randomwalks/dj

Originally posted by (author unknown) from random($foo), on March 22, 2008 6:59 PM

From the Ferry Plaza Farmers market, these giant beets! Ever since I had the baby, I've craved beets without end. It's amazing since I detested them previously. Even so, I couldn't convince myself that we could eat all the beet dishes one of these would yield.

Originally posted by Mena from Dollarshort, on March 22, 2008 4:04 PM

The pillow fight just started 30 minutes ago, and the pictures are already coming in. Part of World Pillow Fight Day, this is the third consecutive year the feathers have flown around Union Square.

We're you there? Don't forget to tag your pillow fight pics with "Gothamist" at Flickr.

Originally posted by Jen Carlson from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 22, 2008 3:28 PM

demonstrates Fire Eagle and OAuth, mixed with Wikipedia, GeoNames, and the new Google Maps Static API  

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on March 22, 2008 8:38 AM

“Seals Stadium was a minor league baseball stadium that stood in San Francisco from 1931 through 1959…”.

Found via wikinear

Originally posted by kellan from Laughing Meme, on March 22, 2008 8:23 AM

"...a simple site that does just one thing: show you a list of the five Wikipedia pages that are geographically closest to your current location. It's designed (or not-designed) to be used mainly from mobile phones."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on March 22, 2008 8:02 AM

Richard Belzer, Lou Reed, and a dog.

Taken by kathryn.

Originally posted by finn from Modcult, on March 22, 2008 7:04 AM

11/12ths of Apperceptive
Originally uploaded by capndesign.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 21, 2008 8:37 PM

Michael Chabon on why real-life superhero costumes don't work.

This sad outcome even in the wake of thousands of dollars spent and months of hard work given to sewing and to packing foam rubber into helmets has an obvious, an unavoidable, explanation: a superhero's costume is constructed not of fabric, foam rubber, or adamantium but of halftone dots, Pantone color values, inked containment lines, and all the cartoonist's sleight of hand. The superhero costume as drawn disdains the customary relationship in the fashion world between sketch and garment. It makes no suggestions. It has no agenda. Above all, it is not waiting to find fulfillment as cloth draped on a body. A constructed superhero costume is a replica with no original, a model built on a scale of x:1. However accurate and detailed, such a work has the tidy airlessness of a model-train layout but none of the gravitas that such little railyards and townscapes derive from making faithful reference to homely things. The graphic purity of the superhero costume means that the more effort and money you lavish on fine textiles, metal grommets, and leather trim the deeper your costume will be sucked into the silliness singularity that swallowed, for example, Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin and their four nipples.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 21, 2008 8:10 PM

Steve Nash directed his own Nike commercial. Nash's original concept for the commercial is clever:

At first, the idea was to shoot on different mediums -- camera phone, 8-millimeter, 16-millimeter (the eventual choice), security footage. My idea was the city was watching me. The genesis was a lot of people film me or take a picture of me in the city on cellphones. If it's such an appetite to see me do normal things, it was an idea to do something people like.

(via truehoop)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 21, 2008 6:58 PM

Another one from the I-don’t-agree-with-it-but-it’s-well-worth-reading dept.

For what it’s worth, I believe the number one reason why the iPhone OS doesn’t allow background processes is RAM. Battery life, CPU sharing, bandwidth — all of these are factors, too, but I think RAM is foremost. The iPhone only has just 128 MB of RAM and no swap space. A good chunk of that 128 MB goes to the OS itself and the built-in apps that do run in the background — Phone, Safari, and iPod. There really just isn’t much left over. If Apple were to just allow background processing now, what would happen is that background processes would often wind up getting killed by the OS at some point when the frontmost app needs more memory. From the user’s perspective, it would seem as though background apps inevitably mysteriously fail and stop running. You can argue that you’d rather have that than no third-party background apps at all, but it’s clearly a reasonable trade-off for Apple in terms of consistency and obviousness in the user experience.

Wait a few years for iPhones with 1 GB of RAM and it’ll be a different story.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 21, 2008 5:20 PM

TPM Reader MR disagrees ...

I have to say that I disagree with your entry stating that Clinton supporters have thrown in the towel and accepted that Barack Obama will be the nominee. Let me be clear, we will never back down until the fat lady sings. And that performance, which will be for the better, will be on the convention room floor. It will be an all out brawl!

We're not backing down! The fight has just begun!!!! Pennsylvania is around the corner and a large victory is excepted. Polls in West Virginia also strongly favor her. Polls in North Carolina that have favored Obama are now virtually tied. There will be big surprises in North Carolina.

It's not over. And I might also point out how inaccurate the Politico article that you quoted/linked to really is. If the superdelegates support Clinton there will be "a backlash of historic proportions"!?!? THEY WOULD BE DOING THE JOB THEY WERE CREATED FOR, JOSH. The superdelegates weren't created to add fluff to the popular vote, but to make the educated decision that voters sometimes can't. They're there for the same reason the electoral college is. For example, picking a glorified motivational speaker over an experienced leader (good example, eh?). The SD's are there to put the better qualified and more electable candidate in charge. And in poll after poll, that's Hillary.

I'm sorry Josh, but you have it wrong.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 21, 2008 4:22 PM

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

It's no Cozumel or Costa Rica or wherever you kids are spending Spring Break these days, but this is a sight for sore eyes for New Yorkers craving warmer weather and a juicy burger out by the East River. This week the owners of LIC's parking lot turned summer playground Water Taxi Beach had 500 tons of sand trucked in to make the transformation happen once again. Says WTB's manager Harry Hawk writes: "In the 2008 season, Water Taxi Beach will double its space to about 44,000 sq ft. Delivery has started on an additional 500 tons of sand. The sand placed down in 2005 was 400 tons and came from NJ. This new sand is from Long Island." Spring has officially begun.
· LIC Tries to Ruin Summer, Calls Water Taxi Beach a 'Public Nuisance [~E~]
· Signs of Spring: WTB Ferry Service [~E~]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on March 21, 2008 2:20 PM

While this blog has been a lot of fun, I'm starting a new job next week and will no longer be posting here or making any updates over at New Jersey by the Numbers. In the newspaper industry, the type...

Originally posted by Rob Gebeloff from NJ.com: Stat Attack, on March 21, 2008 1:11 PM

Roger, Mary and Josh will be tabling for Justseeds at the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair this weekend. If you are in the area, come by and say "Hello!"

13th Annual San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair
Saturday, March 22nd, 10am -6pm
Sunday, March 23rd, 11am - 5pm

SF County Fair Building
Golden Gate Park, 9th Avenue & Lincoln Way, San Francisco, CA

The event is free
presented by Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore
artwork by Hugh D'Andrade

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on March 21, 2008 1:10 PM

capndesign posted a photo:

Originally posted by nobody@flickr.com (capndesign) from Photos from rayners' contacts, on March 21, 2008 1:06 PM

The new Errol Morris doc, Standard Operating Procedure, has it's latest trailer up on Apple Trailers. It looks so good! Also, Errol Morris' website is one of the biggest time sucks ever. There is a ton of stuff there! —posted by Angela

Originally posted by (author unknown) from MediaRights: Staff Blog, on March 21, 2008 12:43 PM

Last week, Lara Flynn Boyle guest starred on Law & Order, playing an unscrupulous reporter looking for answers in a case that involved dog-fighting, wine fraud, and divorce. Except it's unclear whether many viewers realized it was her, because of her apparent plastic surgery.

The former Twin Peaks and Practice star looked so unlike herself that there's a thread on Yahoo! Answers, asking, "Is that really Lara Flynn Boyle on Law and Order right now? It doesn't look like her." Others replied, "Yes, that's her. That's what years of eating disorders, drugs and plastic surgery can do to a person," and "It looks like she was hit by a car and they had to reassemble her face with Botox and collagen... She looks like Joan Rivers long lost daughter, but uglier, with more plastic surgery--and more fake looking and shinier and red."

In other L&O news, the NY Times reports a libel lawsuit against Law & Order creator Dick Wolf can proceed; bald Indian-American lawyer Ravi Batra claims an episode that shows a bald Indian-American lawyer named Ravi Patel bribing a judge is defamatory. (Batra was friendly with corrupt judge Gerald Garson.) Another lawsuit should be filed by Boyle, against her plastic surgeon for the terrible work and her agent for allowing her to appear on TV like that.

Originally posted by Jen Chung from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 21, 2008 12:37 PM

There's a few of us Braves fans holding down the Atlanta card blogging world, but we're getting some new rivals in the internet NL East.

Out of the Mill has nothing to do with the NL East as it's written by an Indians fan, but the Braves are playing the Tribe right now in Orlando so for today they are bitter rivals. Rich is probably pleased as the Braves blew a three run lead on CC Sabathia when

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on March 21, 2008 11:43 AM

A new book from O'Reilly details iPhone development, though it shows no sign of covering the official SDK.

Read More...

Originally posted by ars@chrisforesman.com (Chris Foresman) from Infinite Loop, on March 21, 2008 10:19 AM

Remember that groovy Saturn wallpaper they used to sell for kids' bedrooms? The Hubble Space Telescope folks are making available a very chic, grown-up, and open source, version of that same idea. In this case, it's a black and white image of the Carina nebula, stitched together from 48 separate images taken using the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. It shows a region of space 50 light years across.

At hubblesite.org, I found myself intrigued by the menu item advertising wall murals. "This," I thought, clicking on it, "is how they make their money." Since NASA makes just about all of their images available in the public domain, I should have known better.

What I found astonishing was not the hefty resolution—NASA offers a lot of images at ultra-high-resolution, after all. (They have a link to a colour image of the Carina nebula weighing in at 29566 X 14321, for instance. Given that images at this resolution can crash both browsers and computers, download only, as they emphasize, at your own risk. It's almost always adequate to use the lower resolution versions).

What was intriguing were the DIY instructions that describe how to assemble one of these multi-frame wall murals, using eight large downloadable images that you can take to any photolab for black and white printing.

The key to this model of distribution is the accompanying letter that certifies that these images are in the public domain. Photolabs are not permitted to print copyrighted images, so in order to make a large-format set of images available in this way, it is necessary to provide the shop with documentation proving that they won't get into trouble if they agree to print the photos.

This model of distribution is both free and open source, of course. But it is also a distribution model which is here right now, and which points to the promise of localized production, in this case, to the possibility of local, on-demand printing. There are few facilities that offer local, on-demand printing of books. Photolabs, however, and print shops, have become a ubiquitous feature of many urban centres.

The content might be generated quite remotely (7500 light years away, in this case). The physical artifact can be cheerfully printed at a photo store near you.

Front and Inside Images: Space Telescope Science Institute

Help us change the world - DONATE NOW!

(Posted by Mark Tovey in Stuff at 9:48 AM)

Originally posted by Mark Tovey from WorldChanging, on March 21, 2008 9:48 AM

Written by positivesharing

When the customer isn’t right - for your business

One woman who frequently flew on Southwest, was constantly disappointed with every aspect of the company’s operation. In fact, she became known as the “Pen Pal” because after every flight she wrote in with a complaint.

She didn’t like the fact that the company didn’t assign seats; she didn’t like the absence of a first-class section; she didn’t like not having a meal in flight; she didn’t like Southwest’s boarding procedure; she didn’t like the flight attendants’ sporty uniforms and the casual atmosphere.

Her last letter, reciting a litany of complaints, momentarily stumped Southwest’s customer relations people. They bumped it up to Herb’s [Kelleher, CEO of Southwest] desk, with a note: ‘This one’s yours.’

In sixty seconds, Kelleher wrote back and said, ‘Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb.’”

The phrase “The customer is always right” was originally coined by Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London in 1909, and is typically used by businesses to:

1. Convince customers that they will get good service at this company
2. Convince employees to give customers good service

Fortunately more and more businesses are abandoning this maxim - ironically because it leads to bad customer service.

Here are the top five reasons why “The customer is always right” is wrong.

1: It makes employees unhappy

Gordon Bethune is a brash Texan (as is Herb Kelleher, coincidentally) who is best known for turning Continental Airlines around “From Worst to First,” a story told in his book of the same title from 1998. He wanted to make sure that both customers and employees liked the way Continental treated them, so he made it very clear that the maxim “the customer is always right” didn’t hold sway at Continental.

In conflicts between employees and unruly customers he would consistently side with his people. Here’s how he puts it:

When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. They have to put up with this stuff every day. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to abuse our employees . . .

We run more than 3 million people through our books every month. One or two of those people are going to be unreasonable, demanding jerks. When it’s a choice between supporting your employees, who work with you every day and make your product what it is, or some irate jerk who demands a free ticket to Paris because you ran out of peanuts, whose side are you going to be on?

You can’t treat your employees like serfs. You have to value them . . . If they think that you won’t support them when a customer is out of line, even the smallest problem can cause resentment.

So Bethune trusts his people over unreasonable customers. What I like about this attitude is that it balances employees and customers, where the “always right” maxim squarely favors the customer - which is not a good idea, because, as Bethune says, it causes resentment among employees.

Of course there are plenty of examples of bad employees giving lousy customer service. But trying to solve this by declaring the customer “always right” is counter-productive.

2: It gives abrasive customers an unfair advantage

Using the slogan “The customer is always right” abusive customers can demand just about anything - they’re right by definition, aren’t they? This makes the employees’ job that much harder, when trying to rein them in.

Also, it means that abusive people get better treatment and conditions than nice people. That always seemed wrong to me, and it makes much more sense to be nice to the nice customers to keep them coming back.

3: Some customers are bad for business

Most businesses think that “the more customers the better”. But some customers are quite simply bad for business.

Danish IT service provider ServiceGruppen proudly tell this story:

One of our service technicians arrived at a customer’s site for a maintenance task, and to his great shock was treated very rudely by the customer.

When he’d finished the task and returned to the office, he told management about his experience. They promptly cancelled the customer’s contract.

Just like Kelleher dismissed the irate lady who kept complaining (but somehow also kept flying on Southwest), ServiceGruppen fired a bad customer. Note that it was not even a matter of a financial calculation - not a question of whether either company would make or lose money on that customer in the long run. It was a simple matter of respect and dignity and of treating their employees right.

4: It results in worse customer service

Rosenbluth International, a corporate travel agency, took it even further. CEO Hal Rosenbluth wrote an excellent book about their approach called Put The Customer Second - Put your people first and watch’em kick butt.

Rosenbluth argues that when you put the employees first, they put the customers first. Put employees first, and they will be happy at work. Employees who are happy at work give better customer service because:

• They care more about other people, including customers
• They have more energy
• They are happy, meaning they are more fun to talk to and interact with
• They are more motivated

On the other hand, when the company and management consistently side with customers instead of with employees, it sends a clear message that:

• Employees are not valued
• That treating employees fairly is not important
• That employees have no right to respect from customers
• That employees have to put up with everything from customers

When this attitude prevails, employees stop caring about service. At that point, real good service is almost impossible - the best customers can hope for is fake good service. You know the kind I mean: corteous on the surface only.

