randomwalks/dj

Heh. I've noticed recurring imagery of super-heroes crouched on a building rooftop, on the ledge, usually in the rain, usually moping. It is also usually followed by the hero jumping off to do their thing.

So far I've seen it in:

• Daredevil - It's raining. he does a great dive, parkoursing in Daredevil's signature way (BTW, he's my favourite super-hero*)
• Underworld - I only saw the trailers (shame). But Kate Beckingsale is on the movie poster for both movies, looking over a roof-top ledge. I think in Evolution, she does the Leap thing.
• Spiderman - Spidey usually hangs from buildings, but there's at least one scene in the last one of him in his new (evil) suit, on a spire of a building.
• • 
  Batman - There is always a scene of the Dark Night looking over the city and then jumping off.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - These boys are the original traceurs.
• Dark Angel the TV series - Didn't most episodes end up with her on the Seattle Space Needle? And if I recall she was on the Needle in the opening credits, too.

And some non-super-heroes that are almost super-heroes to me that jump off buildings:

• Bourne Ultimatum - Jason Bourne falls off a building and into a river, in a sort of phoenix progression.
• The Saint - Simon Templar (darker in the movie than I remember the TV series) has a sort of phoenix moment where he falls into a frozen river and is (lucky dude) revived by Dr Russell (a hot physicist, played by Elisabeth Shue).

 

I think part of this is the super-hero looking over the city, as an unwanted, un-thanked protector. The standing at the ledge is a symbol of fearlessness, a standing on the precipice, yet ready to confront what is at the bottom. And the Leap is a suicide, through which the hero comes out like a pheonix reborn, once again to do their Thing.

Have any of you seen this too? Any other movies or comics or books where this metaphor is used? Indeed, in some of my own stories, I have the hero jumping off the building, mostly due to the dramatic nature of plummeting from a building but surviving.

*Huh. Just realized that most of these super-heroes are unloved, tragic heroes. I also like heroes who really are not content with their marginalized existence, who get the krap beaten out of them all the time, and who despite it all still get up in the evening to do their derring-do  (in a Philip Dick sort of way). Anti-hero anyone?

Images from IMDB (Underworld), IMDB (Daredevil),  IMDB (Spiderman 3)

 

Originally posted by charlie from Lifeblog, on May 31, 2008 11:37 PM

Tesla is definitely showing interest in potty, diapers, and potty-related words. She appears to be trying to figure it all out. She watches anyone doing their business when possible, even lying on the floor peeking below the door when guests close the bathroom door and lock it so she can't waltz in to watch.

Lately, her new thing is bringing ALL her diaper gear out in the living room (diaper basket, changing table cover, and diaper cream) and putting diapers on her favorite doggy, babbling the whole time about something that sounds like poopoo.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Kokochi, on May 31, 2008 9:51 PM

May 30, 2008 - Apes and Androids perform at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY. The full set on Flickr.

Dear Apes and Androids,

You are my new favorite.

Sincerely,
Kathryn

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kathryn yu dot com, on May 31, 2008 9:47 PM

Some readers of this space may have heard that my son was being called Fritz for awhile there, and may be surprised to see that he wound up with a name a lot more—well, actually, less intriguing, and may be wondering why.

First, some background. Fritz Louis Jacob Wertheimer was born in Munich in 1912. A German, he was given an appropriately German name. (Actual conversation earlier this week: Amy: "If your great-grandma knew the names Jacob and Louie, why did she go and name your grandfather Fritz?" Me: "Have you considered that in Munich in 1912 Fritz was the hot name of its day?") So much so that the one baby name book I read, which gave paragraph-long perspectives on interesting names, said of the name Fritz, in full, "Still firmly in its lederhosen."

But poking fun of the name shortchanges the man. Fritz emigrated to the United States in 1936 on the cusp of World War II. Details on how much he brought with him are vague—two trunks of clothes; $200; some such—but he made his way first to northeastern Massachusetts, where he lived outside Cape Ann for a time, and where, 70 years later, his sons and grandsons (and soon, his great-grandson) still spend a long weekend every summer.

Fritz ultimately moved to New Jersey, met my grandmother (actual quote from my father a few years back: "Grandpa was very handsome. And Grandma had huge bazooms"), founded a construction company that my uncle and cousin still run, raised two sons who produced four grandsons, lived through three or four heart attacks, and willed himself to be the picture of health at my bar mitzvah in 1986 before dying 10 months later.

