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Trevor Edwards, Nike's corporate vice president for global brand and category management, in the New York Times on how they're shifting their advertising and marketing spend: "We're not in the business of keeping the media companies alive. We're in the business of connecting with consumers."
As I mentioned previously, my friend Becca is the author coordinator for this year's Wordstock Festival, which will include authors Dave Eggers, Carl Hiaasen, Kevin Brockmeier, one Brian Libby, and more. Wordstock is very excited to introduce their new email list, which will keep you updated on everything Wordstock. Sign up for the list here.
Buster Olney of ESPN broke the story yesterday saying that the former Senator George Mitchell’s report on performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball would be released sometime after the World Series and before the end of the year. At the time that is released it will reportedly be a “huge story.”
According to Olney’s sources, a conference call with Tom Carlucci, a lawyer hired to liaison between the Mitchell investigation and the teams, took place with representatives from all the clubs. As reported by Onley:
Said one source familiar with what was said on the conference call, “This is going to be enormous … it’s going to be a huge story when these names come out.”
While the names that come out might be huge, where the names come from might make proving whether players did, or did not purchase or use PEDs another matter.
Certainly, Troy Glaus, Jay Gibbons, or Scott Schoeneweis could be mentioned in the report. One of these three players is said to have been part of the investigation into Signature Pharmacy, an Orlando, FL based company charged with selling PEDs via the internet.
But, when one thinks of “huge story”, those names don’t seem to match the hype.
Where key names are most likely to be coming from is Kirk Radomski, the former clubhouse attendant with the New York Mets. As reported by the NY Times:
When Radomski pleaded guilty to steroid distribution in April, he was encouraged to cooperate with Mitchell’s investigation and to provide Mitchell with the names of the players he provided with drugs. One baseball official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity yesterday, said if Mitchell were to name players connected to drugs in his report, it would most likely come from information provided by Radomski.
Baseball officials, of course, did not comment directly about the conference call from Carlucci to the 30 clubs. They also did not deny that names could be within the Mitchell report. As further reported by the NY Times:
Rob Manfred, baseball’s vice president for labor relations and human resources and the official who oversees the sport’s drug-testing programs, said in a telephone interview that what Carlucci did yesterday was “nothing more than a lawyer doing what he should do: preparing his clients.” Manfred said that he did not know if Mitchell’s report would include the names of players and that Carlucci did not know, either.
“He is on the wrong side of the fence of knowing what is in the report,” Manfred said of Carlucci, referring to the fact that he does not work directly for Mitchell. “I am not sure Mitchell has made his mind up.”
Michael Weiner, the general counsel for the players union, said in a telephone interview that the union had been told within the last two days by lawyers working for Mitchell that no determination about the report’s final contents had been made.
Actions After Report Seem Unclear
In whether any actions against players named in the report, the answers seem unclear. It is, of course, one thing to say someone did something, and far more difficult to prove it. There would need to be proof that an active player was guilty of using PEDs after 2003. MLB did not have a mandatory testing program with penalties until 2004. Since all players went through the testing program from that point forward, the Players Association could easily argue that any active named players came up negative during testing and ask for any attempts at suspension be overturned by way of an arbitor. Distribution or PED convictions might be a different matter. If proven guilty in those instances, the penalties would be as follows:
Penalties for Steroids Convictions
- Suspended for 60-80 games for a first offense
- 120 games to one year for a second offense
- Lifetime ban for a third conviction
Penalties for steroid distribution
- Suspended 80-100 game for a first conviction
- Lifetime ban thereafter.
- In both cases, players suspended for life may apply to the Commissioner for reinstatement after two years and have the right to a review.
In the case of retired players, the report might be, as one source said, “salacious”, but there’s little that could be done. A stain would certainly be placed on the player’s career, but beyond that, little, if nothing else.
Conclusions
There is a certain need to have names named in the Mitchell report. Given the amount of time, and money placed into the investigation, it would be toothless (and may still be, for all we know) without something tangible such as player names within it.
But, if one of the key aspects of the investigation is to publish names of current players that are allegedly using PEDs, then what does that say about the current testing program? Human-Growth Hormone (hGH) would have to be given a pass as there is yet to be a definitive testing program for it. Steroids? If that’s the case, then pundits would have to ask if the current testing program is all that it’s supposedly cracked up to be. After all, if the players named in the report were using steroids, how did they not come up positive during testing?
