randomwalks/dj

Andy has a collection of fanboy supercuts, a "genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage." His collection includes some of the excellent and bizarre Lovelines isolation studies by Chuck Jones.

I'm reminded of how these constitute a kind of search index, a concept first introduced to me 11 years ago via Brian Slesinsky's Webmonkey article, Roll Your Own Search Engine. That was the first of many demystifications of big, web-scale technology for me. The thread running through all these fan cuts is the inverted index, identical to the concept introduced in that ancient article. An inverted index maps elements such as words to their source locations in a data corpus. Each of the pieces Andy links to is a kind of inverted index, pointing to locations of obscenities, audible inhalations, wilhelm screams, and so on.

The other thing it reminded me of was Simon Winchester's excellent book, The Professor And The Madman, an account of W.C. Minor's assistance in constructing the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Minor was a confined lunatic with an extensive personal library, and the OED required that every sense of a word in its definition be traceable to an original, printed quotation. These were crowd-sourced from literate Englishmen of the time, but Minor's contribution went above and beyond because he noted interesting words as he read, constructing an inverted index of his library for OED-worthy terms. When dictionary editor James Murray needed a quotation for a particular word, there was a good chance Minor had already encountered and indexed it.

The works pointed to by Andy's blog post (and additions in the comments) are a special form of indexing, made possible by cheap communication and digital media. Let's hope the RIAA/MPAA don't fuck everything for an emerging form of media consumption.

Comments

Originally posted by (author unknown) from tecznotes, on April 12, 2008 10:24 PM

Apple could really do a lot more to make this easier.

My appreciation for PHP is growing. Not the language, but the development community and references. PHP.net is really good. Nearly every function has a usage example and user comments. I guess I took that for granted.

Also, PHP isn’t updated randomly every few weeks in ways that break old functionality with no schedule or roadmap.

Apple’s secrecy is great for product launches, but it’s painful to try to develop against it. And while developing for the iPhone SDK, you feel like you’re the only person in the world doing it. There’s no community. No examples. No websites. No tutorials. It took all night before I even found the beta-3 changelog (after they helpfully removed a critical rendering function of UITableView and broke my code).

It’s a good thing this is an attractive platform for other reasons.

Because of the pain required to make them and the ease of charging money in this environment, I don’t expect any high-quality iPhone applications to be free.

But that’s probably a good thing:

• For developers: It’s a massive new market of people willing to pay for software. Good free alternatives are unlikely to arrive and erode the paid products’ marketshare.
• For users: A healthy paying market will encourage good developers to write good software for the platform.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org Tumblelog, on April 12, 2008 9:30 PM

Theda Skocpol writes in ...

I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!

I wonder if she realizes that gaining a few days of lurid publicity that might reach a slice of voters is going to cost her a great deal in the regard of many Democrats, whose strong support she will need if she somehow claws her way to the nomination -- and even more so if she does not clinch the nomination. The distribution of "we're not bitter" stickers to her campaign rallies is the height of over-the-top crudity, and the reports are that very few audience members seem to have much enthusiasm for this nonsense. Not surprisingly, people cannot see the reasons for so much fuss.

Yes, she wants a big break, she desperately wants the nomination she and Bill believe is hers by right. We all know that. But where is her authenticity and her dignity and her sense of any proportion?

This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of "elitism"! (I won't say the only time, because U.S. political history is full of absurdities of this sort.) In a way, it is funny -- and it may not be long before the jokes start.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 12, 2008 7:53 PM

TPM Reader GB sent me in the video of a 2004 appearance by Barack Obama on the Charlie Rose show in which he talks about the same issue of rural and working class Americans and the Democratic party. It's from November 23rd, 2004, so just after Obama was first elected to the senate but a couple months before he was sworn in.

It's interesting to watch since it's in a very non-campaign setting and almost four years ago. He makes exactly the same point, but explains it differently. Some of it is likely equally demagoguable, but shows up some of the tendentious misconstruals of what he said. I clipped out the three minutes or so of the hour segment where he addresses this issue ...

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 12, 2008 7:45 PM

David Bowie on Saturday Night Live, 1979. Strange, strange puppetwork, via AG.

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on April 12, 2008 5:52 PM

Examiner column for April 14.

    On one of my seniors’ last days in high school, they heard a world-renowned scholar of James Joyce lecture on “Dubliners.”  He took an afternoon off from his immersion in Joyce’s first work to speak to them about two of the stories they were studying. Most found it interesting, and a few responded enthusiastically, but in several ways his talk was wasted on the young.

