randomwalks/dj

I've become a daily visitor of Meg Tilly's blog.  It's too soon to tell if her website will go the way of many other author websites, which lay stagnant between recent releases, but so far she's been blogging almost daily for the last six months.  She writes with great candor and generosity on a range of topics, from memories of childhood to the stock market to her favorite home recipes.  And, of course, she also writes a great deal about the writing life, and some of my favorite posts in this category recount her experiences on reading tours.  The feedback and compliments she received on a recent tour for the novel Gemma inspired her to record audio versions of her books.  I've never listened to an audiobook before, but for Tilly I made an exception and downloaded Gemma. 

See, before she wrote novels, Meg Tilly was one of my favorite actresses.  She starred in films like The Big Chill, Psycho II, The Two Jakes, and Valmont--and even had a small part in Fame!  But the one I continue to watch, the film that remains just as good now as it was when I first saw it in 1985, is Agnes of God.  In this film, Tilly plays a novitiate who is accused of murdering her newborn child.  For much of the film she is silent, but when she does speak, her voice hovers just above a whisper.  Tilly had--and still has--a distinct, beautiful voice, and it makes listening to Gemma such a satisfying experience, though the story itself is pretty harrowing. 

The novel tells the story of a pedophile and the young woman he's abducted and switches back and forth between their perspectives.  Tilly gives each protagonist a different voice, and though initially I worried that this would shape my experience of the book too much, in the end it helped me to focus and sustain my attention. Though I used to read a lot to my siblings, I never had much patience for being read to.  I was always a fast reader and wanted to rush through stories, to get the end as quickly as possible so I could move to the next book on my nightstand.  This has changed; I've slowed down, in large part because now I study and write about literature, which requires a lot more careful reading.  But I still struggle with being a good listener and staying focused when someone is reading out loud, whether its an academic lecture, a poem, or, in this case, an audiobook.  An engaging delivery style helps.  This is what Tilly brings to her recording (and to her public readings) and it's the secret to most successful readings.  To "engage" can be as simple as giving a word a slight emphasis or looking up momentarily at your audience.  These moments ease the distance between the audience and the podium.  They are signs of presence, and they are crucial to creating a sense of shared participation.  I'm more conscious of this now that I've started to read some of my own work in public. 

Tilly pursued acting after an accident cut short her ballet career.  After several successful films, her focus turned increasingly to her family and to writing.  A lot of her early work was based on her childhood experiences, both good and bad.  These stories became the collection Singing Songs, which was published in 1994.  In a recent, stunning post on the recurrence of "dancing dreams,"  Tilly writes:

Beautiful lines.  A knowledge and wonder that my body, not only remembered how to do these things but there was a stableness and a sure and simple ease.  My extensions went on forever.  There was none of that shakiness or fear that I would screw up or fall off my pointe and land on my butt.  Everything felt absolutely right.  Female, yet not in a showy way.  It was so beautiful.  And I wondered in the dream why I had never been able to dance like this before.  And I realized that it must be all those centering, balancing exercises that I’ve been doing in life.  And I didn’t realize that they would effect my dancing so much.  And I was filled with gratitude.  I woke up feeling blessed.   

A couple of years ago, when I came across an interview with Tilly on Bookslut, I was surprised to learn that she had become a writer.  Now I can't imagine her otherwise.

MORE GOOD LINKS:

*An interview with Tilly on The Debutante Ball
*Some unpublished "bits and pieces" on Tilly's blog
*Live blogging her sister's participation in the LA Poker Classic

Originally posted by Adriana from Stingy Kids, on March 1, 2008 4:57 PM

Examiner column for March 3.

    George and Laura Bush helped inaugurate an arts initiative in schools at an event in the East Room of the White House last week. “Picturing America,” sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, has the goal of bringing history to life for thousands of students by giving them access to high quality reproductions of iconic American paintings and photographs.

    In addition to the White House Press Corps, a small number of education and arts writers from other newspapers and magazines were invited to cover the event. For some of us, it was our first trip to the White House. Throughout the afternoon, I was part reporter covering an event, and part dumbstruck tourist taking in the scene.

    After passing the normal hurdles of gaining entry into the White House, reporters and photographers were escorted through a side door into the crowded area at the back of the East Room, separated by a rope from the invited guests.

    The author Tom Wolfe (“The Right Stuff” and “Bonfire of the Vanities”) was in the audience, wearing his signature white suit, as were Supreme Court Justice Scalia and the Keno twins of Antiques Roadshow fame. Additionally, there were prominent supporters of the arts as well as teachers and students from local schools who have already received the forty reproductions.

    President and Mrs. Bush, right on time as always, entered the room and the President took the podium. He has learned the appeal of self-deprecating humor. He began: “Most of you are renowned scholars, intellectuals, and writers. You've earned reputations for expressing man's noblest deeds and thoughts in pristine, eloquent English. Just like me. “

    The art works are wonderful vehicles through which students will be able to examine, think, and talk about moments in American history. Each large poster is laminated so students can touch them as they share impressions and observations. Where else can school children touch works of art? Learning is often most effective through tactile and visual means and may spark a lifelong interest in the arts.

    As a first time visitor to the White House, my impressions included surprise that the East Room is not bigger. I’ve seen it in press conferences on television for decades, and I pictured it as cold and cavernous--not welcoming and decorated in warm colors.

    The biggest surprises, however, were Laura Bush’s considerable poise (she spoke at length, without notes) and warmth. She was clearly delighted to support “Picturing America” and pointed out, with pride, that one of the forty featured works of art is Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington hanging right next to the podium. She gave out the website address where schools can access the application to receive the reproductions (www.picturingamerica.gov). The deadline is April 15.

    I took pictures with my very unprofessional camera, and loved the image of the chandeliers multiplied infinitely in huge mirrors. I even photographed the rug. But after 30 minutes the event was over, and we were escorted swiftly from the roped area to a basement door.

    Exit White House. But I now have my own pictures of an American icon to remember it by.

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on March 1, 2008 12:16 PM

Snoop Dogg: One Chance (Make It Good)
Upcoming from Ego Trippin'








Producer Frequency - who impressed a lot of heads with his beat for Snoop's "Think About It" is back working with the Doggfather again. He hit us off with this new collaboration, a song from Snoop's upcoming Ego Trippin' album. More soulful goodness - enjoy.

Originally posted by O.W. from soul sides, on March 1, 2008 9:51 AM

Two weeks ago, I posted the faumaxion slippy map, an interactive interpretation of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World Map. I was curious to see whether the continuous re-orientation of the map would be jarring or confusing to users. Based on some helpful feedback, I've updated the map so that the dragging and rotation behaviors are separate. Instead of continuously re-orienting itself to face North for whatever point happens to be in the center of the map during a click-and-drag, a tiny compass rose shows which way the map will rotate itself once the mouse is released. This version feels calmer, and makes for a more predictable (and therefore better?) interaction:

Comments (1)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from tecznotes, on March 1, 2008 9:13 AM

1% of U.S. adults are in prison. “For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety.... [O]ver the same 20-year period... spending on corrections rose 127 percent while higher education expenditures rose just 21 percent.” From the full report: “While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.... The United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populous nation of China.”

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Social Design Notes, on March 1, 2008 8:30 AM

Johnny Lee just gave a two-ovation demo at TED2008 of his amazing Wii Remote hacks -- turning the Wii Remote into a whiteboard tool, a tracking device and even a multi-touch screen.

Here's a link to his site, where you can download the tools >>

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on March 1, 2008 7:40 AM

The top 10 most delicious posts on Serious Eats this week were:

1. I Am Tired of Spreading Cream Cheese on a Bagel for Myself [Required Eating]
2. In Videos: 'I Drink Your Milkshake' on 'Saturday Night Live' [Required Eating]
3. For an Edible Container, Try Bacon Bowls [Required Eating]
4. Kale: The Leafy Green Monster [Recipes]
5. Eating for Two: What to Eat While Pregnant [Required Eating]
6. Sack Lunch: Black Beans and Rice [Recipes]
7. I finally got it....the Cook's Illustrated Recipe to test! [Talk]
8. Can We Save the Honeybees with Ice Cream? [Required Eating]
9. Red Carpet–Worthy Popcorn [Recipes]
10. Depression and Eating [Talk]

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on March 1, 2008 4:00 AM

In the “Around the Majors” segment of his latest article for SI.com, Jon Heyman has the following tidbit on Pedro Martinez.

“Pedro Martinez has been throwing without pain pills or ice. And one longtime Pedro watcher predicts, ‘He’s going to win the Cy Young.’

Meanwhile, Martinez, 36, is telling friends he’d like to play a couple more years but probably not into his 40s. He understand the ball is in the Mets’ court and that he can’t approach them until he proves he’s healthy”

…come on, you can’t predict that and remain anonymous…was it a relative, a coach, just some fan that’s watched pedro over the years…anyway, only pedro’s health is of real concern to me as i’m confident in his ability to be a second ace for the Mets as long as his body lets him…

Originally posted by Chris Mazzone from MetsBlog.com, on February 29, 2008 10:29 PM

Hillary to appear on The Daily Show on primary eve, March 3rd.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 29, 2008 6:50 PM

On one hand, we have Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton, one the one-time lawyer for the President of the United States and the other the former White House Chief of Staff. Both of them were allegedly involved in the White House's firing of U.S. Attorneys who weren't willing to follow along with efforts to discredit or damage Democratic politicians in their districts, and both ignored Congressional subpoenas to provide documents and testify about the dismissals.

On the other hand, we have Roger Clemens, the baseball pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Houston Astros, and New York Yankees. He was allegedly a user of performance-enhancing drugs during much of his baseball career, and gave testimony before a Congressional inquiry into the use of drugs in sports which was directly contradicted by his former trainer.

In what can be said to be one of the most poignant statements about what's wrong with politics and justice in America, the Department of Justice has agreed to investigate whether Roger Clemens lied to Congress, but has refused to investigate Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton for not complying with Congressional subpoenas. The fact that our Executive Branch isn't wiling to hold its own people responsible for abiding by the law is abhorrent; the fact that this is all taking place alongside the same Executive Branch spending its time on the private behavior of athletes competing in games is just the icing on the proverbial cake.

Originally posted by Jason from Q Daily News, on February 29, 2008 3:39 PM

Stephen Colbert handled the three-hour caffeine crisis with great aplomb. Video after the jump.

Colbert Report: Threatdown - Starbucks

Related

Starbucks Barista Reprogramming Successful
In Videos: Colbert Report: People Destroying America - Happy Meal

Originally posted by Raphael from Serious Eats: Main, on February 29, 2008 1:45 PM

Ed Levine says the best gelato in NYC is being served in a tanning salon. My favorite banh mi (and perhaps the best baguette in town) can be found in the back of a jewelry store. Any other odd places to find good food?

(link) (Comment on this)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 29, 2008 12:01 PM

 DJ Bubbles reports on the state of the slice below 14th St in Manhattan and takes a commenter to school (beware, pizza nerdery ahead!):

NYC Food Dude, I checked out your NY Pizza Tour alright - endorsing Bella Napoli and Dean's in the same blog is gross negligence - did you actually eat at these places or just judge them on the picture you took? I sense the force is weak in you. You actually think Bleecker Street is the best pie in West Village? Although, considering that you give props to John's, your tastes might just be out of sorts. We got a term for that where I come from - you're having a WACK ATTACK. Like my man Fred Levine says, you don't know delicious....Class is dismissed -- DJ Bubbles

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from A Full Belly, on February 29, 2008 11:32 AM

Here’s some information on a new project of mine. “Google Alert Loop” uses Google’s free “Blogger” software and “Google Alerts” to create a webblog that auto-publishes itself based on mentions of specific alert topics sent to the email address specified. The idea is to create a self-perpetuating blog that will publish repeatedly until it begins to publish its own mentions into a continuous cycle. The project attempts to question the utility of these automated systems such as “Google Alerts” and how they are being used to aggregate and polarize opinions across the Internet.

More info on the project here.

Originally posted by jonah from coin-operated, on February 29, 2008 11:31 AM

If you’re wondering how a deceased Al Hirschfeld created this No Country for Old Men tribute, and why his trademark signature suddenly seems to be set in a brush script font, that’s because this Hirschfeld piece was created by one Matt Hirschfeld, an artist with no relation other than a similar last name to caricature’s undisputed king. This younger Hirschfeld tries his darndest to mimic the original lines and stylistic choices of his older counterpart, but it takes more than the same last name to match Al Hirschfeld’s nuanced masterpieces.

I’m fine with paying tribute to Hirschfeld, but I’m baffled that an illustrator would base his entire professional output on aping someone else’s unmistakable style. Am I missing something?

Previously on Drawn!: Al Hirschfeld on YouTube

(Thanks, Joshua)

ShareThis

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on February 29, 2008 11:08 AM

Did you know that there's a teensy museum on the moon?

Now I find out there was already an entire Moon Museum, with drawings by six leading contemporary artists of the day: Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, Forrest "Frosty" Myers, Claes Oldenburg, and John Chamberlain. The Moon Museum was supposedly installed on the moon in 1969 as part of the Apollo 12 mission.

I say supposedly, because NASA has no official record of it; according to Frosty Myers, the artist who initiated the project, the Moon Museum was secretly installed on a hatch on a leg of the Intrepid landing module with the help of an unnamed engineer at the Grumman Corporation after attempts to move the project forward through NASA's official channels were unsuccessful.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 29, 2008 11:08 AM

Yogurt World in San Diego needs a little more love in this description.
Here are some reasons why Yogurt World is the BEST BEST place to go for yogurt:
1. They have a sign congratulating themselves - "CONGRATULATIONS TO YOGURT WORLD" - that they kept it up since their opening 2 years ago.
2. Their cows are happier than those other so called wannabe-yogurt places, and the use scientific research along with ancient Chinese secrets to create the best yogurt in the world. And if you don't believe me, they've put it in writing on their wall.
3. They are experts at explaining the nutritional health benefits of daily yogurt intake. It improves your digestion, prevents acne and increases metabolism. Again, if you don't believe me, they hung it up in writing on their wall.
4. They have provided instructions for best practices in Yogurt Nirvana, institutionalizing the practices behind this nebulous art form that has crossed into popular culture. As a result, Yogurt World has democratized access to Yogurt, leading the world in social change one yogurt at a time.
5. The San Diego Convoy location is special becase after you eat the yogurt, you can walk down to the Wow! Photo Sticker Studio and engage in some PuriKura love.
6. One of the their 16 flavors is Taro Cookie - the best!
7. They offer lactose-free boysenberry - so they are ethnically sensitive to those who don't have enzyme to digest milk. You can bring your vegan friends and lactose-intolerant friends along!
8. The owner Michael is unpretentious, warm, and caring business owner. He cares about his client, and has sat down with numerous of times, open to suggestions in architectural design of the next Yogurt World that will open at UCSD!

Originally posted by triciawang from Serious Eats: Posts and Comments by triciawang, on February 29, 2008 10:38 AM

The useful, thoughtful, and funny discussions in Talk keep us clicking, reading, and grinning. Looking back at the week past, here's just a handful of our favorite threads and comments.

• Something I've never cooked before is a...
  "I don't tell people, or myself, 'I'm making puff pastry.' I say, 'This is a project to learn how to make puff pastry.' It seems to remove the pressure of expectations and frees me up to not be perfect." – lemons
• Amish Friendship Bread?
  "If you compliment the baker after sampling this stuff, s/he is obliged to gift you with a bagful of starter that requires 10 days of labor-intensive cultivation, along with stern instructions to pass along three portions of starter after you've baked your bread. For me, that would put the end back in friendship... but maybe that's just me. Have any of you encountered this wacky ritual?" – baboo

• Favorite naughty snack
  "Peanut butter off a fork – I've tried it with a spoon, but that seems a bit too desperate. I'm sure this is my OCD coming out full force, but I don't 'double-dip' the fork. If I want another forkful, I get another clean fork." – Bakerloo Line
• Who partakes in a little fast food action?
  "Many of you preface your confessions by saying, 'Once in a great while...' or, 'I haven't eaten fast food for years, but...' I loved reading these, it's like being a priest and getting to hear people's sins!" – PumpkinBear
• NorthernBBQer found himself up against his wife in Food Network competition, srhcb's "Meatloaf #400" was picked for the Cooking Mama video game... have you ever participated in a cooking/baking contest?
• Athletes and anyone who is physically active: check out Serious Eaters' energy-boosting food suggestions.
• Recommendations for knife sharpeners
  "Don't do it yourself, you'll end up doing more harm than good. Take them to a professional." – cmballa
• What's the worst meal you politely ate as a guest? (Looks like everyone has a mother-in-law story to share...)
• What to do with pesto, substitutes for mayo as a sandwich spread, sage, and baked beans.
• Do you buy foods that you aren't familiar with?