What does seem clear is that the report will allow MLB to say that the report was a proactive “independent” effort designed to further eradicate PEDs from baseball. What is more likely to happen is further embarrassment. While the media and public continue to look the other way with the NFL, MLB will get yet another black eye.
Marco.org: iPhone SDK rage
You have a choice: buy the iPhone with everything that goes along with it, including its limitations, or go without it. Apple isn’t screwing you, you can’t sue them, and a handful of angry nerds aren’t going to make them change their plans and compromise their platform.
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to 10 women. With yesterday's announcement, the Swedish Academy in Stockholm has raised this number to a whopping 11. Congratulations, Doris Lessing!
Professor Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, made the announcement in five languages: Swedish, English, French, German and Russian. The fact that the announcement is multilingual is my favorite thing about it. Here it is:
Giving a Nobel Lecture is now pretty standard but in the early years of the Nobel Prize in Literature, most recipients only delivered a short Banquet Speech (and still do so in addition to the Lecture). Usually, the Banquet Speech consisted of little more than thanking the Academy but on some occasions, it was more comprehensive and contemplative. Selma Lagerlöf's Banquet Speech takes the form a dream story in which she imagines meeting her father in Heaven and discussing with him the debt she feels towards her audience and fellow authors. Wislawa Szymborska's delivered her very short speech in French. The only female writer for whom we have no Banquet Speech is the Sardinian novelist Grazia Deledda. I'm curious to know why that's the case but, at any rate, I've provided excerpts from the Banquet Speeches and Nobel Lectures of the 10 female recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Doris Lessing's speech will appear in the coming weeks.
Selma Lagerlöf (1909):
...I thought of my father and felt a deep sorrow that he should no longer be alive, and that I could not go to him and tell him that I had been awarded the Nobel Prize. I knew that no one would have been happier than he to hear this. Never have I met anyone with his love and respect for the written word and its creators, and I wished that he could have known that the Swedish Academy had bestowed on me this great Prize. Yes, it was a deep sorrow to me that I could not tell him.
Anyone who has ever sat in a train as it rushes through a dark night will know that sometimes there are long minutes when the coaches slide smoothly along without so much as a shudder. All rustle and bustle cease and the sound of the wheels becomes a soothing, peaceful melody. The coaches no longer seem to run on rails and sleepers but glide into space. Well, that is how it was as I sat there and thought how much I should like to see my old father again. (Banquet Speech)
Grazia Deledda (1926):
Destiny caused me to be born in the heart of lonely Sardinia. But even if I had been born in Rome or Stockholm, I should not have been different. I should have always been what I am - a soul which becomes impassioned about life's problems and which lucidly perceives men as they are, while still believing that they could be better and that no one else but themselves prevents them from achieving God's reign on earth. Everything is hatred, blood, and pain; but, perhaps, everything will be conquered one day by means of love and good will. (quoted in the Nobel Presentation Speech)
Sigrid Undset (1928):
I write more readily than I speak and I am especially reluctant to talk about myself. (Banquet Speech)
Pearl Buck (1938):
This award, given to an American, strengthens not only one, but the whole body of American writers, who are encouraged and heartened by such generous recognition. And I should like to say, too, that in my country it is important that this award has been given to a woman. You who have already so recognized your own Selma Lagerlöf, and have long recognized women in other fields, cannot perhaps wholly understand what it means in many countries that it is a woman who stands here at this moment. (Banquet Speech)
When I came to consider what I should say today it seemed that it would be wrong not to speak of China. And this is none the less true because I am an American by birth and by ancestry and though I live now in my own country and shall live there, since there I belong. But it is the Chinese and not the American novel which has shaped my own efforts in writing. My earliest knowledge of story, of how to tell and write stories, came to me in China. It would be ingratitude on my part not to recognize this today. And yet it would be presumptuous to speak before you on the subject of the Chinese novel for a reason wholly personal. There is another reason why I feel that I may properly do so. It is that I believe the Chinese novel has an illumination for the Western novel and for the Western novelist. (Nobel Lecture, "The Chinese Novel")