    Coilin Owens is the scholar in question, and he is Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, where I teach part-time. He left Ireland long ago to study in the United States where, ironically, there is much more opportunity to do serious Joyce scholarship than in Irish universities, where they consider Joyce a tourist industry.

    During the thirty years Coilin has been researching and publishing on Joyce, I have been reading and rereading Joyce in my classes. I have probably taught “Dubliners” to a couple thousand students, and each time I learn something new. With Joyce the learning curve is particularly steep because so much is left unstated. Reading his prose is like climbing a steep mountain every time you do it—and the “scenic views” are as breathtaking the twentieth time you visit them as they were the first time. The “Dubliners” stories just keep getting better.

    Coilin is a scholar who inhabits the period he studies. He reads daily papers from the early 1900s because Joyce did, and reads the books in Joyce’s library in the editions he owned in order to trace their influence. Of course he also reads Joyce’s prose carefully. In answer to a student’s question about how he goes about interpreting the language, Coilin replied: “First, I memorize it.”

    For me, his lecture was eye-opening. He illustrated with his passionate delivery how satisfying an intellectual pursuit can be, and how much wisdom comes with time spent on a subject you love. I last heard him speak on “Dubliners” four years ago, and his words were just as intelligent then. But this time he was better: he showed us that by studying Joyce you study the world, that by probing the “signs” he gives us we can find answers to perennial human questions about what’s important in life, and the futility of the pursuit of perfection.

    To illustrate this last point, Coilin analyzed Joyce’s use of the word  “gnomon,” a geometric shape missing a corner. The word takes on symbolic significance throughout the stories as  “a figure aspiring to be a perfect square, but missing something—just like we all aspire to be a perfect figure, but never quite make it.” These words of Coilin’s “blew my mind,” observed my student Joe.

    I felt lucky to be present at his talk because I realized why Joyce never becomes repetitious or boring, no matter how often I teach him. Yet most of my students did not have similar epiphanies. They liked Professor Owens’ words because they illustrated serious scholarship, but didn’t see that they could apply those words to their own lives, as well.

    But for Joe and a few others, Coilin Owen’s words resonated far beyond “Dubliners.” Education is sometimes, but not always, wasted on the young.

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on April 12, 2008 4:17 PM

The Bronx-born Yankee-hating and Red Sox-loving construction worker who buried a Red Sox jersey in the new Yankee Stadium has given photographic evidence to the Post proving it's no tall tale. "Gino" explained, "As I stuck it in, I said, 'The Yankees are done for the next 30 years.' I only put a 30-year curse because I'm 46 and in 30 years I'll be dead, and I won't care if the Yankees win then."

Well, at least Gino, who currently works at a construction site in Manhattan, is being rational. He said the jersey, buried somewhere along the third base line, is a David Ortiz jersey, "The reason why is George Steinbrenner told [Yankees GM Brian] Cashman to get Ortiz and Cashman told him, we don't need him, We have [Jason] Giambi and Nick Johnson.'" The Curse of Big Papi?!?!

While there are a range of reactions from Yankee players (Jeter: "I am sure somebody, a Yankee fan, would dig it up, right?"; Petitte: "I'm not a superstitious person. It is kind of funny, though."), the most heated seems to be from Mayor Bloomberg:

"It is an outrage!" the Boston-born Bloomberg told The Post before the Yanks played the Sox last night.

"The one thing that I'd really like to be able to do is to go in there and pitch for the Yankees and beat the Red Sox with a perfect game. That would be a way to end the curse," the mayor said.

"They envy the Yankees. They wish they were the Yankees. And every once in a while, you might not win the whole thing, but to say that the public is on the side of the Yankees is an understatement." Hmm. Maybe he should take a cue from Yankees fan Christopher Rogers who said, "[Red Sox jerseys] should be buried under two tons of concrete. Buried because that's what we do. We bury them."

The Yankees now have a new official statement: If they are able to find the jersey, "we will say thanks to The Post for showing us where the T-shirt is, so that we can put an extra layer of concrete over it to make sure it stays buried." And today's Yankees game against the Red Sox is at 3:55 p.m., with Mike Mussina pitching against Josh Beckett.

Originally posted by Jen Chung from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on April 12, 2008 4:14 PM

Six reasons why baseball is the best of all games, from a 1961 conversation.