5: Some customers are just plain wrong

Herb Kelleher agrees, as this passage From Nuts! the excellent book about Southwest Airlines shows:

Herb Kelleher […] makes it clear that his employees come first - even if it means dismissing customers. But aren’t customers always right? “No, they are not,” Kelleher snaps. “And I think that’s one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possibly commit. The customer is sometimes wrong. We don’t carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, ‘Fly somebody else. Don’t abuse our people.’”

If you still think that the customer is always right, read this story from Bethune’s book “From Worst to First”:

A Continental flight attendant once was offended by a passenger’s child wearing a hat with Nazi and KKK emblems on it. It was pretty offensive stuff, so the attendant went to the kid’s father and asked him to put away the hat. “No,” the guy said. “My kid can wear what he wants, and I don’t care who likes it.”

The flight attendant went into the cockpit and got the first officer, who explained to the passenger the FAA regulation that makes it a crime to interfere with the duties of a crew member. The hat was causing other passengers and the crew discomfort, and that interfered with the flight attendant’s duties. The guy better put away the hat.

He did, but he didn’t like it. He wrote many nasty letters. We made every effort to explain our policy and the federal air regulations, but he wasn’t hearing it. He even showed up in our executive suite to discuss the matter with me. I let him sit out there. I didn’t want to see him and I didn’t want to listen to him. He bought a ticket on our airplane, and that means we’ll take him where he wants to go. But if he’s going to be rude and offensive, he’s welcome to fly another airline.

The fact is that some customers are just plain wrong, that businesses are better of without them, and that managers siding with unreasonable customers over employees is a very bad idea, that results in worse customer service.

So put your people first. And watch them put the customers first.

ShareThis

Originally posted by bspcn from The Best Article Every day, on March 21, 2008 9:31 AM

From the Journal ...

“The time that he could have been effective has long since passed,” [Penn] continued, “I don’t think it is a significant endorsement in this environment.”

Perhaps sensing that it may not be effective to dismiss out of hand a popular Hispanic governor’s political clout, campaign spokesman Phil Singer chimed in. “We respect Gov. Richardson,” he clarified, “But at the end of the day this campaign is about Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.”

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 21, 2008 9:14 AM

The ladies of Production here at Arts Engine are mentors for IFP's Documentary Rough Cut Lab, a program that, through the feedback and guidance of more experienced filmmakers, supports first time filmmakers in the completion of their first feature length documentary. This week we had our first meeting to prep for the upcoming madness. Apparently there is a video on the IFP website that features both the narrative and doc labs. Watch it to (briefly) see us in action. Note: Filmmakers talk with their hands ... a lot!—posted by Angela

Originally posted by (author unknown) from MediaRights: Staff Blog, on March 21, 2008 8:55 AM

Filed under: Cool tools, Hacks, MacBook Air

TUAW reader Rowan Pope pointed us to this insane MacBook Air hacking post. How many USB ports does the Air support? Apple says just one; this post says up to 7. Apparently, the Air has a few extra live USB port connections built into that thar skinny little computer. How do we know this? Because the guy downloaded developer documentation for the ICH-8 chip, which offers 5 low-speed and 2 high-speed USB controllers.

He popped open his Air and measured the voltage at each pin. He then used a hacked memory key with a modded USB extension cable (with an extra resistor just to be safe). After connecting the memory key to one of the pins, his MacBook Air system log reported a USB error. A few more tests and adjustments later, he actually got his laptop to recognize the drive. In total, he found three working USB connections plus an unused SATA controller.

TUAW is awed. Be sure to check out the other mod on this much-opened Air: a carbon-fiber bottom case. Sleek!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally posted by Erica Sadun from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on March 21, 2008 8:35 AM

 

Taking aim at the richest irony of the faux-populist case against congestion pricing, Transportation Alternatives has released this ad [PDF], coming soon to a newspaper near you. The copy reads:

Drivers from Westchester earn an average income of $176,231.
Only 4% of New York City commuters would pay the congestion fee.
100% of the congestion fee goes to improving mass transit.

Do the math:
Congestion Pricing = Better Transit

You know, he even sort of looks like that other guy from Westchester.

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on March 21, 2008 7:58 AM

Just a case of three bored cube rats scoping out a celebrity presidential candidate's passport records -- or something more sinister?

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on March 21, 2008 6:47 AM

Trailer for Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure. (via crazymonk)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 21, 2008 5:55 AM

You wanna know how much Gawker writers get paid? Well, let me tell you. Remember that they don't really get salaries any more, just advances. And it's been widely reported that bloggers on the flagship Gawker site get $7.50 per thousand pageviews. All we need to know now is how many pageviews they get, and, well, it turns out there's a public webpage detailing that information.

In the month of February, Gawker's most-read blogger was Richard Lawson, with 1,208,704 pageviews: he earned $9,065 for the month. Ryan Tate, in the number-two spot with 970,219 pageviews, earned $7,277. The least-read blogger was Nick Douglas, who got 267,570 pageviews. My guess is that his base salary is more than $2,007 per month, which means that he can't be feeling very secure right now - especially since he's bottom of the league table in March as well.

Total payroll for the month of February was $33,294, plus some extra for people whose base pay is more than their earn-out: call it $40,000 in total. Gawker received a total of 14,088,429 pageviews in February, which means that Denton is paying his writers about $2.84 per thousand pageviews that he receives.

In any case, take that $40,000 per month, and distribute it among six bloggers: that works out to an annualized $80,000 apiece, on average. Which is really not at all bad for the kind of people Gawker hires, who are often talented but unproven twentysomethings.

You can reasonably expect that the $80,000 figure is going to remain roughly constant, even if pageviews steadily increase. The pageview rate ($7.50, at Gawker) gets reset every quarter, and is calculated essentially by taking the editorial budget and dividing it by the number of eligible pageviews. So if pageviews go up, then the pageview rate goes down: you can be sure that the staff over at Gizmodo, seven of whom got over a million pageviews, and one of whom (Jesus Diaz) got 3.1 million pageviews in February, don't get paid $7.50 per thousand.

Still, cruising around the Gawker Media stats pages (just put /stats onto the end of the domain in question) does make you realize how the Gawker-obsessed media misses much more important writers for the network as a whole. Do you know who Adam Pash is? He's a blogger at Lifehacker; he got 5.2 million pageviews in January. Dashiell Bennett got 2.8 million pageviews at Fleshbot.

I'd assume that Pash and Diaz are making comfortable six-figure incomes blogging, and that a good few of the "site leads" (Gina Trapani, Brian Lam) are as well. Conversely, some of the less popular bloggers are likely getting paid $50-60,000 per year.

Gawker Media as a whole is holding reasonably steady on about 210 million pageviews per month. If Denton's payroll is $3 per thousand pageviews (remember he has to pay his site leads as well, on every site other than Gawker), that would mean he's paying about $630,000 a month in editorial salaries - which is pretty close to the number I arrived at at the end of my first post on this subject.

What are the effects of making bloggers' pageview figures so transparent not only to themselves but also to the general public? I can't help but feel that it must mean more competitiveness, and less helpfulness and collegiality, among bloggers on any given site. With the total editorial budget largely preset, there is a zero-sum game being played between bloggers, over time: a successful blogger's gain will be an unsuccessful blogger's loss. It's certainly not an atmosphere I'd like to work in.

Related Links
Blogonomics: Paying for Content
Tech Blogger Banned in Las Vegas
Blogonomics: Gawker's Payroll

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Felix Salmon - All posts, on March 21, 2008 5:26 AM

• Bronx Assemblyman Seeks to Clear Path for Congestion Pricing (Daily Politics)
• Horse Trading Ramps Up in City Council (Sun)
• News Endorses Pricing, While Columnist Regurgitates Brodsky's Line
• Brooklyn Community Board 7 Votes Against Pricing and RPP (Gowanus Lounge)
  
• Member of Bronx Community Board 8 Rejects Parking Permits Too (R'dale Press)
  
• Economic Downturn Casts Doubt on Future of Atlantic Yards (NYT)
• Selection of Hudson Yards Developer Delayed (Sun)
  
• More on the Protest Against Park-Hogging Brooklyn Judges (News)
• Cabbies Say They Need to Use Cell Phones for Their Safety (AMNY)
  
• Suffolk County Exec: 'Roadway Expansion Is Absolutely Necessary' (MTR)
• How Much CO₂ Does Transit Keep Out of the Air? (NARP Blog)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on March 21, 2008 4:57 AM

Hey everyone. DBTH here. Yesterday was a pretty exciting day around these parts. You probably didn't read it, but we happen to get a little bit of publicity that wasn't really expected. In fact it was pretty much out of left field. But then again, so is the writer, Ben Leventhal. That's him up there, with his partner, Lockhart Steele (real name). And together they manage the Curbed/Eater empire. Not a bad gig.

It was just last Thursday that we were all invited guests for the opening of the Rusty Knot. We even spent some QT together, buying Lock a beer and watching his murse for hours. But while we enjoyed ourselves, Lil BL secretly seethed, desperate to know why anyone dared challenge his authority as the ultimate insider. But the anger and fear is justified. Sitting in that lonely FiDi apartment, seeing Grub Street, Guest of a Guest, and just about everyone else with access to the internet scoop him must drive him batty. Pinkberry, Momofuku and Shake Shack couldn't open enough locations to keep him on the inside. Frank Bruni only only takes him on review dinners every so often. So what is he to do?

There was just one solution. Kill the threat. So BenBen dropped the froyo coverage for a bit and became an infantile gossip to out us - hoping the publicity would make us go away. He then let us know:

"for what it's worth, steele and i worked this one together, which is to say that it wasn't done willy-nilly."

Well that's a relief. And you know we love teamwork. He then followed with some of the wisest words ever typed:

"anyway, it what it is. i just gave you more explanation that any one else gets, because you're a friend. don't do the blog if you can't be the guy."

That's so sweet of you. Really we're touched.

And to think, this is just a hobby. A labor of love if you will. No book deals and no JV's. We never ask for anything and don't get paid. We work hard to bring you this site and think we do a pretty good job. Traffic is growing (see graph), we found a great new contributor, and contrary to Ben's worthless opinion, no one here has tired of the grind. Usually that happens after 3 years, right buddy?

We're just gonna keep on plugging away, one post at a time. That's how we do.

Have a great weekend,

DBTH

Photo Credit

Originally posted by Down By The Hipster from Down By The Hipster, on March 21, 2008 4:50 AM

OK so Bambi -- or Kristen - or whatever her name is this week -- is a truly pretty woman. But that's where the similarities between the prostituted woman used by recently deposed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and the famous Julia Roberts movie end.

There's nothing "pretty" about prostitution, notwithstanding the glamorization of the Emperor's Club as a kind of Neiman Marcus-version of what goes on for 25 bucks in dilapidated drug-fueled shacks in inner-cities across the United States.

Nearly all prostituted women were abused as children and end up selling their bodies out of desperation, drug and mental health problems, or because the trauma they suffered as kids literally trained their brains to believe that sexual exploitation is a form of affection.

Notwithstanding this shocking data, prostitution is often depicted as a desirable lifestyle, characterized as an expression of women's free choice. No surprise there, it's to be expected in a society where myths are perpetuated to facilitate all sorts of entitlements on behalf of the powerful.

And in classic hypocritical style when it comes to American attitudes toward women, our culture celebrates prostitution while condemning it as a crime. Worse, though designed to punish equally the men and women involved in the crime, the laws are enforced disproportionately against women. The johns and pimps are rarely brought to justice. Is it any wonder Eliot Spitzer thought the odds were good that he could avoid prosecution?

Prostitution causes other crimes, too, including child sex abuse and child pornography. When the claim is made that women have a "right" to sell their bodies, ACLU-types push the point and argue that children as young as 13 should be able to claim a similar right to sexual freedom.

Quite apart from the risk of harm to children is the risk to public health. A recent study found that 1 in 4 teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. This is the next generation of prostituted women who will be engaging in sex acts with, and infecting, men across all social, economic and class lines.

The fight against prostitution has nothing to do with prudishness and is not an anti-sex moral tirade. We should all, male and female alike, be having more sex with as many consensual partners as we desire, consistent with our individual values and lifestyles. The problem is not a sexual one, it is one of financial exploitation and virtual slavery particularly affecting vulnerable women and teenage girls.

It's easy to say the sale of sex for money is good for women. They can earn a living while engaging in pleasurable conduct, the argument goes. It even sounds like the women are successful and productive citizens because we've started to call them "sex workers" instead of "hookers", "whores" and other pejorative terms.

But the truth is so much uglier. Most prostituted women become addicts because they use drugs just to tolerate the experience, and nearly 100% have been raped "on the job". Virtually all sexual assaults of prostituted women go unreported and even the women who do come forward rarely have their cases investigated or prosecuted. In other words, a huge population of women is routinely being raped with impunity primarily because the violence they suffer is all wrapped up in confusing rhetoric about freedom and choice.

Prostitution has nothing to do with freedom and is more akin to slavery. Laws in this country forbid the selling of people because it is barbaric to treat human beings as commodities. Abolitionists taught us this important lesson many years ago when we put a stop to the slave trade and the sale of African Americans. (Just imagine calling slaves "cotton workers").

The problem is, we never quite stepped up to the plate to condemn the sale of women, and while reasonable people will argue that slavery is different, sale of the intimate self is as close to slavery as any activity could possibly be.

If prostitution were a business that facilitated the sale of sexual access to black citizens rather than women -- anti-racism leaders in this country would not be celebrating the activity as a type of "freedom". They would be demanding government support for sexually exploited minorities and stiff punishments for the pimps and the johns who use them.

We need to ask ourselves why we don't feel the same revulsion when we hear about the sexual exploitation of women of all colors.

Wendy Murphy
New England School of Law

Originally posted by caterina from Caterina.net, on March 21, 2008 12:51 AM

On the outskirts of Queens’ Murray Hill, which is best known for Korean barbecue and fried chicken, is a store that caters to a much less carnivorous crowd. Meat eaters who first see the green sign for Vege Eats, might think that all that's inside is Gardenburgers. But as the sign says, it’s a “vegetarian specialty food store,” which is putting it lightly.

The shop has a huge wall of freezer cases that offer products that go way beyond vegetarian bacon and Tofutti Cuties. There’s plenty of seafood on hand. For those who find mock salmon boring, there’s always abalone or mouth breeder fish. There are 14 types of veggie ham and sausages alone, including codfish ham. And of course there are chicken nuggets, and various other poultry replacement products.

The faux meat parade doesn’t stop there, though. If you have a craving for vegetarian mutton this is the place to be. Vege Eats offers not one, but two kinds of the mock mutton, which is made from mushrooms, among other things. Apparently there are vegetarians who miss ribs, as evidenced by Vege Bar.B.Q. rib, which consists of longish chunks of reddish mystery “meat.”

After a few minutes in the microwave, the faux rib meat is ready to eat. It has a spongy texture, with a touch of smoke flavoring and a little pepper. While it’s clearly designed to taste like Chinese ribs, it’s no substitute for Wo Hop. But it’s still probably the best fake rib meat made from soybean and wheat albumen.