So it's not farfetched to say that Fritz deserved the honor of my son's name in some fashion. And indeed, Nathan's Hebrew name, which is on a religious level equally important, is Peretz, the same as Fritz's. But one doesn't use one's Hebrew name much in 21st-century America, so American Jews typically carry initials forward; for example, my middle name (Ian) is after my other grandfather (Irving).

But—and let's be honest here—it's nigh impossible to find a name that is
Jewish (or secular) in origin;
starting with an F;
appropriately trendy;
and not horrendous when paired with "Wertheimer."
This is a 30-year-old fact, as evidenced by my late grandmother, Frieda, whose honorarium by my parents is my brother's name... of Jeffrey. No offense to those reading this who have F names, but pretend your last name is Wertheimer, you're newly born in 2008, and your parents could have named you, what? Fred? Frank? Felix? Seriously: Felix Wertheimer?

So we decided to bump Fritz to the middle name, and honor Amy's late grandmother Nellie, whom Amy adored, with the first name. That was pretty easy. Nathan is a fine name indeed, strong and moderately popular and with all the right connotations. (I like that David means "beloved," but Nathan is "gift from God," which is just hot.) Plus Nate is a great nickname.

So: Nathan F____ Wertheimer. But. That would make his initials NFW. To which this text-messaging father to be said, nfw.

Less than 48 hours before his birth, my parents unearthed a gem: Fritz had not one but two middle names. (This in comparison to my father and uncle, who have no middle name at all, apparently thanks to my grandmother Dorothy's not wholly inaccurate opinion that Wertheimer was enough of a burden as a name and her boys shouldn't have to deal with any extras.) Epiphanies abounded! Little Nate could share Fritz's middle name. No burden of having the initials NFW or, for that matter, going through life as Fritz.

And here we are, with Nathan Jacob sleeping in the other room, with a name that carries on the memory of good souls on both sides of his family. We've told everyone that we welcome Fritz as a nickname, but so far, he doesn't look much like a Fritz. (Maybe in 60 years or so.) He's a really cute Nate, though.

Let's fall in love, get married, have a baby... we'll call him Nate... if it's a boy
—Prince, "Sign O' the Times"

Originally posted by David Wertheimer from Ideapad, on May 31, 2008 9:44 PM

“me.com” is currently a placeholder page hosted by MarkMonitor, a company that specializes in brand-related DNS management. You can see that it’s handled by MarkMonitor by checking the whois information for the domain. Apple uses MarkMonitor for most of its domains, including “apple.com”, and it’s where they’ve parked domains for future use previously. “mobileme.com” is parked at MarkMonitor, too, but “me.com” is a bit punchier, no?

Netcraft’s report for the “me.com” domain indicates that the “DNS admin” for the domain is Apple.

Update: Via Clint Ecker on Twitter, the name server for me.com changed hands today.

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on May 31, 2008 8:56 PM

A month or two ago I tried David Chang's chicken wings at Momofuku Noodle Bar. They were second, and just barely second, to the wings at Dinosaur BBQ but they were far more interesting and complex. I finally got around to reading the profile of David Chang in the 3/24/08issue of the New Yorker and I got an explanation of what made those wings so delicious.

Take the chicken wings, for instance. All you knew when you were eating them was that they tasted really good. What you didn't know was that they'd been brined in a salt-and-sugar solution for a whole day (but not longer, or they'd be too salty), then dried out and cold-smoked over mesquite for forty-five minutes, then poached in a vat of pork fat for an hour and a half, then browned on the flat-top, then glazed in a chicken-infused soy sauce combined with mirin, garlic, and pickled chili peppers. Each step, executed perfectly, was vital to the dish. This was what the cooks at Noodle Bar understand.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Capn Design, on May 31, 2008 12:17 PM

Examiner column for June 2.

   
    Thursday and Friday I saw my high school students for the last time, with very mixed emotions. I won’t miss having to arrive before sunrise, or the daily computer drill of recording absences for four classes of students. I am glad to be rid of the silly rules limiting times when students can go to the bathroom, and am especially thrilled I will never have to attend another faculty meeting.


    Yet I was so sad to see students exit my classroom. Thursday’s class (the “rowdy” one) even clapped and stood in line to hug me at the end. One of the many surprising insights I’ve had over the years is that students who are a bit hard to manage are often the ones who become the most attached, and that class—so noisy and difficult—was the one that brought a lump to my throat as I said farewell.