First: the rules of the game are in equilibrium: that is, from the start, the diamond was made just the right size, the pitcher's mound just the right distance from home plate, etc., and this makes possible the marvelous plays, such as the double play. The physical layout of the game is perfectly adjusted to the human skills it is meant to display and to call into graceful exercise. Whereas, basketball, e.g., is constantly (or was then) adjusting its rules to get them in balance.

Second: the game does not give unusual preference or advantage to special physical types, e.g., to tall men as in basketball. All sorts of abilities can find a place somewhere, the tall and the short etc. can enjoy the game together in different positions.

The comments are entertaining as well; the level of erudition is higher than most blog comment threads, but the insults and arguments are still there.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 11, 2008 5:23 PM

Some footage I caught last night at the Knittign Factory, Jeru Tha Damaja hopping on stage with Tha Alkaholiks.....

Originally posted by jsmooth995 from hiphopmusic.com:, on April 11, 2008 2:29 PM

CARROLL GARDENS— Back on Tuesday we all learned Beyonce and Jaz-Z had made a visit to pizza haven Lucali. Today a blogger who was kicked out for the stars emails Cutty with a complaint: "I was actually sitting at the table [Iacono] gave to Beyonce and Jay-Z. His whole bit about how he didn't know they were coming was extremely annoying, because actually he kicked us out so they could have our table, right next to him. It was actually the rudest thing that's ever happened to me in a restaurant in New York. He asked us to eat as fast as possible and leave..." [Cutlets]

EAST VILLAGE— Plywood alum Panificio has finally opened in the doomed Uovo space, according to Imbible. Don't get too excited—they're still waiting on their liquor license: "Earlier this week I spoke with the manager, Ayo Balogun, who explained that part of the concept behind Panificio is to cater to neighborhood locals in particular, with specialty coffees offered at a reduced price if you leave nearby...So...what about the matter of that elusive liquor license, which Uovo was unable to procure (eventually forcing its closure)...? Ayo says a full liquor license is on the way." [Imbible]
—photo credit

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on April 11, 2008 1:55 PM

Artist Mark Penxa has created a series of 100 portraits of old ball players with the mouthful of a title Stealing Signs: Dead-Ball Era Baseball - Memories from My Last Life; 1927

ShareThis

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on April 11, 2008 1:33 PM

What's the play count on your most played song in your iTunes library? My top five are:

Emerge by Fischerspooner, 97 plays
Alpha Beta Gaga by Air, 76 plays
A Dream by Cut Copy, 68 plays
Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand (Daft Punk mix), 68 plays
Around the World by Daft Punk, 66 plays

Sixteen songs in my library have been played 50 times or more. More than 70 songs have been played at least 35 times. I'm wondering where that lies on the scale of obsession...do I listen to my favorite songs more or less than normal? If you folks can be considered normal... ;)

(Comment on this)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 11, 2008 1:17 PM

Long rumination on the use of slo-mo in movies, particularly in Standard Operating Procedure. Being a slo-mo fan myself (especially when wielded by Wes Anderson or by NBC Sports during football games), I enjoyed this description of it:

Slo-mo can be a mesmerizing revelation of the grace inherent in the ordinary.

Slo-mo was invented and patented in 1904 by an Austrian priest-turned-physicist named August Musger. And who was working in the patent office in Austria in 1904?

My fantasy now is that Albert Einstein -- working in the Swiss patent office in Bern in 1904, when Musger patented slo-mo in (relatively) nearby Austria -- might have become aware of Musger's slow-motion patent (perhaps it even crossed his desk?) and that contemplation of slo-mo might have influenced Einstein's thinking about the nonabsoluteness, the relativity, of time.

Two other sort-of-related bits of Errol Morris news: 1) part 2 of his short series on re-enactments is now online, and 2) Morris will be talking about his new movie at the Apple Store in Soho on April 23 at 6:30pm. Prepare to wait in a long line. (thx, findemnflee)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 11, 2008 12:08 PM

Obviously, I'm insanely jealous of Sarah Larson. It seems like one day she was working as a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas, and the next she was v on George Clooney's arm. So, how did she snag the superstar?

Contrary to popular belief, the couple didn't meet at Ocean's Thirteen premiere party at the Palms Casino Resort in 2007 --  it was actually years before that.