Gabriela Mistral (1945):
At this moment, by an undeserved stroke of fortune, I am the direct voice of the poets of my race and the indirect voice for the noble Spanish and Portuguese tongues. (Banquet Speech)
Nelly Sachs (1966, award shared with Shmuel Agnon):
In the summer of 1939 a German girl friend of mine went to Sweden to visit Selma Lagerlöf, to ask her to secure a sanctuary for my mother and myself in that country. Since my youth I had been so fortunate as to exchange letters with Selma Lagerlöf; and it is out of her work that my love for her country grew. The painter-prince Eugen and the novelist helped to save me....An Stelle von Heimat/ halte ich die Verwandlungen der Welt (Banquet Speech)
Nadine Gordimer (1991):
How does the writer become one, having been given the word? I do not know if my own beginnings have any particular interest. No doubt they have much in common with those of others, have been described too often before as a result of this yearly assembly before which a writer stands. For myself, I have said that nothing factual that I write or say will be as truthful as my fiction. The life, the opinions, are not the work, for it is in the tension between standing apart and being involved that the imagination transforms both. Let me give some minimal account of myself. I am what I suppose would be called a natural writer. I did not make any decision to become one. I did not, at the beginning, expect to earn a living by being read. I wrote as a child out of the joy of apprehending life through my senses - the look and scent and feel of things; and soon out of the emotions that puzzled me or raged within me and which took form, found some enlightenment, solace and delight, shaped in the written word. (Nobel Lecture, "Writing and Being")
Toni Morrison (1993):
Word-work is sublime, she thinks, because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference--the way in which we are like no other life.
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. (Nobel Lecture)
I will leave this hall...with a new and much more delightful haunting than the one I felt upon entering: that is the company of Laureates yet to come. Those who, even as I speak, are mining, sifting and polishing languages for illuminations none of us has dreamed of. But whether or not any one of them secures a place in this pantheon, the gathering of these writers is unmistakable and mounting. Their voices bespeak civilizations gone and yet to be; the precipice from which their imaginations gaze will rivet us; they do not blink nor turn away. (Banquet Speech)
Wislawa Szymborska (1996):
It's not accidental that film biographies of great scientists and artists are produced in droves. The more ambitious directors seek to reproduce convincingly the creative process that led to important scientific discoveries or the emergence of a masterpiece. And one can depict certain kinds of scientific labor with some success. Laboratories, sundry instruments, elaborate machinery brought to life: such scenes may hold the audience's interest for a while...Films about painters can be spectacular, as they go about recreating every stage of a famous painting's evolution, from the first penciled line to the final brush-stroke. Music swells in films about composers: the first bars of the melody that rings in the musician's ears finally emerge as a mature work in symphonic form. Of course this is all quite naive and doesn't explain the strange mental state popularly known as inspiration, but at least there's something to look at and listen to.
But poets are the worst. Their work is hopelessly unphotogenic. Someone sits at a table or lies on a sofa while staring motionless at a wall or ceiling. Once in a while this person writes down seven lines only to cross out one of them fifteen minutes later, and then another hour passes, during which nothing happens ... Who could stand to watch this kind of thing? (Nobel Lecture, "The Poet and the World")
Merci, dziêkujê, tack. (Banquet Speech)
Elfriede Jelineck (2004):
Is writing the gift of curling up, of curling up with reality? One would so love to curl up, of course, but what happens to me then? What happens to those, who don’t really know reality at all? It’s so very dishevelled. No comb, that could smooth it down. (Nobel Lecture, "Sidelined")
I filed Friday’s column on last night’s game a bit after noon today, moved on to put up the latest hoops piece, grab some lunch and prepare for today’s “Fantasy 411″ show. Around 2:30 this afternoon, halfway through a slice and a Coke, I suddenly turned to Sophia and said, “I never wrote about the ALCS.” Whoops. I’m absent-minded by nature, and the whirlwind of activity over the past week or so has definitely exacerbated that particular trait.