    My actual last day with students was an anti-climax, though. Friday was the day of prom, and as Katherine and Corinne put it, “We have nail appointments at 9 a.m. We can’t possibly come to school!” Truthfully, I saw their point.

    So I had classes that were half absent, and was grateful for my “half full” philosophy. “We’re only here for you!” said Kelcey, and I believed her. (I wanted to believe her.)
 
           But I needed to calculate 148 grades as a steady stream of students arrived to drop off books and extra credit, knowing this was the day the grades “turn into pumpkins,” as I warned--metaphorically.    

    At the end of the day, after hours of few students and much data entry, I realized I needed technical help    before I could do my “final export”—the step that would send my students’ grades to their final transcripts. The day was ending on a very mundane note.

    Rebecca, a few hours before being picked up for prom, arrived to drop off a book. “Can’t talk,” I said, heading down to the computer lab for help. We walked together towards the exit doors and she shyly said, “I really appreciated your class and wanted to say something wise and memorable to you.”

    The outside doors loomed and I was about to turn left as she was heading out. “There are so many things I learned, I just don’t know how to put them all in words. Oh wait—I guess I just have!” We both smiled, knowing this was a sweet moment.

    With that, Rebecca exited the building and I sent my final grades to Guidance, aware that grades are the smallest measure of a student or a class or a year spent in a room with wonderfully contradictory adolescents.

    It was only later that I realized Rebecca had articulated what I had been wanting to say for two days. I had talked to classes about the Senior Seminar I’ve designed and its connection to life and learning, and the pleasure I’ve gotten when students talk, write and think intelligently—but it was all too much to put into words. Yet I guess I just have.

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on May 31, 2008 11:48 AM

Wow, this will be quite an optic.

Some folks have already reported this, based on anonymous sources, but now the Obama campaign has made it official via a press release: He and his wife, Michelle, will hold a big rally on Tuesday evening -- the night of the last voting in the Dem primary -- at the site of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

It will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Expect Obama to use the occasion to frame his entire argument against McCain.

It's a pretty ballsy move. To state the obvious, the event will strongly symbolize that the real significance of the completion of the Dem primary voting is that the general election has begun, with Obama as the standard-bearer challenging McCain and the GOP.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on May 31, 2008 7:26 AM

Two weeks ago, in my farewell post to TPMmuckraker alum Paul Kiel, I noted his critical and too-little-credited role in our coverage of the US Attorney firing scandal. But while that is entirely accurate, I failed to note an important part of the story.

By the time the story really broke open it was just me and Paul working the story at TPM since Justin Rood had already moved on to his current job at ABC's The Blotter. But key work on the story happened before a lot of the public and the rest of the news media really began to take notice -- particularly the initial work of compiling the initial list of seven US Attorneys who we then believed (and now know) had been fired. This was in some ways the Rosetta Stone from which the rest of the story unfolded over the spring and summer of 2007. And Justin was every bit a part of that reporting.

This is of course sort of inside baseball. It doesn't change the merits or implications of the story. But it's one that we're proud of here at TPM and one that's gotten a lot of attention. So I wanted to clarify this point and set the record straight.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on May 30, 2008 8:12 PM

Hey, want to help out with some xscreensaver hacking?

Recent-ish Linux systems have made it so that when you add or remove monitors (e.g., docking a laptop) the system is actually aware that this has happened (shocking, I know) and dynamically changes the size, position, and number of screens.

Based on the email complaints I'm getting, it would appear that xscreensaver handles this... poorly.

However, I don't have access to any Linux machines capaple of doing this new Xrandr junk, so I can't really debug it.

I would like someone who does have access to such a machine to A) figure out what cases don't work, and B) send me a patch. You'll need one (preferably two) external monitors to experiment with. Probably better if the machine is a laptop.

Is this person you?

Originally posted by jwz@jwz.org from jwz, on May 30, 2008 7:54 PM

SocialDesignZine in English. My favorite Italian web site just launched an English version! SocialDesignZine is a blog about social design published by the Italian Graphic Design Association (AIAP). Huzzah!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Social Design Notes, on May 30, 2008 7:26 AM

The estimate given earlier this week that the Red Hook Ball Fields vendors will return by mid-June may have been premature: "Officials at the Parks Department said the vendors’ contract has cleared their review and is merely waiting for Comptroller Bill Thompson to sign off. But Thompson’s office said it has no record of it. Meanwhile, the purveyors...need the go-ahead from the Health Department...A spokesman for that agency said the vendors haven’t presented their new carts for inspection." [BP]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on May 30, 2008 5:00 AM

Folks, I think we've got a live one on the line out in Colorado.