"It was on his birthday three or four years ago at Whiskey at [Vegas's] Green Valley Ranch," Sarah said, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal, and she and George's party met up. "I was with some friends. We were all dancing, taking pictures, being silly."  But, Sarah had a boyfriend at the time. Then, when the actor went to Vegas for the Ocean's premiere last summer, "he heard I was working at Moon [nightclub]." He went to find her and, she says, "we hung out." 

It must have been a good time because, a month later, he took her to his house in Italy. The rest is history.

Why don't these things ever happen to me?? Though I did meet the mayor of Hoboken once at the diner. It was thrilling, but he's not George Clooney and I was never his girlfriend. Oh well.

For more celebs who date outside the Hollywood pool, check out our Average Joe and Jane slide show.

Originally posted by Tracy Pepey from iVillage - Daily Blabber, on April 11, 2008 12:05 PM

There are so many ways to be a baseball fan — you can be a stats person, a hometown loyalist, a fan of one slugger in particular, or just into the notion of sitting outside with your friends and drinking beer. I grew into a fan reading great baseball books, many by David Halberstam, who died last year. Check out his October 1964 if you want to see how baseball can echo the struggles of society at large. Or just check out Zach Hample’s Watching Baseball Smarter if you want a fun primer on the sport.

The beginning of the season is about optimism, so here’s to the fact that everyone’s team is still in post season contention. I hope your team makes it.

    

    

Photos from misschatter, , kellyhafermann, rocknroll91, philliefan99 and ennailuj.

Originally posted by Shanan Delp from Flickr Blog, on April 11, 2008 11:35 AM

Items you may have missed from the Serious Eats universe ...

• I must confess... I had a naughty dream about Mario Batali
  "YOU think you all have strange dreams? I have this recurring dream where Tony Bourdain is feeding me something unidentifiable!!!" – RichardCrystal (This thread is a real gem for some, uh, interesting insights into all of your food fantasies...)
• A change of heart concerning Sandra Lee
  "After watching her Chefography episode, I've had a change of heart. [...] I had no idea that she had such a difficult upbringing and that she was forced to overcome so much. Sandy may not be a chef, but she's trying to make eating well easier for busy parents on a budget. I still think her food sucks, but there's something kind of noble about that." – PumpkinBear

• "Drop It Like It's Hot"
  "Just last night I dropped raw chicken breast on the little rug in front of my sink. I scooped it up before the dogs caught wind of it, rinsed off the fuzzies and proceeded like nothing had ever happened. It is sort of like the whole tree-falling-in-the-woods puzzle... if no one sees you drop it, did it really fall?" – AuntJone
• Surely there is more to Canadian cuisine than poutine and nanaimo bars?
• What one famous chef would you choose to emulate?
  "Julia for her talents and knowledge, Rachel Ray for her energy and smile, Giada for her looks (who cares if she can cook...), Bobby Flay for his BBQ secrets, Anthony Bourdain for his humor, gut and courage, Ina for her kitchen and life without a husband during the week, Nigella for her beauty..." – Hunnyoil
• Take a break from the kitchen and check out these suggestions for food-related books that aren't cookbooks.
• Lobster rolls at a McDonald's in Maine, McLaks (salmon) sandwich at the one in Oslo, McCroques in France... any other fast food regional items that you've discovered?

Originally posted by Emily Koh from Serious Eats: Main, on April 11, 2008 11:00 AM

Good advice about whining:

Whining should be telling you something. Whining is the white smoke in your tailpipe that lets you know you're burning mental oil. It means you're unconsciously devoting cycles to something that you can't, won't, or shouldn't be spending time thinking about. Otherwise, why would it be bothering you, right? You'd be either extricated or done with it.

This jibes nicely with one of Stefan Sagmeister's Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far:

Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.

(via bbj)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 11, 2008 10:56 AM

During an epic bike tour of the city yesterday that stretched from the Bronx to Brooklyn, StreetFilms' Clarence Eckerson, Jr. took these shots of the future site of Brooklyn Bridge Park. The Brooklyn Greenway, which received a vote of confidence from Community Board 1 on Tuesday, will run through the park along the edge of the pier. The demolished structures on the right were still standing when Clarence shot this video last year, documenting a tour of the Greenway's path.

Says Clarence: "Made me realize with all the sadness of congestion pricing failing, there IS plenty of great stuff going on in the city."

A tighter shot comes after the jump.

(more...)

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on April 11, 2008 10:16 AM

What an eventful week! I feel like talking about it.