Technically, I did write about the ALCS, just not here. As part of BP’s ongoing relationship with Sports Illustrated, Nate Silver and I did previews of both LCSs for the magazine. Without simply repeating the material therein, here’s what I’m looking at in what should be a classic postseason series:
- The aces. I’m very excited about this matchup tonight. The two best pitchers in the AL this year, C.C. Sabathia and Josh Beckett, are going head to head in the first game of a semifinal. We don’t always get this lucky; Chris Carpenter vs. Jake Peavy in the 2004 NL Division Series is the only recent matchup that approaches this one, and after that you’re back to some Pedro Martinez starts during his peak. Beckett is coming off a wipeout of the Angels, while Sabathia scuffled through five innings against the Yankees and was helped along by his teammates to a win. Because the rest of the rotations are strong, this game doesn’t have quite the importance last night’s NLCS Game One did. However, it’s hard to win a short series if you don’t take advantage of having your ace on the mound, so tonight’s game is important.
- The closers. Joe Borowski had a three-run lead Monday night, and thankfully so, as he allowed one home run and one near-homer. I was wrong in my prediction that a Yankee win in the ALDS would involved beating Borowski, but he remains the weak point of a strong Indians‘ team. Any time Eric Wedge lifts someone named “Rafael” to bring in Borowski, the Red Sox‘ chance of winning the game ticks upward. I’ll reiterate my prediction, wrong in the last round, that the Indians will lose a game they lead in the ninth due to their alignment of relievers. Jonathan Papelbon inspires no such doubt, while the men in front of him, Hideki Okajima and Manny Delcarmen, are comparable to the Tribe’s setup men.
- The sluggers. David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez eviscerated the Angels. Because Ortiz was perceived as having an off year, and Ramirez actually had one, the two have been forgotten a little bit. They’re still an amazing two-man wrecking crew, each a dangerous combination of discipline, skill and raw power. Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez are great players; they’re just not Ortiz and Ramirez.
Two great teams, clearly the two best left in the postseason, and one has to go home. I originally predicted Red Sox in seven, when I thought a Game Seven matchup would feature Curt Schilling and Jake Westbrook. Knowing it would instead be the possibly fatigued Daisuke Matsuzaka starting for the home team gives me pause, but not enough to change my mind. Red Sox in seven. Barely.
Jacqui Cheng, ars technica: “Our spider senses are tingling: Leopard’s final release as Gold Master is drawing near. We’ve already seen the OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Gold Master release candidate floating around in the wild today (*cough*), and our sources confirm that a GM candidate build has been released internally at Apple.”
Leopard's official stamp of approval as Gold Master is drawing near, as Apple has released a couple of GM candidate builds within the company for final testing.
Apple has put up a tribute to Al Gore to recognize his win of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
As Erin mentioned in passing in the previous post, Serious Eats' National Meatloaf Appreciation Day is next week—October 18, to be exact. If you'd like to participate in our cook-along, the deadline is Tuesday, October 16. Just figured I'd remind you now so any of you procrastinators (like me) have the weekend to cook away like fiends. Details here. That is all.
Posted by: Emily I have started training from my first marathon, which I will run in October. I really don't have anyone close to me that has run a marathon before, and was wondering your take on...
ASK COACH JENNY! Coach Jenny Hadfield is the co-author of the best selling Marathoning for Mortals and the newly released Running for Mortals. She is a nationally recognized speaker, writer and co-owner of Chicago Endurance Sports, Chicago?s largest multi-sport training company.
i’m too swamped to blog original content at the moment, but have a look at this amazing art (via the wooster collective).
John McCain has become the first candidate for president to comment on Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize in a negative way, telling an Iowa crowd that there were more worthy people out there to whom the prize could have been awarded.
"I would have liked to see that prize go to the Buddhist monks who are suffering and dying in Burma," McCain said.
The Darjeeling Limited is the first Wes Anderson movie since Rushmore that I've really liked after seeing it for the first time. The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic both took another viewing (and now I love them both).
Two more Wes Anderson/Dareeling things and then I think we're done for awhile. Marc Jacobs created the luggage and the fashion "look" for Darjeeling:
The result is a large set of tawny luggage and a trio of suits with matching back belts and angled cuffs for the three main characters, played by onscreen brothers Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman. Once again, as in Anderson's previous films like "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," the cast wears one look throughout the film. "I like actors to have costumes that help them to get into character," says Anderson. "Whether it's a good idea or not, I tend to give them uniforms."