Originally posted by Emily Koh from Serious Eats: Main, on February 29, 2008 10:30 AM

ZiPhone 2.5, a new release of the tool that can jailbreak and unlock iPhones through a graphical interface under both Mac OS X and Windows, has been released in an iPhone 1.1.4-compatible edition. This means that any iPhones with any firmware version — including those that shipped with 1.1.4 out-of-the-box (OTB) can be jailbroken and unlocked. Users who have older firmware versions and wish to use the utility should perform a “restore and update” process in iTunes to bring their iPhones to version 1.1.4, then use one of the ZiPhone routines, including:

• Just jailbreak, don’t touch activation tokens or unlock. You still still need to connect the phone to iTunes to activate (for iPhones used with AT&T or another authorized network)
• Jailbreak, activate, and unlock any version
• Jailbreak and activate, but don’t unlock

After you’ve performed any of the aforementioned processes, Installer.app (a repository and install tool for third-party applications) will be placed on your phone. You should immediately use it to install BSD Subsystem and other tools as mentioned in our guide.

Several iPhone Atlas readers have reported success using this utility. The entire process, including unlocking, takes 5 minutes or less. In the words of one user:

“I can’t believe how easy that was.”

Feedback? info@iphoneatlas.com.

Originally posted by benwilson from iPhone Atlas, on February 29, 2008 9:49 AM

It was quite a week: John McCain forgetting which party he's in, Pat Buchanan and Tucker Carlson saying they're not going to take anti-White Man prejudice any longer, Tim Russert channels angry Iraqi nationalists and so much more ...

Watch this episode on YouTube.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 29, 2008 9:31 AM

Hey readers, after a long winter break that included crashed hard-drives (i back up thankfully -so back yours up now too!), I am beginning to feel the blogging spirit again. I will still cover technology and youth orientated stories, but a lot of the posts will reflect my interests around the 2008 Summer Olympics. Happy readings! -tricia

Technorati Tags: 2008 , beijing, chinese , fuwa, internet, olympics, website

Originally posted by (author unknown) from YouMeiTI 有媒体, on February 29, 2008 8:39 AM

I've had friends ask why I have advertising on my site; After all, it's not like I'm gonna pay the rent with the kind of traffic that a Snoop Dogg fansite drives. Usually, I explain that I just like to understand how that stuff works, to keep up to date with the customers I deal with at work, or just because of curiosity.

But today, I have a much better answer. It's because sometimes that little bit of Google code can make something magical happen.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on February 29, 2008 8:17 AM

I thought you’d never ask, and frankly I was beginning to feel a little hurt that you weren’t. I’m glad we’re BFF again. Let’s liveblog a typical day, shall we? And, yeah, I’m totally aware that this might be the lamest idea ever, but it’s a leap year, so why not?

6:00 AM Wake up. Make Coffee. (Yeah, I capitalize Coffee. I have THAT much respect for it.) Take a shower. Drink Coffee. Check nytimes.com to see if Castro’s dead. Not yet. Was excited that he might die on a leap year. How would you celebrate that? There’s a lt of time left in the day though.

6:30 Wake up the boy. Carry him to the sink. Put toothbrush in his mouth. Splash cold water on his face. Make his lunch.

7:00 Out of house and headed for school. Boy asks me 73 questions during a ten minute cab ride.

8:00 Drop boy off and catch bus across town to the office. Two women across from me are having an animated conversation about Brad, presumably a co-worker, and how much weight he’s lost recently. Really large teenager sits down next to one of them and proceeds to pull a bag our Sour Cream and Onion chips from her lunch bag, eats the chips, then rips the bag completely open and licks it clean. Heavenly.

9:00 First one in the office. Make more Coffee. Check nytimes.com again. Castro still not dead. Check Flickr. Still down. Check Twitter. Still weird. Decide internet wants me to liveblog my day. Of course it does.

9:30 Asking Dave if this is a stupid idea. Dave says it’s funny, which makes me think I don’t really trust Dave as much as I thought I did.

9:35 Wondering how feasible it is to grab the names from the Mitchell Report and make a “<$player name> IS ON STEROIDS.” single-serving site. Wonder if that amounts to libel? Calling Gabe the Lawyer.

9:38 Raisin Bran is like magic.

Originally posted by Mike Monteiro from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on February 29, 2008 7:06 AM

story link: Ransom.

Originally posted by hello@rocketboom.com (Rocketboom) from Rocketboom, yea!, on February 29, 2008 7:00 AM

Apperceptive, the little engine that runs a large chunk of the professional blogosphere, gets a nice shout-out from Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall.

One other point I should note: because of our size and resources, we've never been able to field close to the hardware resources behind the site as would be called for with the scale of traffic we get (to give you a sense, we now regularly get traffic equal to what we got on election night 2006, and almost four times what we got on election night 2004). That's required some custom tinkering to keep our blog train from going off the server rails. Now, we've gotten some nice praise recently for the stuff our team has published at TPM. But literally none of it would be possible without the engine the folks at Apperceptive have built for us that keeps the words streaming off our keyboards on to your computer screens.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 29, 2008 6:52 AM

In a report by SI.com earlier this week, Nationals OF Lastings Milledge made a few comments directed at the Mets.

According to Newsday, the Mets not happy about Milledge’s comments, such as David Wright, who said…

“Enough is enough. You’re a Washington National now. Don’t worry about what happened last year or the year before that. Just go out there and try to help the Nationals win. It makes no sense to bash your former team. He just needs to turn the page and worry about helping the Washington Nationals. Forget about what we’re doing over here. Forget about the New York Mets.”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on February 29, 2008 6:08 AM

February 29th is a day that plays hard-to-get, but that’s what makes it special. The next one won’t be until 2012, so make the most of it and do something memorable!

(Oh, and Happy Birthday to all the Leaplings out there.)

Photo from Today is a good day.

Originally posted by Fiona Miller from Flickr Blog, on February 29, 2008 4:07 AM

Can John McCain, born outside the 50 United States in the Panama Canal Zone, hold the office of President?

Mr. McCain is not the first person to find himself in these circumstances. The last Arizona Republican to be a presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, faced the issue. He was born in the Arizona territory in 1909, three years before it became a state. But Goldwater did not win, and the view at the time was that since he was born in a continental territory that later became a state, he probably met the standard.

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Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 29, 2008 3:42 AM

According to Ken Rosenthal from FOXSports.com, “Mets officials remain divided on free-agent right-hander Kyle Lohse.”

Rosenthal adds, “The buzz among scouts on the East Coast of Florida is that the Cardinals are pursuing Lohse, but sources indicate that the team is not interested.”

…the buzz among scouts on the East Coast…i love it…

…if Orlando Hernandez will be on this team, than i just don’t see how the Mets can tie themselves up with a guaranteed contract for lohse…if, however, el duque is not on the team – and i have no idea how that would happen, short of him disintegrating, which does seem more and more possible every day – only then does a one-year deal for lohse start to make a whole lot of sense…

Speaking of Hernandez, according to the New York Post, he told reporters yesterday that a toe ligament and painful bunion on his right foot are keeping him from pitching batting practice or in a game.

…seriously, i am losing count of what ails this guy…first it’s a bunion, then it’s a dislocated toe, back to the bunion, plus a ligament, plus a root canal…i mean, how does he even get out of bed in the morning…i’m in pain just reading about it…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on February 29, 2008 3:18 AM

Carmen sent a link to the lamp above -- made of measuring tapes! So cool.

Cel sent this link to "Make It Yourself": Home Sewing, Gender, and Culture, 1890–1930 by Sarah A. Gordon -- really worth looking at.

Jay at CLMP let me know about Sonya Naumann's great art project: Thousand Dollar Dress. Sonya is taking pictures of a thousand different people wearing her thousand-dollar wedding dress! Genius.

If you want to make the world a better place for women, I can't imagine a more satisfying place to put your money: Goods4Girls gives reusable "sanitary supplies" (that is, menstrual pads) to girls in Africa, because if they don't have them, they can't go to school. (And regular paper products, when they can get them, can't be disposed of safely.) I suggest donating a week's worth of pads, if you can; they don't take direct cash donations but offer a list of suppliers who will make them and send them to Goods4Girls for you (they also offer instructions to make your own).

"The untidiness men find repugnant ... the carelessness men can't stand ...". Thanks to Deborah for the link (and check out her magnificent coat on the cover of Vogue Knitting)!

Nikkie, the curator the Fort Morgan Museum in Fort Morgan, Colorado, is looking for help; they are having an exhibit this fall on the WPA (Works Progress Administration, later the Works Projects Administration) and its impact on Morgan County. One of the local WPA works in Morgan County was a Sewing Project, where simple, serviceable apparel was made and then distributed as part of the relief efforts. If you have any of the standard patterns used for the WPA program, or any finished clothing items, and would be willing to lend them to the museum, would you contact her through the link above?

Jezebella sent in this skirt. Please click that link to see the best and most hilarious pocket ever.

Julie sends in these very nice paper dolls ...

Rita made a vintage-patterns video!

Hilarious 1950s Atlantic piece on the sameness of women's magazines ... [via Faking Good Breeding]

Elisa (aka The Mad Fashionista) was in the NYT! Congratulations!

Nora sends a link to Etsy seller Jane Bon Bon who makes GORGEOUS skirts and dresses, including plus-size. Marvelous appliqué. She makes stuff to order, with no extra charge for plus-size and her prices are very reasonable for custom work!


Remember, if you want to send me a link for Linktastic Fridays (no promises!): 1) email me links to pictures, not the pictures themselves, if at all possible; 2) if it's your auction/site/whatever, please disclose; 3) tell me if you want your name (and how much of it) attached to the link and linked to your site, if applicable. Thank you!

Originally posted by Erin from A Dress A Day, on February 29, 2008 2:27 AM

Ian Baird recently released Changes which is an application to show differences between two folders and merge these intelligently.

I know this is not an uncommon task among many TextMate users, as I have received quite a lot of requests for building such functionality — Changes of course has TextMate integration, so this application will hopefully satisfy a lot of you.

Version 1.0 of Changes is available for $39.95 (free trial) but if you use TEXTMATE0308 as coupon code you can get it for $29.95 (offer lasts throughout March 2008).

Originally posted by Allan Odgaard from TextMate Blog, on February 28, 2008 8:31 PM

Oh boy, new toys! pQuery (See also pQuery ). I'm not a big fan of jQuery, but pQuery should keep me busy this weekend 8^))

Read more of this story at use Perl.

Originally posted by renodino (posted by brian_d_foy) from use Perl, on February 28, 2008 7:31 PM

Interesting post from Vladimir Vukićević on the private-to-Apple system APIs that Safari uses, along with a two-line plist change Vukićević used to dramatically improve scrolling performance in Firefox 3 on Mac OS X. Don’t miss Dave Hyatt’s response in the comments. (Thanks to Nick Matsakis.)

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on February 28, 2008 6:58 PM

The TED Prize has a brand-new homepage, where you can read all about our 2008 winners, and find out ways to start helping their wishes come true.

Look here for wishes from Dave Eggers, Neil Turok, and Karen Armstrong.

Take a look and start granting these wishes big enough to change the world >>

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on February 28, 2008 6:00 PM

America's fat problem: "I say unto you: Fat is good! Fat is necessary. Ask any chef. Fat does not make you fat, eating too much makes you fat! We aren’t filling our bodies with sodium because of the box of kosher salt we use to season our food, we’re doing it with all the processed food that’s loaded with hidden salt. And American cooks and American diners need to understand the differences."

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on February 28, 2008 4:00 PM

Do you want more Lindsay Lohan photos? Do we even have to ask? Here are some of the outtakes (shot by Jeremy Scott) from Lindz's PAPER cover shoot.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on February 28, 2008 1:29 PM

Most current polls show Barack Obama taking the lead in Texas, but one pollster argues that Hillary Clinton has in fact regained the momentum in the race. Here are the latest InsiderAdvantage numbers, compared to their previous poll from Monday:

Clinton 47% (+1)
Obama 43% (-4)

The internals show Hillary expanding her lead among Latinos, holding steady among whites, dropping slightly with women but making gains among men.

"If these trends continue over the coming days, then it might be fair to say the race is slowly drifting Clinton's way," said pollster Matt Towery, a former close aide to Newt Gingrich. "For now, I think it's at least fair to say that has turned momentum, to some degree, back in her direction."

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on February 28, 2008 1:26 PM

I get a LOT of press releases, all clamoring for me to push something on this blog. Somehow last year I made it to some list of the Top Fifty Fashion Blogs (number 37! represent!) and now everyone and her intern has my email address.

Now, I don't mind a GOOD pitch, but I don't get very many of those. (Most of the good pitches are for books, which is probably because book publicists actually READ.)

I do mind a BAD pitch. What makes a pitch bad? Lots of things. The worst are pitches that make it embarrassingly apparent that the pitch-er has never read my blog before. Do I feature jewelry consistently? No. What makes you think I will start doing so for your product? Do I breathlessly report the doings and wearings of starlets? No again. So why would I be interested in your report of a C-list personage involved with your product in some way? And, more importantly, why would the people who read this blog be interested?

Sending out hundreds of badly-worded, badly-targeted pitches is spamming, no more, no less. What really gets me is that these poor designers are brainwashed into thinking they need to PAY these clueless "PR reps" to piss off bloggers and editors for them. It's shameful. (If the goal was to piss off editors and bloggers it'd be cheaper and more fun for the designer to just go around and egg everyone's houses.)

A little while back I got this pitch. (Client name blocked out to avoid giving them any publicity, even the bad kind.)

Check out our exclusive photo of Rumor Willis wearing a $32,000 ring, designed by ------ -----, the hottest jewelry designer out there.

[note: I have never heard of this designer.]

The ring is almost 4CT in diamonds! Rumor drooled over the ring when she recently stopped by ----- show room.

We would love to see this photo on your awesome blog! You guys do a great job!
Call/email me with any questions..

Kate Long
PeakPR Group

Yep, that was the whole release, word-for-word, and exactly as sent to me (minus client name and rep's contact info). First of all, there was no link to the photo to "check out." If I WERE interested, I'd have to write back for it. Dumb. (Of course, that's much better than the PR reps who insist on cluttering my inbox with eight .jpgs all named things like JPG001.jpg!)

My blog is called A DRESS A DAY. I write about sewing and vintage: not exactly an upscale lifestyle. Why are you sending me press releases for hugely expensive diamond rings? My last CAR didn't cost $32K.

Also -- "Rumor" Willis? If even I, disassociated as I am from tabloid culture, know that her name is spelled "Rumer," how dumb do YOU look?

And Rumer is famous solely because Ashton Kutcher is her step-dad. This does not mean she is a style arbiter. Again: why should I (or anyone) care?

One more thing: It's pretty apparent that I write this whole blog all by my lonesome. Why use "you guys"?

For some dumb reason (I blame low blood sugar) I replied to this PR missive, pointing out the above errors, explaining that their releases did not inspire confidence in their services or their clients' products, and asking to be taken off their list.

Then, I got this gem back:

My intern sent that, thanks for pointing it out.

[Worst. Excuse. Ever. So you're charging your clients ... for work done by interns? That you evidently didn't check? And you're advertising this fact? It's not the intern's fault, if she is an intern. It's yours.]

By the way your English have been "are not applicable."

[I wrote "I'm the only person writing [my blog], so "you guys" is not applicable." Which is less correct than the sentence above, apparently.]

Also, we rep 160 retail stores, so we are very inspired..

[Quantity equals quality! We all know that.]

They happen include major leading fashion designers.

[That sentence no verb.]

Clearly you should be more polite regarding a simple spell check, it is clear your blog is amateur,

[Which is why ... you wanted me to feature your client on my amateur blog?]

you never know the help one needs on the way up. Politeness is the door to success.

Sincerely,
Christine Peake,
CEO, PEAKPR GROUP.