First the torch thing here in SF. Two interesting things came out of that: my Twitter friends who were near the torch kept me updated throughout the day on what was going on, and second, Greg Knauss summed it up nicely.

Then there's Flickr video! What a bunch of hoo-ha about nothing. It seems a large group of people think Flickr is going to turn into YouTube—whatever that means. Anyway, here is why Flickr is no YouTube. Eleanor is easily the face that sold a thousand Flips (mine arrives today!).

Per my New Year's Resolution: I still haven't bought a single book. I only bought one CD in an emergency situation where I had to drive 600 miles and forgot to burn a CD-R. No DVDs. No video games.

Originally posted by torrez from Andre's Notes, on April 11, 2008 9:18 AM

A few years ago at a family meal my dad randomly launched into a lengthy panegyric to rice. He does this sometimes—proclaims a deep but previously unvoiced passion—and my mother, sister, and I roll our eyes at the poor outnumbered guy in our family and keep talking about shoes or Martha Stewart or whatever. At the time I thought, How can anyone get excited about rice? It doesn’t taste like anything.

Now I’ve come to see the wisdom of my father’s palate, and if I weren't scared of getting fat I’d eat white rice several times a week, with Indian food, soy sauce and vegetables, or naked but for a pat of butter. Why didn’t dad eat a lot of rice in college, I wonder now. One of his stock stories is how he could subsist for weeks at a time on canned tomato soup when he was putting himself through school, when he would have to sit at a bar and watch his buddies drink beer because he couldn’t afford to buy one for himself. Sometimes for a treat he would eat jelly. So why didn’t he buy himself a big old bag of rice and feast on that? Is it possible that he was scared to cook it?

In my experience, fear of rice cookery is a surprisingly common affliction. A friend of mine, one of the most accomplished and confident cooks I know, refuses to make white rice. When I was first feeding myself, I didn’t even try to make it because I had heard was complicated; I relied on parboiled, plastic-bagged rice in a box. Once I got my confidence up and made a pot of regular, long-grain white rice, I discovered that…it isn’t hard at all. In fact, it was perfect every time. What was everyone talking about? I puffed up a little. I got cocky.

Eventually, my future husband and I began one of those great New York love affairs in which real estate plays a disproportionately large role. Soon—much sooner than I would have been anywhere else in the country—I was living and cooking in his apartment, where, I was chagrined to discover, I was incapable of cooking rice. It was as if I had forgotten how to ride a bicycle. I mean, I made perfectly serviceable dinners, moan-inducing desserts, and my first cinnamon rolls in that kitchen, but I never made a successful pot of rice, a fact that inspired merciless teasing. This was all the more maddening because Andrew’s rice was perfect every time, even though he just eyeballed the quantities and frequently forgot that it was on the stove until well past the point at which it should have been ruined.

Did my success reside in the cheap saucepan, now in storage, that I had bought at a grocery store during college? Was I cursed by performance anxiety after the first few failures? The mystery was never solved. But when we moved into a new apartment, I got my rice mojo back immediately.

Are you scared of cooking rice? And do you have a foolproof method for brown rice? Because my brown rice is still pretty hit or miss, and I could use some advice. Sometimes it’s perfectly cooked, chewy and delicious; sometimes it’s half mushy and half raw, or unpleasantly crispy. Help!

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

Long-Grain White Rice

- serves 3-4 as a side -

I can’t remember where I learned this method, but it works every time, unless someone has put a rice curse on you. There’s only one trick to this in my kitchen, which is that the simmering must happen on one of the less powerful burners. The most powerful burner is too hot even at the lowest setting.

Ingredients

1 cup long-grain white rice
1 3/4 cup water
Pinch of salt
Glug of olive oil

Procedure

Combine all ingredients (I don’t bother to rinse the rice) in a 2-quart saucepan and bring to a simmer. As soon as the water reaches a lively simmer, give everything a good stir, cover the pot, and lower the heat as much as possible. After 15 minutes, turn off the burner, remove the pot from the heat, and let it sit for at least 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork and serving.

Originally posted by Robin Bellinger from Serious Eats: Main, on April 11, 2008 8:30 AM

Yesterday on the stump Hillary reiterated her opposition to the Colombia trade agreement -- and in the process, she laughed.

This, naturally, pricked up the ears of lots of folks in our political press corps, who derive great enjoyment from taking note of Hillary's laugh...