You've already met GOP senate candidate, and former representative, Bob Schaffer. His main claim to fame in this cycle has been stumbling into fulsome praise for the Mariana Islands sweatshop program that revealed his ties to Jack Abramoff, Jack's island sweatshop junkets and generally carrying Jack's clients' water up on Capitol Hill.

Now Schaffer's got another great story cooking that's sure to help his flagging senate campaign.

The nuts and bolts of it basically go like this. A Denver businessman named Bill Orr lobbies Congress and gets a $3.6 million earmark to help develop some new kind of non-polluting fuel. And he sets up the National Alternative Fuels Foundation to get your tax dollars for the earmark. The only problem was that "science" Orr used to get the EPA to fork over $2 million of the $3.6 million of earmarked money was apparently bogus. And as will happen in such cases, it's gotten him indicted by the Feds for multiple counts of defrauding the government.

Now, Schaffer was still in the House when Orr got his prized earmark. And then not long after he gave up his House seat, he signed on as a "director" at Orr's highly-credible-sounding National Alternative Fuels Foundation. In other words, Schaffer was a board member of Orr's outfit/racket during at least part of the time Orr was allegedly bilking the government out of its money.

Part of Schaffer's explanation for this awkward confluence of events, as relayed by his campaign manager Dick Wadhams, is that he got involved with Orr on the recommendation of one of Schaffer's Colorado associates-cum-handlers Scott Shires. But that may not be a great association either since back in 2006 Shires copped a plea over his role in the scam and agreed to testify against Orr.

The jury in the case had been deliberating. But just this afternoon they returned their verdict: guilty on 22 counts. So the outlook is not looking good for Orr. But what about Schaffer?

Schaffer has been accused of no crime, though he may be called to testify at Orr's sentencing. But what about those earmarks? Democrats in Colorado are asking whether Schaffer was the one who got Orr the $3.6 million earmark. And while the case that he did is highly circumstantial and fairly thin at that, no one's stepping forward to say who got Orr the money and Schaffer's campaign is rather conspicuously not answering any questions about the earmarks origins.

One way or another, Schaffer is now at best unwittingly tied to an organization that was based in large part on criminal acts. So that can't be any more helpful than Schaffer's ties to Jack Abramoff.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on May 29, 2008 7:26 PM

Open source bug-tracker written in Rails. It’s the one Panic is going with after yesterday’s “Which web-based bug trackers should we consider?” question from Steven Frank.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on May 29, 2008 5:41 PM

One thing I really wanted with the updated Kokochi template design was to shorten my ever-growing archive list. It was getting too long and cumbersome. I've always admired Anil's niftier archive style. Since Dav has been super busy, I asked if Beau could do it, and he graciously said, "sure!"

What I didn't realize was Beau asked Anil about it, found out Anil manually did it, got Brad Choate to draft code, then tweaked it to make it work chez Kokochi. Wow. This is why I love working at Six Apart...great teamwork and help all around even for personal stuff. A big shout-out to Beau for taking the time to install the Advanced Archive Widget, and thanks to Brad and Anil too!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Kokochi, on May 29, 2008 2:50 PM

In his bombshell new book, What Happened, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan lashes out at his old employer in a massive Bush-administration-wide bus-throwing-under. Better late than never? To assist Mr. McClellan with his big media sales push, we thought we might go back and revisit some of the lowlights from back when what he said actually mattered ...

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

Late Update: A huge thanks to all the readers/viewers who e-mailed in with their favorite Scottie memories. We hope you find yours in there.

Originally posted by Ben Craw from Talking Points Memo, on May 29, 2008 1:50 PM

At Six Apart, our mission is to help people communicate on the web, and we've always done this by making the best software and services that we can. But part of our larger goal is to help do what's right for the web, and today we're launching the latest initiative in that effort: TypePad AntiSpam.

What's TypePad AntiSpam? A few short answers:

• A free, open source system powered by TypePad for blocking comment spam on any site, free no matter how many comments you get.
• A service for all bloggers, built into TypePad blogs already and implemented as a free plugin for users of platforms like Movable Type and WordPress.
• An open source engine which developers can use to create new antispam services, with customizable rules and logic.
• In beta! We're hearing great results from testers so far, but wanted to open up TypePad AntiSpam to a larger audience so we can make sure the system is getting as smart as possible.