That last bit just kills me. I always assumed KNOWING HOW TO DO YOUR JOB was the door to success; politeness just oils the hinges of that door. I think Ms. Peake and her PEAKPR group are pushing (hard) on a door marked PULL.

This (replying to stupid pitches pointing out their stupidity and asking to not be sent any more stupid pitches) probably falls under the heading of not teaching pigs to sing (it wastes your time and annoys the pig). But, damn, rank incompetence annoys me! How hard is it to do a little RESEARCH? Spend a little time reading?

For a much better rant on this subject, check out Chris Anderson's. Be sure to read all the comments for your RDA of other-people's-cluelessness.

Originally posted by Erin from A Dress A Day, on February 28, 2008 1:20 PM

What would it be like to see life through someone else's eyes? Film provides that opportunity. Watch the powerful new Pangea Day trailer, on YouTube, and share with your family and friends.

This film is part of Pangea Day, May 10, 2008 -- a four-hour film festival happening all around the world. It grew from the TED Prize wish of 2006 winner Jehane Noujaim.

Visit PangeaDay.org to find out how to join in >>

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on February 28, 2008 12:30 PM

Well, not 48 hours after Joan Morgan's Vibe.com interview with Hillary Clinton went live, her campaign staff issued the following statement.

You might remember that the Vibe cover and website followups we did on Obama last year hammered at felon disenfranchisement and disproportionate incarceration, among other hip-hop gen issues.

No she doesn't sound like Angela Davis. But especially for us older hip-hop gen activists who're used to simply being ignored or attacked, it's interestingto see how far Clinton and Obama--and by extension, the Dems--have come in terms of seeing the hip-hop generation and its issues as important enough to address...

Statement from Hillary Rodham Clinton

"America's prison population has grown at a staggering rate over the past quarter century. A new report now reveals a staggering and heart-breaking statistic: One in 100 American adults is currently behind bars. Our incarceration rate is several times greater than that of any other developed country. To state it plainly, the 1-in-100 figure represents a failure of our society at a number of levels. And the cost – to our families, to our communities, and to state budgets to the tune of almost $50 billion – are simply too great to bear. Many of those costs are borne disproportionately by minority communities: One in 15 African American adults is behind bars, and one in 36 Hispanic adults. We need a President who will be tough on crime, but smart about it too. A President who will take innovative steps to ensure our crime policies are reducing crime in the long run so that we have fewer victims of crime and fewer prisoners.

"To reverse this alarming trend, interventions are needed before crimes are committed, before offenders are shipped to prison, during their terms of incarceration, and as they are released and begin to reintegrate themselves into our communities. I will work to deter crime by re-investing in our communities, re-invigorating the COPS program, and putting 100,000 new officers committed to community policing into neighborhoods across America. Studies have shown that the COPS program deters crime. And I will close the revolving prison door by reforming our sentencing policies, promoting effective alternatives to incarceration, and investing in new "second chance" Reentry Partnership Grants to support reformed offenders and reduce recidivism. The solutions are within our grasp. What we need now is leadership, and that's what I'll provide."

Originally posted by Zentronix from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric, on February 28, 2008 12:13 PM

"Some days I just want to have my day and not have to deal. This morning I got in the car and I was like, not today. It's a job in itself... and I'm the last person who feels that I need to get photographed." Boys and girls, it's The Lindsay Lohan Cover!! Read the whole article here.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on February 28, 2008 11:59 AM

The following post is from our advertiser, Campaign for New York's Future.


Photo of crowded subway by Nick Whitaker

Overcrowded subways, packed buses, gridlocked streets, and polluted air: just part of life in New York City? With a million more people on the way, these nuisances are poised to become a problem large enough to bring our city to a screeching halt.

Tell your state legislators to pass congestion pricing and bring traffic relief and transit improvements to New York City:

Prefix:* Mr. Mrs. Ms. Dr. First Name:* Last Name:* Email:* * Required Fields

Address Line 1:* Address Line 2: City:* State:* AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY Zip:*

Read the full letter and edit it.

By submitting this form, you agree to receive periodic news and action alerts from the Campaign for New York's Future

After months of research and hearings across the city, an independent traffic commission created by the state legislature has proposed an answer to New York’s transit dilemma: a new congestion pricing plan that will:
• Cut commute times by improving mass transit service and unclogging roads
• Achieve real traffic reductions in all five boroughs
• Reduce air pollution and global warming emissions
• Create reliable revenue streams to finally get the transit system back into good repair and also fund the new transit options and system expansion we need

It’s estimated that one million new residents will move to New York City by 2030. Let’s make sure our roads and mass transit systems are ready for them.

Originally posted by Sponsor from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on February 28, 2008 11:46 AM

As you know, for seven or eight months now, we've been slowly redesigning and retooling our entire network of sites -- first with TPM and the news section we rolled out mid-2007 and now with all of our sites. So I wanted to take a moment to note the work of the outfit we've been working with on this on-going project: Apperceptive.com.

TPM has always been a tiny operation run by the skin of our collective teeth. So this has been the first time we've had the resources to go to industry standard experts on the publishing platform we operate on (Movable Type) -- something that the size of our audience and operation has now made essential. The change in the graphics and layout are obvious, if you're a longtime reader. What's less clear is that the way the site functions on the back-end is vastly more complex (with the news section, comments, the way the sites are now integrated together) than was the case in any of the earlier iterations of the site. One other point I should note: because of our size and resources, we've never been able to field close to the hardware resources behind the site as would be called for with the scale of traffic we get (to give you a sense, we now regularly get traffic equal to what we got on election night 2006, and almost four times what we got on election night 2004). That's required some custom tinkering to keep our blog train from going off the server rails.

Now, we've gotten some nice praise recently for the stuff our team has published at TPM. But literally none of it would be possible without the engine the folks at Apperceptive have built for us that keeps the words streaming off our keyboards on to your computer screens. So they come with our strong recommendation. And if you're looking for people who do this kind of work I'd be happy to answer your questions about our experience.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 28, 2008 11:38 AM

Having trouble baking pizza to the perfect crispiness or churning out a crusty loaf of bread in your home kitchen? Maybe you should try the Cuisinart Brick Oven Deluxe, a one cubic foot-sized oven with brick built into the walls and a removable stone base. After using the oven, Gina Provenzano at The Epi-Log said, "Everything you bake in it comes out with a crispy, flaky exterior and a chewy, delicious interior because the stone holds heat and distributes it more uniformly."

Originally posted by Robyn Lee from Serious Eats: Main, on February 28, 2008 10:30 AM

A recent thread on the cgi-app mailing list discussed testing that are really worth noting.

The key statement came from Jason Purdy when he said:

My advice would be to factor your code such that the code is separated into a testable module.

I admit to being slow to developing tests for my work once I did I came to realize that this statement above to be very true. Once writing tests where introduce in to my development process it changed how I wrote the code, not only to make writing tests easier and more thorough, but for the betterment of the code.

I’ve yet to break the habit of writing code and then the tests. (Testing advocates suggest you write tests upfront.) This one has been harder for me because often start from existing code, experimenting and capturing ideas that slowly gets molded into working code. On a few occasions I had a written a piece of code before I realized I was doing it.

I’m strange though and this is not an argument or excuse to follow good form.

Bill Costa concurs and expands on Jason’s statement:

This is excellent advice. Try and write your ‘back end’ modules so that a browser is not needed to exercise them. Then for testing you write a simple script that can be executed from the command line to fully test all of the services provided by your module. It then becomes a much simpler matter to create a test script that probes all of the expected operations as well as the boundary conditions and even pathological cases. In other words, don’t assume that service will always be given sane data from the front end. Test for possible inputs that “should never happen”.

The book cited earlier will help you write those command line test scripts in a very efficient manner using well established and vetted test harness modules.

“The book” here is Perl Testing: A Developer’s Notebook by Ian Langworth and chromatic. Like others in the thread, I recommend it if you really want to learn about testing in Perl.

Bill continued:

An added benefit to this approach is, when you later have to make a change to one of these modules, you can run your tester to make sure you didn’t accidentally break something else in the process.

In this way testing the final app itself should be more about usability testing with humans rather than actually trying to test the correct functioning of lower level functions through the app’s web interface.

Agreed. It’s an ideal that all developers should aspire to achieve. It’s easier said then done, but I do believe it pays dividends the closer you get to this ideal.

After starting to write tests for my CPAN modules I decided that I wanted something for my MT plugins — especially the big and involved ones like Feeds.App and Tags.App. I ended up creating my own testing framework for MT that has a lot of room for improvement, but works pretty well and gets the job done. The framework was written for MT3 systems and then quickly hacked to support both MT3 and MT4. It’s available under the Artistic License like Perl. Contributions are always welcome.

Originally posted by Timothy Appnel from Code / Appnel Solutions, on February 28, 2008 9:37 AM

WSJ today gives overview of social networking sites getting into business of producing online video. Article features three shows:

- Kate Modern, a mystery on social networking site Bebo.
- Roommates, a soap opera on MySpace TV
- Special Delivery, a hidden camera reality show on MySpace TV.

It notes that while MySpace and Bebo push into original content, Facebook hasn't and other internet companies - AOL and Yahoo, specifically - are backing away from it.

Article doesn't disclose budget for KATE MODERN but says Bebo sells sponsorships at $400,000 for six months.

Claims production budgets for Roommates and Special Delivery are about $1000 per minute.

Article also notes that the shows themselves aren't very profitable to their writer / producers, who are portrayed as doing internet stuff to build assets and relationships "in a bigger entertainment medium."

If you've watched these shows, use the comments to tell us what you think.

If you've had experience trying to sell a show to Bebo or MySpace or any other company investing in internet original content, tell us what can about the process: deal points, budgets, development process.

WSJ article also links to excellent post by Kara Swisher where she takes Hollywood to task - creative talent as well as the companies - for being risk-averse and lazy and for making "Web material that clearly is derivative of current media like television, rather than [trying] to imagine a whole new way of creating content that reflects and excels on the online platform."

Originally posted by United Hollywood from United Hollywood, on February 28, 2008 8:53 AM

Obama's drug use. Hillary's marriage. McCain's lobbyist. The New York Times made weird decisions in all three. What gives?

Originally posted by Jay Rosen from PressThink, on February 28, 2008 8:47 AM

Yesterday Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn posted this photo of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, as seen at 8:45 a.m.

"With Atlantic Yards's 17,000 new residents, and an 18,000 seat arena in use approximately 220 days per year, this gridlock would be the good ol' days," DDDB said.

Without major changes it won't get better for pedestrians or cyclists either. On Tuesday a woman was killed one block away, at Atlantic and Fort Greene Place.

(more...)

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on February 28, 2008 7:55 AM

"The underlying assumption is that we can help solve the world's big problems by putting a bunch of interesting people in a room and talking about stuff. We can't. In fact, exactly the opposite is true."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 28, 2008 5:54 AM

Ursus maritimus (Polar Bear) - a photoset on Flickr.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on February 28, 2008 5:07 AM

A comparison of Owen Wilson's roles in Wes Anderson films and his real-life goings-on.

Mapping the idea of "life imitating art" onto Owen Wilson's biography and Wes Anderson's films reveals their startling convergence. As Anderson's works increasingly addressed themes of depression, psychiatric treatment, and "hitting bottom," so too did Wilson's life chart a course towards collapse. Wilson's characters in Anderson's early films-the sublime geniuses born of commingling depression, emotion and creativity-gradually give way to caricatured objects of psychoanalytic explication.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 28, 2008 4:47 AM

• Pricing Opponents Try to Make MTA Capital Plan a Talking Point (Newsday, NYT)
• 2nd Ave Sagas Breaks Down the Plan
• Bloomberg: I Won't Run for President (NYT)
• Anti-Pricing Bloc Gathering Strength in Assembly (Post)
• Pro-Pricing PR Campaign Hits the Subways (Queens Courier)
  
• More on 2nd Avenue Subway Lag (AMNY, Post)
• Repairs in Store for Unsafe Station Platforms (AMNY)
• Mayor Announces Fuel Efficiency Standards for Black Cars (NYT, Post, NY1, Sun)
  
• City Council Approves Scaled-Down Green Carts Bill (Post, Sun)
• New Yorker With Out-of-State Plates Says His Parking Tickets Are Bogus (News)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on February 28, 2008 3:25 AM

It all started with a NY Times reporter-blogger's ride on the DC Metro. The Times' Jennifer 8. Lee spied a poster in a Metro subway car, showing a rat along with the copy (emphasis is ours): "Unlike some subway systems (which will remain nameless), you don’t see rats the size of house cats roaming the Metro. Why not? Because we are so strict about eating and drinking in the system. So help us keep the critters away. Please don’t eat or drink on the Metro.”

Lee bristled that the Metro would taunt NYC about our unofficial mascot, (even though a Metro spokesman denied the ad was referring to NYC) noting, "It’s a little out of form for another city to needle another about our rats," and proceeded to take down D.C., ending with, "City Room will say, sure, Washington’s system may be rat-free, but its subway map also has all the sophistication of Fisher Price."

Oh, snap! Our Beltway sibling DCist took umbrage, as did its readers. Possibly the most withering comment (and there are many!) is from DCist commenter monkeyrotica:

Who the f**k wants a sophisticated subway map? WTF does that even mean? I'm thinking something in an a nice font like Trajan with pictures of sea serpents around Rockaway with a scroll in their mouth that says, "Here There Be Monsters."

Welcome to Dumbassville (aka Park Slope). Population: you.Ouch, but love the idea of scroll-bearing sea serpents near Rockaway. Anyway, it's a reminder of the simmering feuds between urban centers - and between NYC subway map designs (Kick Map versus the current design).

And some thoughts on how NYC's subway system stacks up against the world (three words: Twenty-four hours).

Originally posted by Jen Chung from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on February 28, 2008 2:38 AM

In my mind, it seemed perfect: Technologists and transit-enthusiasts coming together to rethink the transit experience. A chance to bring the experience design gospel to an industry in need. Brimming with missionary zeal, my transportation planner husband and I headed off to the Bay Area TransitCamp.

I wasn’t prepared for the culture shock. My idealism was greeted by a ragtag bunch consisting of khaki-clad engineers, frumpy transit riders and suit-wearing transit officials. The engineers preached the possibilities of open-source data. White-haired transit riders screeched frustrations about their particular pet issues. And the transit officials defended cuts to bathroom-cleaning with the hard, cold facts of their bureaucratic reality.

Welcome to TransitCamp.

Could this possibly be the crowd that would transform transit? It felt like anarchy. “No complaints without solutions” was the only rule, and organizer Tara Hunt had to reiterate it again and again. Yet as idealism and realism collided, something impressive happened. We learned from one another. iPhone app developers learned that 40% of riders are below the poverty line. Cost-conscious officials learned that dozens of techies are eager to develop solutions–for free.

I realized that making a difference requires a humble and listening posture. Transit is an interdisciplinary problem that requires interdisciplinary understanding. While it produced interesting ideas, TransitCamp’s greatest triumph was fostering an atmosphere of learning and collaboration between unlikely bedfellows.

Share This

Originally posted by Alexa from Adaptive Path, on February 27, 2008 9:07 PM

“Work as if we are living in the early days of a better nation," quotes Commissioner Sam Adams from Scottish writer Alasdair Gray in his fantastic new campaign video. Watch it here.

Oh, and if you missed it before, here's another great reason to vote for Sam.

Originally posted by Valarie Smith from Crazed Teacups, on February 27, 2008 7:11 PM

Icky A. New Orleans Series Set of four 2-color silk screen prints 18" x 24" each $60 This is a series of images I made for the Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (a kick ass group who has done environmental justice work in Louisiana for awhile but has been doing a lot since Katrina). They were originally used for a poster/education campaign trying to apply the United Nations's laws for "Internally Displaced Peoples" to survivors of Katrina. I was really honored to get to do images for this group and this campaign. There are four images in this group, they are also being sold individually. 50% of the proceeds of these posters will benefit some group in New Orleans doing work down there (I'll post the info here when I work out who it is).

Originally posted by icky from Just Seeds, on February 27, 2008 6:26 PM

In a guest column in the New York Times, Mike Bloomberg has now confirmed yet again, but in more detailed terms, that he will not be running for president.

"I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president," Bloomberg writes. "I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate."

Bloomberg left open the possibility that he would endorse one of the current candidates for president, if he saw a candidate who "takes an independent, nonpartisan approach — and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy."