MSNBC:

Hillary's Laugh Is Back

PITTSBURGH -- Clinton can't shake questions surrounding her stance on trade and her husband's differing views on the matter. Today, she responded with a hearty laugh -- the kind once criticized and mocked by pundits and the media.

CNN:

Clinton laughs off Colombia questions

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.

The Washington Post:

Questions on Trade Agreement Bring Back the Laugh

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Asked about her husband's receipt of almost $1 million from a group that backs a trade deal with Colombia that she opposes, Sen. Hillary Clinton turned to a tactic she had used often early in her campaign, though not recently: laughing off the question.

Great minds...

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on April 11, 2008 6:18 AM

[Image: Walking an "ancient road" in Vermont; photo by Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times].

Half-forgotten slashes of land, cutting through, around, and over the hills of Vermont, might actually be "ancient roads," dating back to colonial times – and a 2006 state law has given the residents of nearby towns a strong incentive for uncovering these buried throughways.
According to The New York Times, "citizen volunteers are poring over record books with a common, increasingly urgent purpose: finding evidence of every road ever legally created in their towns, including many that are now impassable and all but unobservable." These "elusive roads" – many of them "now all but unrecognizable as byways" – are lost routes, connecting equally erased destinations.
In almost all cases, they've barely even left terrestrial traces; in fact, as we'll see, their presence is almost entirely textual.
If these roads can be re-discovered, however, then they can be added to official town lands. Accordingly:

Some towns, content to abandon the overgrown roads that crisscross their valleys and hills, are forgoing the project. But many more have recruited teams to comb through old documents, make lists of whatever roads they find evidence of, plot them on maps and set out to locate them.

And, in what is surely one of the most interesting geographical subplots in recent newspaper publishing, we read: "Even for history buffs, the challenge is steep: evidence of ancient roads may be scattered through antique record books, incomplete or hard to make sense of."
Indeed, like something out of the poetry of Paul Metcalf, or even William Carlos Williams, the descriptions found in these old documents are narrative, impressionistic, and vague. They "might be, 'Starting at Abel Turner’s front door and going to so-and-so’s sawmill,' said Aaron Worthley, a member of the ancient roads committee in Huntington, southeast of Burlington. 'But the house might have burned down 100 years ago. And even if not, is the front door still where it was in 1815? These are the kinds of questions we’re dealing with.'"

[Image: A hand-written inventory of Vermont's ancient routes; photo by Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times].

While making sense of cryptic references to lost byways is fascinating in and of itself, these acts of perambulatory interpretation are part of a much larger, fairly mundane attempt to end "fights between towns and landowners whose property abuts or even intersects ancient roads."

In the most infamous legal battle, the town of Chittenden blocked a couple from adding on to their house, saying the addition would encroach on an ancient road laid out in 1793. Town officials forced a showdown when they arrived on the property with chain saws one day in 2004, intending to cut down trees and bushes on the road until the police intervened.

The article refers to one local, a lawyer, who explains that "he loved getting out and looking for hints of ancient roads: parallel stone walls or rows of old-growth trees about 50 feet apart. Old culverts are clues, too, as are cellar holes that suggest people lived there; if so, a road probably passed nearby."
Think of it as landscape hermeneutics: hunting down traces of a disappeared landscape.
So what would happen, then, if you discovered that an ancient road actually passes through your house – that your living room is a former throughway, and old paths knot and twirl off to every side, one leading right through the guest bedroom? And then another road pops up, and another – and you realize that you live on the intersecting scars of a lost built environment, some old village that disappeared or was destroyed in some H.P. Lovecraft-like enigmatic disaster.
I'm also curious, though, to see what might happen if such a law was passed in a city like London. In an old but interesting review of London: City of Disappearances, a book edited by Iain Sinclair, we're told that London "is a city of the forgotten." It is where anyone "can still disappear without trace." Indeed, London is a city "built upon lost things"; it "towers above forgotten underground rivers and discarded tunnels. It is built upon old graveyards and burial pits."
More to the point here, entire streets have disappeared: "Catherine Street, Jewin Street, Golden Place are just three of the vanished thoroughfares named in a litany of sorrowful mysteries," our reviewer points out. "Other streets have been curtailed. Swallow Street has been swallowed by burgeoning London. Grub Street has been renamed Milton Street."
So what if someone who liked "getting out and looking for hints of ancient roads" were to set about such a task elsewhere? I'm reminded here of China Miéville's short story "Reports of Certain Events in London" – a perennial reference on BLDGBLOG – in which "unstable" streets appear and disappear throughout the city. One night they're there, the next night they're not.