See also How to Dress Like a Tenenbaum from Esquire in 2002. The Onion A/V Club recently interviewed Anderson. His response near the end about his commercial work is interesting.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Al Gore just gave a speech to the press regarding his Nobel Peace Prize, thanking the Nobel committee and everyone who helped him along the way. He then discussed the importance of the climate change issue, and how crucial it is for society to come together and make a lot of progress as quickly as possible.
Gore did not touch any partisan themes, and was clearly keen to avoid that when he finished his speech and left the room without taking questions — ignoring the reporters who were yelling out and asking whether he'll run for president.
Filed under: photographers
After writing a post about Hendrik Kerstens' Dutch Masters-inspired photos, a friend recommended I check out the work of Pierre Gonnord who also makes portraits heavily influenced by Vermeer Rembrant and the like. This time the photographer is a Frenchman who lives in Madrid. My bet is that he uses simple lighting setups-one big diffused light or a big northern facing window-to achieve this look.
Tags: french photography, rembrant, vermeer
Former vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. The Nobel committee said the shared award is "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." The award is worth $1.5 million and will be split equally between the two winners. According to the NY Times, Gore said, "My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis." Additionally, the Nobel Committee tried to explain that it wanted to make a statement about climate change, rather than U.S. politics. And while Gore hasn't discussed his future political plans, many people have urged him to run for president - and having a Nobel Peace Prize under his belt might only help with his credentials. The NY Times has a feature on the ups and downs of Gore's career.
IPCC Chairman R.K. Pachauri, who is based in New Delhi, India, released a statement, saying, "I would like to pay tribute to the scientific community, who are the winners of this award. The experts and scientists are the backbone of the IPCC and they provide the knowledge, which has contributed to the success of the IPCC." He also thanked governments who support and facilitate the IPCC. The full press release from the Nobel Committee, after the jump: Top photograph of Al Gore taken in 2006 by Francois Mori/AP; bottom photograph of R.K. Pachauri and his family by AP
Gore gets it! – the prize, and the crisis. Deeply rooted in science, Al Gore has established climate crisis as a moral and spiritual imperative. Now we must act with speed on an unprecedented scale. Speed and scale. -- John DoerrI have seen the VP's passion since my early days photographing him in Washington DC. He was a different person on the campaign plane than the public saw, and now the world sees him for who he is. [Above is] my favorite photo taken of candidate Gore on the campaign in California, May 2000. -- Kevin Gilbert
My wife and I came to TED uncertain about Al Gore and not thrilled to hear him. He seemed fake to us in the national political election he had gone through. His presentation profoundly changed our view of him even more than his message. We bought the messages. We did not buy the message presenter. At TED, he gave a sense of his humor, three-dimensionality, commitment to the cause, ability to criticize himself. We left with a positive attitude toward him and a commitment to help. -- David and Heidi Hoffman
At TED2006, Al Gore brought alive a vital and little-understood subject with humble, direct, passionate facts that were a call to action far beyond his previous resume as a politician -- bravo to a great humanist leader who made us address our history! -- Randy Antik
At 60 years old, there are rare seminal moments that cut across the arc of your life that make you stand up and cheer with joy of a 3-year-old, the passion of a 16-year-old and the wisdom of a 60-year-old -- Al Gore did that at TED! -- Sandra Kulli
Thank you, bless you -- Al Gore; what greater giving, what better gift to the planet, than your new dawning of insights, intelligence and calm authority in advising the world -- finally -- to what future there might be...and what future we might create anew? -- Tim Girvin
Watching Al -- and Tipper -- Gore at TED was my privilege; working to reverse climate change is my responsibility. -- Stuart Gannes
Photo of Al Gore: @Kevin T. Gilbert
Like any good producer/directors in the television business, there were no sweeping shots of empty seats at last night’s Game One NLCS game at Chase Field in Phoenix by TBS.
And like as a professional sports league, MLB has been tracking “paid attendance”—the number of tickets sold—not turnstile clicks that would show exactly how many fans actually went to last night’s game.
While it’s a bit of smoke and mirrors by both parties, it’s understandable. Hey, MLB and TBS have a product to sell and that product is baseball (although last night seemed to be a bit of WWE, as well).