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on February 27, 2008 5:25 PM

Engagdet points to an award winning Australian student design for an e-book reader that combines the gesture-based "multi-touch" interface of the iPhone with the e-ink display of the Kindle.

LIVRE design concept — Nedzad Mujcinovic, Monash University

"Interaction happens via a thin capacitive touch screen mounted on top of an electronic paper screen ('eINK'). Browsing pages happens by striking the screen from right bottom corner towards the centre of page to go forward or from the left hand corner to go backwards. Doing that using one finger will browse one page, two will browse ten pages and three will browse fifty pages at a time."

If simple reenactment of basic black-and-white, illustration-light print reading is your goal, I'd say that this is a far more viable proposition than Amazon's clunky gadget. (Thanks, Peter Brantley, for the link!)

Originally posted by ben vershbow from if:book, on February 27, 2008 1:02 PM

A couple years ago I made a very small video application called "Colors". This video came out of my interest in wanting to make something using slit scan. This is a very common and quite easy technique where basically something is photographed through a slit. After spending some time trying to teach myself how quicktime works and how video is displayed on a modern computer, I finally ended up with Colors. Anyway, basically Colors is a small application that will play any quicktime movie using a slit scan technique one line at a time starting from the top. Personally, for my version, I used it to play the movie Colors by Dennis Hopper (to play every color in the movie takes 33 days). So here is the program in case anyone is bored, has some time on their hands, and wants to try it at home.

Requirements: Intel Macintosh.
1. Download this. (Intel Macintosh Application)
2. Get yourself Colors on DVD if you would like my version. Note: it can play any movie so knock yourself out, suggestions include "Stripes" (thx hanne), "The Color Purple", etc, etc, you get the idea).
3. Rip this movie to your hard-drive. I would suggest using Mac the Ripper (to get the movie on your drive), and then Mpeg Streamclip (to save it as a quicktime movie)
4. Rename the quicktime version of your movie you have put on your harddrive colorsall.mov, and place it in the same directory as the "colors" app you have downloaded above.
5. Double Click and enjoy.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Cory's Web LOG, on February 27, 2008 12:53 PM

The Museum of the City of New York is offering Streetsblog readers free admission to what should be an interesting panel discussion tomorrow evening: "Spotlight on Design: Innovation in New York's Streets." Here's more on the event:

Join Deborah Marton, Executive Director of the Design Trust for Public Space, for a dynamic conversation exploring the intersection of design, innovation, sustainability, and accessibility in New York's public realm. From bicycle-friendly streets and redesigned taxis to blossoming arts and cultural neighborhoods, this is your chance to speak with the experts about the latest projects and innovations shaping our lives. Panelists include: Ryan Russo, Director of the Bike and Pedestrian Planning Unit of NYC Department of Transportation; Andrew Salkin, First Deputy Commissioner, NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission; Davin Stowell, CEO and founder of Smart Design; Susan Chin, FAIA, Assistant Commissioner, Capital Projects, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; and Mary Ceruti, Executive Director, Long Island City Sculpture Center.

The event kicks off at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, 1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street. General admission is $9, but to get in free, make an advance reservation by calling (212) 534-1672, ext. 3395.

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on February 27, 2008 10:00 AM

It seems that every time I step into a liquor store, a new gin has appeared on the shelf, from new formulas promoted by established liquor giants to microdistilled boutique gins flavored with ambitious—and sometimes unpleasant—new combinations of botanicals.

But as Jason Wilson pointed out last week in the Washington Post, many gin and cocktail aficionados are ignoring the new gins in favor of something old: in this case, a gin known as genever.

Earthier, heavier, sweeter, and oftentimes more flavorful than the more familiar London dry gins, genever is the venerable ancestor to the now ubiquitous British tipple. Produced in the Netherlands and with a rich cultural history there, genever is also pretty obscure almost everywhere else. While brands such as Boomsma and Zuidam can be found in well-stocked liquor stores in some larger cities, genever is mostly absent from the U.S. market (for his article, Wilson flew to Amsterdam to satisfy his appetite for genever).

Of course, it wasn’t always this way. In his recent book Imbibe!, cocktail historian David Wondrich reminds readers that many 19th century recipes that call for gin as an ingredient were designed with the complex flavor of the then-common genever in mind. And fortunately, domestic distillers may be satisfying some of the demand that Dutch exporters aren’t addressing: last fall, San Francisco-based Anchor Distilling released limited quantities of Genevieve, an artisan-distilled genever-style gin.

Me, I’m a big fan of what genever can do in a glass. Who else has tried this distinctive gin? Which types are your favorites?

About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.

Originally posted by Paul Clarke from Serious Eats: Main, on February 27, 2008 10:00 AM

Cory Arcangel has released the Macintosh software that powers his “Colors” piece (first shown at Team in ‘06). Now anyone can make the work themselves.

Get it from his web site!

Originally posted by T.Whid from MTAA Reference Resource, on February 27, 2008 8:48 AM

Radar rounds up the decade's most misogynistic movies

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Radar Online Features, on February 27, 2008 6:55 AM

If you're up to date, it's not a spoiler, it's a "sweetener."

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on February 27, 2008 6:18 AM

“FETCH, nano!”

Photo from petit hiboux.

Originally posted by Heather Champ from Flickr Blog, on February 27, 2008 6:16 AM

Nintendo has just announced release dates for the newest Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games; Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. Unlike the previous Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games these will only be on the Nintendo DS and will available on 04/20/08.

From Nintendo:

In this pair of action-packed adventures, players journey as actual Pokémon through a fantastic land untouched by humans. Before the game starts, players take a test to help them figure out which of 16 Pokémon best represents their personalities. Players then experience their adventure through the eyes of a Pokémon as they explore the land and embark on an epic journey through time and darkness. They talk and team up with other Pokémon to set out on an epic voyage while navigating an endless array of randomly generated dungeons.

More than 490 Pokémon populate these new games, guaranteeing strategic, intense battles and infinite possibilities, no matter which Pokémon players become. To widen their circle of Pokémon friends, Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection lets users engage in wireless rescue operations and send alerts to their friends via e-mail or mobile text message.

“Only the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series lets players experience the thrill of actually becoming a Pokémon character,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “It’s a unique perspective that delights both longtime Pokémon fans and newcomers alike.”

Fans of the two previous Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, will marvel at the greatly enhanced graphics, new story and grand adventure in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. For Game Boy® Advance owners, the fresh look and wireless aspects of these new Pokémon titles provide even more reasons to upgrade to Nintendo DS. And best of all for budget-conscious parents, Nintendo DS is also able to play the entire library of Game Boy Advance games.

I enjoyed the last two Mystery Dungeon games (for a while) but what I found lacking was the multi-player component of Pokemon games. No breeding, battling or trading was present in the first run of these games.

I am very curious to see how the wireless connectivity of these new games pan out.

Originally posted by HMTKSteve from Poke Farm, on February 27, 2008 5:58 AM

I gotta say, this idea -- a professor intentionally introducing a single falsehood into each of his lectures, challenging the class to find it and expose it -- is pretty great for a slew of reasons. Given a sufficiently dedicated group of students (e.g., students who chose the class for a purpose, rather than those who were forced to take the class to fulfill an otherwise-meaningless requirement), it gets the class thinking about the material with a more critical mindset, it exposes areas of the material with unnecessary or unexplained ambiguity, and it serves to reinforce the fact that no teacher should be immune to having his or her lessons challenged by students.

Very smart.

Originally posted by Jason from Q Daily News, on February 27, 2008 5:16 AM

brownpau:

(via livejamie)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Tim Murtaugh’s Excuse for a Blog, on February 27, 2008 5:06 AM

Tom Edsall reports:

Top Clinton aides are pleading with uncommitted super delegates to hold off making any commitments, fearful that any commitments they make would be to back Obama, not Clinton.

A set of talking points emailed to Clinton supporters within organized labor describes the arguments to use on uncommitted super delegates. In the email, the Clinton campaign suggests telling the uncommitted delegates that "it would be unfair and unjust to cut off the nominating process now. There might come a time when the process needs to come to a close, but that time is not now."

In language that could have been lifted from the Obama playbook just a few weeks ago, the email says Clinton backers should make the case to super delegates that: "If House, Senate and DNC members try to end this process now, it would be very damaging to those institutions, the Democratic Party and our chances in November."

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on February 27, 2008 4:40 AM

[Britney Spears outside a Levis store in Beverly Hills yesterday; image via Splash]

Originally posted by Richard from Gawker, on February 27, 2008 4:24 AM

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D) to challenge Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on February 27, 2008 4:06 AM

Here's the list so far -- and if you're also at TED2008 or TED@Aspen and blogging, photoblogging, Twittering, drop an email to contact (at) ted.com and we'll add you to the list.

Live-blogging
+ The mighty Ethan Zuckerman will be live-blogging TED2008 in Monterey at ... My Heart's in Accra.
+ TED's European Director, Bruno Giussani, will be live-blogging here on the TED Blog and on his own blog, LunchOverIP (and sending digests to the Huffington Post)

Blogging
+ TED's Music Director, Thomas Dolby, will be blogging about the day's music on ThomasDolby.com
+ Don of FifthCulture has started a group TED blog called Kings of Simulcast -- check out the groovy poster.
+ Mitch Joel is blogging and Twittering
+ Eman's Views is blogging from TED@Aspen, with photos
+ Tom Guarriello is posting video commentary
+ Jordan Ayan's Marketing with Technology and More will focus on TED for the next four days

More blogs
Josh Spear
Megabyte Mike
Michael Parekh
Sherry Strong
John La Grou at Microlesia

-- Research by Dan Schermele and Matthew Trost

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on February 27, 2008 2:00 AM

I discussed this in the live debate blog. But I think it's worth going back and watching Russert's run of shame here. I would say it was borderline to bring up the issue of Farrakhan at all. But perhaps since it's getting some media play you bring it up just for the record, for Obama to address.

That's not what Russert did. He launches into it, gets into a parsing issue over word choices, then tries to find reasons to read into the record some of Farrakhan's vilest quotes after Obama has just said he denounces all of them. Then he launches into a bizarre series of logical fallacies that had Obama needing to assure Jews that he didn't believe that Farrakhan "epitomizes greatness".

As a Jew and perhaps more importantly simply as a sentient being I found it disgusting. It was a nationwide, televised, MSM version of one of those noxious Obama smear emails.

Late Update: TPM Reader RMS does some close analysis ...

I think that breaking down Russert's Wright/Farrakhan questioning helps illuminate how truly bizarre it is:

1. The title of Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope," came from a sermon delivered by Jeremiah Wright. Wright is Obama's pastor.

2. Wright is the "head" of United Trinity Church.

3. Wright said that Louis Farrakhan "epitomizes greatness."

4. Wright went with Farrakhan in 1984 to visit Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

5. Farrakhan has said that Judaism is a "gutter religion."

6. Wright said that when Obama's political opponents found out about the Libya visit, Obama's Jewish support would dry up "faster than a snowball in Hell."

Russert's question is then "What do you do to assure Jewish Americans... you are consistent with issues regarding Israel and not in any way suggesting that Farrakhan epitomizes greatness."

The first question about Farrakhan—and Russert's insistence on mentioning Farrakhan's views regarding Judaism after Obama had already denounced Farrakhan's bigotry—was all foreplay leading up to this masterstroke in which Russert synthesizes the six discrete facts into a knockout punch of innuendo and guilt by association: perhaps Obama thinks that Louis Farrakhan, the man Obama explicitly denounced not one minute before, is the very epitome of greatness.

All of the stuff about going to Libya, Farrakhan's "gutter religion" comment, and Jewish supporting drying up like a snowball in hell—that was all totally unnecessary to reach the ultimate question, but wasn't it fun?

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 26, 2008 6:29 PM

This is interesting. When Hillary said the other day that she was "honored" to have campaigned against Obama, multiple pundits read it as a valedictory speech on her part, a recognition that the campaign is drawing to a close.

Now Obama has sounded similar tones, saying in his debate closer tonight:

You know, there is still a lot of fight going on in this contest. We’ve got four coming up and maybe more after that. But the one thing I’m absolutely clear about is: Senator Clinton has campaigned magnificently, she is an outstanding public servant, and I’m very proud to have been campaigning with her.

It's hard not to read this comment as a kind of a bookend to Hillary's earlier remarks: He seems to be suggesting that this thing is all over, he knows it, and it's time to let her go down to defeat gracefully.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on February 26, 2008 5:36 PM

Hmmm. Maybe this will give the Hillary camp a bit of grist for their media-is-out-to-get-us theory.

Brian Williams told the audience that he was about to play a tape of some Obama hyperbole, presumably as a set-up to ask a tough question about it. But then he accidentally played a clip of Hillary delivering her recent sarcastic denunciation of the messianism of Obama supporters, something that attracted a bunch of criticism.

And, of course, Obama jumped on the opportunity, using it to hit Hillary for denigrating his actual accomplishments, throwing in a dose of humor, too: "Well, I thought Senator Clinton showed some good humor there. I’d give her points for delivery."

She really can't catch a break, can she...

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on February 26, 2008 4:54 PM

Wow, that didn't take long. Brian Williams waited all the way until his second question to ask about the Drudge allegation that Hillary "staffers" allegedly "circulated" a photo of Obama in a turban, whatever that means.

The sole evidence that this happened at all has come only -- we repeat, only -- from Matt Drudge. Yet it's already a topic at this all-important debate.

Asked if her campaign was behind the photo, Hillary said:

"Well, so far as I know, it did not. And I certainly know nothing about it, and have made clear that that’s not the kind of behavior that I condone or expect from the people working in my campaign. But we have no evidence where it came from."

In his response, Obama, to his credit, immediately dismissed the story (though his campaign aggressively attacked Hillary over it a couple days ago). He said:

"I take Sen. Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about it — the photo. So I think that’s something that we could set aside."

So can we set it aside now, then?

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on February 26, 2008 4:04 PM

9:02 PM ... Sigh, Russert.

9:05 PM ... Okay, if you've been waiting for the fight debate, it's looking like this is it.

9:07 PM ... Oy, they go right into the Somali garb photo issue. But Clinton's response is much better, more across the board than anything from yesterday. Hopefully that whole issue is behind us now.

9:10 PM ... I may lapse into boxing metaphors in through this debate. But you've clearly got both of them right on their game tonight. These are both just incredibly accomplished sharp people and both at the top of their game. (As a side light, as I've said before, at least at the level of policy fundamentals, I think Clinton has the better part of the argument on the health care question.) What's more, this is a tough and not-friendly exchange, but it's on the substance and about a really serious issue.

9:17 PM ... I don't think this first question, SNL, pillows flurry served Hillary well. I don't think it matters whether you think her underlying point is accurate -- just not the right way to do it. Just not good. I think that for you to get a lot of what she was referring to you need to be at least a semi-political junkie and thus have probably already made up your mind.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 26, 2008 4:02 PM

Last night on NY1, Tom McDonald talked one on one with Pedro Martinez, who had the following to say about:

His overall health:

“Right now my health is exactly where I’d like it to be all year.  That’s how good I feel.  If I’m this way all year, you’re gonna see lots of smiles and you’re gonna have a lot of fun with the things that I’ll probably be able to do.”

Pitching alongside Johan Santana:

“We actually met a long time ago.  Minnesota and Boston shared the same town in spring training.  I remember exchanging a lot with Santana,a especially with my arrival to Boston.  Santana was a young kid, a young rookie, he asked me a couple of questions about the change-up and right now I’d say that’s probably the best change-up you can find out there.  I’m glad I was able to talk to him back then and keep the closeness with each-other.  It’s not only because Santana is so good as a player, but because he’s such a great human being.”

If it will be odd not being the team’s ace:

“No, not at all.  To be honest, I’ll talk to you from my heart like I always do.  I’ll tell you there was a time when I first came up and it didn’t matter who was in front of me, when I was given the ball and called ‘the guy,’ ‘the headliner,’ or whatever you guys wanted to call me.  I was that guy and never stopped to look back about what other guys felt and I don’t expect Johan to do anything like that either.  I expect him to come and perform and do what he’s got to do like he always does.  I wish him the best and I wish I could help him ease into it even more.  I don’t really care what spot I’m on, I believe my spot will be the headline for me.  He’s gonna be the headliner on the first day and I’m gonna be the headliner on the second day…

“So, it makes no difference to me when I pitch, today or tomorrow.  I’m a professional, I understand what I have to do.  I’m so thankful that we have someone like Johan, that could probably be in my spot today or in anybody’s spot.”