Vege Eats Inc., 45-46 162 St., Flushing, 718-353-5090

Originally posted by Joe DiStefano from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 20, 2008 7:39 PM

“In my experience there’s no suck thing as luck.” - Obi-Wan Kenobi

I remember old Ben’s advice well, but I also remember how he caught the wrong end of a light sabre the next day. Lady Luck is a fickle bitch. Take today for instance. I finally get a chance to ride my new frame, but I figure that I should evaluate how the new bike feels on a set of wheels that I know well. Besides, it was windy, so those super-tall rims of my new Mavic Cosmics wouldn’t be a wise choice, would they?

Oh, I would be regretting that decision.

Last night’s sake-drinking and rock show didn’t exactly prepare me for a great ride, but I really wanted to ride that bike. Plummeting off Capitol Hill into a crosswind, I said to myself, “I sure am glad I’m not on the Cosmics.”

But somewhere near the north end of Lake Washington, I felt something pop and suddenly the bike had a wiggle at the rear end. I snapped a spoke on my trusty wheels. It didn’t even pop at at the elbow like normal…it broke smack-dab in the middle. Dumb luck. I felt like an oracle examining bird entrails…is this some sort of bad omen?

So now the wheel won’t turn in the frame without aggressively rubbing the chainstay. If this were my rain bike, I’d just ride that bitch all the way home…fuck it. But my rain bike isn’t carbon fibre. I didn’t shell out all that money for a brand new carbon bike just to belt-sand 3K-weave layers off the stay on the first ride. And anyways, maybe I should be a little more gentle with my second-string stuff, since I broke my rain bike 3 weeks ago. Where do you think I got those trusty wheels from?

“Why the hell didn’t I ride the Cosmics? They’re brand new…they definitely wouldn’t have broken a spoke.”

The thing to do would be let off the tension of the spokes opposite the broken one. That would require a spoke wrench…which, of course, I don’t have. And neither did 6 other cyclists who passed by. Looking at my predicament, the last guy seemed determined to have one the next time he rode. But it looks like I’m shit out of luck. Time to start walking with the bike on my shoulder. This is going to kill the whole afternoon.

Then what could happen next?. A silver SUV stops at the next cross street before me. It turns out that it’s Ed Brewer from Two Wheel Revolution, the Seattle mobile bike mechanic service. He’s like a doctor for quality bikes, and this doctor makes house calls. He just happened to be on his way to a gig when he saw me. What are the odds?

Ed loaned me a spoke wrench, and I backed the opposite spokes down. The wheel was reasonably true but now with a distinct hop. Whatever, I can deal with that until I can get to my own shop to replace the spoke. (Thanks again, Ed)

In the end, I got home. I’m kinda superstitious about equipment, so I’m a little uneasy about the new bike. Maybe if I ride long tomorrow, I can squeeze out all the bad luck from the bike and then start building karma on it. Yeah, that’s it. But I’m not taking any chances…tomorrow I’m gonna burn some incense and ride those Cosmics…no matter how much wind there is.

Originally posted by Mark V from Bike Hugger, on March 20, 2008 6:35 PM

I’m here pointing out what an enormous doofus Leander Kahney is; Rosecrans Baldwin is in Paris, writing artful essays like this one.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 20, 2008 5:50 PM

John Edwards just finished up taping his appearance on Jay Leno tonight -- it hasn't aired yet. The fact that he was appearing on the show prompted many to wonder whether he would use the appearance to endorse Hillary or Obama.

The answer: Nope. He didn't endorse either, according to Leno's publicist, Tracy St. Pierre, who emails me this:

No news...it was a catching up interview, but he didn't throw his support either way.

So no Edwards endorsement for now.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on March 20, 2008 5:02 PM

Good copywriting advice from Scott Stevenson.

Update: Stevenson’s advice is a also a good metric for the product itself. If you can’t come up with a short, clear, precise product description, it’s a good sign the product is conceptually flawed.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 20, 2008 4:39 PM

“Collection of vintage logos from a mid-’70s edition of the book World of Logotypes.” Great source of inspiration — all good logos should look good when reduced to black-and-white.

Is it just me or does this logo from the 1976 Montreal Olympics look like a hand giving the finger? Update: My wife adds: “A three-fingered Simpsons hand.”

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 20, 2008 3:50 PM

Many Mac developers understand that a high-quality visual design for their web site helps the visitor understand both the company and product, but language design is just as important as layout and screenshots. It's in your best interest to make specific statements about what your software does, and to not talk down to the reader...

Originally posted by scott from Theobroma Cacao, on March 20, 2008 3:42 PM

John Maine is starting to grab the attention of the baseball pundits. On ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, Peter Gammons mentioned Maine could be a 20 game winner this season.

Meanwhile in the “Around the camps” segment of his latest article for SI.com, Jon Heyman had the following to say:

“John Maine (2-1, 2.63) of the Mets looks like a star this spring. Anyone who figures he’s a middle-of-the-rotation starter may be underestimating him.”

…maybe it’s because he doesn’t have an intimidating figure, blow people away with overpowering stuff, or a silly name like joba, but for some reason it’s taking maine longer to get recognized as a potential stud than it would most young people having success in the new york market…

…sure, he stumbled a bit the last two months like the rest of the mets, but in his first 21 starts last year he was 12-5 with an era under 3.00 and did come through with a phenomenal last start to keep the mets’ playoff hopes alive…he’s already had some success in the post season and now he has the luxury of improving while pitching behind pedro and johan…

…he sure seems like the real deal to me, especially when his slider is working…i’m looking forward to watching him win with the mets for a long time, and anxiously awaiting the aflac trivia question years from now asking who the mets gave up to acquire maine…

ShareThis

Originally posted by Chris Mazzone from MetsBlog.com, on March 20, 2008 3:42 PM

Paul Ford has plans to make a better TV show than The Wire, "set in even worse parts of Baltimore".

I'll use cave paintings as the model for my series. Omar will chase mammoths through the streets and Carcetti will wear a robe made from a wolf and Beadie will chew bear meat for her children before passing it from her mouth. And everyone will speak proto-Indoeuropean without subtitles and the hidden cultural theme that no one sees will be land-bridge migration and phenotype variation.

I have already pre-ordered seasons 1 through 261,492.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 20, 2008 3:31 PM

Posts from the International Association of Time Travelers forum.

At 14:52:28, FreedomFighter69 wrote:
Reporting my first temporal excursion since joining IATT: have just returned from 1936 Berlin, having taken the place of one of Leni Riefenstahl's cameramen and assassinated Adolf Hitler during the opening of the Olympic Games. Let a free world rejoice!

At 14:57:44, SilverFox316 wrote:
Back from 1936 Berlin; incapacitated FreedomFighter69 before he could pull his little stunt. Freedomfighter69, as you are a new member, please read IATT Bulletin 1147 regarding the killing of Hitler before your next excursion. Failure to do so may result in your expulsion per Bylaw 223.

At 18:06:59, BigChill wrote:
Take it easy on the kid, SilverFox316; everybody kills Hitler on their first trip. I did. It always gets fixed within a few minutes, what's the harm?

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 20, 2008 2:49 PM

Here's something from the "marketing-tips-from-J. Peterman" department -- the Bourbon and Branch "Spring Telegram" that showed up in my inbox today. An excerpt:

RUM By Thad Volger

Pirates, Revolution, Plantations, Slavery, Communism, Smuggling, the English Navy, Colonialism, Beaches, Palm Trees. What do these all have in common? Rum! If this doesn't excite your interest, keep in mind that rum plays a key role in the evolution of what we now refer to as the cocktail...

They lost me at colonialism. Up until then, my interest was quite excited by the imagery of plantations and slavery. Even with that pitch, I'm afraid that I'm a tequila girl -- I'll drink anything that has to do with conquistadors and the massacre of indigenous cultures.

Originally posted by Mena from Dollarshort, on March 20, 2008 2:44 PM

Posted by Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, and Joseph Faber, Corporate Counsel

This afternoon the Federal Communications Commission announced the results of its 700 MHz spectrum auction. While the Commission's anti-collusion rules prevent us from saying much at this point, one thing is clear: although Google didn't pick up any spectrum licenses, the auction produced a major victory for American consumers.

We congratulate the winners and look forward to a more open wireless world. As a result of the auction, consumers whose devices use the C-block of spectrum soon will be able to use any wireless device they wish, and download to their devices any applications and content they wish. Consumers soon should begin enjoying new, Internet-like freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices.

We'll have more to say about the auction in the near future. Stay tuned.

Originally posted by A Googler from Official Google Blog, on March 20, 2008 2:25 PM

story links: Rocketboom New York City Music Video Week. Joanne visits The Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden in The Bronx, NY.

Originally posted by hello@rocketboom.com (Rocketboom) from Rocketboom, yea!, on March 20, 2008 2:00 PM

Last September when Six Apart helped sponsorthe Blogger Challenge at DonorsChoose, I wanted to create my own challenge and participate. However, since I was a bit preoccupied with that whole birthing thing, I didn't get a chance.

I spent some time today setting up my challenge and doing some shopping for the future (aka donating). So if you're inclined to give to good causes, please check out the five projects I've chosen and give big.

And if you're a TypePad user and want to set up your own challenge, we've got a TypePad widget that will make it ever so easy to publicize.

Originally posted by Mena from Dollarshort, on March 20, 2008 1:32 PM

Ammon Shea, who spent the last year reading the OED from cover to cover:

Absurd Entries is the name that I gave to a certain class of definition that I would come across every so often when reading the OED. They are rarer than the mistakes, and considerably more fun to read. These are the extremely rare moments when the OED does something that is so inexplicable that you have to close the book and check the cover to make sure that it is indeed the same book that you thought. I have decided, without giving too much thought to the matter, to divide them into two separate categories: ‘Blatant Disregard for the Reader’s Level of Education’ and ‘What Were They Thinking?’

(Via Joe Clark.)

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 20, 2008 11:14 AM

Well Yesterday, I took the kids to Target. Or as I like to call it - Mecca. Seriously, other than putting food in my mouth or drinking wine, nothing makes me happier than an excuse to go to Target. I say excuse because I know when I walk through those doors, one hundred dollars are about to come out of my pocket, so I need to find real reasons to go there.
Like, I need diapers.

Or I need juice boxes

Or I need a new welcome mat

Or I need a tank top

Or I need a new book, a cd, a dvd, hey look it's on sale! don't I need a new lip gloss, etc, etc.

When it's on sale, it might as well be free in my book.

So, anyway, Meg asks for a radio for her room. Did I mention she's 4 and a half. She then proceeds to tell me "but Chloe has a radio" -- Chloe is her friend, my best friend's daughter, who she looks up to because she's six and really when you are four and someone is six, it's like they are the lead singer of U2 or Hannah Montanna. But anyway, I buy her a pink radio and then we go on to select two cds (High School Musical, and Kids Bop)

I take them home, put it on her dresser, plug it in and get the disk going.

She then promptly tells me  --  Now GO.
And I do.

I go on to make dinner, all the while not able to hear my radio in the kitchen because hers is BLARING from the other room.

I then know how my mom felt. And, I feel old.

Originally posted by nyjenn2074 from Mommyblog, on March 20, 2008 9:35 AM

By Nicholson Baker

Wikipedia: The Missing Manual
by John Broughton

Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It's fact-encirclingly huge, and it's idiosyncratic, careful, messy, funny, shocking, and full of simmering controversies--and it's free, and it's fast. In a few seconds you can look up, for instance, 'Diogenes of Sinope,' or 'turnip,' or 'Crazy Eddie,' or 'Bagoas,' or 'quadratic formula,' or 'Bristol Beaufighter,' or 'squeegee,' or 'Sanford B. Dole,' and you'll have knowledge you didn't have before. It's like some vast aerial city with people walking briskly to and fro on catwalks, carrying picnic baskets full of nutritious snacks.

Originally posted by Nicholson Baker from The New York Review of Books, on March 20, 2008 9:00 AM

Publishing weekly means you can respond quickly. Time Out seems to have forgotten this recently, but this New York cover does the job as it deals with the news of New York governer Eliots Spitzer's resignation following his involvement in a prostitution ring.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Monoscope, on March 20, 2008 8:58 AM

Friends of mine are adopting this little guy in a few weeks. No joke.

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on March 20, 2008 8:27 AM

Originally posted by Ben Henry from The Baseball Card Blog, on March 20, 2008 7:50 AM

If you're in Paris, today is the day to visit Pierre Hermé and grab some free macarons, along with help raise money to treat rare diseases. (And if you don't live in Paris, don't even try to find anything as good as Pierre's macarons; you will fail.)

To celebrate the third-annual Macaron Day, Pierre Hermé shops are offering three free macarons plus a special raspberry chocolate macaron to raise money for Fédération des Maladies Orphelines (an organization dedicated to treating rare diseases). To donate money to the organization, buy one or more red macarons. I recommend shooting for "more"—besides that it's for a charitable cause, any excuse to eat lots of macarons sounds good to me.

Previously
Introduction to French Macarons
Where to Find Macarons
How to Make Macarons
Interview with Macaron Specialist Dorie Greenspan

Originally posted by Robyn Lee from Serious Eats: Main, on March 20, 2008 7:00 AM

Permanent Vacation, a piece by Cory Arcangel consisting of "two unattended computers send endlessly bouncing out-of-office auto-responses to each other". (via vitamin briefcase)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 20, 2008 6:59 AM

This Monday the Washington Post ran a long feature on page A1, "Letting the Market Drive Transportation," about the Bush administration's attempts to shift financing for roads from the gas tax to user fees, and starve transit in the process. The cast of characters includes a pair of conservative ideologues, Tyler Duvall and D.J. Gribbin, high up in U.S. DOT, as well as Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who earned the enmity of alternative transportation advocates last summer when she said bikes aren't transportation.

The article tells how this troika came up with the plan to seed pricing in five pilot cities, and delves into their ulterior motives:

For Gribbin, Duvall and Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, the goal is not just to combat congestion but to upend the traditional way transportation projects are funded in this country. They believe that tolls paid by motorists, not tax dollars, should be used to construct and maintain roads.

They and other political appointees have spent the latter part of President Bush's two terms laboring behind the scenes to shrink the federal role in road-building and public transportation.

On the face of it, the story meshes with some of the anti-pricing arguments New Yorkers have been hearing, especially from Representative Anthony Weiner, who has called pricing a conservative ploy to de-fund federal support for transit projects. That position has drawn ridicule from Mayor Bloomberg as he stumps for pricing, captured in the Observer's account of yesterday's Crain's New York Business Breakfast Forum:

“I have nothing against any one congressman [but] that is one of the stupider things I’ve ever heard said. Forget the fact that he’s one of the congressmen who’s supposed to get the money for us. The Democrats control -- his party controls Congress -- what’s he talking about? Number two, by that argument, we should cut all the taxes, which some people would like, and then just sit here and wait to give us all the money back.

The Post story has already provided fodder for press accounts favorable to Weiner, like this Daily Politics post, which quotes the Queens congressman:

"I'm interested in solutions, not name calling. I respect the Mayor, but I don't think the evidence supports trusting President Bush and his cabinet here. In Washington the Administration tries to cut money to roads and to cut mass transit, and then they come to New York City and say they won't. I'm concerned that New Yorkers will get the short end of the stick." 

On close examination, however, the Post article omits several details that would have led to a different conclusion, namely: There is no inherent connection between pricing and reduced funding for transit.