[Image: An old Roman road in Britain; photo via Historic UK].

But what to make of entire unstable geographies that flash in and out of county land registers, with distant echoes appearing in the hand-written captions of family albums and in old, yellowing letters between loved ones? Could you re-trace ancient roads based on such sources? What if the county's land archivist was Borges?
Perhaps it'd be a bit like reconstructing all of postwar Berlin, or Dresden, or Hiroshima, based only on geographical descriptions found in the journals of former residents.
How piece together a whole city from a position of extreme textual remove?
I suppose the answer to that question might be found in Vermont over the next few months, with people jogging up and down hillsides, and in and out of archives, tracking down the specters of an older terrain – territorial marks of a vanished world on top of which they've been living all along.

(Of interest, earlier on BLDGBLOG: Ancient Lights and Z).

Originally posted by Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG, on April 11, 2008 6:07 AM

The Guardian reports this morning that Donna Vassar, "part of the Vassar education dynasty, has launched plans to build a $300m (£150m) private getaway for stressed-out presidents and prime ministers who want to 'reconnect with their unique purpose in life'."
And it might look like this.

[Image: Design by Chetwoods Architects, via the Architects' Journal].

Referred to as the Universitas Leadership Sanctuary – or Destination Universitas – Vassar's desert complex, if built, will be "part monastery and part conference centre," and it will take the shape "of a four-storey globe on the shores of Lake Las Vegas, a privately-owned lake in the south Nevada desert."
The site will then be nothing less than the place "where the most powerful men and women on the planet can get away from it all with a combination of reading, contemplation and even a spot of gardening."

The main globe building will be on four levels. The ground floor will house a library and the first floor a debating chamber, while on the second floor will be technology to help make the building energy efficient. At the top, under a dome of glass, will be the spiritual heart of the development – the contemplation space where leaders will be encouraged to sit in silence.

And sit in silence, I'm sure they will.
The design is by Chetwoods Architects – though they are apparently working with artist and architect Doug Patterson, whose earlier House Mustique supplied Vassar with a spot of inspiration.
More at the Guardian.

Originally posted by Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG, on April 11, 2008 5:33 AM

Shortly after, Bodhi's tail snapped in half but fortunately cat's tails grow back...

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on April 10, 2008 7:34 PM

Awesome collection of folk graphics and photography protesting Flickr's decision to let members post short videos. But without the video, we'd miss out on stuff like this. (via waxy)

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 10, 2008 12:12 PM

novids
Originally uploaded by fotokropf.

Every once in a while the internet stretches the definition of nonsense.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on April 10, 2008 11:48 AM

The Mets have signed Claudio Vargas to a minor-league deal.

Vargas will report to extended spring training in Port St. Lucie, before joining Triple-A New Orleans.

…i like this, since it is a minor-league deal…he can reach the upper 90s with his fastball, he has a decent curve ball and a ton of potential…if nothing else, he could provide a decent option in the bullpen as the season moves on, should things shake out well for others in the rotation…the point is, it gives the team options with little risk and no guarentee…and i’m all for that, no matter who it is…

Vargas, 29, went 11-6 with one save and a 5.09 ERA in 29 games, including 23 starts, last year for the Brewers.

In 134.1 innings, he allowed 153 hits, 80 runs, with 54 walks and 107 strikeouts.

Vargas is 43-38 in his career, with a 4.95 ERA.

ShareThis

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on April 10, 2008 11:06 AM

Star Trek statistics: just how likely are you to die if you beam down to the planet's surface wearing a red shirt?

You don't know about the Red Shirt Phenomenon? Well, as any die-hard Trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam to the planet with Captain Kirk, you're gonna die. That's the common thinking, but I decided to put this to the test. After all, I hadn't seen any definitive proof; it's just what people said.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 10, 2008 10:52 AM

Checking out google trends today, interested to find one of the top searches is the word "misogynist." Not sure whether to take that as a positive development or a depressing one. I guess a lot of people had actually never...

Originally posted by jsmooth995 from hiphopmusic.com:, on April 10, 2008 10:12 AM

Twitter Profile Page Ideas

My thumbnail ideas for useful information to display on an advanced, public Twitter profile page, per user. I.E.: Stats and heuristics to help me decide if this person will be interesting/unannoying to follow on Twitter.