But, what strikes me as odd is that in more than one story today, the game was referred to as being sold out. Whether it was the Arizona Republic or Jeff Passan at Yahoo! Sports, both referenced the announced crowd of 48,142 as being a sellout. Maybe the public address announcer said it was a sold out game—empty seats in the house be damned— and they reported what they heard. Still, there’s a slight problem with that notion.
The problem is, 48,142 isn’t a sellout. Or, at least by looking at the Diamondback’s own seat count, it isn’t. Seating capacity is 49,033 for Chase Field. So, last night’s paid attendance would come in at 98.2% of capacity. Hey. It’s close, but last I checked a sellout was 100%.
Maybe someone at the Diamondbacks can explain this to me. I’d be interested in hearing and can be contacted here.
Just in from the New York Daily News:
Bernard Kerik's legal nightmare is about to get worse, with federal prosecutors expected to file charges against the former police commissioner that will likely include allegations of bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of justice, the Daily News has learned.The indictment, expected next month, could prove to be an embarrassing obstacle for Kerik's former mentor Rudy Giuliani, who is cruising at the top of the polls heading into the presidential primary gauntlet.
Lest this get forgotten, it's worth remembering that Rudy personally advocated for this fellow to be the chief of Homeland Security -- that is, to be the chief defender of our nation against what Rudy terms the Terrorists' War on Us.
I can't imagine a more incongruous guest for yakfest The View than the godmother of all things sustainorganica, Alice Waters. I also can't sum up why it's so surreal (well, surreal to a food person, anyway), so I'll quote from the Amateur Gourmet's take on Ms. Waters's appearance:
"But you can get all this in a normal grocery store?" spat Joy, clearly uncomfortable around this weird Berkeley hippie.
You couldn't find two women more different than Joy Behar and Alice Waters. One ballsy and brash, the other dainty and delicate. Did Joy understand who Alice was, her significance, the impact she's had on food and the way we eat? I wasn't quite sure and then, when Alice was showing off the chicken she'd roasted, my worst fears were confirmed. Joy asked, "Can't you shove a beer can in the chicken's vagina and cook it that way?"
But more important is the Amateur Gourmet's takeaway on Waters's guest spot: "In her own way, Joy Behar was the perfect foil for Alice Waters: no coddling, no ring-kissing. Just crass reality in the face of lofty idealism. Between the two, the answer lies."
Two days of sitting next to Al, with some intense ongoing conversation, proved to me that he was wholly focused on substance rather than form, and graced by a biting sense of humor, the real stuff of which leaders should be made! -- Janet M. Baker
Al Gore takes climate change personally -- at TED, Al Gore looked at me directly, shook my hand firmly, remembered my email, spoke to my points and then I realized that he had done this a hundred thousand times to get this message to the world. -- James Kocis
He may have lost a smaller battle, but because of it, has triumphed in a global one. Thank you Mr. Gore for shining a strong light through the collective haze. -- Robert Leslie
Gore, at TED06, humbly communicated his kicks and shocks as lessons. In mythology, the Fool immediately takes over and drives the horses straight for the precipice. Gore in an auspicious manner kept still, and in attempting to heal the earth of its toxicity resurrected himself. -- Dr. Denise Phillips-Kelly
I was deeply struck by how his resolute commitment to his message, over time, was beginning to be heard. -- Bruce Kelly
Al: I didn’t believe it before I heard your talk -- now I know it’s true. -- Bernice Cramer
While waiting for Walter McCaffrey to send over an official version, we managed to get a hold of a bootleg copy of the executive summary of the Committee to Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free's new report. Willie Neuman has a write-up of the report in the Times today as well.
The Committee's report aims to offer up alternatives to Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, many of which are ideas familiar and appealing to regular readers of Streetsblog. The executive summary itemizes eight specific traffic mitigation suggestions and calculates that, together, these could reduce VMT, or vehicle miles traveled, between 7.6 and 11.5 percent south of 86th Street (table above).
New York City's $354.5 million federal grant is dependent on a plan that reduces VMT by at least 6.3 percent. The grant, however, is also dependent on the City implementing some form of congestion pricing technology as a part of that plan, so it's not at all clear if any of the suggestions above would allow the city to keep that money.