(more...)

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on March 20, 2008 6:36 AM

How do you like the new MLB.com homepage? We just relaunched it overnight. It's a tradition at the start of every season, all based on a lot of around-the-clock data research and feedback and use of technology. And as always, it takes some getting used to. Then after a day or two you can't even remember what the old version looked like. You can leave your comments on our company blog. Get ready for a lot of major changes, including all club homepages and...

Right here. (After three years...I can't wait.)

One thing I am sure you will love about the new MLB.com homepage: We will excerpt and link to a different/interesting MLBlog every day. Started with a Braves fan. I encourage MLBloggers to leave comments here with exactly what you would love included in that spot...that was about 14 words for that space at the bottom of the MLB.com hompage. It will make it a little easier than us trying to scan through countless blogs, and it's going to be infinitely harder very soon.

Great post about blogging by Paul Bodin at nytimes.com today. Worth a look. I especially like the kicker quote: "I can't stop reloading." Anyone who has profiles all over the Internet can relate.

Originally posted by Editorial Producers from MLBlogosphere, on March 20, 2008 6:32 AM

In case you missed it, the cast of "Battlestar Galactica" were on Letterman last night, in costume and in character (except Jamie Bamber, who stuck with his native accent) to present the top 10 list. You can watch it over...

Originally posted by Alan Sepinwall from NJ.com: All TV, on March 20, 2008 5:36 AM

Minneapolis -- the city I live in -- has an acoustic system that automatically detects and locates gunshots. It's been in place for a year and a half.

The main system being considered by Minneapolis is called SpotShotter. It could cost up to $350,000, and some community groups are hoping to pitch in.

That seems like a bargain to me.

Recently, I was asked about this system on Winnipeg radio. Actually, I kind of like it. I like it because it's finely tuned to one particular problem: detecting gunfire. It doesn't record everything. It doesn't invade privacy. If there's no gunfire, it's silent. But if there is a gunshot, it figures out the location of the noise and automatically tells police.

From a privacy and liberties perspective, it's a good system. Now all that has to be demonstrated is that it's cost effective.

Originally posted by schneier from Schneier on Security, on March 20, 2008 5:27 AM

If you're a politician who has opposed Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, watch out! At a Crain's business breakfast, Bloomberg said, regarding Representative Anthony Weiner's suggestion that congestion pricing would mean less federal funding (did Weiner forget the feds are offering $354 million), "That is one of the stupider things I’ve ever heard said."

He said NJ Governor Jon Corzine's congestion fee opposition was hypocritical, given recent toll fee hike from the Port Authority (run by Corzine and now NY Governor David Paterson). And regarding local leaders who aren't supporting congestion pricing because of their constituents, Bloomberg said, "“That is not why people were elected. They were elected to lead."

Streetsblog reports that Bloomberg's administration is "working with lawmakers on a possible refund for low-income city commuters" to offset congestion fees "that are over and above the comparable cost of commuting by subway," a request from Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver. Bloomberg also emphasized the plan has to pass by the March 31 to take advantage of the federal funding, "Refusing those funds is basically saying that there will be next to no MTA capital projects in our immediate future."

And Observer had more of Bloomberg's thoughts on Weiner's congestion pricing ideas:

"Forget the fact that he’s one of the congressmen who’s supposed to get the money for us. The Democrats control—his party controls Congress—what’s he talking about? Number two, by that argument, we should cut all the taxes, which some people would like, and then just sit here and wait to give us all the money back. Are you kidding? It’s insanity.”

Bloomberg is so not endorsing Weiner for Mayor in 2009.

Originally posted by Jen Chung from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 20, 2008 5:09 AM

• More on Bloomberg's Call to Pass Pricing (Sun)
  
• Paterson Uncertain on Pricing; Says Mayor's Pitch 'Very Persuasive' (NYT, Post)
• Bloomberg Rips Weiner and Others Over Anti-Pricing Stance (Politicker, Crain's)
• Weiner Responds (Daily Politics)
• Transit Lockbox Has Precedents (MTR)
  
• Public Hearing on Pricing Set for Next Monday (SILive)
  
• New Technology to Cut Down on Illegal Truck Traffic (Greenpoint Star)
• Pricetag on Gowanus Expressway Maintenance: $267M (Brooklyn Eagle)
  
• Kosciuszko Bridge's Days Are Numbered (News)
• Big Name Musicians Kick Off New York Auto Show (Wheels)
• Imagining the Subway Without Social Inhibitions (2nd Ave Sagas)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on March 20, 2008 4:59 AM

Signs of Life Outside Pomme de Terre in Ditmas Park [Flickr/planetgordon.com]

· Q & A With Oceana's Ben Pollinger [RG]
· Guide to Park Slope Eateries With Health Violations [G'skip]
· West Village Standby Chez Brigitte Turns 50 [Vanishing NY]
· Photo Gallery: Sandwiches of Famous Chefs [ZagatBuzz]

Originally posted by Kelly Dobkin from Eater, on March 20, 2008 4:25 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Wooster Collective, on March 20, 2008 4:06 AM

Nicole Krauss, author of the bestselling novel The History of Love, used to write poetry.  You can listen to her read "Valparaiso" and "The Idea of Helen" at The Paris Review's website.  "Your Watch" was published in 2000 in a Ploughshares issue guest edited by Paul Muldoon.  "Becoming Domestic" is linked to on Krauss's Random House author page, which also features an interview.  Krauss was asked to describe the transition from poetry to fiction.  Her reply:

For a long time I only wanted to write poetry. But it's hard—a hard life, I mean. There's that thing Auden said, about how a poet only believes himself to be a poet at the moment when he is making his last revision to a new poem. "The moment before, he was still only a potential poet: the moment after he is a man who has ceased to write poetry, perhaps forever." With a novel it's somehow easier: the duration of the writing is so much longer, and the unhappiness of the in-between less frequent.

In a 2005 interview, Krauss remarked that at one point for her poetry felt like "the great goal of the language" but quit soon after completing a research project on Joseph Cornell (connection?).  According to the interviewer, poetry represented for Krauss "an impossible quest for precision."  She refused to show him her poems.  This part of the interview intrigued me so I set off looking for her poetry on line and found the four poems I link to above. 

I'm glad that it was with Corey Mead and not Nicole Krauss that I raised my "poet identity anxieties" about three years ago.  I met Corey at a poetry reading that featured Jorie Graham and--Stingy Kids favorite--Laura Sims.  Corey is married to Laura and, at the time, was a couple of years into a grad program.  He asked me if I wrote poetry and I went into this long explanation about how graduate school took time away from writing and how difficult it was to balance competing identities (academic, creative, blah blah blah), etc.  Corey's response:  "It's just poetry."  Not long after that conversation, I started writing poems again.

Corey has been working on a fantastic series of poems titled "The Book of Edgar," parts of which have appeared in print.  The only poem from this series that I could find on line was "Barn Songs," which was published in 3rd bed. 

****

Kottke recently linked to a post on the Virginia Quarterly Review's website that tracked the correlation between cliché usage and publication.  It turns out that clichés are very publishable.

****

I came across this wonderful Flickr image:

The artist is the daughter of poet Anne Boyer.  I looked up some of Boyer's work and was immediately dazzled.  "A Romance of Happy Workers" and "Larks" were published in different of issues of Typo. She also has a chapbook out with Effing Press (which can purchase via the Effing Press blog) and a crazy website.

****

More from Flickr: paper_wings(butterf ly), "coexisting" (photography and Alice Notley's "In the Circuit")

****

Belladonna* has a new website.  This probably happened months ago but I just noticed.  I love it!

****

Sarah Horowitz makes gorgeous books.  Poetry, nature and personal memories inspired her work on Paper Towers and Mohn, which include poems (in English translation) by Kadya Molodowsky and Paul Celan respectively.

****

"Like, the more they talk/ never having"--Corey Mead, "Barn Songs"

 

Originally posted by Adriana from Stingy Kids, on March 19, 2008 5:56 PM

Originally posted by finn from Modcult, on March 19, 2008 4:49 PM

Some things just make you miss Mr. Mickey when you see them. For me sometimes it's shoes. The combo-crazy-collage of animal prints felt like it had been looking for just the right sensible sneaker to let loose on. Pink-pony-zebra-sporty-stripe fantasia!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on March 19, 2008 3:29 PM

Following the announcement of a $100 million donation for the New York Public Library, The Whitney has just announced their own sugar daddy: Leonard A. Lauder.

Lauder is the chairman of Estée Lauder cosmetics, and through his American Contemporary Art Foundation he'll be donating $131 million (the largest donation the museum has received in 77 years, and one of the largest ever to a New York museum’s endowment). Endowment donations are notoriously difficult to solicit, as they do not yield a namesake building (as Schwarzman's NYPL donation did). One string is attached to the gift, however -- the museum cannot sell its Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue (pictured)...at least for an unspecified extended period of time. It has been widely speculated they would be selling it in order to open a satellite museum downtown.

Will the Whitney be able to finally move ahead with their downtown project while holding on to their Madison Avenue building? The museum has been eyeing locations in the Meatpacking District (on Washington and West Streets) but nothing has materialized just yet. Lauder's donation is expected to encourage other trustees to donate, perhaps giving the museum the financial support it needs. Their $195 million endowment is still pocket change, however, especially in comparison to MoMA's, which weighs in at a whopping $850 million! Yet it's still more than The Guggenheim's, which is only around $118 million, a figure that has fluctuated a lot since Thomas Krens has been in charge, and will likely go up once he's officially gone.

Photo via ekainj's flickr.

Originally posted by Jen Carlson from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 19, 2008 2:46 PM

Through writing, editing, interviewing, talking, hoping and sheer willing, I have tried over and over again to help change the way that people think and feel about race in America. Ever since my (white) fifth grade teacher told me I was very pretty “for a black girl,” I have wanted to understand, both for myself and so that I could help others to process, the legacy of race and racism in this country. Not necessarily in a Martin Luther King, Jr.-Malcolm X (community-activist-leadership) way, or a Henry Louis Gates, Jr.-Cornel West (scholarly) way -- not that I haven’t at times tried one or both, and not because these approaches don’t work, but rather, because they’ve not worked thoroughly enough -- but in the most primal and accessible way. The way that Barack Obama is trying to do it: Through fearless, thoughtful, aggressively meaningful and non-condemning words that people can hear, take in and respond to. From Obama’s Marcy 18, 2008 speech on race and Reverend Wright: “The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through -- a part of our Union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American. … It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.” The very notion that my toddler son, who is of mixed race, might see a black president in his young lifetime is beyond thrilling to me -- that in fact I might live to see a black president is almost unbearably exciting. But that I’ve lived already long enough to see a man with almost everything to lose, in a position that wields such unforgiving power, voice in plain, brave terms that we need to be present and accountable on the issue of race -- every day; not just during Black History Month or when you’re feeling charitable or guilty or extra-liberal -- makes me sleep better at night. It just does.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on March 19, 2008 2:03 PM

Well, the Starbucks shareholder meeting has come and gone, and the two biggest pieces of news out of it are that the Seattle-based coffee giant is buying Clover Equipment, makers of the single-brew coffee machine coveted by beanheads, and that Starbucks is starting a social networking site (mystarbucksidea.com)—basically to pick your brain for further improvements.

What that seems to mean is that, from now on, the only outlets to get any new Clover machines will be Starbucks—though Clover promises on its site to continue to support all deployed machines with parts and service.

This could be interesting. From what people say about Clover-made coffee, it's a bit of a revelation, taste-wise. And with Starbucks' ubiquity, that supposedly amazing coffee will be available all over and not just in the relatively small amount of shops that currently own one of these $11,000 machines.

In a way, this development is a natural—Starbucks essentially changed the way we thought about coffee, and Clover's goal is the same. Now that company will have the chance to do it on a gigantic scale. It seems like a good move for Starbucks.

But a social networking site? Seems like a crazy idea on the face of it, but surprisingly there are a lot of comments and ideas on the site already—for free wifi, rewards punch cards, and, my favorite, an "express" line for drip coffee and tea orders.

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on March 19, 2008 2:00 PM

story links: Rocketboom New York City Music Video Week. The Elephants arrive in New York.

Originally posted by hello@rocketboom.com (Rocketboom) from Rocketboom, yea!, on March 19, 2008 2:00 PM

Obama did an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper today which is set to air tonight, but CNN has posted some excerpts.

This, in which he acknowledges that the Wright controversy has "shaken" him, and reminded him that he may have less of a chance of getting elected than "conventional" candidates like Hillary, seems striking:

"In some ways this, this controversy has actually shaken me up a little bit and gotten me back into remembering that the odds of me getting elected have always been lower than some of the other conventional candidates," the Illinois senator told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive one-on-one interview....

"If I was just running the textbook campaign -- doing the conventional thing, I probably wasn't going to win because Senator Clinton was going to be much more capable of doing that than I would be," he said. "We had tremendous success -- and I think we were starting to get a little comfortable and conventional right before Texas and Ohio."

Also note Obama's comment today on the situations in Florida and Michigan...

"I understand the politics of it, but let's be clear that it's politics," he added. "I want the Michigan delegation and the Florida delegation to be seated. And however the Democratic National Committee determines we can get that done, I'm happy to abide by those rules."

Obama has said this before, but today, he's saying it on the same day that the DNC released a statement saying that the current proposal for a Michigan revote -- which the Obama camp hasn't assented to -- in fact would get it done within its rules.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on March 19, 2008 1:00 PM

STARBUCKS UNIVERSE— After today's annual meeting Starbucks announced it would buy the company that owns and manufactures the Clover coffee system a.k.a. one of the most expensive and highly acclaimed coffee machines in the world. Cutty mentioned earlier that some big announcements would come out of the meeting, including a customer loyalty program and a drop in prices, but we didn't expect something as big as this. Not only does this mean no one else will be able to purchase the $11,000 machine, but it also means Starbucks will have to train all of their baristas how to work its complicated settings. But the Clover is just the beginning. They're also rolling out the aforementioned rewards program and (of course) a social networking site. Read the full list ahead:

At the Annual Meeting, Starbucks unveiled the following new initiatives. They are focused on improving the current state of the U.S. business, re-igniting the emotional attachment with customers and making foundational changes for the long term: • A proprietary and revolutionary in-store Clover® brewing system that delivers the best cup of brewed coffee available anywhere;

• A complete reinvention of brewed coffee in-store, that will be brought to life by baristas across the U.S., who will scoop and grind a new unique coffee blend, connecting customers to the early days of Starbucks;

• The introduction of a new state-of-the-art espresso system that provides the perfect shot every time and helps facilitate the critical connection between barista and customer;

• The first phase of a Starbucks Card Rewards program, rewarding registered cardholders and providing unique new benefits when using their cards in Starbucks stores;

• The launch of MyStarbucksIdea.com, Starbucks first online community, that takes the Starbucks Experience outside the store and enables customers to play a role in shaping the company’s future; and,

• An expanded relationship with Conservation International that enhances Starbucks 37-year commitment to ethically sourcing the world’s finest coffees and reaffirms Starbucks leadership position in sustainable sourcing and climate preservation.

