Captain, we don't have the power!

Downtown Washington had a major power outage this morning - it tied up the Metro subway system and traffic lights. The whole scene looked a little bit like Beirut in the summertime.

The area affected included the White House, but it didn't have a problem because it has a backup generator. A lot of other Federal buildings were out of action though.

Things seem to be getting back to normal now though.

John Adams

If you get the chance to see the new John Adams miniseries on HBO, you should.

The production is based on the David McCullough's book "John Adams" and I think it just does an excellent job of taking one back to the days before the Revolution of 1776.

Really really great work.

Liberal Leave

It snowed in Washington, DC today!

DC doesn't always get a ton of snow, so when it happens people get a little skittish. A lot of times the government will announce a "Liberal Leave" policy meaning...if you can't get to work, its ok to stay home.

I always think that term is pretty funny in a town so geared to politics....what about the conservatives...don't they get leave too?

Let it snow let it snow let it snow!

Historical Amnesia?

There are plenty of wild theories about the origin of the Great Pyramids at Giza in Egypt - everything from Aliens to time travelers.

I heard one historian's take on it the other day though that I hadn't heard before. If one believes that people could not have achieved such a great technological feat as early as 2500 B.C. when mankind was practically just emerging from the stone age, then it may be that we have lost a piece of human history. That is, part of recorded history as we know it may have been lost.

It is possible that there was an entire epoch of the human experience, sometime before 2500 BC, that Mankind has forgotten about. Perhaps the pyramids are all that is left of this forgotten time. Its an interesting idea.

To the Republic, Four Which it Stands

Among the 50 states, only 4 have ever been independent republics...do you know which ones?

Texas is the easy one...the Alamo, Davy Crockett - you've heard it all before.

California was briefly independent in 1846 between the time it broke away from Mexico and was annexed by the United States.

Now for the tougher ones....

Hawaii was its own independent Kingdom for much of the 19th century.

And finally...between 1777 and 1791 Vermont established itself as an independent nation.

New Year's Ball Drop

Happy New Year!

Across the continental U.S. (and even farther out past Hawaii and Alaska) it takes several hours for our nation to celebrate the New Year. However, a lot of Americans count the ball drop in Times Square as an official passing of the old into the new year.

This is the 100th anniversary of the ball drop, which started in 1904 when Alfred Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, put on a fireworks display to welcome 1905 and celebrate the opening of the newspaper's new offices.

When city authorities banned the fireworks display on security grounds, the first ball was introduced -- a 320-kilo (700 pound) steel and wood sphere lit up with 100 light bulbs.

The Times Square ball has marked every new year since then, except in 1942 and 1943, when wartime regulations restricted lighting in the city.

In 1955, a new aluminum ball was unveiled and remained in use until the 1980s, the traditional ball came back seven years later, computer control started in 1995 and aluminum replaced by crystal for millennium eve in 1999.

This year's ball lights green and is made of 672 crystal triangles, weighs almost 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) and is lit by 9,576 energy-efficient light emitting diodes, which replace the halogen and strobe lights in last year's ball.

The War

I finally just finished watching Ken Burns' excellent documentary about World War II - "The War."

If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

"The War" exhibits the incredible attention to detail and quality that all of Ken Burns' stuff does (remember the Civil War documentary that came out a while ago that used Sam Waterson's voice with interviews of Shelby Foote? The was Ken Burns).

What really struck me about "The War" was the extent to which the US government under FDR was able to motivate and inspire the population through sacrifice and massive hardship and loss of life - for 4 long years.

During World War II the American government sent all the right signals to the people and provided the leadership that allowed our nation to marshal its great strength against tyranny.

It occurs to me that immediately after 9/11 - there was an opportunity to marshal that strength again against our current challenges. But that opportunity was wasted when the government asked people to "go shopping" and though people wanted to sacrifice and do something in the wake of those terrible attacks - the government pointed those eager to help to the malls.

As "The War" shows, government has the power to do better.