…interesting…it sounds to me like pedro just assumes that santana will be the team’s opening day starter…

…added to by Peter Wade, who provided the quotes…

…as always, it’s a total pleasure to listen to pedro…he’s interesting and engaging…some of the stuff about being the number two starter may come across in print as pedro just trying to say the right thing…but watching and listening to the interview, i believe he really has no problem with it…now, the recent comments made by reporters about his health issues, i believe it does bother him despite his denial…you can tell he takes it like they are questioning his heart…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on February 26, 2008 3:41 PM

The Hillary-Obama debate is set to start in 20 minutes.

As Josh points out, it could very likely be the last debate between Hillary and Obama of this campaign -- possibly the last one we ever witness between these two inarguably formidable figures.

Equally sobering: This campaign, which has dragged on for so long, could conceivably be over in a week. A lot depends on what happens tonight.

The debate is airing on MSNBC at 9 P.M., E.S.T. We'll be blogging it right here.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on February 26, 2008 3:38 PM

My friend's two kids got to live a ten-year-old's dream last night — a drive over to Emeryville to take a look inside Pixar. Josh Anon actually made this happen, walking us around the main building, showing us storyboards, concept art, and full-size recreations of Pixar characters...

Originally posted by scott from Theobroma Cacao, on February 26, 2008 2:04 PM

Did we answer the wrong question on CNN? Here's the great Joan Morgan interviewing Hillary Clinton on Vibe.com:

JOAN: Is there a chance Senator Clinton, that if you win the nomination that you will have Barack Obama on your ticket?

CLINTON: Of course there is. Of course there is. Now neither of us will answer this question [definitively] because we don’t want to look presumptuous and premature. But it is more than fair to say that—of course there is.

Lots more noteworthy stuff, including Hillary on African Americans and prisons, addressing young feminists, and more. A must-read.

Originally posted by Zentronix from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric, on February 26, 2008 1:55 PM

· I Could Eat My Weight in Acai, Velveeta, and Other Insanities [Serious Eats]
· Alone on a Saturday? "N", Mogador, Lucien [Chowhound]
· Crazed Rant Against Madaleine Mae Mgmt [Shameless Restaurants]
· Chicago Huge Let Down after NYC? [Zagat]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on February 26, 2008 11:20 AM

Mr. Mickey must say he loved the bag-on-the-head looks at Issey Miyake! There was something chic about the looks -- is it the Burka effect? The widow/bride feeling? Who knows but it was pretty hot!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on February 26, 2008 10:59 AM

Drew Barrymore's so giddy and in love with her latest boyfriend, Justin "Mac Guy" Long, that the happiness has gotten to a painful point. "My cheeks hurt, I'm so happy," she told the new issue of Vogue.

And Justin? "Beauty and light," he says, of what Drew means to him, "And she shines it on everybody who comes into contact with her. She makes my cheeks hurt, too."

Even better, Drew's friends LOVE Justin. "I do feel she is finally with a good person," Nancy Juvonen, the actress' production company partner in Flower Films said. "She is with someone who adores her and doesn't put her down on any level ... And that is such a departure."

Yay for Drew -- let's hope they stay this blissful for a long time to come.

Originally posted by Tracy Pepey from iVillage - Daily Blabber, on February 26, 2008 10:37 AM

Moving on from the runaway children of Beautiful Children (deep cleansing breaths, wash hands well hot water, hug kids one extra time before bed time) to the three roving packs of werewolves in Toby Barlow's new novel-in-verse Sharp Teeth. I seem to have missed the cultural pivot point when books began to have full blown flash-intro websites with viral video, but check out this little ditty, which will help you determine once and for all if your dog is a werewolf.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on February 26, 2008 10:15 AM

Last year I got a late Christmas present—on December 26, I found out I was a few weeks pregnant. The very first thing I did was eat a celebratory piece of cheesecake (it’s silly, but I felt as if I was giving the embryo a treat—thank you for implanting!). My second priority was to start reading about what I was actually supposed to be eating, which I suspected was not the cheese enchiladas, endless milkshakes, and french fries I dreamed of as the ideal indulgent pregnancy diet. To prepare for pregnancy, I had already cut out alcohol and started taking folic acid supplements, but how else would I have to change my ways in the months ahead?

I didn’t think it would be that radical; after all, I already eat tons of vegetables and a reasonable quantity of beans and lentils, sneak whole grains into dinner every now and then, and try to enjoy a wide variety of foods in moderation. (Um, except for baked goods—when I bake exceptionally good cookies or bread, I find ways to justify eating quite a lot.) Despite my having always scoffed at vitamins, I picked up a prenatal multi just to make sure any gaping nutritional holes were plugged. Then I turned to What to Expect When You're Expecting, eager for little hints about how I could best nourish myself and the baby.

Holy cow! These were not little hints—these were rather strict guidelines. While urging me not to stress out, the authors frequently reminded me that these were perhaps the most important nine months in my child’s nutritional life. The rare indulgence—a blueberry muffin, two scoops of ice cream—was permissible, but for the most part the developing baby needed a diet of straight superfoods, if possible broken out daily into three servings of lean protein, four servings of calcium-rich foods, three servings of vitamin C–rich foods, three to four servings of leafy green or yellow vegetables and fruits, one or two servings of other fruits and vegetables, “some” iron-rich food every day, four servings of fat, and a whopping six or more servings of whole grains and legumes. Some foods, of course, do double duty—yogurt is protein and calcium, beans and lentils fall into the protein and whole grain categories, and greens are, well, green in addition to being full of calcium and vitamin C—but the prospect of trying to work all this out, even in a casual way, made my head spin.

Conflicting Advice

Poking around the internet revealed that the prescriptions in What to Expect are considered to be relatively rigorous, an ideal to shoot for rather than a realistic daily plan, but over and over again I encountered the idea that what I ate while pregnant would make or break my child’s future intelligence and physique. Pregnant women who start at a healthy weight should eat only about 300 extra calories a day, beginning only in the second trimester, and their nutritional needs are so high that those extra calories should definitely not be empty (like the un-recommended extra calories I, nearing the end of my first trimester, have recently been consuming in peanut butter cookie form). If you aren’t nervous now about getting it right, just consider all the conflicting advice and bickering about the many ways you might get it wrong (hot dogs, soft cheese, sushi, Diet Coke?) and the mortal confrontation between the Puritans, who think three ounces of wine at dinner is child abuse, and the Europhiles, who claim that their mothers treated morning sickness with cigarettes and martinis, so what harm can a small glass possibly do?

Variety and Vitamins

If you care about food and lack the resources to hire a personal nutritionist and chef, it’s a lot to process. Me, I’m back to counting on variety and vitamins to keep me balanced and healthy. I’m making an effort to eat more fish, which I think of as a luxury, in affordable, low-mercury forms like sardines and canned salmon, and am searching for whole grain dishes I am actually excited to eat. My new snacks are sunflower seeds (protein), tomato juice (vitamin C), and ants on a log (excuse to eat peanut butter, protein), joining old favorite snacks cheese (calcium) and almonds (protein).

Meg Hourihan’s excellent post from last summer, "How I Ate While Pregnant," comes to mind frequently when I encounter scare stories about what not to eat. Painfully, I cut out coffee when this was published, but I’m probably eating more dessert than I should, since my only cravings so far seem to be SWEET and PEANUT BUTTER.

Although—and perhaps I should not admit this in a public forum—it’s sometimes hard for me to tell whether I’m actually craving a cookie or ants on a log or if I’ve just lowered my willpower and blamed it on pregnancy. This is such a happy time, and baking and eating cookies is one of the best, easiest ways I know to amplify joy. As long as I’m walking everywhere and eating all the healthy stuff, too, I don’t feel so bad about celebrating a little every day. We’ll just have to see if I feel the same after my next weigh-in at the obstetrician’s office.

Meantime, I’ll be sharing the ways I find to work more whole grains, fish, and other foods high in virtue into my diet and baby’s without making our dinner table look like a postcard from some grim commune. I’m no doctor or nutritionist—I’m a pregnant lady with an internet connection, a library card, and a lot of cookbooks—but I’m fairly confident that most of us would do well to add more healthy meals and snacks to our repertoires. Unless, of course, you’re already easily getting your six servings of whole grains and legumes and more than five vegetables every day, in which case, who are you, and will you please share your secrets with all of us?

About the author: Robin Bellinger recently escaped a career in book publishing, which was really cutting into her cooking time. Now she is a freelance editor and can bake bread on Tuesday afternoon if she feels like it. She lives in midtown Manhattan with her husband and blogs about cooking and crafting at home*economics.

Originally posted by Robin Bellinger from Serious Eats: Main, on February 26, 2008 8:15 AM

Now this is what I need to help keep my records/books from overtaking the house. I wonder how LP sized steps would provide a better workout as well…

(via SVN)

Originally posted by ry from Modcult, on February 26, 2008 7:30 AM

A while back we reported on the upcoming Wii Ware Pokemon title Pokemon Farm/Ranch. Some new information about this title has just come out. If you read Japanese you can go directly here. If, like most of us in the Western World, you do not, then you can read on…

The release date for Japan is set for early March 2008. It will likely be one of the Wii Ware launch titles in Japan. No word on an American release date or the Wii Points cost.

So, what is Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch? It is a mixture of Pokemon Box and Pokemon Snap!

Known features

• Store up to 1,000 of your Pokemon. You will transfer them via local wireless from your Diamond and/or Pearl games.
• Sort Pokemon on your DS cartridge as you were able to do in Pokemon Box.
• Interact with your Pokemon on the ranch using your Mii.
• Take pictures of your Pokemon on the Ranch and send them to your Wii Message Board. No word on if you can email them as you can with Pokemon Snap! images.

I have a copy of Pokemon Box for the Game Cube and I have long been waiting for an update to that piece of software. Sadly, my copy of Pokemon Box is from the UK so I have to use a Free Loader disc in my Game Cube to use it. This also means I can not use my Pokemon Box on my Wii.

Right now I have extra copies of the DS Pokemon games in my home to facilitate all of the extra storage space I need for my Pokemon. I probably already have over 1,000 Pokemon on my carts but knowing I will soon be able to send them all to the farm fills me with glee.

When Pokemon Battle Revolution came out I was hoping for an RPG element or a Pokemon Box element to be added to the game. No luck, all we got was a battle environment that was not really needed. We already could battle using Wi-Fi on the DS.

Everyone’s Pokemon Ranch looks to be a great successor to Pokemon Box and I eagerly await its release.

Originally posted by HMTKSteve from Poke Farm, on February 26, 2008 4:29 AM

So, what's a franchise to do when their last scheduled film is a monster hit? Add another one, of course!

Last summer's The Bourne Ultimatum was such a success for both star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (the film won three Oscars on Sunday), that both men have committed to making a fourth film. It will take a while before Jason Bourne is back in your theater, as prior commitments will keep the cameras from rolling for a few years, but it's bound to just make fans of the action-packed series even more excited for the film.

Matt had previously joked that they would have to call a fourth installment The Bourne Redundancy, but if people will go -- and they will -- why not, right?

Originally posted by Tracy Pepey from iVillage - Daily Blabber, on February 26, 2008 2:44 AM

Wow, the Sun-MySQL deal just closed. That’s amazingly quick work for a corporate transaction of this size. Mind you, our Chief Counsel crushes patent trolls before breakfast. Now we can actually start sharing the nefarious plots we’ve been cooking up for Sun+MySQL; I hope those guys have been hatching some too.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from ongoing, on February 25, 2008 11:00 PM

BusinessWeek recently ran a piece titled How To Reenergize Starbucks, which addresses the return of Howard Schultz to help Starbucks reclaim its original spirit. The story solicited commentary for a stable of design+business folks, whose responses I found disappointing.

The folks at hipster coffeehouse Ritual Roasters dressed up as Starbucks Zombies for Halloween. Flickr link.

(The following is a combination of ideas/concepts from me and Brandon)

Starbucks is a company we think about at Adaptive Path, as it’s success was very much built on its experience design. We use Starbucks to explain the experience strategy tool of the Elevator Pitch:

For people who have 15 minutes to spend on themselves, Starbucks is a familiar social experience that brings comfort, reliability, and enjoyment to the everyday coffee-drinking routine.
Unlike other habits, rituals, and indulgences, Starbucks consistently delivers your day’s best break as a personal experience wherever or whenever you need it.

As such, unlike many in that BusinessWeek article, I don’t think it’s about The Coffee. Starbucks has to deliver a basically good product, but they don’t need to deliver a superlative product. And they definitely don’t need to sell $1 coffee — that sends exactly the wrong message, in that it moves Starbucks to the bottom of the pyramid, and turns them simply into a volume operation.

What they need to do is make the store experience inviting, not so much about pushing product, but about being that Third Place (not home or work) where people can get a respite.

“Welcome To The Third Place”, an image from a Starbucks in Australia. Flickr Link.

Starbucks needs to engage with The Long Wow. The need to assess their touchpoints for delivery — The retail environment (including music, smell, etc.), the staff and service protocol, the beverages/food, the packaging, the wifi, the streetscape (where and how it fits into the neighborhood), etc.

They need to reconsider their customers’ needs (which may have evolved since they first opened). What do you need at a third place other than a drink or a light snack? You might need a private place to chat (think bench in a park), a good place to read/study (think library), or a place for casual conversation (think bar). There’s still plenty of room in which to sell services or product, but it’s clearly not about feeling more like a shopping mall.

Approaches to consider:

+ Allow the stores more control over how they engage with their community. This is the Whole Foods model. Each Whole Foods store has a high degree of autonomy for fitting within their community. Whole Foods has been able to grow, yet still achieve that “transformative” quality for their customers, and I think this is key.

Flickr Link

+ Take advantage of the fact of real estate. Apple Stores’ success hinges on recognizing that in a physical environment, you can have a remarkable set of high-touch interactions, with merchandise and other people, that can really elevate your experience. Apple uses their stores physical-ness for classes, genius bar, lengthy trials of the products, and, to a certain degree, a cool place to hang out. Starbucks could benefit from such a mindset, with things such as book clubs and other affinity groups. Starbucks could reach out to its community and serve as a hub/meeting place for such things.

+ Let employees and service designers play with the service protocol; today, you order a coffee and pick it up a few seconds later. Nothing special or unusual ever happens during the service. Employees don’t have the means to delight or surprise a customer, or just make a customer smile. Their “cheer-chain” was a poorly handled PR stunt, but it illustrates that delightful variations in service make for a good break. It just has to be genuine, which means from the initiative of staff and not from the corporate playbook.

To finish, It would be marvelous to see Starbucks manage and operate based on experiences. They should own:

• the morning stop on the way to work
• the private chat
• the study cram session
• killing time before your meeting/date/etc.
• and keep identifying more while re-inventing the ones that have grown tired

And each store should know which of these experiences they support, and identify which customers are looking for which experience and support them in it.

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Originally posted by peterme from Adaptive Path, on February 25, 2008 8:13 PM

Here's a quick roundup of the super-delegate news from today:

• Geraldine Ferraro, who is supporting Hillary Clinton, had an op-ed in today's New York Times advancing an argument in favor of super-delegates that we haven't really heard yet during this cycle: That Democratic primaries, as well as caucuses, "do not necessarily reflect the will of rank-and-file Democrats."

• Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, a DNC member and a potentially good get for the Ohio primary, has endorsed Barack Obama.

• Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline is now hedging on his support for Hillary Clinton after he was asked not to attend a campaign rally: "I will take a hard look at my responses as a super-delegate, in light of the will of the electorate."

• Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD), a former John Edwards supporter, says she is leaning towards Obama, citing "that intangible leadership quality" and the feeling that he would appear to be the more electable candidate.

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on February 25, 2008 3:01 PM

<72pt text>What?</72pt text> Clarence Thomas hasn't asked a question in a Supreme Court session in over two years...that's 142 cases. Says Thomas:

One thing I've demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question.