Hugh O'Neill, the president of Appleseed, the economics consulting firm which wrote the report, acknowledges that his numbers are soft. Neuman reports:
Altogether, the study says, such measures could reduce traffic volume by 7 to 11 percent. Mr. O'Neill said, however, that the estimate was very rough."I would fully acknowledge that those numbers are speculative and would need to be subject to further analysis," he said. "I think what the numbers legitimately show is that there are real options, real world alternatives, many of which are much simpler to implement than what the city has proposed."
The report does not include an overall estimate for the cost of putting its proposals in place, but it says it would cost far less than the mayor's congestion pricing plan.
In addition to a "speculative" analysis, the report offers no price tag for its proposed changes. Some ideas, like increasing the cost of on-street parking and reforming the city's government employee parking abuse problem, are almost certainly net revenue earners, though come with their own set of costs and political challenges. Other suggestions have a universally appealing but vaguely expensive ring to them; for example, this one: "Major transit improvements."
In addition to the eight congestion pricing alternatives listed in the table above, the executive summary offers these as well:
Options that reduce VMT, congestion or both (2008-2009)
- Reducing congestion caused by black cars and non-yellow for hire vehicles.
- More effectively regulating the use of streets for construction projects.
- Modernizing traffic signal systems.
- Implementing 511 (A system to notify drivers of real time traffic conditions).
Options for reducing congestion beyond 2010
- Bus Rapid Transit.
- Lower Manhattan bus depot.
- Incentives for off-peak delivery.
- Increased use of water transportation for movement of freight.
- Expanding the Lower Manhattan traffic management program to Midtown.
- Improving the distribution of information to motorists by state of the art technology.
- Encouraging greater use of bicycle transportation.
I love getting down to this little guy in a head of lettuce. I always let him hang out on the counter for a while, check out the surroundings while I admire his cuteness and introduce him to whoever is around...imagine my delight upon finding that Wee Tiny have given him his appropriate tribute!
As congratulations for Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, pour in from the TED community, we asked people who saw Gore's TED2006 presentations to talk about the impact his talks had on them. This is the second in the series.
When I facilitate a gathering of wild tiger experts next month in India, Al Gore's inspiration will be front and center. Thank you, Al, for waking me up! to the interconnectedness of our earth and its species. -- Susan W. Bird
After experiencing Al at TED, vowed to change my Republican ways, support Hillary for President (unless, of course, Al agrees to run!), shift my business to sourcing sustainability innovations for Fortune 500 companies and admit publicly that I am now a “Recovering Republican” for the rest of my life… -- Mark A. Kaiser
Like TEDster John Doerr said, "I am afraid that we're not going to make it," but if we do the world will be indebted to Al Gore, a man of gravitas who did the right thing at the right time and is so deserving of the Nobel Prize (and the presidency, carpe diem). -- Bruce Hoffman
Al Gore's brilliant and powerful talk hit me square in the jaw -- he moved me to tears and called me to action in defense of our home, our Earth. -- Ralph Farris
What most strikes me about Al's leadership is that he has spent his entire life working on climate change with passion, commitment, intelligence and a firm resolve that never waivered. He didn't do this work for an award, and it makes him all the more deserving as a hero who inspires us all to be better and do more. -- Jacqueline Novogratz
Al Gore's talk at TED06 instantly gave me hope that the planetary climate crisis would finally become a front-and-center issue of public conversation and personal conscience. -- Tom Guarriello
Here is Jack Oswald's story of Al Gore's impact:
Prior to seeing Al Gore’s Climate Crisis presentation, I had always thought that he was a good person. He had always appeared bright, capable and well-meaning. On the night of the presentation, Al Gore was “on fire.” His true personality really came through, and I was truly wowed by the man and his passion for the issue he has been educating us all on. In addition, prior to his talk I had been peripherally aware of global warming and the looming climate crisis. However, I had had no idea how large a problem it was nor how immediate. I left that evening feeling a combination of scared yet moved.
The ultimate impact of that night is that shortly afterward I decided to make a major shift in my career. Until then I had been a high-tech entrepreneur, having worked on many different technologies from PC software to digital media and consumer electronics. For the past 18 months I have now shifted my focus completely toward clean energy endeavors that range from consumer conservation and efficiency to some breakthrough new sources of bio-fuel. In short, Al Gore’s talk changed my life in a dramatically positive way. His talk helped me focus my energy on combining all of the things I have wanted to do in my work: Combine exciting technologies, business building and doing something meaningful and socially beneficial. -- Jack Oswald
Al Gore won a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for what is essentially a PowerPoint presentation. More info here.