• Average and highest daily post volume
• %age of total posts that are “@” responses
• %age of total posts that include a link
• Five most favorited posts by this person
• Five posts by this person that attracted the most “@” responses
• (up to) Five people this person follows who I also follow
  • (SORT BY least number of followers ASC)
  • [tells me more than if they follow CNN or Jason Calicacacainis]
• Five most followed people who follow this person
• Ratio of
  • Number of posts to number of people Followed (“The ‘Are You Really Using This?’ Index”)
  • Favorited posts to number of people they follow (“The Joy Index”)
  • Followers to Followed people (“The Reciprocation Index”)
• Bonus: percentage of total links that point to the same domain name. (“DoucheFilter”)
  Yeah it requires decrypting shorturls; that’s why we have computers.

So, yeah. Unpack those left joins, and have at it, boffins.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kung fu grippe, on April 10, 2008 10:00 AM

And I’m ok with that.  Solana Larsen of Global Voices explains:

How many more years will we have to watch foreign correspondents parachute into a region and pretend they know what’s going on? How many more reports coming out of the Middle East from hotel rooftops will be delivered by people who do not speak Arabic, or know what “the Green zone” in Iraq was called before coalition forces arrived?

Not for long, is what I think. There are too many alternatives, and I’m not even referring to bloggers around the world. The type of thing we do at Global Voices is meant to be a service to professional journalists.

The founder of Alive in Baghdad, a fantastic video website that broadcasts weekly reports by Iraqi journalists, once told me in New York that he has a hell of a time getting news media organizations to recognize that his crew aren’t “citizen journalists” but actually, real, professional journalists who just happen to be Iraqi.

Sooner or later, qualified local perspectives will become what people prefer to hear, rather than what editors defer to when a situation becomes too dangerous for Western journalists to report from.

Originally posted by agolis from andrew golis, on April 10, 2008 9:50 AM

I've really been enjoying Hulu lately; popular episodes today and newly-added feature films [via] 

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on April 10, 2008 9:21 AM

This passed unnoticed, but John Edwards popped up and spoke out publicly the other day -- he penned a letter to the editor of The New York Times, demanding that the paper and other media be more accurate when it comes to counting our wounded in Iraq.

In his letter, he pointed out that the Pentagon has two sets of numbers for counting the wounded -- a weekly stat, which is incomplete because it leaves out those who became ill and required air transport from the war zone, and another monthly report that has complete numbers.

"After five years, it is time for respected news organizations to use the complete number," Edwards wrote. "And every day we should honor those who have been hurt. That number is 60,645 and rising."

Edwards was hitting on an issue that few are aware of but has great importance to veterans and some Capitol Hill staffers working on their behalf.

Whoever you back for president, and whatever you thought of Edwards' candidacy, something was undeniably lost when Edwards called it quits. These days, the only talk you hear about Edwards in political circles is about whether he'll endorse, but he's still out there, plugging away on the issues he cares about.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on April 10, 2008 9:19 AM

in reykjavík there is a wonderful little cafe called grai kötturin full of books they have arranged by color.  it’s a nice visual effect, but i’m not sure if it’s organizationally effective.  upon returning home from a trip to iceland, my boyfriend took to reorganizing my 200+ CDs by color.  it was OK, but i liked it better when they were arranged in the order in which i purchased them.

photo via jennyc

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on April 10, 2008 8:51 AM

Posted by Dimitris Meretakis, Product Manager

The Google Base data API is used to manage and publish all kinds of data. Some of this data is particularly time-sensitive, like news or events that will expire in a matter of hours. Other data has more value over the long term, such as recipes that are intended to be used and shared indefinitely.

To streamline the publishing process and make sure that time-sensitive items appear in the snippets feed as quickly as possible, Google Base now differentiates between high- and low-priority items. High-priority items are published immediately. Low-priority items are published to the snippets feed within a day, and are still instantly available on the items feed.

For now, the default priority is "high." On May 8, we'll set the default priority to "low" and set quotas for high-priority items to ensure fairness. We'll provide more information about quotas in an upcoming blog post, so keep your eyes peeled.

For detailed information about how the new priorities work, refer to the documentation. As always, if you have questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for your participation in Google Base.

Originally posted by Google Base Blog from Official Google Base Blog, on April 10, 2008 8:47 AM