(via clusterflock)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 25, 2008 2:58 PM

Check out this mashup of stop-motion animated Transformers toys with dialogue taken from the cartoon. Really cinematic use of the camera positioning!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from EPIC-FU blog, on February 25, 2008 2:15 PM

Some of the largest properties on the web power their sites using Movable Type. Not just the biggest blogs, but some of the biggest sites, period. You've seen 'em: The Washington Post, The Gothamist, Boing Boing, The Huffington Post and thousands more. Each of these sites rely on Movable Type to keep their web sites and blogs up and running, and one of our most important goals for Movable Type is to make sure your MT-powered site stays bullet-proof and reliable, no matter how big traffic gets. There are a few different features and capabilities of Movable Type that make this kind of scale possible:

• Background publishing and task management - Movable Type can offload the work-intensive parts of publishing to a separate task system which handles the heavy lifting.
• Multiple supported and scalable system architectures - Movable Type can run across a number of servers, splitting tasks like comment management and publishing onto their own dedicated infrastructure.
• Static publishing - Movable Type's has always defaulted to publishing completely static HTML pages, which serve up faster with less work needed by your web and database servers. And static pages are a lot more forgiving of transient problems with a database or application server.

This isn't just for the big sites -- any blogger can become a breakout, immensely popular web site on any given day. Even the smallest MT-powered sites Movable Type often become huge at a moment's notice. All it takes is one little blog post striking the fancy of the Digg community, and hundreds of thousands of new visitors can hit your site in just a couple of hours. On an even bigger scale, we see MT-powered sites like Radar show up on the Drudge Report, and traffic ends up peaking at ten times what the Digg homepage throws at your site. That's serious traffic.

So this is our number one priority for the next release of Movable Type. We are making sure the platform doesn't just remain the best-performing blogging system when under heavy traffic load, but that you never have to worry about letting your site's visitors down just when they're most interested in your content. You should never have to think about how many ads you would have shown those visitors.

We've got work to do to reach this goal -- MT is still far from perfect here. Our primary area of focus for the next release of Movable Type is on raw performance. Movable Type can be configured many different ways, and many web hosts haven't optimized their environments for running a serious Perl application like MT. Having a quickly-growing open source community also gives us the chance to collect more data from the users like you about what areas of the platform could perform better. So we're asking for your help. Here's what we need:

• Tell us about your pain. We have setup a special forum to help collect feedback from our users about the ways in which Movable Type does not perform up to your personal standards. We invite people to tell us not only about publishing and application performance, but also about any parts of Movable Type's user interface which don't feel responsive or fast enough while you're working.
• Send us data! Download and install a special version of MTOS (version 4.1.1) that we have prepared which contains an all-new performance monitoring framework. The new system will collect data to help us pin point the functions deep within the application that are most in need of optimization.

Originally posted by Byrne Reese from MovableType.org - Home for the MT Community, on February 25, 2008 1:20 PM

I love this little rant by Jeffrey Wells about people who don't watch the "20 or 25 films that are somewhere between excellent, very good or good enough to watch and think about later" that are released every year.

Movies are not supposed to be pills that you take to feel better. They're not travelling carnivals with elephants and jugglers. They're supposed to be aesthetic journeys and emotional hikes that get us in touch with things that too many of us tend to push away (or anesthetize ourselves from) in our day to day. They're supposed to be compressions and condensations that create indelible moments, insights and excavations into our collective soul. We're only here for 80 or 90 years, we need to figure some stuff out before we pass on, and good movies are part of the learning-and-realizing process.

(via goldenfiddle)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 25, 2008 12:49 PM

Quick Post

It's for their coverage on the firing of 8 judges which led to the resignation of Alberto Gonzalez. I'm proud to say Apperceptive works on his site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/media/25marshall.html?ex=1361682000&en=7f2dbfc137c393db&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=all

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Capn Design, on February 25, 2008 12:48 PM

Quick Post

It's for their coverage on the firing of 8 judges which led to the resignation of Alberto Gonzalez. I'm proud to say Apperceptive works on his site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/media/25marshall.html?ex=1361682000&en=7f2dbfc137c393db&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=all

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Capn Design, on February 25, 2008 12:48 PM

Think you have trouble finding storage space for all your dishes, silverware, pots, pans, and serving platters? Above is just one of many, many shelves in Martha Stewart's prop room at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia headquarters. These kitchen items (and many other household wares) are used in photo shoots for all the various Martha-brand magazines, TV shows, and the like. Remember that final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark? [via yumsugar]

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on February 25, 2008 12:00 PM

Every Friday morning a few of us at Mule HQ get involved in an in-depth discussion about what happened on the latest episode of “Lost” the night before. Theories are argued; Sayid’s hotness is well-traveled territory. I think that is the greatest thing about “Lost” - the reaction of its audience and all that it inspires.

Well “Lost” recently inspired the people at Medicom to make a series of Kubrick toys in the image of some of our favorite Losties. Kubricks and “Lost” - two of our favorite things! (My Rogue (X-Men) Kubrick is staring at me as I type this.)

If you’ll refer to the pectorals (and biceps!) of the Sayid toy, you’ll see that the designers of these toys have a well-deserved appreciation for the aesthetic of Sayid.

This set will retail for $90 and hits the market this August.

Originally posted by Katie Spence from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on February 25, 2008 11:51 AM

Congratulations to Josh Marshall and TPM Media for winning a George Polk Award — sort of a Golden Globe for journalism.

“I think of us as journalists; the medium we work in is blogging,” [Marshall] said. “We have kind of broken free of the model of discrete articles that have a beginning and end. Instead, there are an ongoing series of dispatches.”

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on February 25, 2008 11:37 AM

On view at MoMA through May 12, 2008: Design and the Elastic Mind.

In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change.

I was surprised at how many of the show's ideas and objects I'd seen or even featured on kottke.org already. But getting there first isn't the point. The show was super-crowded and I didn't have a lot of time to look around, but here are a couple of things that caught my eye.

Michiko Nitta's Animal Messaging System (AMS), part of a larger project she did called Extreme Green Guerillas. The basic idea of the AMS is to use the radio ID tags worn by migratory animals to send messages from place to place. Nice map.

Molecubes are self-replicating repairing robots. Video here.

And I've been looking for Brendan Dawes' Cinema Redux project for several months now...most recently I wanted to include his work in my time merge media post.

Using eight of my favourite films from eight of my most admired directors including Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola and John Boorman, each film is processed through a Java program written with the processing environment. This small piece of software samples a movie every second and generates an 8 x 6 pixel image of the frame at that moment in time. It does this for the entire film, with each row representing one minute of film time.

For more, check out the online exhibition (designed by Yugo Nakamura and THA Ltd, the folks behind FFFFOUND!). Thanks (and congratulations!) to Stamen for hosting a tour of the exhibition.

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 25, 2008 11:35 AM

The Daily Politics reports that Congressman Anthony Weiner is ramping up for an imminent mayoral bid by crediting Michael Bloomberg with "put[ting] the last nail in the coffin to the notion that New York City is ungovernable." But at the same time, during an appearance at Kingsborough Community College today, Weiner tried to score points off congestion pricing by framing it as a plan that an experienced politician like himself would steer clear of.

Weiner, who opposes the plan to charge cars $8 to enter Manhattan during peak hours, said the only reason the U.S. Department of Transportation wants to give New York City $350 million to start a congestion pricing pilot program is so it can eventually wiggle out of funding mass transit entirely.

"This is where it matters that you have a certain amount of poltical acumen," Weiner said. "The moment we have $200 million in revenue ... I'm going to be hearing from colleagues in Washington, 'You need $200 million less.'"

Weiner scoffed at "unelected boards and agencies" in New York, including a separate authority that would run the city's congestion pricing plan and parcel out the money.

"You honestly believe [Senate Majority Leader] Joe Bruno is going to pass this without getting a piece of the action for Rennselaer or wherever he's from?," Weiner said. "It shows a level of political naivete that is stunning."

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on February 25, 2008 11:15 AM

Steve Duin reports from San Francisco's WonderCon that the new X-Files movie will be out on July 25. How does he know? Because David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Chris Carter, who arrived in SF from the set in Vancouver, said so.

"I thought it would be easy to step back into it," Anderson said, admitting she was much too cavalier when she arrived on set. "But I just sucked. I sucked for 48 hours."

"It was odd," Duchovny added. "Time has passed for these two people and we wanted to honor the changes they've gone through as well as what keeps them the same people."

As for Carter? "I always thought of X-Files as a search for God," he said. "That's a big part of the inspiration. I want to believe the poster on Muldur and Scully's wall really says it all."

More from Steve Duin here.

Originally posted by Valarie Smith from Crazed Teacups, on February 25, 2008 10:17 AM

According to Wikipedia, a rent party is:

a social occasion where tenants hire a musician or band to play and pass the hat to raise money to pay their rent. The rent party played a major role in the development of jazz and blues music.

Further reading suggests that rent parties started in Harlem in the 1910s as a way to offset rising rents.

Harlemites soon discovered that meeting these doubled, and sometimes tripled, rents was not so easy. They began to think of someway to meet their ever increasing deficits. Someone evidently got the idea of having a few friends in as paying party guests a few days before the landlord's scheduled monthly visit. It was a happy; timely thought. The guests had a good time and entered wholeheartedly into the spirit of the party. Besides, it cost each individual very little, probably much less than he would have spent in some public amusement place. Besides, it was a cheap way to help a friend in need. It was such a good, easy way out of one's difficulties that others decided to make use of it. Thus was the Harlem rent-party born....

Jazz pianist Fats Waller was associated with these parties and lived a short but colorful life.

The ebullient young man with the dazzling jazz style was a big hit at the Sherman Hotel. His nightly audience included men with wide lapels and bulging pockets. One evening Fats felt a revolver poked into his paunchy stomach. He found himself bullied into a black limousine, heard the driver ordered to East Cicero. Sweat pouring down his body, Fats foresaw a premature end to his career, but on arrival at a fancy saloon, he was merely pushed toward a piano and told to play. He played. Loudest in applause was a beefy man with an unmistakable scar: Al Capone was having a birthday, and he, Fats, was a present from "the boys".

The party lasted three days. Fats exhausted himself and his repertoire, but with every request bills were stuffed into his pockets. He and Capone consumed vast quantities of food and drink. By the time the black limousine headed back to the Sherman, Fats had acquired severeal thousand dollars in cash and a decided taste for vintage champagne.

I was inspired to read about rent parties and Waller by this interview with Michel Gondry, director of Be Kind Rewind. Gondry says about his film:

It's important in the story that there's a parallel between what's happening in the film and what happened in the past with rent parties, which were very real. Fats Waller became the great musician he was through those parties. When someone could not afford the rent for one month, they'd make a party. You'd bring a dollar, and there would be a piano contest all night long. People making their own entertainment, that's exactly what it is.

Here's Waller performing one of his most well-known pieces, Ain't Misbehavin'.

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 25, 2008 9:36 AM

Last night, 10:30 pm:  Finished watching our Tivo'd version of the Oscars.  Ba-boop'd our way through the montages.  Did email during some of the songs.  Didn't liveblog.

Last night, 10:40 pm:  Check in on Vox neighborhood.  Hey, Anil liveblogged the Oscars!  Skim skim skim, scroll scroll, scroll.  Here's a funny line: "Poor Nicole Kidman, ruined herself. Used to be fetching. I'm just saying. I do like her brave choice to wear a chandelier."

Last night, 11:30 pm:  Oh, hey, looks like Jason liveblogged not watching the Oscars. How clever.  "My liveblogging outfit this evening: jeans by Banana Republic, long sleeve tshirt by American Apparel, socks by Wal-Mart, boxer shorts by Muji." (Ahem, that sounds like a series of Facebook is statements to me.)

This morning, 11:00 am:  Wow, David liveblogged 'em, too.  "I think Owen Wilson should take over Heath Ledger's career."  Yes!  Excellent idea. Couldn't have said it better myself.

This morning, 11:25 am: OK, that's enough.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on February 25, 2008 9:28 AM

Tilda Swinton's Oscar win last night for best supporting actress for her role in Michael Clayton was one of the only real surprises of the evening, and it made us here at PAPERMAG wanna say, "ha, we told you so!" See, we've been Tilda champions for ever and ever. We even put her on the cover -- not once but twice! Once alone back in '04 and then with the cast of Thumbsucker in '05. So anyway, congrats Tilda! We loved her acceptance speech when she said her agent (Brian Swardstrom)'s butt looked like the butt on the Oscar!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on February 25, 2008 9:03 AM

You've probably already seen that blaring headline on Drudge's site, alleging that Clinton staffers have been circulating a 2006 photo of Obama in the garb of a Somali village elder with a turban. The photo apparently comes from a 2006 congressional delegation he was on during his second year in the senate. The Obama campaign has now jumped on board slamming the Clinton campaign. (The pretty transparent subtext is that the picture has Obama looking done up like a guy you might see on some documentary on the Taliban, though obviously members of Congress try on local garb all the time when they're on foreign trips.)

Now, Drudge's claim is vague -- who circulated it? and who did they circulate it to? And, in any case, this is Drudge. So as a fact witness his say-so is close to meaningless.

We spent the better part of the morning trying to get some comment from the Clinton campaign. For the first hour or more we couldn't get anything. Then we got this statement in which the Clinton camp says Obama should be "ashamed" at saying the picture is "divisive," without addressing one way or another what they're accused of doing.

Here's the text ...

Enough.

If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

We will not be distracted.

Put it all together and the Clinton camp would appear to be unwilling to make even the most perfunctory denial that they are or were circulating this photo around.

We held up on this because we never want to take Drudge as a fact witness for anything. But I think the Clinton camp's statement speaks for itself.

Late Update: The Clinton campaign has now put out a second statement that goes further but I think still basically amounts to the same thing. You be the judge. In any case, I know you come to TPM to find out what's happening in politics not to get insights into our editorial process. But a number of readers have asked so, a little more detail. When we first heard about this brouhaha this morning, we didn't want to do anything with it before we heard what the Clinton camp had to say, for the reasons I described in the initial post. We know that without doing some sort of exhausted internal investigation, there's no way a national campaign can say that no one in their campaign had anything to do with it. There's high-level staff, mid-level, hundreds of volunteers, etc. That's not what we were looking for. In most cases, in a situation like this a campaign or in this case, say, perhaps Howard Wolfson or some other top level staff would say: "We don't condone this. We didn't authorize this. As far as we know no one in our organization had anything to do with this. Our campaign is made up of hundreds of people. So we can't say definitively that someone somewhere didn't make a stupid decision. But this isn't something the campaign has anything to do with." We pushed and pushed. But we didn't get anything like that. The new statement goes further. But not that much. The Clinton campaign is either terribly inept at dealing with the story or they know or suspect that it's accurate. In any case, what we try to do is give you the background to the blaring headlines you see and the benefit of what we find out through our own reporting. That's just what we did in this case.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 25, 2008 5:08 AM

An amazingly dense infographic of box office revenues for all movies since 1986. It's a little confusing at first because the vertical scale is basically irrelevant, but once you get the hang of things, it's fun to just scroll through the years. Interesting stuff to look out for:

1. The gross receipts have obviously gone up in the past 11 years.

2. The summers get much more blockbustery.

3. As time goes on, movies open bigger but don't last nearly as long in the theater as they used to. There are also more movies to choose from in 2007 than in 1986.

4. For some exceptions to the normal pattern, check out My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Juno, Dances With Wolves, Platoon, and Million Dollar Baby. (via big picture)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on February 25, 2008 3:17 AM

Refused by His City, Man Jailed for Painting a Crosswalk. “Whitney Stump was tired of drivers ignoring stop signs at an intersection in his Muncie, Indiana neighborhood. After futile attempts to get the city to install crosswalks, Stump took matters into his own hands and painted one in at the corner of Dicks and North streets. Then he got arrested.”

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Social Design Notes, on February 25, 2008 3:13 AM

From The Daily Mail:

"Desiree Palmen, a 44-year-old Dutch artist, uses a method that requires a huge amount of effort and attention to detail.

She makes cotton suits and paints the camouflage on by hand, painstakingly matching it to the chosen background. Either she or a model then poses in the suit in the chosen place.

The scenes are photographed and filmed and then put on display."

Read more here.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Wooster Collective, on February 25, 2008 2:35 AM

…is a meme I suspect I’ll be tracking. I don’t know where I first heard the phrase, probably from Blackbelt, but I suspect we’ll all be coming to grips with it more and more in the next few years. The blog The Quantified Self seems to be getting at aspects of it.