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As congratulations for Al Gore, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, pour in from the TED community, we asked people who saw Gore's TED2006 presentations to talk about the impact his talks had on them. This is the first in a series, to be posted throughout the day.
Al Gore's talk at TED 2006 was a turning point in my life. -- David S. Rose
I was actually crying for most of it; I could not believe I didn't know that our world was in jeopardy, I couldn't believe how much had already gone wrong without me knowing about it. -- Will Shipley
Al Gore’s talk at TED opened my eyes to what I needed to do for my grandchildren’s generation, and I now consider the impact we have on our earth in every venture we undertake. -- Howard L. Morgan
Gore's TED presentation on the climate crisis was at once riveting and inspiring -- his passion was so evident -- it prompted me to share the talk with our children, and our eldest, Charlie, now 11, has become a one-man global warming marketing machine. Charlie has created his own PowerPoint presentation, which he shares with virtually everyone he meets. -- Jeff Levy
Al Gore was the first to complement our work on Stormblade at his breakfast meeting, which was hugely encouraging and that really spurred me on to persevere, as a result of which we eventually got funding to continue the project which will in the end play a huge role in reducing global carbon emissions. -- Viktor A. Jovanovic
Al Gore's passion for spreading the word about man-made climate change is a signal that humanity still has a chance. -- Ann Willoughby
No one instance in my previous 53 years has clarified my thinking and simultaneously called me both to action and to an appreciation of the momentous importance of an issue like the TED night two years ago when Al Gore gave his Inconvenient Truth presentation. -- Jeff Studley
Lessing not impressed by Nobel Prize
"Doris Lessing pulled up in a black cab where a media horde was waiting Thursday in front of her leafy north London home. Reporters opened the door and told her she had won the Nobel Prize for literature, to which she responded: "Oh Christ! ... I couldn't care less.""
The TEDTalks archive is rich in proof that Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore, speaking at TED and elsewhere, truly has the power to inspire action. Producer and activist Jeff Skoll heard one of Gore's PowerPoint lectures and started the ball rolling on An Inconvenient Truth -- a film and website that became an incredibly effective way to share the message on climate change.
John Doerr, the Silicon Valley financier, talks about a mind-changing conversation (like many of us had after An Inconvenient Truth) -- sitting with friends at a dinner party asking, "What can we do about what Al Gore has told us?" Doerr, it turns out, is doing quite a lot.
Speaker Tony Robbins was moved by the way Gore -- after the legendary disappointment of that 2000 presidential race -- rebounded and found his passion. Look for the moment when Gore and Robbins share a high-five down in the front row.
Majora Carter, meanwhile, offers new ways for Gore to share his passion -- by working with the thousands of people who are cleaning up the environment, starting in their own neighborhoods.
And after hearing Al Gore's first talk at TED, Jill Sobule sat backstage and learned a new song.
TEDBlog: Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize:
This morning in Sweden, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
At TED2006, Gore delivered to a rapt audience the seminal slide show that would later that year form the core of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth. He followed it up with a second talk at the end of the conference showing ways of turning climate concern into action.
Throughout the day we'll be offering tributes to the impact of that speech on those present at TED2006 -- and the way the impact has spread throughout the world.
TEDBlog: Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize:
This morning in Sweden, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
At TED2006, Gore delivered to a rapt audience the seminal slide show that would later that year form the core of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth. He followed it up with a second talk at the end of the conference showing ways of turning climate concern into action.
Throughout the day we'll be offering tributes to the impact of that speech on those present at TED2006 -- and the way the impact has spread throughout the world.
This morning in Sweden, Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
At TED2006, Gore delivered to a rapt audience the seminal slide show that would later that year form the core of his blockbuster documentary An Inconvenient Truth. He followed it up with a second talk at the end of the conference showing ways of turning climate concern into action.
Throughout the day we'll be offering tributes to the impact of that speech on those present at TED2006 -- and the way the impact has spread throughout the world.
