The movie is only 45 minutes long but contains more science than most American school children receive in a year.  (And if they’re in Mississippi or California or Hawaii,  more than they will probably get from K-12).

Avatar and Alice in Wonderland have given the world a new appetite for big screen effects.  Done right, 3D adds immersion unapproached by flat projection.  Hubble 3D combines those effects with reality in a way that the imaginary worlds of Pandora and Wonderland cannot.  Yet so many Americans will ho-hum this because it’s about science.

Go See It Anyway.

If Lindsey Vonn wasn’t blond and pretty, would she get any coverage at all?  Really, NBC would have us believe she’s the second coming and is trying to set us up for a Lake Placid-like Miracle on Ice.

Half the figure skaters don’t look old enough to drive.  The speed skaters’ outfits are so form-fitting they leave little to the imagination.

NBC and CNBC are covering different events.  Yay!  Too bad they are both being produced by NBC.

Bob Costas shouldn’t dye his hair; or maybe he just needs a better rug on top.

Canadian coverage (CTV) puts NBC’s coverage to shame.  If only CTV was high-def.

The altitude in Mexico City; the heat in Atlanta; and now, the rain in Vancouver.  Aren’t there metrics that the Olympic site selection committee should use to eliminate venues not conducive to the sports being run?

Oh yeah.  Olympic athletes are amazing.

The Comptroller’s office is required to review the budget and provide opinion (but not authority).  Comptroller DiNapoli’s analysis reveals that the budget is unrealistic, relies on questionable assumptions, balances this year’s budget by moving even more debt (mainly, your state tax refunds) into next year’s budget, and over the next four years has a projected structural imbalance of $61 billion.  And that’s just the first page.

• The Executive’s anticipated growth in revenue from the Personal Income Tax and other sources is based on an economic recovery, the timing of which remains uncertain.
• The lingering recession adds to fiscal stress by increasing the demand for programs and services such as Medicaid.
• Several revenue producing measures (sugared beverage tax, wine sales in grocery stores, Video Lottery Terminal and Quick Draw expansions) have similarly been proposed in the past, but not enacted.
• Numerous programmatic cuts have been proposed previously, but either were not enacted or were not fully realized. School aid, higher education and health care reductions are notable examples.
• Tax audit recoveries, new Medicaid audit recoveries and abandoned property transfers are budgeted aggressively at $1.1 billion.

Debt Service is the largest-growing budget category. It is growing even faster than both Medicaid and Education.

The growth in spending outpaces the growth in revenue, 7.7% to 2.9% – indicating that little if anything is being done to reduce the state’s structural imbalance.

On the upside, the state does plan to trim its workforce from 196,375 to 196,701 – a reduction of 674 positions (I’m being sarcastic).  And under current law, our long-term debt cap cannot exceed 4% of our residents’ combined income.  This won’t cause problems until the 2012-2013 time frame when our collective income is expected to fall and we exceed the cap.

The 34-page report is a pretty easy read.  Recommended if you have an hour to spare in your busy day and prefer something like this over hitting yourself with a hammer.

That was evident last night when Buffalo fans succeeded in turning the Jobing.com Arena into a sea of blue and yellow, and out-cheered Phoenix fans by roughly the same ratio with which the Sabres beat the Coyotes.

Whether it was hanging out in front of the arena…

…lining up as the gates opened…

…or inside the arena, Sabres fans were everywhere.

It was an impressive exhibition of fan support that I’ve ever witnessed firsthand, and an example of why the Coyotes will shortly be playing in Winnipeg or some other city.

I didn’t get the MSG feed so I don’t know how much they talked about it, but having been there I can readily say that in the NHL, Buffalo has no equal when it comes to supporting their team.

Today is the first day of the new decade (well, not technically but that’s okay).  The Buffalo News wishes us a Happy New Year with these three front page headlines:

• Colgan pilots fault stall training (describe method as ‘Joke’)
• A Year of Tragedy
• Brown ousts Gipson as city’s top cop

The first article that one might construe as “hopeful” (albeit unlikely) is found on page 4:  North Korea makes a commitment to a nuclear-free peninsula.

This is a depressing, depressing newspaper.  Even Esmonde’s New Year’s wish list is nothing more than whining about what will prevent his wishes from happening.  There are good things worth reporting, aren’t there?  The News always surprises with their slant toward the forelorn and depressing. I just couldn’t get through today’s paper.  I think it will be the last Buffalo News I try to read.