· Starbucks Press Release [Starbucks]
· Starbucks to Cut Prices, Increase Orders [Cutlets]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on March 19, 2008 12:45 PM

Was I really the first person to reference Starbucks coffee drinking as an indicator of social cleavages within the Democratic party? I find that very hard to believe.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 19, 2008 11:17 AM

Rent Vs. Buy Myths That Ruined the Housing Market.

Myth #1: Renting is Like Throwing Your Money Away
Buyers throw their money away for the first five years they own a home, because they simply give money to the bank for the privilege of borrowing money. Renters, on the other hand, pay for one thing every month: shelter. They don't pay interest to the bank, property taxes or maintenance fees. They pay rent.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 19, 2008 8:48 AM

I mentioned writing a Python script that turns a YouTube favorites feed into a podcast. Here it is.

Originally posted by markpasc from markpasc.org weblog, on March 19, 2008 8:28 AM

Posted by Jonathan Rochelle & Nir Bar-Lev, Product Managers

Whenever we're asked "how do people use Google spreadsheets?", we always struggle with where to start. It's not that we can't think of examples, it's just that the examples are all so different, so unique. Sure, there are definitely favorite themes -- sports, finance and, yes, knitting -- but then the examples become so particular to the people and groups who are using them: The beer taster's results. The nursery school class schedule. The biker's riding log. The family reunion plan. The ski-trip sign-up form. Endless examples, all of which, to spreadsheet junkies like us, are interesting.

But while we've always wanted to give people more options to view and use their information in Google Docs, we knew that trying to build all of these one at a time would simply serve too few people, given all the different ways people use and share spreadsheets.

So today we're starting a new path to better enable developers to customize and build on top of Google Docs with two new tools we are releasing today: Gadgets-in-Docs and the Visualization API.

Instead of delivering just one or two new types of reports, or a new visual map mashup (can you ever get enough of those?), we decided to deliver a platform on which anyone, not just Google, could build the next best thing. We even invited a few developers to try this with us, and they join us in this launch by featuring just a few of their creations, like Panorama's pivot table, or ViewPath's Gantt Chart, or Infopath's Funnel Charts -- all great tools for the student and enterprise user alike. We also built a few early gadgets ourselves which you might find useful.

We borrowed the Gadgets-in-Docs concept from the iGoogle team, so it's only fitting that you can also publish your spreadsheet gadgets to iGoogle, where you can see your data-based-Gadget right next to all that other stuff that's important to you (even if it is just a picture of your dog).

To try it out, go into Google Docs and open up a spreadsheet. Click on the chart icon, and click 'Gadget...'. Pick your gadget, customize it to fit your data, and then publish it out to iGoogle or to any webpage.

If you're a developer and want to reach millions of people with your latest creation, check out the Google Visualization API, courtesy of our visualization team engineers. The Visualization API provides a platform that can be used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the developer community. It provides a common way (an API) to access structured data sources, the first being Google spreadsheets.

Originally posted by Karen from Official Google Blog, on March 19, 2008 8:19 AM

A Brooklyn-based photographer named Izaz Rony is offering a new kind of portrait service: You tell him where you're going to be on a particular day, and what you'll be wearing, and he shows up in the general vicinity and snaps your picture, without you knowing exactly where he is or when he'll be there. "Using information provided earlier about their weekly routine, the photographer will arrive on the scene, and unseen, take shots of the subject," he writes on his site, MethodIzaz. "The subject will be photographed walking through the streets, going about their daily business. Without posing and artifice, the camera captures only the natural beauty of the person." [via Khoi Vinh.]

Originally posted by Andrew Hearst from panopticist, on March 19, 2008 7:04 AM

Watching to stream of commits to the MTOS repository I noticed one that intrigued me — concatenated indexes in MT objects. I asked and Brad Choate obliged me with an answer:

Prior to MT 4.1, the MT object schema never supported the declaration of concatenated indexes. Meaning, creating an index on two or more columns. Now that we can declare these, we’re making use of them, since it makes a big difference for the larger MT installations. So yes, it is significant, if you have lots of blogs with lots of entries.

This is a “wonky” sort of thing, but it will be great for performance and a prime example of the good work being done to improve the overall performance of MT in the next official release or two.

Originally posted by Timothy Appnel from Code / Appnel Solutions, on March 19, 2008 6:17 AM

The Abu Ghraib article by Errol Morris and Philip Gourevitch which I wrote about here and was subsequently taken down is back online. For now. Get it while you can. (thx, tom)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 19, 2008 5:18 AM

iphone snapshot of this image
I'm often asked about printers in NY and I know I've promised to make a list for a long time. Here, at long last, is a rundown.

Ben Diep is the man behind Color Space Imaging on 20th Street betwen 6th and 7th. I do almost all my traditional c-prints here, including the print above (that's Ben doing some spotting). Ben has impeccable street cred, he's printed 2 MOMA shows in the last six months and every photographer I know who has worked with him has nothing but nice things to say. You can trust his taste/instincts and he will take as much time as your print needs to get it right. You might have to wait a week or two to get a slot at Color Space but when you're in you are given full attention. He has no website.
Color Space Imaging, 135 W 20th St NY, NY 10011 212-229-2969

Gabe Greenberg specializes in making huge inkjets on a variety of exotic papers. He's a master of the digital image and digital output. While his roster of clients is impressive, he's also someone who is you're likely to become friends with while hanging out in his perpetually expanding studio. Gabe likes technical challenges and pushing the limits of todays machines but his images often feel as if they were made by hand using traditional techniques. Sometimes he actually mixes traditional and digital techniques. For example he makes platinum prints by using a digital file and making large digital negatives on plastic film and then handing the negative to a platinum printer he works with in the same building. As platinum printing is normally a contact process, platinum prints tend to be small, but this technique allows for bigger prints, prints from digital files, and prints from small negatives. The results are stunning.

My Own Color Lab has a laughably amaturish website and a horrible name, but they make fine prints (They printed much of Sze Tsung Long's Horizons). I recently worked with one of their printers, Scott Eiden, a fine photographer himself, on an edition for 20x200. As an added bonus their prices are always one notch lower than many comperable players.

While I haven't printed much black and white lately my friends who shoot primarily black and white rave about the meticulous work done at Big Prints, a black and white only shop in Brooklyn specializing both in large prints and somewhat archaic techniques like Selenium toning.

Other printers of note include Gray Photographics for super archival Ilfochrome prints and the legendary Ken Lieberman (both have horrible websites).

Filed under: photographic services
Tags: Chromogenic prints, drum scans, ink jets, new york city, nyc, photography, resources, traditional c-prints

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Heading East, on March 18, 2008 11:18 PM

$

100

Title: Facing an Abyssal Sea Site: Michelle Blade

Beautiful print from Michelle Blade, printed by iolabs, so it should be pretty great quality. A lot of the detail gets lost at this small size, so make sure you check out the large image she has up on flickr.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from we[heart]prints, on March 18, 2008 9:11 PM

Trees talk to each other at night.

All fish are named either Lorna or Jack.

Before your eyeballs fall out from watching too much TV, they get very loose.

Tiny bears live in drain pipes.

If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub against the sky.

The moon and the sun had a fight a long time ago.

Everyone knows at least one secret language.

When nobody is looking, I can fly.

We are all held together by invisible threads.

Books get lonely too.

Sadness can be eaten.

I will always be there.

Filed under: fatherhood
Tags: fatherhood, kids, lies

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Heading East, on March 18, 2008 8:47 PM

New from Google: Two-day web developer conference in San Francisco, May 28-29. Think WWDC for web programmers, perhaps.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 18, 2008 8:39 PM

Short post about the favorite letters drawn by H&FJ type designers, including the awesomely named Sulzbacher Eszett character.

The designers at H&FJ are often asked if there are particular letters that we especially enjoy drawing. Office doodles testify to the popularity of the letter R, perhaps because it synopsizes the rest of the alphabet in one convenient package (it's got a stem, a bowl, serifs both internal and external, and of course that marvelous signature gesture, the tail.)

I would love to see a collection of those office doodles.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 18, 2008 6:36 PM

Photograph of Obama in Philadelphia by Matt Rourke/AP

This morning, Senator Barack Obama delivered a 45-minute speech at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, attempting to put behind him the controversial remarks made by his mentor, pastor Jeremiah A. Wright. Though Obama quickly denounced the remarks last week, the story didn't go away. Today, he reiterated his condemnation of Wright’s more inflammatory beliefs about racism in America, but would not denounce him entirely, giving way to a broader discussion about race:

I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias… I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe...

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.Obama did remark the country is in a "racial stalemate" and said, "I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own."

Last night, his former adviser Samantha Power appeared on The Colbert Report, in a high-profile post-Clinton-is-a-monster appearance:

Obama will be in New York City on March 27th on a one-day fund raising mission. He’s expected to raise over a million dollars, with a luncheon at the Credit Suisse building, two $2,300/guest receptions at separate Park Avenue apartments, and a $2,300/guest dessert reception hosted by author and gay rights activist Kevin Jennings at his Flatiron apartment.

Originally posted by John Del Signore from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on March 18, 2008 4:14 PM

WHO: Super Tranny Hot Mess Christian Siriano! WHERE WE FOUND HIM: Kicking some serious ass on Project Runway this season, and hanging out at the super-hip Factory in West Hollywood. WHAT HE'S WEARING: His shoes are Creative Recreation; the pants are Diesel; the shirt is American Apparel; the glasses are Prada; the belt is New York Vintage; and the vest is Christian V. Siriano. HIS LOOK: "Twelve-year-old British punk boy" HIS ADVICE: "Don't follow in Britney's footsteps -- say no to pleather." HIS FASHION INSPIRATIONS: "Alexander Mcqueen and Giles Deacon" HIS IDEAL CELEBRITY DATE: "Victoria Beckham, cause she is fierce." HIS FAVORITE RESTAURANTS: "New York City's Angelino's and LA's STK." HIS DREAM ADDRESS: "94th and Park -- duh! Or I could settle for SoHo."

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on March 18, 2008 3:29 PM

Most well known for his "Obey Giant" street posters, Shepard Fairey has carefully nurtured a reputation as a heroic guerilla street artist waging a one man campaign against the corporate powers-that-be. Infantile posturing aside, Fairey’s art is problematic for another, more troubling reason - that of plagiarism.

Originally posted by dhammond from MetaFilter posts tagged with copyright, on March 18, 2008 2:58 PM

In the middle of this interview with rapper DMX, it becomes clear that he's never heard of Barack Obama before.

Q: Barack Obama, yeah.
A: Barack?!

Q: Barack.
A: What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Q: Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
A: Barack Obama?

Q: Yeah.
A: What the fuck?! That ain't no fuckin' name, yo. That ain't that nigga's name. You can't be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

Q: You're telling me you haven't heard about him before.
A: I ain't really paying much attention.

Q: I mean, it's pretty big if a Black...
A: Wow, Barack! The nigga's name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain't his fuckin' name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, "Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit" [laughs] "That ain't your fuckin' name." Your momma ain't name you no damn Barack.

(via ah)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 18, 2008 11:52 AM

Because you should always play with your food.

(Thanks, fipilele!)

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on March 18, 2008 11:20 AM

Long long but good good roundbrowser** discussion about which is the best TV drama ever: The Wire, Deadwood, or The Sopranos.

MZS: And I would be, frankly, stunned if, as great an actor as Ian McShane is, he ever did anything that was as demanding and as complex as what he did on Deadwood. Same thing for Gandolfini. And there are even smaller players I think that's true of as well. Molly Parker, you know, my God, look at all the things she got to do. When is she going to be able to do all those things again?

AS: A lot of that comes from the fact that these people were doing series, and now they're trying to move on to movies, and no movie part will ever be as complex as Tony Soprano or Al Swearengen or Bubbles.

MZS: Is that an inherent strength of the medium, then, as opposed to movies?

AS: Yeah.

Obviously, there are spoilers here if you haven't seen all three shows in their entirety.

** A roundbrowser discussion is a roundtable discussion that takes place online. Ok, yeah, I didn't think it was all that clever either. Oh well.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 18, 2008 10:34 AM

Chris Foresman on NPD computer sales data for February:

In unit sales, Macs represented 14 percent of sales last month, up from 9 percent for February 2007. The dollar share, however, is a full 25 percent of the market. While other PC makers continue to make cheaper commodity machines, Apple continues to make better machines and earn more for each one. […] In terms of revenue, the industry grew just a paltry 5 percent on its 9 percent gain in units while Apple’s revenue is up 67 percent.

And that’s revenue, not profit. Given that Apple’s profit margins are higher than any other major PC maker, their profit share of the U.S. market must be even higher than 25 percent.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on March 18, 2008 10:25 AM

"The Tenderloin National Forest was created to address the lack of green space in this neighborhood."

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by stamen to sanfrancisco tenderloin nationalforest - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by stamen from del.icio.us/stamen, on March 18, 2008 10:08 AM

Here's a few hundred words on why that Stuff White People Like site is "weak satire".

When black people dance, they dance like this. But when white people dance, they dance like this.

You have now essentially experienced every episode of "The Arsenio Hall Show." You have also now essentially read the entirety of Stuff White People Like, a comedic blog which may have recently popped up in your inbox, forwarded to you by an enthusiastic friend (him or herself no doubt, like the blog's author, white).

My take is somewhat shorter: it's just kinda dumb.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 18, 2008 8:49 AM

Michael O'Loughlin of the Campaign for New York's Future leads the congestion pricing rally on the capitol steps.

Streetsblog's Brad Aaron files this report from Albany.

A contingent of about 80 New Yorkers is in Albany today to advocate for congestion pricing. Following a brief rally on the capitol steps this morning, led by the Campaign for New York's Future, the crowd broke off into small groups for a day of sit-downs with individual lawmakers.

I shadowed a group assigned to Senator Frank Padavan of Queens, who is against pricing, though he represents a district where just six percent of the population commutes by car to Manhattan's central business district. An amiably cantankerous fellow, Padavan started the meeting with a question: "Did the mayor send you up here?" The senator then went on for a bit about Bloomberg's helicopter and private jet before getting down to business.

"We've gotten tons of info," Padavan said. "We have reviewed it all, and I don't really have any questions."

Padavan said Residential Parking Permits would help his car-owning constituents avoid park-and-ride problems, and allowed that new express buses would be a welcome addition to his district. But he also said that, according to the MTA, there is no way to add subway capacity from 179th Street in Jamaica.

Then, when the senator was presented with specific plans for transit improvements in Queens, things got off track.

(more...)

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on March 18, 2008 8:28 AM

While there's something absolutely priceless about being able to get nearly unlimited facetime with the guy who won Battledecks, there have been a few conference talks/conversations that I wish I had caught in person.

