some decent reviews floating around so who can say.

Picking scripts is a large part of being an actor.  How anyone could read the script for The Cape or The 4400 and conciously decide to make either show is beyond me.  Both of these shows had no shot no matter who was cast.  With The Cape it was like NBC was trying so hard to continue the evil carnie story line that Heroes died trying to tell the network was willing to sink another ship.  More power to you NBC but with your current lineup you should really be going for homeruns at this point. 

Last there is The Unit and Terminator.  While The Unit was an awesome show it was coming against resistance at the network and looked like a pretty expensive show to produce.  In the later seasons the show's very military like theme was changed to a more standard jingle opening.  Terminator just never got the ratings to sustain a show of that expense.  Personally I never enjoyed the show but again there were many good reviews so someone seemed to like it.  

Like anything else, there will be discussions about the "Summer Glau Curse" until there isn't.  While that sounds very Yogi-esqe all it really means is one of these tries Summer will star in a show, it will be a big hit and no one will remember that Payton Manning chokes in the big gam... er, you know what I'm saying.

[io9.com]

Daring Fireball Linked List: To the Victor Goes the Pricing Power

So why aren’t those who are criticizing Apple for taking a 30 percent cut of subscription revenue criticizing Amazon?

Amazon does not require New York Times or other publishers to offer their subscriptions on the Kindle.  That's the difference.  

[DaringFireball]

What could have been. . .

Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Rod Barajas keeps  Cleveland Indians Carlos Santana from touching home plate in second inning action Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona.

© Jon SooHoo / Los Angeles Dodgers 2011

For years to come this picture will make me weep.  Oh Ned, why'd you do it?