One of the reasons that we think TypePad AntiSpam is performing so well already is that its adaptive learning engine has been trained by millions of comments already. Every time any TypePad user reports a comment as junk, the system gets a little bit smarter and is even more ready to fight future spam attacks. The same goes for TrackBacks and Pingbacks.

So, if you hate spam, you're probably wondering how to get TypePad AntiSpam. It's easy!

• TypePad AntiSpam is a free, automatic upgrade for TypePad users at any subscription level -- it's built in! You can read up on Everything TypePad to find out how this helps your TypePad blogs and be sure to check out the screencast.
• The service is included in the brand-new Movable Type 4.2 Release Candidate 1 and is available as a free plugin for any user of MT 3.3 or later.
• For users of other platforms, TypePad AntiSpam is a free plugin. Users of WordPress 2.3 and 2.5 can download the plugin for free, and other platforms can use our 100% Akismet API-compatible implementation to extend their existing antispam support to use this service.

So, why are we releasing TypePad AntiSpam now? It all comes back to our mission, as stated above: We want to increase the quality of conversation on the web. At the highest level, we wanted to change the economics of blog spamming by introducing variety into the ecosystem.

The more different implementations of spam-fighting technology that exist, the more complex and challenging (and expensive!) it becomes for spammers to keep attacking our communities. At the same time, we want to make sure our economic incentives at Six Apart as a business are aligned with the best interests of bloggers, so that we feel the pain and cost of spam just as you do. And we want to get these weapons in the fight against spammers into as many hands as possible. One of the earliest sites to deploy the new platform has been popular tech blog TechCrunch, which just offered up a review of TypePad AntiSpam from the site's founder, Michael Arrington:

[L]ast week we switched to TypePad AntiSpam as a test, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. After a week I'm pleased to say that as good as Akismet is, the TypePad product has performed as good or better for us.

TypePad AntiSpam has learned from the platforms that came before: Automattic's team has created a dead-simple API for Akismet, and we're 100% compatible with their API. (As Dave Winer once said, "Invention here is hardly the issue. What matters is adoption and forward motion.") The smart work at Defensio has made it clear that bloggers want more competition in the antispam market. And years of work on SpamAssassin has shown the success of making an open source antispam engine that anyone can extend and customize to their own needs.

But most important, we made TypePad AntiSpam so that you don't have to think about spam. So grab the plugin (or TypePad users, just keep on blogging) and join the fight against blog spam.

Originally posted by Anil Dash from Six Apart News & Events, on May 29, 2008 9:10 AM

The Obama camp releases a letter from his doctor detailing the health of the would-be next president...

His family history is pertinent for his mother's death from ovarian cancer and grandfather who died of prostate cancer. His own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.

For some old-fashioned souls, this might prove to be a tad on the racy side...

Senator Obama's last medical checkup was on January 15, 2007; he had no complaints. He exercised regularly often jogging three miles. His diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids. A complete review of systems was unremarkable. On physical examination, his blood pressure was 90/60 and pulse 60/minute. His build was lean and muscular with no excess body fat.

The conclusion...

In short, his examination showed him to be in excellent health. Senator Barack Obama is in overall good physical and mental health needed to maintain the resiliency required in the Office of President.

Full letter after the jump.

DAVID L. SCHEINER, M.D.

Hyde Park Associates in Medicine, Ltd.

To Whom It May Concern:

I am David L. Scheiner, a board certified general internist licensed to practice in the State of Illinois. I am on staff at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Rush University Medical Center. I have been Senator Barack Obama's primary care physician since March 23, 1987. The following is a summary of his medical records for the past 21 years.

During that period of time, Senator Obama has been in excellent health. He has been seen regularly for medical checkups and various minor problems such as upper respiratory infections, skin rashes and minor injuries.

His family history is pertinent for his mother's death from ovarian cancer and grandfather who died of prostate cancer. His own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success.

Senator Obama's last medical checkup was on January 15, 2007; he had no complaints. He exercised regularly often jogging three miles. His diet was balanced with good intake of roughage and fluids. A complete review of systems was unremarkable. On physical examination, his blood pressure was 90/60 and pulse 60/minute. His build was lean and muscular with no excess body fat. His physical examination was completely normal.

Laboratory studies included triglycerides of 44(normal under 150), cholesterol 173 (normal under 200), HDL 68 (normal over 40), and LDL 96 (normal under 130). Chem 24, urinalysis and CBC were normal, PSA was 0.6, very good. An EKG was normal.