So, my response to what the News does not provide is a list of some of the really neat things that happened last decade.  They give me hope for a Happy New Year and the start of a great decade.  Here goes:

• Lance Armstrong.  He never gives up.
• Planets Everywhere.  The odds of finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe keeps going up as we discover just how common planetary systems are.
• …and related to this, Water on Mars.  The odds of finding any kind of life elsewhere takes a giant leap forward wherever we find water.
• The Human Genome Project, and the hope that it brings to understanding the genetic framework for many diseases, including cancer and diabetes.  I may not live long enough to reap the benefits but I think my children will.
• The 2008 Olympics.  Beauty, form, grace, and grandiose settings.  Amazing what a country with a limitless supply of low-cost labor can do for a few billion dollars.  [Anecdote:  Today the Bird's Nest is barely used and needs a bit of a paint job.] May Rio de Janeiro be so successful in 2012.
• Globalization.  New markets, new opportunities.  Fear mongerers spew nonstop about cheap labor overseas destroying America, but we saw that in the 70′s and got through it.  America is still the land of innovation and so long as we continue to innovate we will continue to be an economic powerhouse.
• Extreme Makeover, Buffalo.  ‘Nuf said.
• Alternative Energy.  Finally, government and industry are taking notice.  Even if we can’t eliminate fossil fuel use (until it’s gone) we are rapidly approaching cost-effective alternative energy.   At that point – I predict it happening this decade – the alternative floodgates will open.
• Going Green.  Even if global warming turns out to be more hype than substance, awareness of how we are polluting our environment has raised our efforts at conservation.  We see it in everything from simpler packaging to more efficient building construction.  Clean Technology grew almost 20-fold last decade to a $10 billion industry today.
• The Internet.  The awakening of an online generation to the power of a tweet and a blog.  Social networking now wins and loses elections and drives the direction of government and industry faster than ever before.

I wait with excitement for what the 10′s will unveil.

If only the Buffalo News could replace any one (of their typically four) alarmist and/or depressive tone-setting front-page reports with one of these every day; we’d all be smiling just a little more, holding our heads just a little higher, and seeing good PR about our area spread just a little further.

Andrew Sullivan from The Daily Dish had this article today.  Its references contain many more compliments about the Buffalo region.  Funny how often I sense more optimism for this city from sources that live outside the area, than those who live within its boundaries.

Thank you, Andrew, for a great article.

-It takes 25 employees to administer about a loan a month.

Six-sigma lean it ain’t.

On a day when they closed all area schools; and the winds gusted to over 50 mph; when the Weather Channel warned of a bitter cold weather pattern expected to last all day; with the possibility of 6 to 10 inches of snow in the Southtowns and more in the Southern Tier, my normal 30 minute commute to work took me…40 minutes.

How long did it take you?

I want to thank you for your 18 November response to my recent email regarding my opposition to balancing the 2010 budget with additional fees and taxes. While you explained to me your stance on the original budget as well as the upcoming mid-year adjustments, you did not seem to appreciate the frustration and anger that many of my colleagues and I have with you and your fellow legislators. Perhaps I did not elucidate this well in my email; perhaps you merely replied with a form letter. One thing, however, is clear:

You do not understand what we are angry about.

We are angry at you – the collective you – because you cannot get beyond the side of the aisle on which you find yourself. It doesn’t matter to which party you belong: Your actions are those of children in a schoolyard, taking sides but never reaching across to resolve the differences.

Your letter contained many promises and calls to action. Nothing in it, however, spoke of the need to reach across that aisle to address New York’s problems in a bipartisan manner; nothing spoke of doing the Peoples Business. Instead you emphasized your frustrations with the Democrats, and the us versus them mentality that pervades the legislature.

Your letter was full of bellyaches and personal accomplishments, but no mention the word bipartisan. Not a single sentence spoke of collegiality or a sense of urgency. You are quite eloquent at placing blame on the Democratic Party, not so articulate at offering an olive branch. You don’t seem to get it: We are angry at you because you are all to blame.

You – the collective you – need to get beyond your rhetoric in a hurry, for the sake of this state and for your jobs. I for one remain unconvinced that you and your fellow legislators deserve another term. Without seeing real bipartisan action in the near future I intend to join the rapidly-growing ranks of those determined to help vote you out of office. You demonstrate by your words and collective (in)action that we no longer have anything to lose by throwing the bums out.

One final point: What happens behind those closed doors in Albany may be deemed progress by the few of you privy to the inner sanctums. But the perception out here is one of shady deals, power grabs and chaos; the perception is that it’s all about you, not your constituents. You have scarce time left to change that perception.

Here’s a suggestion: Reach across the aisle with this letter. Let your Democratic colleagues know that as many voters are gunning for their jobs as yours. Then offer that olive branch.

Best Regards.