• Thurston Moore and Steve Reich at SXSW
• Brian Eno and Clay Shirky at the ICA
• Dave Eggers at TED

Alternative reality Sippey has unlimited time and an unlimited budget to jet around to hear things like this. Actual reality Sippey has blogs that recap! And in some cases, video! So there's that.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on March 18, 2008 8:17 AM

I think I have to dissent from David's view that Obama didn't bring his A-game to the speech this morning. I was only able to listen/watch out of the corner of my eye because I was on deadline for something else. But my sense was that the tempo and tenor was suited to the occasion. The kind of stirring delivery he's made a trademark of in his victory celebrations would not have been appropriate for the moment.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 18, 2008 7:56 AM

We’ve posted previously on the Hotspur — a handbuilt, oversized, Titanium-tube frame with a carbon seatstay — and I raced it this weekend on a rolling course in Ravensdale Washington. The bike performed as expected with a solid ride that was very similar to the Modal, but weighing less, and riding like a straight-up racing bike. Bill Davidson and Mark’s design achieved a lighter, stiffer Ti bike with that distinctive “springy-road” feel that Ti aficionados love. The bike climbed, accelerated, and descended, like I’d expect and excelled at rolling.

Most remarkable about racing the Hotspur was it reminded me of my old 853 frame — a ride that set a benchmark for my future reviews. I could subtly feel the road and the frame reacting to it. By all accounts (including our own) the new Madones, Tarmacs, et al, are all excellent racing bikes, and the intent of the Hotspur was to demonstrate that Ti can compete with carbon. Reacting to the popularity of carbon, Ti tube manufactures and builders are continuing to innovate, especially with mixed-frame materials. I understood the benefit of ti/carbon mix firsthand when 3 of us hit a large pothole during the race. The 2 racers ahead of me, slammed into the hole at about 28 mph (curses to the racers ahead of us that didn’t call the hole out), and I rolled over it, feeling the carbon seat stays take the hit. For a bespoke bike, tuned to a rider, with lots of thinking going into the design, the Hotspur proved that Ti is back or moreso that it never left. It also stands out as a unique bike in an industry fixated on carbon. The handbuilt industry is flourishing with bikes like this from Davidson and other skilled builders.

Summary is that the Hotspur project produced an OS Ti frame that rides like you’d expect a custom Ti frame to do, but stiffer and lighter than traditional 3.25 tubes. The Hotspur is a kermesse-style racing bike, built for crits, circuits, and the roleur-type of rider. Light, strong, fast, and built to last.

Note that we didn’t weight-weenie out on the Hotspur: lighter components and smaller tube diameters would reduce the weight further.

The Hotspur is built with Feathertech custom-profiled, oversized, titanium tubing; Reynolds UL fork and seatstay; Dedacciai titanium chainstay, Paragon titanium derailleur hanger, and fittings; the components include

• Deda Zero 100 Stem
• Deda Superized Seatpost
• Dura-Ace Group
• Time Pedals
• Hed Ardennes & Jet 60s

and it weighs in right at 17 pounds with the Jet 60s and under with the Ardennes.

Originally posted by DL Byron from Bike Hugger, on March 18, 2008 6:58 AM

Sen. Obama is giving his major speech on race now in Philadelphia. We have the text posted here.

It is remarkable for its nuance, for its long view of history, and for its decency.

I am not sure, on first take, how effective it is politically. Your thoughts?

Late Update: The text is one thing. Delivery is another. And Obama doesn't seem to have his A game today.

Later Update: TPM Reader DW:

He found his A game towards the end, I think.

Had to watch on Fox, due to some DirecTV weirdness on CNN and MSNBC.

I think it's a great speech, but it's nuance. There are too many soundbytes that will be taken out of context, and Fox already got one.

"Obama: Rev. Wright is family to me"

That's all the wingers need, and all the Foxwatchers need, to perpetuate what they already believe.

I agree with DW. Obama picked up the pacing and spoke with more energy toward the end. At his best, Obama doesn't just read the text of his speech, but delivers a speech. Overall today, he seemed flat.

TPM Reader HC says:

Just scrolled through Obama's speech and I think it does all the heavy lifting it needs to -- his disavowal of Wright's inflammatory statements while refusing to reject the man altogether bolsters, rather than diminishes, the whole philosophy of his campaign. At first blush I wonder if it's too smart for most Americans, especially those easily swayed by Atwater/Rove race-baiting, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. In any event, it seems to me to be an extremely important speech, one rich in history and nuance but pointing the way past the Bush-Clinton era. I'm on board.

Still Later Update: TPM Reader PT is looking for the same things I am:

In my eyes, the question going forward is this: what is the bite-sized take-away? What sorts of things can supporters and campaign representatives now say when asked questions like, ‘How come he didn’t leave the church after hearing those things?’ ‘How could he expose his children to that?’ ‘In 20 years, he never noticed?’ Maybe Obama can answer the question by reframing it and throwing it into the biggest possible context, but can his noisy and undisciplined supporters on DKos do it? Can Durbin do it? Can Sebelius do it? Can media types summarize it on his behalf? And if they can’t, doesn’t that just return us to the old, unsettling gotcha questions? That’s what I’ll be waiting to see.

This was after all a campaign speech. Ultimately it has to be judged on whether it achieved its purpose.

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on March 18, 2008 6:48 AM

• Rally for Congestion Pricing at Albany Today (Sun)
  
• Post Says Pricing Odds Are Long
• The Bush Admin's Pursuit of Road Pricing (WaPo)
• Pace of Reducing Car Emissions Slow to Pick Up (WSJ)
  
• Minnesota Bridge Was Carrying 99 Tons of Sand at Time of Collapse (NYT)
• Community Board Plans Would Gain Clout Under New Bill (TRE)
  
• Bus Service May Extend to Brooklyn Bridge Park (Bklyn Paper)
  
• MTA's Trip Planner Website Wins Award (CIty Room)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on March 18, 2008 4:50 AM

From our recent launch of the Design Assistant for Movable Type and TypePad to the announcement of tons of new themes for TypePad users, we’ve been extremely focused on design for bloggers this year. Today, we’re thrilled to present the next step in our effort to improve the state of design in the blogosphere: What do you have to say? contest.

We’re calling out to the design community online to create new banners and themes for use on TypePad, Vox and LiveJournal blogs, and enter in the running for HP gift certificates of up to $1000 in value.

At Six Apart, our platforms power every kind of blog, from individuals blogging for friends and family to small businesses or enthusiasts writing about their areas of expertise to some of the biggest media companies in the world. And one thing we think every kind of blogger deserves is the best design on the web. So we’re excited to have HP as a contest sponsor as the next step to encouraging the creation of beautiful new designs for your blog

You can start submitting your design entries in the contest today, with a final deadline of April 4. After that, we’ll move to the voting and judging phases of the competition with a goal of determining a final winner on April 22.

So get started — show the world your design chops, and get in the running for some amazing prizes from HP.

Originally posted by Anil Dash from Six Apart News, on March 17, 2008 7:06 PM

New York's new Governor David Paterson made a startling admission to the New York Daily News in an interview this past weekend, just being published tonight. Starting in 1999, Paterson had an extra-marital affair lasting about two or three years, and his wife Michelle also had an affair during this period in their marriage.

"This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point," Paterson said. "But I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on."

It's an amazing confession from a governor who has taken office because of a sex scandal ruining his predecessor — though in this case his admitted past infidelity would seem to pale in comparison to Eliot Spitzer's habitual use of outrageously top-dollar prostitutes. It was probably a good idea to get it out of the way as soon as possible, so he can get on with governing the state.

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on March 17, 2008 6:53 PM

Wierd, a foreclosure in my building. Most of the other places are selling at or above asking, I wonder what happened with this one?

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by stamen to sanfrancisco tenderloin hamilton - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by stamen from del.icio.us/stamen, on March 17, 2008 3:10 PM

Yeah, that was fun. :-)

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by yatta to rickroll prank nextnewnetworks rocketboom timshey - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/yatta, on March 17, 2008 2:12 PM

In a statement, Florida Dem party chair Karen Thurman has just made it official: Florida state officials have nixed the possibility of a revote altogether:

Last week, the Florida Democratic Party laid out the only existing way that we can comply with DNC Rules - a statewide revote run by the Party - and asked for input.

Thousands of people responded. We spent the weekend reviewing your messages, and while your reasons vary widely, the consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again.

So we won't.

A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option. Florida is finally moving to paper ballots, which is a good thing, but it means that at least 15 counties do not have the capacity to handle a major election before the June 10th DNC primary deadline.

This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April.

But no revote. It's all but certain that whatever solution does eventually emerge won't seat the delegation in its current breakdown. So this is rough news for Hillary.

Full statement after the jump.

Dear Florida Democrat,

For a year now, the Florida Democratic Party has tried to comply with the Delegate Selection Rules of the Democratic National Committee.

We researched every potential alternative process - from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections - but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida.

We made a detailed case to the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, but we were denied.

Our Democratic legislators in Tallahassee tried to set the Florida primary on Feb. 5, instead of Jan. 29, but of course, their proposed amendment to House Bill 537 was greeted with laughter and derision from the Republicans who control the state government.

Does '537' ring a bell? It should. It's the number of votes that separated Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in Florida in 2000.

It's the number that sent this country and this world in a terrible direction.

We can't let 537 - or the Republicans - determine our future again.

President Bush plans to stop in Florida tomorrow to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Republican National Committee's efforts to elect his successor in November.

The last thing America needs is a third Bush term. Despite the widespread anxiety that working families feel, not to mention the broad agreement among economists that we are in a recession, President Bush and John McCain blindly believe that the economy is strong.

And let me remind you that John McCain endorsed President Bush's decision to deny health care to thousands of Florida children by vetoing an expansion of the successful SCHIP program. McCain also promises to jeopardize the financial security of Florida seniors by privatizing Social Security. He continually threatens to push Florida's military families to the brink by keeping American troops in Iraq for "100 years" or more.

This is why we are Democrats, and this is why we must stick together, no matter where this ongoing delegate debate takes us.

Last week, the Florida Democratic Party laid out the only existing way that we can comply with DNC Rules - a statewide revote run by the Party - and asked for input.

Thousands of people responded. We spent the weekend reviewing your messages, and while your reasons vary widely, the consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again.

So we won't.

A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option. Florida is finally moving to paper ballots, which is a good thing, but it means that at least 15 counties do not have the capacity to handle a major election before the June 10th DNC primary deadline.

This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April.

When this committee stripped us of 100% of our delegates last year, some members summed up their reasoning by saying, "The rules are the rules." Unfortunately, the rules did not apply to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they, too, violated the DNC calendar by moving from their assigned dates.

As the late great Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "We must adjust our ideas to the facts of today... Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are."

The Florida Democratic Party has stuck to its principles throughout this debate. We've remained open-minded while never wavering from our commitment to an open and fair election that would allow all Florida Democrats to participate, whether serving in Iraq, retiring in Boca, studying abroad or entertaining at a theme park.

Another late great President -Abraham Lincoln, a Republican - said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

If Democrats heed this wisdom, we will win in November.

America needs a great president again, but a President McCain will settle for the status quo and carry on the disastrous Bush tradition.

President Clinton or President Obama will make history and lead this nation in a new direction.

Let's remember this as the delegate debate continues. We must stick together as Democrats. The stakes are too high and the opportunities too great.

I will keep you posted on any major developments. Thank you for your concern and your commitment.

Sincerely,
Karen L. Thurman
Congresswoman Karen L. Thurman
Chair, Florida Democratic Party

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on March 17, 2008 1:49 PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on March 17, 2008 1:48 PM

Tyler Cowen has a short review of Peter Moskos' book, Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District.

This is one of the two or three best conceptual analyses of "cops and robbers" I have read. It is mandatory reading for all fans of The Wire and recommended for everyone else.

Sheeeeeeeeeeit.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 17, 2008 1:31 PM

reblog from kenyatta:

How To Pull Off a Rickroll In Real Life.

So here’s the thing. I’m not stupid. I’ve known about the Rickroll since way back when. I use the rickrolldb. Hell, I even produced an episode on the Rickroll for Rocketboom. Which is why I should have known better before clicking on this link:

Yeah, dumbass = me. Don’t click on this link, btw. Unless you’re also a dumbass.

Anyway, I wanted to rickroll Tim Shey back for my own dumbassedness. The problem was, I knew he’d be too smart to just click on a link. I had to take it one step further.

I had to rickroll him IRL.

After a quick search for singing telegrams in New York City, I called several as to their availability and eventually settled on Preppygrams, Yeah, it was a little expensive but why the frak not. I emailed the service with my request:

To which he replied:

In order for this to work, I needed a someone on the inside. That’s where Tim’s co-worker(s) came in. (I’m leaving their names out of this lest they become victims in some sort of retaliation. Friendly fire is never good.) I called Tim’s coworkers in search of someone I could rely on. Someone who would get the joke and

Okay, cool. I’ve got someone on the inside. After some back and forth scheduling both the messenger service and the meeting, all looked good… until the morning of launch:

Shit! I need a new co-conspirator, but the more people we bring in on this, the greater the risk of being found out. This must be what it feels like to try to smuggle defecting spies out of the Soviet Bloc during the cold war. I email someone else and get their complicity.

I call everyone one more time just to make sure the plan is set. Then I wait. And wait. And wait.

Finally, I get news of the results via Twitter:

Woohoo! I wait a couple of hours. Finally, video shows up online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkjv9WbrxHQ

Live Rickroll FTW!

[I have nothing more to add to this, except this is the definition of FTW. — Tim]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from shey.net, on March 17, 2008 1:01 PM

 

"Today is Monday. There is work to be done."

So said David Paterson, who was sworn in as New York's 55th governor just after 1:00 this afternoon. Two Mondays from now, the City Council and state Legislature will need to have adopted a congestion pricing plan if the city is to receive $354 million in federal transportation funds. Opinions on whether the governor will work to make that happen still vary wildly, even among those who've talked to people close to Paterson.

Here is the Daily News, from Friday:

Incoming Gov. David Paterson may have declined to take a stand on congestion pricing Thursday - but members of his inner circle have been lobbying for the proposal.

During his first press conference since Gov. Spitzer resigned in disgrace, Paterson said he needed to delve deeper into details of the plan to charge motorists $8 to drive south of 60th St.

"Although the mayor has not directly discussed congestion pricing with him, it would seem to be a good sign that people very close to the new governor are supportive," a City Hall source said.

Former Deputy Mayor Bill Lynch and former Paterson campaign manager Luther Smith have been pitching the toll scheme as a way to fund mass transit improvements in underserved minority communities.

Smith is president of Lynch's lobbying firm, Bill Lynch Associates, which has been doing pro-pricing outreach for Communities United for Transportation Equity.

Both Lynch and Smith are advising Paterson as he makes the transition to the state's highest office.

(more...)

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on March 17, 2008 11:46 AM

The initial responses to my post below about what kind of pressure the Fed could have brought to bear on Bear Stearns to sell at vastly under its market value, if that in fact was the case (a proposition that I find difficult to believe from my vantage point of complete ignorance), suggest that there's no obvious answer to the question that everyone agrees on.

In other words, we've received no emails telling us about the little-known 'sell your $%&#& company for what we say or it's off to Gitmo' law being invoked.

But here are some possibilities. Berkeley economist and reality-based blogger Brad DeLong suggests two possibilities. One, that Bear Stearns execs were unwilling to go into bankruptcy because of a various forms of criminal liability they would face -- and that everyone would be so pissed about the collateral damage of the bank's collapse that everyone would want to not only execute them but also have them drawn and quartered (in case you only know the phrase and not what it actually means: not pretty). Two, there's so much crap on Bear Stearns' books that $2 per share is just a fair price, even with the Fed assuming a lot of the potential liability. Let's call this the Atrios option.