In short, his examination showed him to be in excellent health. Senator Barack Obama is in overall good physical and mental health needed to maintain the resiliency required in the Office of President.

Sincerely,

David L. Scheiner, M.D.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on May 29, 2008 8:23 AM

And it continues: "So after weeks of trying, I got in today; problem is, I accidentally pulled down the drop-menu to 1 instead of 2 people...we can work it out so the second I cancel (nowhere near 10 AM, that's for sure), he/she can pick it up. So make me an offer, of money, or goods, or wine, or if nothing comes along and I want a taste of what it feels like to be God/Chang, I'll just give it to you anyway." [Craigslist]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on May 29, 2008 8:06 AM

The Internet Bench from Gdansk, Poland, The Cat Residence, Watching Plants Grow, Watching Pigs Grow, The Church of St. George located Sofia, Bulgaria, the cyber-enabled single crystal X-ray diffraction facility at Case Western Reserve University, Bridge in Umeå, Sweden, D & D Family Billiards in Thorndale, Pennsylvania, Universeum in Göteborg, Sweden, Plusnet Customer Support Center, Ustream, Justin.tv, Real Tokyo Life, SpaceVidcast, Nekomimi Lisa, KCJJ Raw, Live From The UK, Austincast, Zane Savage Live, Laura News, Louiscast, Music by Podington Bear

Originally posted by hello@rocketboom.com (Rocketboom) from Rocketboom, yea!, on May 29, 2008 8:00 AM

Scott McClellan's began his book tour this morning. Here's a sampling of his interview on the Today show:

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on May 29, 2008 7:59 AM

An interesting story on the "original Indiana Jones":

Like Jones, Rahn was an archaeologist, like him he fell foul of the Nazis and like him he was obsessed with finding the Holy Grail - the cup reputedly used to catch Christ's blood when he was crucified. But whereas Jones rode the Grail-train to box-office glory, Rahn's obsession ended up costing him his life.

However, Rahn is such a strange figure, and his story so bizarre, that simply seeing him as the unlikely progenitor of Indiana Jones is to do him a disservice. Here was a man who entered into a terrible Faustian pact: he was given every resource imaginable to realise his dream. There was just one catch: in return, he had to find something that - if it ever existed - had not been seen for almost 2,000 years.

(link)

Originally posted by cliffkuang@gmail.com from kottke.org, on May 29, 2008 7:45 AM

Here's a bit more on what the actual impact could be of the DNC's legal memo yesterday saying that the Rules and Bylaws Committee only has the authority to seat half the delegations.

It appears that Rules and Bylaws can proceed down one of two tracks here if they seat half the delegations. Either they can seat the whole delegation and have each vote counted as a half-vote, or then can cut the delegation in half and seat that.

And as if this weren't complex enough already, it turns out that each of those solutions would give the candidates a different number of delegates. Chuck Todd explains:

As for the actual meeting itself, there's one more angle you ought to be aware of: a 50% cut and a halving of the delegates is not the same thing. For instance, if Florida delegates are seated in their entirety, but only have their vote counted as a .5, then Clinton will net approximately 19 delegates out of the state. But if the delegation is cut in half, that's done in every congressional district as well as statewide, then suddenly Clinton's advantage is only a net of six.

So, a net gain for Hillary from Florida of roughly six or 19 delegates. Marc Ambinder says there is reason to believe that the Obama camp might be able to accept a 19-delegate net gain for Hillary. Michigan, meanwhile, is an entirely different morass...

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on May 29, 2008 7:41 AM

Glenn Fleishman did a great interview (back in March) of Clay Shirky on the topics in Clay's new book 'Here Comes Everybody'.

Clay, as always, has some great stories to tell. Glenn is pretty good too. Yeah, you should go and download the interview from Glenn's pages (link below).

The whole interview is great, but it was the very end that made me reel. Glenn asked Clay what business could do to take advantage of the participative nature of the Web. I overly simplify, but Clay, among other comments, mentioned that instead of proclaiming the next great thing in a press release and putting all the money into one pot, that companies spread the money across many endeavors and see what sticks (and do it without fanfare). Basically, have many experiments, put it out there, and see if folks like it rather than gab about it (Show vs Tell?). He uses the example of Wikitorial.

Gosh. I have lots to add to that and a few more examples. (My tongue is bleeding, I am biting it so hard. Though a beer can loosen it, in case you are interesting in a tale of enlightenment, abandonment, discovery, creativity, stealing, cluelessness, and dissapointment.)