Originally posted by peterme from peterme.com, on February 24, 2008 7:31 PM

Photograph of Queens native Amy Ryan, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in Gone, Baby Gone, by Kevork Djansezian/AP

At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines.

You can prep yourself with the Oscar nominees list as you watch (or avoid) red carpet coverage. You could read NY Times movie critic A.O. Scott's slightly curmudgeonly but totally valid essay on the Oscars: "I am nonetheless bothered by the disproportionate importance that the Academy Awards have taken on, and by the distorting influence they exercise over the way we make, market and see movies in this country." (Scott does make it clear he enjoy the Oscars; NY Times' David Carr, aka the Carpetbagger, has a companion essay about just reveling in the Oscarness.) The Daily News' Jack Matthews has his guesses about who will win tonight - for instance, he thinks Daniel Day-Lewis will win Best Actor, but Viggo Mortensen should win for his work in Eastern Promises. The Post offers up alternative awards - Best Bloodbath goes to Sweeney Tood.

We'll be back later to liveblog Hollywood's biggest night. We can't bear to watch Ryan Seacrest on E! - he was talking to the great actor Tom Wilkinson (nominated for best supporting actor in Michael Clayton, previously nominated for In the Bedroom) and all Seacrest could discuss was Wilkinson's fondness for the TV show Friends and talking about George Clooney.

8PM: Red-carpet show on ABC - Regis Philbin is hosting, with classic Philbin mania. First interview: Geroge Clooney, who is with girlfriend Sarah Lawson. Clooney hijacks the interview by asking how Notre Dame basketball did, Philbin closes out by asking for an invite to Clooney's Italian villa.

Then Shaun Robinson interviews Best Actress nominee Marion Cotillard - wearing a stunning mermaid style Jean-Paul Gaultier dress - charming and sweet. Brooke Burke speaks with John Travolta and Kelly Preston; apparently it's not the night to ask about Tom Cruise's Scientology video.

Best Actress nominee Laura Linney briefly chats to Regia, then Best Supporting Actor nominee Javier Bardem fends what must be the billionth question about the Anton Chigurh hairstyle. All these interviews are so stilted! Miley Cyrus is now talking to Regis - why? Because Hannah Montana is a Disney show, and ABC is owned by Disney. Then again, the Hannah Montana concert movie was #1 at the box office a few weeks ago.

Guh, Brooke Burke refers to Juno as the "little indie that could" when talking to Jennifer Garner. How do the folks behind Little Miss Sunshine feel? Anyway, Garner, who is excellent in Juno, gives a shout out to her stylist - and Nicole Richie's enemy - Rachel Zoe. Helen Mirren is witty and classy when chatting with Regis.

Daniel Day-Lewis is wearing his golden hoop earrings; his wife, Rebecca Miller (writer-director and daughter of Arthur), is wearing a dress with huge brooches and red bow straps and seems destined for a Fug list. The next interview is Regis discussing Daniel Day-Lewis with Cameron Diaz and that's it. He also chats with the oldest Oscar fan who camps out at the bleachers and then interviews the fans who won a lottery to watch the Oscars inside the Kodak Theater (we bet they are terrible seats).

Chats with Ellen Page, Hillary Swank, the performers for one of the Enchanted Best Song numbers, orchestra leader Bill Conti (he'll be playing music before winners finish his speeches; his credits include scoring Rocky and The Karate Kid). Yada yada yada. Oh, no! Regis is walking through the Kodak Theater and calls Javier Bardem "Xavier!" A pregnant Cate Blanchett pretends (maybe?) to waddle over to hug Laura Linney. Okay, this nonsense is over.

8:30PM: Opening film - it's a computer-animated montage of various movie things - car from Cars, King Kong, Easy Rider, Cary Grant running in North by Northwest, Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Harry Potter flying through - as a car travels to Hollywood. We imagine this was produced during the writers' strike, because it doesn't require any actors or much writing. It seemed chintzy, but it's probably necessary.

Jon Stewart is on - he mentions the writers' strike, "The fight is over. So tonight, welcome to the make-up sex." And he tweaks Vanity Fair's decision to cancel its famous post-Oscar party, because VF wanted to respect the writers with something along the lines of, "If they want to respect the writers, how about they invite some writers for once!" Jokes about the psychopathic killer movies, check. Teenage pregnancy joke, check. Anton Chigurh joke - "Hannibal Lecter's murderousness with Dorothy Hamill's wedge cut" - check. Hillary Clinton joke, check. Some other jokes:
- Noting Diablo Cody, exotic dancer turned Juno screenwriter in the audience, "Hope you're enjoying the pay cut."
- It's Oscar's 80th birthday, "which automatically makes him the frontrunner for the Republican nomination."
- When there's a black man or woman President, it means "an asteroid is about to hit the Statue of Liberty." (Cut to Spike Lee and Wesley Snipes, laughing.)
- On Barack Hussein Obama's name, Stewart says it's a lot to overcome when you have a name that sounds like horrible other men, like "Gaydolf Titler" in 1944.
Jennifer Garner presents the Oscar for Best Costume Design, which we bet Atonement will win if only for the amazing green dress Keira Knightley wears. But Alexandra Byrne wins for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which did have some over-the-top designs. First commercial break, but not before a flashback to the 1969 Oscars ceremony, where Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn both won Best Actress in a tie.

George Clooney introduces a montage of previous Oscars telecasts. If you've watched too many Oscars ceremonies, it's got the all the clips you're familiar with - Rob Lowe and Snow White, Isaac Hayes doing Shaft, Bob Hope's great jokes, Billy Crystal as Hannibal Lecter, Adrien Brody's kiss with Halle Berry, but it's sweet to see the Charlie Chaplin clip. Back to Jon Stewart, who says he's watching Lawrence of Arabia on an iPhone.

After a serious Steve Carrell realizes he's actually presenting the Animated Feature Oscar with Anne Hathaway, not Best Documentary, the pair present the Best Animated Film Oscar to Brad Bird, for Ratatouille. Brad Bird mentions his guidance counselor's doubt that he could make movies helped prepare him for the movie business. A nervous Katherine Heigl - wearing red (it's the color of the night - Anne Hathaway was also in red) presents the Best Makeup Oscar to the La Vie on Rose team - Didier Lavergne, Jan Archibald; close-up of Marion Cotillard, who looks like she's about to cry.

Where are the big categories? Traditionally the Oscars throw the viewers a bone, by presenting Best Supporting Actor or Actress early. But Jon Stewart introduces the first Best Song performance - it's Amy Adams singing the Happy Working Song from Enchanted. She sounds great, but after the great scene from the movie, with all the rodents and creatures (see it here), it's a pretty spare treatment. Can it be that we yearn for some crazy Debbie Allen dance number?

Back from commercial break, Jon Stewart tells us that the Kodak Theater attendees spend commercial breaks snarking about what the viewing audience is wearing. Then it's Dwayne "Don't Call Me The Rock Anymore" Johnson presenting the Best Visual Effects Oscar to the Golden Compass crew - Michael L. Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, Trevor Wood - who give a short, nice speech. Go behind the scenes production teams!

Cate Blanchett, glorious in a flowy purple and silver dress, presents the Best Art Decoration Oscar to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street's Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo. Ferretti and Lo Schiavo won the Art Decoration Oscar for The Aviator; Feretti has also worked on other Scorsese films, including The Age of Innocence, Brining Out the Dead, Gang of New York.

Jon Stewart waxes about Cate Blanchett's amazing acting abilities, from Elizabeth to Bob Dylan and says she played a pitbull chasing Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men and she's even playing himself, Jon Stewart, right now: "She cannot be stopped!"

Montage of supporting actor awards being presented in years past, which means supporting actors awards will be presented! Last year's supporting actress winner Jennifer Hudson presents the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. Expected, after all the attention for the role, but Hal Holbrook could have been an upset (Holbrook looked so cute with Dixie Carter!). Bardem gives a rousing speech, noting the horrible haircut and the faith the Coens had in him, and ends with a thank you in Spanish to his mother - saying this is for mothers and fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, etc. His mother, who is his date, is touched and Tommy Lee Jones pats her shoulder.

Hilarious montage of what Stewart claims would have been a necessity for a writers' strike afflicted Oscars show: An Oscar Salute to Binoculars and Periscopes. And then Stewart shows a bit of An Oscar Salute to Bad Dreams. Keri Russell, who starred in August Rush but got better reviews for the Waitress, presents the Best Song performance of "Raise it Up" from August Rush, with performers from Harlem's IMPACT Repertory Theatre. There are about thirty or forty performers, and they're terrific.

9:28PM No jokes here - Owen Wilson presents the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar. The winner is Philippe Pollet-Villard for Le Mozart des Pickpockets, and Pollet-Villard says he can't speak English very well, but manages to thank his producer and family before saying merci in French.

Oh, no, it's the animated Bee Movie Bee voiced by Jerry Seinfeld! Okay, the montage of the Bee's other movie appearances (in the Swarm, Rushmore, A Room with a View, Election), is funny, but we rather the show end sooner. He presents the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film to Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman for Peter & the Wolf.

Montage of best supporting actress awards, which leads to last year's supporting actor winner, Alan Arkin, stepping out to present the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. And the winner is...Tilda Swinton, for Michael Clayton! A mild upset, as Ruby Dee or Cate Blanchett had been expected to win. But Swinton - wow! She's stunned and says the Oscar looks exactly like her agent, who deserves the award. She also said Michael Clayton writer-director Tony Gilroy walks on water and mentioned George Clooney wearing the Batman suit on set ("You rock!"). She's awesome - if you haven't yet, see her in The Deep End or Orlando.

Jessica Alba, in a lovely third trimester gown, mentions the Scientific Academy Awards handed out a few weeks ago. Insert a joke about the pregnant actresses and Jack Nicholson's virility. Then Josh Brolin and James McAvoy, after riffing on previous famous movie lines, present Best Adapted Screenplay to Ethan Coen and Joel Coen's adaptation of No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. They previously won best original screenplay with Fargo.

Sid Ganis, the Academy president, tries to enlighten the average non-Hollywood Joe or Jane about the Oscar nominating and voting process with a montage (of course a montage) about the, uh, process, but not the Price Waterhouse Coopers part. The Academy's voting is super secret - as the Barbra Streisand-Katharine Hepburn tie in 1969 showed, votes can be close (Streisand reportedly only joined the Academy that year and probably voted for herself - had she not voted, she would have lost by one vote!).

Then the third song nominee - it's the second of three Enchanted songs. Kristen Chenoweth, Broadway star and actor on ABC's Pushing Daises, sing "How Do You Know?" with a cast of characters. She has a terrific voice and stage presence.

10:00PM Back from commercial break, Jon Stewart gives out an award to a pregnant actress - Jessica Alba, Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman are in the running. But the award is for Angelina Jolie, who is totally pregnant! Stewart accepts on her behalf, noting it's hard getting 17 babysitters on Oscar night. Then he introduces Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench as the next presenters.

But the Superbad boys, Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan, appear, claiming that Halle and Dame Judi couldn't appear, so they were plucked from the audience. The pair argue over who is Halle and who is Judi Dench, before the presenting the Best Sound Editing Award to Karen M. Baker for Per Hallberg for The Bourne Ultimatum and the Best Sound Award to Scott Millan, David Parker, and Kirk Francis, also for The Bourne Ultimatum. We'll tell you this much - if the Oscars had nominated The Bourne Ultimatum for Best Picture, there would be a bigger audience.

Montage of Best Actress winners... could it be, the Best Actress award at 10:09PM? Wow, last year, Helen Mirren got her award at 11:52PM! Forest Whitaker, last year's Best Actor winner, comes out and presents the Best Actress Oscar to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. (Cate Blanchett jumps and starts clapping in her seat.) She is crying, thrilled, saying director Olivier Dahan "rocked" her world. She thanks the Academy, then "Thank you, life; thank you, love...it's true there are some angels in this city."

10:19PM Back from commercial, it's Jon Stewart and the 11-year-old performer from the Impact Rep, playing Wii Tennis. Then Colin Farrell is "chuffed" to be introducing Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova performing Best Song Nominee "Falling Slowly" from Once. Hansard is using the same beat-up acoustic guitar from the film, with tons of really nice guitars hanging in the back as decoration. It's a beautiful song and the soundtrack is great. This version has lot more to it - the Academy orchestra's string section is playing along - and they end with a shot of the pit and Bill Conti conducting and then the Kodak audience.

Jack Nicholson comes out - wearing not sunglasses, but possibly slightly tinted glasses - to introduce a montage of the Best Picture winners from the past 80 years. This will probably clock in at three minutes - time to get another snack or make a bathroom break! Actually, it's a good time to remember that some Best Picture winners don't stand up to the test of time.

Renee Zellweger presents the Best Film Editing Oscar to The Bourne Ultimatum's Christopher Rouse. Rouse reveals that his father is Russell Rouse, who won an Oscar for writing Pillow Talk! Cool! Nicole Kidman, who is pregnant yet still seems like she's Botoxing, comes out to introduce Honorary Oscar recipient Robert Boyle, who was the production designer for North by Northwest, The Birds, Marnie, Fiddler on the Roof, and Mame. Boyle is helped on stage because he is frail; he thanks "Hitch" for giving him his first big film.

10:42PM Jon Stewart jokes - thank God - that a glitch requires the show to be restarted. Then it's Penelope Cruz, presenting the Best Foreign Film Oscar. The winner is Austrian film The Counterfeiters, about a Jewish counterfeiter in a concentration camp.

Hee. Patrick Dempsey is introduced as "versatile and handsome"; McDreamy presents the final Best Song nominee, Enchanted's So Close, performed by Jon McLaughlin. We think Amy Adams is actually in the production number, dancing with an actor. Once the song is over, John Travolta makes his appearance by waltzing with one of the extras, and then he heads to the mic to present the Best Song Oscar. The winner is "Falling Slowly" from Once! Wow! Once is the real little movie that could - it was made over 17 days in Dublin for, as Glen Hansard says, "A hundred grand [Euros]." He implores everyone to "Make art!" Unfortunately, the orchestra starts playing the music and Marketa Irglova doesn't get to say anything.

10:57PM Best move of the night: Jon Stewart has Marketa Irglova come out and give her speech because she didn't get to give one. And she gives a lovely speech about independent musicians and having hope. Then Cameron Diaz comes out, stumbling a bit, and presents the Best Cinematography award to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. Elswit thanks the production designer, director Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Hillary Swank comes out to introduce the In Memoriam montage of actors, noting that some actors made their marks over many decades while others were taken too soon, "with their best yet to come." Some of the names: Roscoe Lee Brone, Laszlo Kovacs, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Suzanne Pleshette, Deborah Kerr, Jack Valenti, Kitty Carlisle Hart. The biggest cheers seem to be for Ingmar Bergman, and the segment ends with a shot of Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. Fade to black and commercial.

11:09PM: Amy Adams presents the Best Score Oscar - after a few examples of famous scores including Oscar orchestra leader Bill Conti's Rocky theme - to Dario Marianelli's score for Atonement. Tom Hanks comes out and introduces U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, who then announce the nominees for Best Short Documentary Film. Which is an interesting move, since many of the feature length documentary nominees are Iraq or Afghanistan war-related. The Best Documentary, Short Subject, winner is Freeheld, about NJ police officer Laurel Hester who was dying and wanted to give her partner her benefits.

Hanks presents Best Documentary, Feature, to Taxi to the Dark Side. Director Alex Gibney notes that his father, a Naval interrogator, encouraged him to make the movie, angry over "what was being done to the rule of law." The film was picked up by HBO.

11:24PM Just a few more awards - Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Picture. Let's bring this in before midnight! Harrison Ford comes out to present Best Original Screenplay - the winner is Diablo Cody, for Juno. She might be the Oscar winner to show off her sexy lady tattoo. She dedicates the award to the other nominees and thanks the production team, star Ellen Page, director Jason Reitman, and her family "for loving me exactly the way I am."

11:30PM Return from the commercial break directly into the Best Actor of Years Past montage. Dame Helen Mirren present the Best Actor Oscar to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role in There Will Be Blood. After kissing Mirren, he says, "That will be the closest I'll ever get to a knighthood." He gives a nice speech (thanks Paul Thomas Anderson, his co-stars, his wife) and pays tribute to his grandfather, father (former British poet laureate) and his sons. Guess George Clooney was right, when he called himself the "Hillary Clinton" in the Best Actor race, next to DDL's "Barack." So, was Johnny Depp John Edwards?