Brad says the market seems to believe two while he's leaning toward one.

More generally, a lot of what I'm hearing suggests that the some part of the answer may be that the Bear Stearns board and execs may have pursued interests not perfectly in line with their shareholders on this deal, whether that be to avoid criminal liability or protect their own compensation not directly tied to stock price.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 17, 2008 10:52 AM

At TPM I always try to follow a pretty strict policy of not talking about topics I don't know a lot about or keeping to issues sufficiently vague and ambiguous that no one can tell. Since neither applies on this market meltdown stuff, I'll frame this as a question.

David Kurtz and I were just going over this and we seem to have a different idea of what happened with the Bear Stearns deal, or at least different emphases in understanding the story.

At the end of trading on Friday Bear Stearns was at approximately $30 a share. JPMorgan bought it over the weekend for $2 a share. And even that latter amount was cushioned by extensive guarantees from the Fed insulating Morgan from a lot of Bear's vast liabilities.

Looking at this from the outside, one of the most striking things about this story is that with all pessimism on Wall Street, all the panic to unload stocks in companies with heavy mortgage exposure, market knowledge was still out of it enough to have overrated the value of the company 15-fold.

Now, market value is an abstraction and can become pretty notional in the midst of a crisis: an asset is worth what you're about to find someone willing to pay for it. So it's likely a mistake to reify the $30 and the $2 market valuation to too great a degree. On the other hand, David Kurtz thinks that JPMorgan got a crazy bargain and that the fed muscled Bear into selling at far less than its actual value. And at The Atlantic, Clive Crook suggests that, yes, the Fed forced Bear to hand itself over to Morgan for much less than it was worth, that Bear's shareholders likely would have recouped more of their money if the company had simply gone into bankruptcy.

To get one matter out of the way, let me say, that I completely recognize that the Fed must have brought a tremendous amount of pressure to bear to make this happen. And they also seem to have put the taxpayer on the line for a lot of the risk involved in this transaction.

But here's my question, what is the precise nature of the pressure the Fed is able to bring to bear on a company like Bear Stearns in a case like this. On Friday, the market capitalization of the company was $3.5 billion. Let's say that was dramatically but not wildly off. Let's say a more realistic valuation of its net assets was $2.5 billion. It went over the weekend for about $2.25 billion less than that. So again, what kind of pressure is the Fed able to bring to bear to get the Bear Stearns board and shareholders to fold its cards leaving more than $2 billion on the table if they didn't have to.

That strikes me as more money than private shareholders are willing to give up just for the greater good. Then again maybe a lot of the stock is owned by big funds that see more potential losses for themselves in a wider meltdown than in letting Bear go down the tubes? In any case, this isn't a rhetorical question. I'm curious to hear your opinions and even more curious to hear from those of you in the financial services sector who might have some facts to shed more light on this question.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on March 17, 2008 10:25 AM

NY Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman wrote a paper when he was an assistant professor in 1978 called The Theory of Interstellar Trade. Here's the abstract:

This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting. It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the good than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 17, 2008 10:08 AM

Today's Gallup tracking poll shows Hillary Clinton taking a narrow national lead over Barack Obama. Here are the numbers, compared to the poll from yesterday:

Clinton 47% (+2)
Obama 45% (-3)

From Gallup's analysis: "While not statistically significant, Clinton's two percentage point advantage in today's report is a notable shift, particularly in light of the political storm Obama has faced over the past few days concerning controversial political statements made by the former pastor of his Chicago church."

For the general-election matches, John McCain is narrowly leading Obama while tying against Hillary:

McCain (R) 46%, Obama (D) 44%
Clinton (D) 46%, McCain (R) 46%

Late Update: A separate USA Today/Gallup poll gives different horse-race numbers against McCain:

Clinton (D) 51%, McCain (R) 46%
Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 47%

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on March 17, 2008 9:35 AM

From Joel on Software: Martian Headsets:

If you’ve ever visited the ultra-orthodox Jewish communities of Jerusalem, all of whom agree in complete and utter adherence to every iota of Jewish law, you will discover that despite general agreement on what constitutes kosher food, that you will not find a rabbi from one ultra-orthodox community who is willing to eat at the home of a rabbi from a different ultra-orthodox community. And the web designers are discovering what the Jews of Mea Shearim have known for decades: just because you all agree to follow one book doesn’t ensure compatibility, because the laws are so complex and complicated and convoluted that it’s almost impossible to understand them all well enough to avoid traps and landmines, and you’re safer just asking for the fruit plate.

This made my morning, and it's only one of many fantastic quotes.

Originally posted by Benjamin Trott from Stupidfool.org, on March 17, 2008 9:20 AM

The Virginia Quarterly Review analyzed their poetry submissions for use of poetic cliches and found that the cliches do get published more often than not. Also of note is that "darkness" is an undervalued poetic cliche...it was in only 4% of submitted poems but in 17% of published poems. Poets, "darkness" is your way into VQR.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 17, 2008 8:55 AM

Delta 5 : Mind Your Own Business
taken from the compilation Disco Not Disco on Strut (2008)

Set The Tone : Dance Sucker (Francois K Mix)
taken from the compilation Funky Nassau on Strut (2008)

Sonora Casino : Astronautas A Mercurio
taken from the compilation Obsession on Bully (2008)

The Funkees : Akula Owu Onyeara
taken from the compilation Nigeria Special on Soundway (2007)

Juan Bautista : Estoy Aqui Pero No Soy Yo
taken from the compilation Bachata Roja on iASO (2007)

Is it just me, or are there a higher percentage of compilations to new releases nowadays? It feels like the market for re-issued recordings is catching up with the market for brand new material- could just be my twisted, old-timer perspective though. Whatever the case may be statistics-wise, I'm certainly happy that there are so many other people devoting themselves to putting together great collections like these.

STRUT RECORDS IS BACK! And I'm gonna shout about it. These guys put out some really enlightening comps when I was first getting into DJ-ing, and then in '03 they closed up shop. This latest enstallment of the Disco Not Disco series brings us more hard to find indie 12" cuts from an era when lenghty dubbed-out, electro dance music could be considered punk. On Funky Nassau, Strut pulled together a wide range of work from Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas to shed some light on a scene that I have always had a soft spot for. From big names like The Talking Heads and Grace Jones to lesser-knowns like Guy Cuevas, this record captures some of the best fusions of dub and new wave that came out in the early 80's. It's the sound of of NYC's greatest party acts chilling out on the beach in a cloud of weed smoke with some of reggae's MVP's (Blackwell & Sly Dunbar).

The Obsession comp was tastefully pulled together by Mike at Academy Records, which has long been one of my favorite places to get schooled on cool records- and often take them home at reasonable rates. Wild psych monsters from the far reaching corners of obscurity is the bill here, and there's really nothing short of behemoth in the line-up. Track by track liner notes with cool pics help too. This track from Sonora Casino is one that I'd heard about as a mythological anomaly for quite some time now, and finally can listen to on repeat!

Soundway really don't need much introduction or explanation on this site. Everytime they put something out you can guarantee that you'll be getting more than your money's worth. These dudes are some of the heaviest collectors out there. While the set this time is less focussed on funk and dancefloor material, the overall vibe and richness of sounds is top quality.

And finally, something that is long overdue: a collection of old school acoustic bachata! Some readers might remember my discovery of Luis Segura a few years back on a trip to the Dominican Republic. And while I do not intend in anyway to detract from that man's genius, I also have always had the nagging suspicion that his sound was part of a bigger scene that I needed to dive into. The soulful, pleading falsetto. The bouncing bongo taps and staccato guitar plucks. THIS IS THAT SCENE! The music that was banned under Trujillo, that survived in the campos and made it to the city and finally onto records in the 60's. And to my knowledge, this is the first time that any of these songs have been available outside the DR. Thank you iASO.

**NOTE** FOR COMMENDABLE COMPS 1 - 5, SEE THE CAPTAIN'S CRATE ARCHIVE

Originally posted by Captain Planet from soul sides, on March 17, 2008 8:48 AM

I was walking my dog Thursday night when I ran into my friend and neighbor Mario Batali on Eighth Street who was just coming from dinner with his son Leo. He told me that he'd just had a fantastic meal in our neighborhood at a new restaurant on Eighth Street called Elettaria (right near MacDougal). In case you were wondering, Elettaria is a type of cardamom seed, which makes sense, as the chef Akhtar Nawab serves up the most amazing Indian cuisine. And how excited we should be to have such a great addition to our nabe. I trust Mario implicitly (he's my favorite chef in the world!) and so I called immediately, reserved a table for dinner and he was right. This place is really, really great with a kind of cozy atmosphere and cute, nice staff. It's hip (but not trendy), and you can watch Akhtar cooking super, amazingly delicious food in his open kitchen while his partner Noel runs around trying to keep the packed spot on track. It only opened two weeks ago but word is travelling fast and now it's kind of hard to get a table unless it's at 11 at night. But trust me (and Mario) -- this place is really, really good. Photo from Eater

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on March 17, 2008 8:04 AM

CNBC's Jim Cramer declaring Bear Stearns to be "FINE!," during a segment that I understand ran last week:

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on March 17, 2008 7:19 AM

 

A Department of Transportation study released Friday shows just how out of control placard parking is in Manhattan.

The 187-page report [PDF], accompanied by some 223 pages of maps, was undertaken to assess "how placards are used in Lower Manhattan," and to determine if placard users are taking up more space than is allotted for them. The results should come as no surprise.

Key findings include:

• Curb parking spaces in Lower Manhattan are highly utilized, with 93% of all legal on-street parking spaces in Lower Manhattan occupied during the peak hours (9AM-5PM).
  
• Vehicles with agency and law enforcement permits, when combined with marked official vehicles (e.g., police cruisers, DOT bucket trucks), are a large share of the vehicles parked on-street, comprising 43% of vehicle-hours from 9AM-5PM. Law Enforcement placards are the major component of these vehicles (23% of all vehicle-hours). (A vehicle-hour is one vehicle parking for one hour. Thus, a vehicle that parks for three hours uses three vehicle-hours.)
  
• Nearly 1 in 8 permitted vehicles were illegally parked at a bus stop, crosswalk, fire hydrant, driveway, or were double-parked.
  
• Placards displayed by 9% of all agency and law enforcement permitted vehicles were deemed to be inauthentic or illegitimate in some way.

(more...)

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on March 17, 2008 6:45 AM

Funny how even five years later no one can quite put their finger on the when, where and how -- let alone the who -- behind the decision to disband the Iraqi Army. As they say, success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan.

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on March 17, 2008 6:10 AM

Dean Baker, on the Fed’s forced marriage of Bear Stearns and JPMorgan.

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on March 17, 2008 5:52 AM

Filed under: Software, iPhone

Craig Hockenberry is the man, the myth, and the legend behind the absolute best Twitter application on the Mac (he works for the Iconfactory). We would all love to see Twitterrific on the iPhone, but Craig offers up a "healthy dose of reality" regarding the iPhone SDK and backgrounding services (applications that run in the background even though the phone is running a different foreground app).

In a recent blog post, Craig attempts to explain why Apple will not be giving developers access to backgrounding services on the iPhone. He points out that in a mockup design of "Mobile Twitterrific," based on the jailbreak/community toolchain, refreshing the XML data from Twitter every 5 minutes led to a dead iPhone battery in only 4 hours.

"The heart of the problem [is] the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements," he says. "Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck."

He also reiterated what Apple said about the "Core Location" feature that Apple provided in the SDK: use it only on an "as-needed" basis. Craig said that the issue of backgrounding services may get addressed later on, but right now Apple is preventing iPhone developers from "shooting themselves in the foot." He said that it will take months before the desktop developers have gotten the mindset of an iPhone developer, and that thinking like a desktop developer will lead to bad designs.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally posted by Cory Bohon from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on March 17, 2008 5:00 AM

• NYT Looks at How Congestion Pricing Works in London and Other Cities
• Chicago Outlaws Dooring (Tribune via Bike Blog)
• MTA Raises Tolls on Bridges and Tunnels (Newsday, NY1)
  
• 125th Street Rezoning Puts Limits on Bank Branches (City Room)
• Police Car Hits, Kills Pedestrian in Brooklyn (News, Post)
• Ex-Cop Gets One Year for Fatal DWI Crash (Newsday)
• New Urbanist Calls for Complete Streets (Hartford Courant)
• Satellite Navigation: A Cure for Congestion? (Economist)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on March 17, 2008 4:54 AM

                                                                                  Photo by Donna T. Ruhlman

Brine: A brine is salt in solution.  Brining is a powerful technique for seasoning meat and fish and can also cure it and introduce complimentary flavors.  Fresh vegetables can be brined at room temperature for a natural pickle, one in which the acid is generated by bacteria.  Brine strength, the ratio of salt to water, can vary but a good working ratio is a cup of kosher salt (between 6 and 8 ounces) per gallon which, depending on the type of salt you use will result in a 5% to 6% brine.  For an exact brine, it’s easiest to use metric measurements—50 grams of salt per liter of water results in a 5% brine.  Always use kosher or sea salt, and it’s best to weigh the salt rather than measure it by volume.  A 5% brine is also an excellent liquid in which to cook green vegetables and the ideal strength for natural pickles.  A small amount of sugar is often added to a brine to counteract the harshness of salt.  Aromats can be added to the brine to compliment the flavor of the meat or vegetables (tarragon and citrus for chicken for instance, garlic and sage for pork chops, garlic and chillis for pickled vegetables).  Aromats should be simmered in the brine while the salt dissolves to infuse the water.  Brines should be completely chilled before the meat or vegetable is added and should be discarded after they’ve been used (never reuse a brine).  The brined item should rest after being removed from the brine to allow the salt concentration to equalize within the meat.  A brined piece of meat, which has absorbed water, will result in a ten to fifteen percent greater yield and often juicier finished meat.

--from The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen

The above image is from the corned beef soon to simmer in a spicy liquid.  I used a five percent brine along with chilli flakes, mustard seed, coriander, ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, garlic and importantly, pink salt  (which gives the meat its distinctive piquant flavor and rosy color).  Home-cured beef is fantastic, easy, and enormously satisfying (there’s a complete recipe in Charcuterie).  I now find it difficult to enjoy a store-bought corned beef, not because there’s anything wrong really with buying a brisket  that’s been brined, only that having enjoyed so thoroughly curing my own I’m acutely conscious of the pleasure I’ve deprived myself of by not doing it myself.  And it doesn’t taste as good.
    One of the many extraordinary uses we can put a brine to.  If all you have available is crummy factory pork loin, second in it’s lack of taste only to the factory chicken breast, brining it is a good way to make it more moist and flavorful.  But again, I want to stress that a brine is a multi-faceted tool: it’s a perfect medium for cooking green vegetables, pickling vegetables (now, when it’s cool, is a good time to pickle vegetables—keep cut root vegetables and aromatics submerged in a 5% brine for a week and you’ll have a nice clean sour pickle), curing meat such as beef or pork loin (for Canadian bacon) or shoulder or leg (for ham), and enhancing the flavor and juiciness of meats we roast.