While I hope that some companies hear what he has to say and take the learning to heart, I fear that most, as Clay points out, will end up focusing on the wrong thing. Or, as Glenn says, miss the elephant parade passing in front of them.

Sigh.

Hey, I'm just road-kill on the info superhighway. Go listen to some smart people (the link is below, in case you forgot).

Link: TidBITS Blog Post: The Internet Organizes Itself: Here Comes Everybody

I sat down with Clay on 14-Mar-08 to talk about the book for a short article that appeared in the Seattle Times, focused on the business side of his book. However, the Seattle Times allowed me to publish a podcast of our roughly 40-minute conversation.

As an aside: Clay does validate some thoughts I've been having. It's always nice to inadvertently come to the same conclusions as others smarter than me.

Image from Joi Ito

Originally posted by charlie from Lifeblog, on May 29, 2008 7:10 AM

Bobby Valentine will be a guest on WFAN’s mid-day show, live at 11:15 am EDT.

…my guess is that he’ll be on to plug the documentary, The Zen of Bobby V, but i certainly hope the show’s hosts talk to him about whether he is willing to return to American baseball…

…frankly, i cannot for the life of me figure out why he would be…from what i understand, he earns around $10 million a year in Japan, between his salary and endorsements, plus he is a huge icon over there…

…what’s more, he is like a cult figure among Mets fans now, too…why risk that…if he came back to the states, should he become tired of Japan, it would make more sense for him to be in television again, like he did with Baseball Tonight…actually, how cool would it be to have him and Mike Piazza, while also having Lee Mazzilli and Darryl Strawberry, occasionally in studio on SNY…a little bit of the 80s, a little bit of the late 90s…

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Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on May 29, 2008 6:25 AM

psyched to see the albertans on pablo’s muxtape.  A+. andy action brian  david  ...

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on May 29, 2008 6:17 AM

Here's one other nugget I meant to bring you from yesterday's Obama campaign conference call: Obama top adviser David Plouffe said flatly that reports saying Obama has a massive number of super-delegates secretly banked to roll out after June 3rd are untrue.

"That's not accurate," Plouffe said, when asked about such reports. "You know, we announce super-delegate support as people commit to us. We have done three so far today. So we are announcing them as they pledge their support to us...no, we do not have a bunch of super-delegates in our back pocket."

There's a simple reason that these rumors of blocs of super-dels secretly plotting to move en masse keep proving to be false: This isn't how the dynamic actually works. The reality is that getting indivdiual super-dels to commit -- and getting them to go public -- is hard enough on its own, let alone getting them to do so in a big group.

Once either campaign has got an individual super-del privately locked down, it rushes that super-del out the door and makes it public as quick as possible, in order to make it official. The campaigns don't privately hoard super-dels, because to do so would risk losing them.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on May 29, 2008 6:14 AM

In response to the ridiculous Seth Leibsohn challenge yesterday, I raise my hand and offer evidence (Exhibit No. __ -- oh, who can keep count at this point) that the press was soft on the Bush Administration in the run-up to the Iraq War.

Here's Jessica Yellin of CNN (but formerly of ABC News, during the time period in question) talking last night about the pressure she was under from network news execs when she was covering the Bush White House back then (via Michael Calderone at The Politico):

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on May 29, 2008 5:47 AM

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200 INCH TELESCOPE Is Greatest Engine of Science

by WILLIAM JENNINGS

COOLING slowly in a brick igloo in Corning, N. Y., is a lake of 34 tons of molten glass, representing the greatest scientific project ever attempted by man. It took six years to reach this stage of the great task and it will be more than four more years before its success is known.

From far and wide scientists came to see the formation of this huge lake of glass— the pouring of the 200-inch telescope mirror that is expected to reach out into the unknown depths of the universe.

The work has hardly begun with the pouring of the mirror. Countless problems still face the scientists who have undertaken the task.

The most complex of these is the shaping of the mirror. To properly reflect and focus light from the stars the mirror of a telescope must have a concave surface that is exactly parabolic. Amateurs feel that they have accomplished much when a six inch mirror is polished and corrected to fractions of an inch after a few days’ work.

The shaping, figuring, polishing, and silvering of the 200 inch mirror will require four years’ time. When it is completed, it will have a concave paraboloid surface true to within two millionths of an inch.

When the mirror is ready, engineers must find means to mount this great disk of glass that is 16 feet 8 inches in diameter and 26 inches thick.