11:39PM Back from commercial to a clip of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau's Best Director introduction from a past telecast - god, were they awesome actors. And wow, now there's a montage of the past 30+ years of Best Director winners, which reminds everyone that the winners are typically white men (okay, Ang Lee won two years ago). Martin Scorsese comes out to present Best Director (aka "Best Achievement in Directing") to Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, making this the first time a pair of directors has won. In fact, back when Fargo received a Best Director nomination, the Academy (and Directors Guild) only allowed one person, so Joel Coen go the nod.

Denzel Washington comes out to present the Best Picture winner.... And it's No Country for Old Men. Joel and Ethan Coen come out of the wings, waiting for mega-producer Scott Rudin to come to the stage. Rudin, previously nominated for The Hours, is thrilled and thanks Cormac McCarthy, who had quite a 2007 (Oprah picked his book The Road for her Book Club). And we're loving the cuts back to Frances McDormand (Joel's wife), who is cheering and happy.

The show ends at 11:48PM. It was definitely an Oscars ceremony that paid tribute to the smaller, independent (with some studio aid) film, with No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Juno winning the major awards. It's great that the Academy is honoring well-made, interesting films, but the ceremony did feel a bit anti-climactic (save for wins for Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard and Once). What did you think?

Originally posted by Jen Chung from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on February 24, 2008 6:58 PM

I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Ben Smith, at The Politico, flags that today CNN's running a 'online poll' asking if Barack Obama has enough patriotism to be president. As Ben, with some understatement, put it's "it's odd to see the mainstream media drive a largely whispered question that none of his main, named critics -- Hillary, McCain, or the RNC -- will touch." Yeah, I'd say so.

That's how it works. Starts at right-swing smear sites and hoax emails. Then the AP's Nedra Pickler, who specializes in scooping up this slop and laundering it into the mainstream press, writes it up for the AP that runs across the country. And then picks it up and makes it a regular part of the campaign conversation.

I doubt some top exec at CNN came up with this or any name anchor. It's some producer in the bowels of the operation. But it amounts to the same thing because it's part of the culture and there's no accountability.

Get ready for more.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on February 24, 2008 4:49 PM

At a rally today in Providence, Rhode Island, Hillary Clinton didn't withhold her contempt for Barack Obama's message, working the crowd into laughter through mockery of Obama as hopelessly naive: "Now, I could stand up here and say, let's just get everybody together, let's get unified — the sky will open the light will come down, Celestial choirs will be singing, and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect!"

"Maybe I’m just lived a little long but I have no illusions about how hard this is going to be," she said. "You are not going to wave a magic wand and have the special interests disappear!"

The Huffington Post has video here.

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on February 24, 2008 4:02 PM

8:46 I would have guessed we were 30-40 minutes behind reality - I reached for the fast forward button and was denied. We are live! How is this possible? 8:48 Jason and Anil are liveblogging too. I think it's the most self-indulgent thing a blogger can do - it's basically the blogging equivalent of the Oscars, except you are constantly giving yourself all awards.8:50 We watched Michael Clayton today. It was a little horrible! 8:54 Penguins are the new blackface (really!) I like Ratatouille - I think it should be the best picture this year. 8:55 Complaining about your thank you speech being cut off at the Oscars is the equivalent of complaining about the airport on Twitter. 8:58 AXJ was on the phone for about an hour and a half. Now she's off. 8:59 AXJ is tipsy and complaining about how long the Oscars are. There should be two Oscars. One version should be without the montages and performances. 9:04 Is there really an Anne Hathaway rendition of "How Do You Want It?" 9:10 Harrison Ford and Ally McBeal are still dating! Documentary evidence to come.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on February 24, 2008 3:47 PM

8:46 I would have guessed we were 30-40 minutes behind reality - I reached for the fast forward button and was denied. We are live! How is this possible?

8:48 Jason and Anil are liveblogging too. I think it's the most self-indulgent thing a blogger can do - it's basically the blogging equivalent of the Oscars, except you are constantly giving yourself all awards.

8:50 We watched Michael Clayton today. It was a little horrible!

8:54 Penguins are the new blackface (really!) I like Ratatouille - I think it should be the best picture this year.

8:55 Complaining about your thank you speech being cut off at the Oscars is the equivalent of complaining about the airport on Twitter.

8:58 AXJ was on the phone for about an hour and a half. Now she's off.

8:59 AXJ is tipsy and complaining about how long the Oscars are. There should be two Oscars. One version should be without the montages and performances.

9:04 Is there really an Anne Hathaway rendition of "How Do You Want It?"

9:10 Harrison Ford and Ally McBeal are still dating! Documentary evidence to come.

9:21 AXJ is live-translating Javier Bardem's acceptance speech for me.

9:24 I've never heard of "August Rush" or "Keri Russell."

9:30 It's actually Zombie Owen Wilson!

9:38 I do like Tilda Swinton - but even she is surprised she beat Amy Ryan and Ruby Dee! George Clooney is thinking "you better thank me! What is taking so long?? THANK ME!! THANK ME! COME ON! Finally. Took so long." And even then she disses Batman! That was the best moment of the Oscars yet.

9:40 Twitter is just perma-live blogging. That's why everyone is doing it.

9:48 I liked seeing Sarah Polley type. I wonder how they got such a candid shot!

9:58 Anil Dash: "I think Batman jokes are in bad taste this soon after the Joker's death." I think Owen Wilson should take over Heath Ledger's career.

10:04 AXJ is not happy with the above joke - however I stand by it. Career wise, it makes sense for all involved.

10:05 The Halle Berry jokes aren't funny.

10:08 J-Smooth: why did that dude singing with Kristine Chenoweth sound like he was Miss Cleo's nephew or something?

10:10 J-Kottke: 10:08p: Battery life at 31% and dropping.

10:13 Kudos to Forest Whitaker for being able to pronounce Marion Cotillard's name. Even the camera person was so shocked he almost fell over!

10:16 I've been asked to rewind and rewatch Marion's win three times.

10:21 Musical numbers are when I catch up with the other liveblogs.

10:29 I love that Bourne is cleaning up. I think Bourne and Ratatouille were my two of my three favorite movies this year.

10:32 Cameron Diaz is looking at Nicole Kidman and thinking "I'm prettier!"

10:42 I like Penelope Cruz.

10:53 As if AXJ wasn't angry/snarky enough tonight, they had to replay that infamous Spielberg acceptance speech.

10:55 Her follow up comments are totally unbloggable. Ask her about it in person. :)

11:05 I'm out of gas - good night!

11:24 I really wish Harrison Ford was played the "Jack Nicholson" role every years. I don't like Jack!

11:25 My new favorite Oscars moment was Diablo Cody and Ellen Page giving high fives. Ellen Page can pretend to be an adult the rest of the night but it's refreshing to see stars let their guard down.

11:37 My Twitter stream is starkly divided on loving and hating Diablo Cody. Why do people care?

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on February 24, 2008 3:47 PM

OK, and away we go!

Jon Stewart's monologue is, I think, very well pitched. The strike jokes walk a nice line... they seem obviously pro-writer but not overly so. The Yom Kippur joke was funny, but then again I went to Cardozo....

"Don't Let The Audience Win!" Oh, how true is that.

Judging from Jennifer Garner's speech (nice dress, btw), looks like the Oscar writers are just as bad as they are when they don't have a strike to deal with.

Jeez, I hope that this is the only time-filling self-indulgent montage. Odds are against that, though.

Best Animated Feature.... goes to the movie about the rat. Occasionally the Academy gets it right.


They're being a bit aggressive with the move-along music, aren't they?

Anyway, as Amy Adams has to do the entire song on the stage all by her self (perhaps one beneficial side-effect of the strike is no big production numbers?), it strikes me that Enchanted was one of the best-reviewed movies of the year... but managed to avoid most critics' top-ten lists.

So far... yawn.

Bardem wins for No Country for Old Men. Wilkinson might have been his only competition, but still, no great surprise. Nice speech, though.

Is this Owen Wilson's first public appearance after his suicide attempt? If so, he picked an interesting platform....

More people should watch shorts--it's a interesting form, particularly animated shorts.

Well, I guess that Tilda Swinton wasn't expecting to win best supporting actress. That means that Cate Blanchett just moved into the pole position for best actress. And I loved her speech, particularly the thanks to George....

Jessica Alba should get a scientific and technical award, just for being Jessica Alba.

Oh god, kill me now.

The montages before the acting awards is nice. And the best actress for 2008 is.... Marion Cotillard! That's quite the upset. I wonder if there was some vote-splitting going on?

I'd been hoping that "Roderick Jaynes" (aka the Coen Brothers) would win for best film editing.... it would have been interesting to see who would have come up to pick up the little gold man.

Best song... not a huge surprise, since none of the songs from Enchanted were going to win (vote splitting and all that). Nice speech, though the best part of that bit was probably the John Travolta 707 gag.

Wow... Marketa came out and got to do her half of the acceptance speech... after the commercial! Has that ever happened before?

In a year that had Bermgan and Antononi die, Heath Ledger was the last name on the in memorium reel.

Originally posted by Paul from pf.org, on February 24, 2008 3:29 PM

San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority labs!

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on February 24, 2008 2:18 PM

Baseball spring training opens Tuesday. It is in this spirit that I stumbled upon the photographs of Don Hamerman. For the past few years, as he's walked his dog at a local park, he's picked up lost and forgotten baseballs. There are dozens of them now, all lovingly photographed.

Originally posted by William Drenttel from Design Observer: Main Posts, on February 24, 2008 1:30 PM

The website for the “Design and the Elastic Mind” show at the Museum of Modern Art is now live. You can see my project, “Wifi-Hog” on the site through this Link. Tons of other cool projects on the site, put together through a Flash-based interface.

Originally posted by jonah from coin-operated, on February 24, 2008 11:58 AM

Guest contributor Ali sent us this photo, which she took last fall in Pittsfield, MA. We worked on writing a caption for it, but got worn out after discussing the source of the paper, the type of ink, whether the printers were fairly paid, and what they should have eaten for lunch.

We invite you to contribute suitable captions in the comment section. Our favorite entry will receive an Ethicurean t-shirt, just as soon as they are available — and since that could be a while, the winner will also receive a year’s subscription to Edible San Francisco or to the Edible of your choice. And if you have a funny photo like this that is just begging for captioning, send it to us via tips /at/ ethicurean.com! You’ll receive the same exciting prizes if we use yours.

Originally posted by Ethicurean from The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing., on February 24, 2008 10:35 AM

Need to get these out of my tab pile ... You And Your Research, What single book is the best introduction to your field (or specialization within your field) for laypeople?, digital elph sd1000, Social Design Notes: An Introduction to Information Design, What Specifically Do Generalists Do?, Systeme D Cartography, Movement, Web Directions North 2008 closing keynote, analysis of competing hypotheses, Arduino troubleshooting.

Comments

Originally posted by (author unknown) from tecznotes, on February 24, 2008 9:14 AM

Photos from Blaise K, physics*chick, mayotic.
See more photos tagged with “snow” or view our snow clusters.

Originally posted by Heather Champ from Flickr Blog, on February 24, 2008 8:38 AM

Written by lifehacker

Like a famed race horse or a classic book, you don’t just throw away a laptop because it’s banged up a little. Even if it seems outdated and underpowered, most any laptop is still small, quiet, and relatively low on power consumption, making it a seriously valuable spare to keep handy-even without a working screen. With some free software, a little know-how and some creative thinking about your home network, nearly any old laptop can find its second wind, and today I’ll run through some of the best ways to get it there.Photo by daveynin.

Create a no-monitor, low-power spare system

So everything on your laptop runs just fine-except the screen, the most important (and expensive) part. That’s not a death knell, just a chance for re-purposing. Set your laptop up somewhere near your router, connect it with network cable, then read up on how to set up your system to run “headless” with any OS and only when you wake it up. That way, you’ve got a computer that uses a bare minimum of power and doesn’t neeed no fancy screen to convert a file, download a big file, or serve as a temporary backup box. But if your system lacks Wake on LAN abilities, or you’re just looking for more use out of that laptop, you could always …

Convert it to a home server

The idea of a “server” usually conjures images of rack-mounted, temperature-controlled boxes, or at least a desktop system, but a laptop’s power-scaling abilities, small size, and built-in screen can actually make for a quietly-great unit. You could put it next to your printer to allow printing from anywhere, use a browser to get it grabbing BitTorrents in Windows or Mac systems, or set up your own web server for grabbing files or hosting things like your personal Wiki. Oh, and don’t forget your multi-purpose media server, if you’ve got the hard drive space. Once you’re set up and have enabled outside access, the world-or at least your files at home-is at your fingertips.

Make a better digital photo frame

Unless you avoided the big stores entirely last holiday season, you’ve probably noticed the boom in digital picture frames-those small $100-and-up devices with not-so-amazing screens and a canned slideshow ability. If you know your laptop isn’t much for getting anything done these days, consider bending it over backwards to make for a sizable, attention-grabbing frame that can show whatever you want and possibly even grab photos as they’re dropped on a main computer. Instructables has a highly detailed guide to taking apart a MacBook to get started, while Popular Science shows an alternate scheme using an old ThinkPad. To keep your spare laptop from becoming a power draw (or running long and hot), consider setting up timers to run your “frame” only during your waking hours.

Make it fly again with lightweight Linux

If you’re shelfing your trusty road warrior mostly because it just runs … so … slow, consider that it’s not always the laptop’s fault. Most modern operating systems aren’t designed to give you only the web, email, document handling, and a little multimedia, but there is an entire OS realm that is that can make your old system seem new again. Here are a few free, open-source recommendations and what an old laptop might get out of them:

• Puppy Linux: Very slim (97 MB) distribution, but retains a basically smooth and polished interface, with apps to cover common computer uses.
• Damn Small Linux: For really, really fast and light performance with a straight-up interface. A system smaller than 50 MB that can run on a machine with a minimum of 16 MB memory (assuming you can boot/load it on there).
• Xubuntu: Puts the Ubuntu methodology and software support into a lighter, XFCE-based desktop (check out its look and newest features here). For an even lighter kind of “Damn Small Ubuntu,” try Fluxbuntu.
• gOS: For those who live inside their browser, gOS isn’t so much a gimmicky “Wal-Mart OS” as a webapp-focused version of Ubuntu, with a lightweight window manager (Enlightenment) and an OS X-like bottom dock containing most of what you need

Convert its LCD into a Stand-Alone Monitor

Not for the faint of heart or unsteady of hand, this Instructables guide runs you through the basics of turning a perfectly good LCD laptop screen into a vertical-mounted monitor. Havingl pulled apart a laptop myself to replace a monitor cable, I can just tell you that you should go real slow, and make sure you have a place to put all the spare screws and parts during disassembly.

Salvage an external back up drive from it

Assuming your laptop didn’t die from hard drive failure, those little magnetic platters inside it can make for a really handy pocket-sized external drive. Follow Lifehacker alum Rick Broida’s instructions on properly enclosing a 2.5″ drive, and you’ll have avoided paying a premium for a seriously useful addition to your computer inventory. Photo by Justin Ruckman.

Extend your wireless coverage

If wireless coverage throughout your house is hit or miss, your best bet is to do a little DIY router upgrading. If, however, your router can’t handle Tomato or DD-WRT boost, your trusty laptop can serve as a temporary booster. If your trusty laptop is running OS X, Vista, or XP, you can turn on its hot spot abilities with only minor tweaking. Linux users should check out this Linux.com tutorial for general guidance, while Ubuntu fans can get more specific instructions here. Finally, those who also keep an Xbox on their network but think Microsoft’s $100 wireless adapter is a bit much can jerry-rig that shelved laptop to serve as a stand-in.

I tried to cover the basics and a few quirky ideas for an old-but-trusted laptop, but many of you have years of experience on me in this area. What’s the coolest, or most useful, thing you’ve done with an old laptop? What do you wish you could do with it? Share your tales and wishes in the comments.

Kevin Purdy, associate editor at Lifehacker, hopes he never has to part ways with his ThinkPad. His weekly feature, Open Sourcery, appears every Friday on Lifehacker.

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Originally posted by bspcn from The Best Article Every day, on February 24, 2008 6:16 AM