Originally posted by michael ruhlman from ruhlman.com, on March 17, 2008 4:26 AM

I was thrilled that Saveur included my item about Mrs. Sachiyo Imai in their latest "Saveur 100" list. Scholar, educator, TV host, and most importantly, accomplished cook, Mrs. Imai has worked tirelessly for the past quarter century to preserve Kyoto's traditional food culture. She is amazing. I wanted to share this piece I wrote about her efforts to save Kyoto's obanzai cooking:

When first you meet Mrs. Sachiyo Imai, Miss Kyoto 1953, master of the Japanese high arts of flower arranging, tea ceremony and traditional music, you don't think "savior of obanzai," her city's little-known soul food.

Kyoto, the ancient capital and cultural heart of Japan, is a place known for its rarefied cooking: Emperor's cuisine, aristocrat's cuisine, Buddhist temple cuisine and the ethereal and elegant multi-course kaiseki.

Obanzai is what the other half ate.

"It was the everyday cooking of Kyoto," says Mrs. Imai. "But it's disappearing."

Dressed in an elegant cobalt-blue kimono accented with ruby-colored camellias, hair sprayed and set, face powdered, left pinkie nail painted red, she dispenses with a formal bow and greets me to her home with a firm handshake and a hard look in the eye.

Mrs. Imai has taught obanzai cooking classes for 25 years. She's the author of a 496-page history of the cuisine and goes on TV to help keep obanzai alive.

Credit this to her grandmother. As a girl, Mrs. Imai watched her obaasan cook these dishes for an extended family of fifteen living under one roof. Now 71-years old, she can still remember the tastes, smells and colors of those foods, and how the steam felt on her skin as it came off a boiling pot.

"I use these senses to recreate my grandmother's cooking," she says.

Obanzai, as you'd expect of everyday chow, is a simple cuisine. Most dishes are cooked in a homey style called nimono; that is, foods are simmered in a typical Japanese dried-bonito-and-kelp stock, the dashi. In Kyoto, this stock traditionally has a delicate and light taste. So the natural flavors of the ingredients -- say, the sweetness of vegetables -- come through.

This is practical cooking: Like a down-home pot of collard greens, you can whip up a big batch at once. And unlike an exquisite and fleeting finger of sushi, these dishes stay moist and flavorful and hold for a long time. A plus when you're dealing with fifteen hungry pairs of chopsticks. Obanzai is more than a set of humble recipes. This cuisine is about signature ingredients unique to Kyoto -- the product of the city's geography and royal pedigree.

Ringed by mountains and fertile valleys, in the old days inland Kyoto was a two day hike to the ocean and its fresh fish, Japan's main fare. So citizens here got creative. They came up with high-protein artisanal foods like yuba, soy milk skin like ribbons of pappardelle, and fu, wheat gluten pounded from flour. They hunted boar and deer. They foraged for wild mugwort, bamboo shoots and field horsetail. They dried and salted mackerel, herring, tiny anchovies and other fish. And they cultivated distinctive Kyoto heirloom vegetables grown only in this area, called Kyo yasai.

These singular vegetables fed the emperor and the Buddhist abbots. They were used to prepare refined kaiseki dishes. And they made up the bulk of the everyday diet.

"Kyo yasai is the heart of obanzai cooking," Mrs. Imai explains. To understand her soul food you have to understand her vegetables.

Mrs. Imai heads to a nearby farm, a drive that lasts all of five minutes.

She hikes up the bottom of her kimono with one hand, clutches her purse with the other, and makes her way in zori sandals along a rocky path that borders a field. Lines of onions sprout from the neatly plowed brown dirt, giving off a nose-puckering zing. Five rows of crescent-shaped hot houses nearby snake down the field like giant three-foot high caterpillars. Bright greens called mizuna and mibuna grow inside. A compact red Yanmar-brand tractor sits alongside under a tarp.

Gaze up from the field and you'll see houses, three-story apartment buildings, TV aerials, city streets, streetlights, electric poles and a golf driving range with a 100-foot high fence. At one time Kyoto vegetables, meant, literally, Kyoto vegetables. The city itself was an agricultural zone. Today a few farms still exist, wedged like pieces of a pastoral jigsaw puzzle into the urban neighborhoods.

Mrs. Imai finds the farmer, a cheerful 57-year old woman wearing a long white rubber apron and pink rubber boots. Her name is Yuriko Imai, a distant cousin. She and her husband grow vegetables on five acres spread over five urban plots.

Farmer Imai explains that heirloom Kyoto vegetables -- 41 official varieties in all -- are protected by law. Many come from seeds brought as gifts to the emperor and handed down through the generations. She grows eight kinds. Each is a lesson in Kyoto history. Her onions are three-foot long Kujyo leeks, first recorded in 711. The mizuna greens, a spicy leaf like rocket, date back to 1683. Shogoin daikon radish are named after an old Kyoto temple near where they first grew. Farmer Imai brings one over. It's round and fat like a white-colored bowling ball. A plume of green leaves sprout from the top. She sticks it on a scale: Nine pounds of radish.

Back in her house, Mrs. Imai heads to the kitchen and stands behind a twelve-foot long, L-shaped marble counter appointed with two sinks, a four-burner induction stove and Bosch dishwasher. The words "Original Sachiyo" are stenciled in big English letters along a cabinet. She slips over her kimono a custom-made chef's coat of fine, crimson-colored raw silk with elastic cuffs. "My design," she says proudly.

Mrs. Imai pushes up her elastic cuffs and places three obanzai dishes on the counter: salted herring simmered with dried kelp; julienned daikon radish and bright red heirloom carrots in rice vinegar; and slivers of leek and carrots cooked with okara, soy pulp the consistency of crumbly farmers cheese, the humble byproduct of tofu making.

Obanzai is versatile cooking, she explains. In the spring you simmer the salted herring with bamboo shoots; in the summer with eggplant. Vegetables are always cooked or pickled. Nothing is wasted. She pulls out a dish of pickled radish leaves as proof.

Mrs. Imai looks up and points above her head. Painted on her natural pine ceiling are still lifes of Kyoto vegetables, fish and other traditional ingredients. They're grouped together by the seasons. "The most important thing is the seasons."

There is yet another side to obanzai cooking, she says. "This food was folk medicine." Well-balanced combinations -- like dried sardines boiled with burdock root and sansho pepper -- had health benefits. People also ate certain foods on certain days. "It's pretty deep."

But these traditions are vanishing, says Mrs. Imai. Few people today live with an extended family like she once did. "This kind of cooking is almost gone."

Almost. Walk into a Kyoto restaurant called Menami and along the cypress-wood dining counter you'll see a line of family-sized serving bowls that would make Mrs. Imai proud.

Menami is one of a handful of places here that specialize in obanzai cooking. It's a quiet spot on a side street in the city's busy central district. Eight seats run along the dining counter. 32-year-old chef Ippei Yamamoto and his second, in white tunics, black pants and traditional wooden flip-flops with socks, prep in an open, three-foot wide space behind it. Four tables line the opposite side of the narrow room.

The ceramic and porcelain bowls, seventeen to be exact, might remind you of bygone dinners with your closest dozen relatives. They're filled with traditional Kyoto comfort food: Okara with carrots and shiitake mushrooms; vinegared sardines; boiled ebi imo, "shrimp potatoes," golf ball-sized taro that curves like the crustacean.

Customers linger over the bowls and call out what they like. Chef Yamamoto dishes up delicately sweet, translucent slices of Shogoin diakon, like the one on the farm, simmered with slivers of deep-fried tofu. He serves boiled heirloom burdock root; salted herring with heirloom leeks; heirloom turnips simmered with dried persimmons.

A different kind of crowd lingers around Mrs. Imai's kitchen counter the following day. Nine women in flower-patterned aprons are here for an obanzai cooking class, including a professional from Tokyo, 300 miles away, who "secretly" flies down twice a month -- and who asked for anonymity so her bosses wouldn't find out.

The women work quietly as they chop an heirloom mustard green called hatakena, mash tofu in a salad bowl-sized mortar and pestle and scribble down notes.

Mrs. Imai watches, corrects and instructs. She adds a little soy sauce to a bowl and explains why. She puts a big pot with the greens and dashi stock to boil on her modern stove. It gives off a homey, satisfying aroma.

The group prepares the mustard greens three ways. They pass around tastes on small plates. "These dishes were handed down from generation to generation," says the professional from Tokyo. "Not many people can cook this way anymore."

"All my dishes have meaning," explains Mrs. Imai. Teaching this class is her way of keeping her grandmother's traditions, and spirit, alive.

When the food is ready, the women sit at a long table and eat lunch with bamboo chopsticks. After they're done, Mrs. Imai hands out songbooks. The group gathers around a baby grand piano -- also in Mrs. Imai's repertoire. She sits down to play. They end the class with another sort of classic -- singing "Way Down Upon the Suwannee River," the English words written out in Japanese.

To find Menami, click here and check out "C33."

If you're interested in joining Mrs. Imai's cooking classes -- in Japanese only -- you can contact the NHK Cultural Center in Kyoto and ask them for details. I'm sorry but I don't have their number.

Originally posted by Harris Salat from The Japanese Food Report, on March 17, 2008 4:23 AM

Powerful and disturbing article by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris from this week's New Yorker about the photographs taken at Abu Ghraib.

Later, when the photographs of crimes committed against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were made public, the blame focussed overwhelmingly on the Military Police officers who were assigned to guard duty in the Military Intelligence cellblock -- Tiers 1A and 1B -- of the hard site. The low-ranking reservist soldiers who took and appeared in the infamous images were singled out for opprobrium and punishment; they were represented, in government reports, in the press, and before courts-martial, as rogues who acted out of depravity. Yet the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was de facto United States policy. The authorization of torture and the decriminalization of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of captives in wartime have been among the defining legacies of the current Administration; and the rules of interrogation that produced the abuses documented on the M.I. block in the fall of 2003 were the direct expression of the hostility toward international law and military doctrine that was found in the White House, the Vice-President's office, and at the highest levels of the Justice and Defense Departments.

Never mind liberty, it would seem that we're giving up our humanity for security.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on March 17, 2008 4:13 AM

A disposable camera is left on a bench for a day with instructions to passers-by to use it. They did. found on andrew pile's reverse-chronological thing

Originally posted by torrez from Andre's Notes, on March 16, 2008 9:39 PM

I didn't win many awards as a kid. When I was seven, though, I awarded myself a homemade prize ribbon fashioned out of a raveling brown fabric remnant. And with my little white crayon, what did I scrawl on this ribbon? "Winner." That's it. Not "1st Place" or "Good Job!" Just "Winner." I guess I was trying to think of the exact opposite of the word loser, a word easily defined as a kid who has to make himself a award. Now, reward that inner loser in you! Welcome to dollarshort.org

That's how I began my very first blog, dollarshort.org, back in 2001. I was twenty-three at the time and figured that I wasn't going to be famous in the real world, so I might as well have a go at it online. Little did I know what I was getting into at the time.

Twenty-thee year-old Mena was a lot different than thirty year-old Mena, thankfully. I spent most of my twenties working on blogging software, reading blogs and helping run a blogging company. I went from being private, to public, to way too public and then to reclusive. Mind you, I was never the wearing-tissue-boxes-on-my-feet or collecting-my-urine-in-jars type of recluse -- just the type that focused on staying off the radar. But when some of the best experiences in my life have come from blogging -- as well as some of the worst -- it's hard to quit completely.

While I've been blogging consistently (and privately) for two years on my Vox blog, I missed doing the public blogging that introduced me into this crazy, often wonderful and sometimes cruel world.

Ultimately, the best experiences are why I'm back.

I'm, as the cliche goes, older and wiser, and amazingly I'm now a mother. My daughter, Penelope, is already growing up right before my eyes and, at five months-old, is such a joy. While the neurotic Mena of 2001 was coming to terms with a lifetime of a 'day late and a dollarshort' moments, the 2008 Mena is a lot more concerned with the day-to-day adventures of raising a daughter and working at Six Apart (after a six-month maternity leave, I now work from home or bring Penelope in with me).

So, here I am.

Welcome back to dollarshort!

Originally posted by Mena from Dollarshort, on March 16, 2008 9:33 PM

All these stories about the purchase price of Bear Stearns—it's being bought, supposedly, for $2 a share, for a total cost of $270 million—are wrong in a fundamental way, I think. JPMorgan Chase also gets the building with the company, because Bear Stearns owns it, as was noted in the conference call tonight. That building, 383 Madison—47 floors, built by SOM—is said by the Federal Reserve (as part of their bailout) to be worth $1.2 billion. (And it's gotta be worth more. The MetLife building sold for $1.72 billion in 2005; 666 Fifth Avenue was bought (for better or for worse!) at the end of 2006 for $1.8 billion.) So actually JPMorgan Chase just got paid well over a billion dollars to take on a company. I'm obviously no expert but like couldn't the jokesters at Bear Stearns refinance the building for some cash or something? That's ridiculous.

Originally posted by Choire from choire sicha, on March 16, 2008 7:12 PM

"Right now copyright expires 75 years after the death of the author. Roland Barthes declared the death of the author in 1967. All copyrighted materials should thus fall into the public domain in 2042." (via Tom)

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on March 16, 2008 6:36 PM

Just went to opening of VAPOR, an exhibit at Southern Exposure on pollution. One of my favorite projects there was Public Smog: PUBLIC SMOG is a park in the atmosphere that fluctuates in location and scale. The park is...

Originally posted by egoodman from confectious, on March 16, 2008 4:06 PM

"The ElasticWulf project consists of Python command line tools to launch and configure a beowulf cluster on Amazon EC2. We also include AMI build scripts for master and worker nodes based on x64 Fedora Core 6 instances."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on March 16, 2008 3:34 PM

MovableType open source is now available in the Debian (sid) unstable repositories.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Movable Type 4, on March 16, 2008 5:59 AM

In the Star-Ledger, Carlos Beltran answers a variety of questions on topics ranging from leadership to his quiet personality to what it means to be accountable.

…the name of the person asking the questions is not listed, but whomever it was did a fantastic job, considering beltran is usually fairly guarded when speaking to reporters…

Beltran, speaking about being a quiet leader, and not being as vocal as other players may be, as quoted by the Star-Ledger’s mystery questionnaire:

For me to be a leader, I have to do things right.  I have to work hard.  I have to show my teammates that I care about them.  You know, that’s what a leader is.  Fans always look for someone and say, ‘This is a leader because this guy always talks.’  I don’t know…Everybody’s is different.  You can be vocal in the clubhouse.  I don’t see myself like that.  I’m not going to jump around and scream.  That’s how I was raised.  I try to behave myself.  It’s not that I try not to show emotion.  I get excited.  But in baseball, it’s different.  You can be a leader on a team without being all crazy.”

…Mike Piazza, is that you?…seriously, it reads just like one of mike’s responses when asked a similar question…mike got ripped for being a quiet leader to, if he was one at all…frankly, i think leadership is a bit overrated…don’t get me wrong, it’s important, but i think we all tend to overvalue it in the grand scheme of what it takes to win a baseball game…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on March 16, 2008 5:49 AM