The telescope is of the reflecting type. That is, the light from stars is collected by a huge concave mirror, and focused on a smaller mirror which transmits the light to any eyepiece, where the astronomer or the camera sees the enlarged image. Usually the focal length of a mirror is eight times its diameter. The focal length determines the length of the telescope. A 200-inch mirror would require a telescope more than 130 feet long.

To overcome the engineering problem of mounting and swinging a tube of such great length, the focal length of the great mirror will be reduced to 55 feet, requiring a telescope only 60 feet long.

The popular conception that this great telescope may reveal cities and life on Mars does not interest astronomers. They believe they have proved quite conclusively that human life does not exist on Mars. The 100 inch mirror at Mount Wilson observatory determined that only one-tenth of one percent of oxygen exists in Mars’ atmosphere, not enough to support life.

The purpose of the 200 inch telescope is to gather more light to show the faintest stars, planets and nebulae. The huge “eye” will reach farther into space. It will increase man’s knowledge of the vast voids of the cosmos, in which countless universes whirl on to an unknown destiny. The instrument will be used chiefly for photographic, spectrographic and radiometric work, that will give astronomers a better picture of the minerals and gases existing countless light years away from the earth.

The gigantic telescope will cost $12,000,-000 and will weigh 1,600 tons with its mounting. It will gather about 2,000,000 times more light than the human eye or about four times more than the present largest telescope, the 100-inch instrument of Mount Wilson Observatory.

A great difficulty that still remains to be solved is the transportation of the mirror to the site selected for the telescope. At first the plan was to ship the mirror from Corning, N. Y., to New York city by rail, from New York to Los Angeles, via the Panama Canal, by sea, and then by truck to Pasadena and to the site selected by Mount Wilson astronomers.

The plan had to be abandoned when it was discovered that the mirror will be too high for railroad bridges if loaded on a flat car on edge and too wide for tunnels if placed flat on flat cars.

Apparently the only means to transport the glass disk is overland. There remains the complication of finding a route without bridges and tunnels that are too small for the world’s greatest package of freight.

Reflecting Surface to Be Aluminum The glass disk, after it is shaped and polished, will not be coated with silver as has been done in the past. The reflecting surface of the 200-inch mirror will be aluminum, put on the disk by a special process developed by Dr. J. Strong, of the California Institute of Technology. The mirror will be placed in a high vacuum. Tungsten wire, coated with aluminum, will be heated electrically until the aluminum evaporates and collects in the form of a vapor on the mirror.

The pouring of the glass disk was a great spectacle. Approximately 7,500 persons, in addition to more than 100 scientists, witnessed the operation. In a large furnace in the Corning Glass Works the 34 tons of pyrex borosilicate glass was heated white hot at 1,500 degrees Centigrade.

The mold, studded with circular cores which will leave indentations in the mirror for mounting purposes, rested on the floor of the brick igloo. A workman, with a shield before his face, opened a furnace door. Eight men shoved the 20-foot handle of a huge ladle into the glaring interior, dipped the bucket into the dazzling mass of liquid and came out with 750 pounds of molten glass.

The ladle was trundled along an overhead monorail to the brick igloo where 400 pounds of the glass were poured into the mold. The other 350 pounds hardened before it reached the mold, and the glass had to be broken off.

Workmen Labor Ten Hours Three ladles were used, one for each furnace door. For ten hours the ladlemen dipped and poured load after load, while spectators looked on in relays.

The ladles became red hot on each trip and had to be dipped into water to cool before taking on another load. The molten glass was so hot it melted some of the cores from the mold. These were found floating on the liquid glass, and had to be taken out with ten-foot pincers.

The glass is cooled very slowly so that it will anneal properly and will not crack. Within a short time the glass experts will be able to judge the success of the pouring. If the glass is found imperfect the great task will have to be done over.

In 1938 this telescope, the greatest ever devised, is expected to be ready to turn on the heavens and seek new fields. The great mirror will be held in a 60-foot skeleton steel tube in an observatory yet to be built.

When all difficulties are overcome, man’s greatest “artificial eye” will look three times farther into space than is possible now.

Tags: telescopes

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Originally posted by Charlie from Modern Mechanix, ReBlogged by jwinter on May 29, 2008 at 08:22 AM

Originally posted by Charlie from Eyebeam reBlog, on May 29, 2008 5:22 AM

So, for a little while now, India and I have been trading links to patterns for airship-hostess dresses. (You know, what the flight attendant on the dirigible wears?)

Like this: