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Girl on phone: Why? So you can go home and read Vonnegut and be depressed?
Girl on phone: (Long Pause from 9th floor to 4th floor)
Girl on phone: Oh. My. God. Martin you are not being artistic you are being antisocial and gloomy. LIKE ALWAYS.
Girl on phone: You stay home with Kilgore Trout. I'm going to a party. I'm eating ice cream. I'm going to join the human race. Goodbye Martin.
Filed under: overheard
Tags: elevators, Kurt Vonnegut, urban drama
While waiting in line tonight, I was totally thrilled to see the TypePad logo featured in the video playing on the giant iPhone. And now -- with my very first iPhone -- I finally get to use the application that our team worked so hard to bring to our users. Great work, guys and gals!
This is what happens when things get ugly in the sandbox:
In the last picture he looks like he is thinking, "But I defended myself, Mommy. You should see BOTH his eyes!"
DON'T mess with my son on the playground!
*grin*
What you are looking at is actually what happens to Jonah when he gets a bug bite. Each bite turns into a large hive (about two inches), and his pediatrician has instructed us to give him Zyrtec and Benadryl around the clock at the first sign of a hive until symptoms subside. We knew it was only a matter of time before he was bitten on his face. You can see the actual bite to the right of the swelling, and the swelling extends across the tissue plane under the eye.
I just finished reading the Jason Calacanis blogging resignation letter and can't help but be struck by the about face of one of the guys who-- love him or hate him-- did a lot to put professional blogging on the map. (I know, Paul Carr, don't hate me...) Jason always openly talked about how he loved that the Internet gave him such a big megaphone that he didn't have to play by anyone else's rules-- including reporters like me!
It hearkened back to this post I wrote a few weeks ago.
An excerpt in case you don't want to click:
"On the days I blog heavily, traffic goes way up. Especially if I weigh in on the Valley obsession of the day. It's seductive to just do that everyday. But is that really adding value and building something different? Maybe not. I recently read something from Michael Arrington addressing how TechCrunch's "community" had changed. (Sorry....can't find the link this second.) He essentially said as an audience grows it inevitably gets diluted and the trolls, spammers etc come in. I really love my blog audience. I get great comments from people I know and don't know. Occasional shocking comment from Fake Steve Jobs aside, my comments tend to be interesting, relevant conversations. I already write for two mass properties in BusinessWeek and TechTicker...suddenly I'm seeing the beauty in staying small. I'm not at a point where I'm trying to monetize this blog, but I wonder if a smaller community ever has an endemic value over sheer size of a mass community? I'm not talking about a niche-- because niches can still be mass when there are more than 1 billion people online."
I've been thinking about this a lot since with the confluence between my blog, my Yahoo show, and my book tour. My blog traffic was doubling month-over-month from a far higher base than I expected when I launched it earlier this year. But when life got complex and I started posting less for a while, it fell. If you're a goal oriented person, it's hard to be OK with that. Metrics equal validation to me more than money ever will. But I was Ok with it, for the same reason I wrote above and the same reason Jason says in his self-consciously melodramatic, but -- at its core-- heartfelt post.
There's obviously a role for mega blogs. But something about smaller blogs is better for me, at least now. It's a big way blogging is different from other media. I've worked and small and large print publications and there aren't truthfully a lot of benefits to small, aside from it being a better learning environment when you are first starting out.
But with blogs it's about interaction and conversation and somehow you lose the best of that when you get big. It's the same reason I prefer to have dinner with a source, rather than go to a party or conference. It's not efficient reporting, but it always yields better reporting. I know I make jokes about TechTicker commenters a lot. And I'm sorry to those of you who aren't part of the problem, but the spammer/troll/abusive hater that has become the stereotype of any Yahoo chat room just ruins it for me. As we've grown, I just don't spend as much time reading comments that I used to devour in the early Tech Ticker days.
This site, on the other hand, with its comparatively atom-sized audience is an unending source of fascinating conversation for me. I feel genuine affection for so many regular sarahlacy.com commenters who I have never met-- I know their user names and get excited when I see new comments from them. I know what resonates with some readers, and sometimes write posts because I can't wait to see how they respond. It's like having my own salon dinner efficiently via the web. (Although one where I'm doing too much of the talking, which is why I always welcome guest posts! hint, hint) I guess the point is I don't care if this blog never makes money. I don't want to lose that vibe.
When I think about the most personally fulfilling parts of my career now, it tends to go in reverse order from mass-to-small-- which is funny because I spent so much of my career wanting to get on bigger and bigger platforms. My favorite role is author. And let me tell you first hand: fewer people read books than any other medium, even best-selling books. My second most personally fulfilling role is writing on this blog. Part of that is a stage of life thing after more than a decade writing for other people. My third is probably BusinessWeek and fourth is probably Yahoo-- even though that show puts me in front of four times the audience of CNBC and is by far my biggest platform. Now, bear in mind, I LOVE my job on TechTicker -- particularly because it's so different than the rest of my career and I love my co-workers-- so this is all relative. But in many ways I am just more comfortable writing than being on camera. I was supposed to be on TV today talking about the iPhone, which was cool and good for the whole brand thing. But when they canceled I have to say part of me was relieved I could sit on the couch and blog in jeans, an old shirt my husband used to wear all the time when he was first courting me and a baseball cap. Most importantly: No makeup!
Anyway, as you can see my reasons are all very personal and that was why I was struck to see Jason point to many of the same things. (Well, not the make up and husband's old shirt part....that I know of...) It made me wonder if we're at some kind of greater cultural blogging crossroads. I remember when Six Apart launched Vox it talked about wanting to take the nastiness out of blogging, or being the place bloggers connect with a smaller group of peers-- like the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that chefs all go to after hours.
Will we see a return to small or the emergence of some newer digital medium to be what blogs once were? And is there any new concept of monetization that could reflect the value of small? In other words: Bloggers have proven they can build audiences just as huge as mainstream publications. Now can we prove we can build better ones and still be viable businesses?
UPDATE: publicist just called. TV back on. make-up here I come!! :)
As seen in The New York Times, Mike's photo of folks in line for their new iPhones. I had no idea that Buy n Large sold iPhones! Very cool.
Yesterday, Omar Minaya announced that Moises Alou could realistically miss the remainder of the season should he chose to have surgery on his torn hamstring.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned on SNY’s The Wheel House yesterday, which you can watch by clicking here, it would be wise for the Mets to approach this year’s Trade Deadline assuming Ryan Church will miss additional time this season, even if he returns healthy from his current stint on the disabled list.
And so, during his talk with reporters, Minaya said:
“Right now, we’re going to give the guys we have an opportunity. But, you have to continue to look at things and see if there’s somebody out there that we feel is an upgrade…Are we going to be in the marketplace looking for guys to improve? Yes, but it has to be the right guy.”
That said, in the New York Post, Joel Sherman recently wrote that names such as OF-1B Xavier Nady, OF Raul Ibanez, OF Randy Winn and OF Adam Dunn are will be most associated with the Mets.
Sherman also mentions that Minaya might be willing to take on a bloated contract, if it helped to reduce the value of the prospect needed to acquire a corner outfielder.
The sense I get from people in Seattle and San Francisco is that neither the Mariners nor Giants are eager to trade Winn or Ibanez, who are both relatively affordable, under contract and are both still useful and productive players.
The buzz from Cincinnati indicates that the market for Dunn is surprisingly quiet. Additionally, Dunn will likely be a Type-A Free Agent, and could net the Reds two draft picks, assuming he is not re-signed to an extension - in short, the two draft picks could end up being far more valuable than the type of prospect a team will trade for Dunn today. What’s more, the word around baseball paints Dunn as an apathetic strike-out machine, who, while he occasionally walks, is more or less useless in the field, and so he will bring more in name recognition than actual results.
As for Nady, who is the player I would like the Mets to
acquire, and the name that is mentioned most to me by other fans, at this point, from what I can gather, the Pirates are not feeling pressure to trade him.
In fact, the buzz from Atlanta suggests that the Pirates recently asked for at least one top position prospect, such as SS Brent Lillibridge. In terms of the Mets, I believe Nady would likely cost a package including Fernando Martinez, or Mike Carp, Jon Neise and probably another pitching prospect.
There is no indication that the Pirates will ever accept a package built around Aaron Heilman, as so many fans like suggest.
Regarding the free agent market, Omar Minaya essentially ruled out Barry Bonds while speaking to WFAN earlier this week. What’s more, according to a recent report by Ken Davidoff in Newsday, citing an e-mail from Minaya, the Mets are not interested in Kenny Lofton either.
Lastly, according to SI.com’s Jon Heyman,
speaking yesterday on SNY’s Pre-Game show, the Mets are most interested in 1B-OF Juan Rivera, who is hitting just .194 with three home runs in 34 games for the Angels.
In 2006, Rivera hit .310 with 24 HR and 85 RBI, but has struggled to return to that level of production ever since.
Rivera can be a free agent at the end of this season.
Obama reportedly raised $30 million in June.
Late Update: Not so fast, says the Obama camp, which initially refused to comment on the WSJ's $30 million report. Now it's saying the number is "way off the mark."
I found a moving interview with Hilla Becher, which, unfortunately, only appears to be available in German. I translated some of the passages that struck me below.
Q: You spent your life photographing industrial memorials: Hundreds of furnaces, hundreds of water towers, hundreds of coal bunkers. Is this about being complete?
A: At the end of his life, Bernd often said: Hilla, we haven't finished the job. And then we almost started fighting because I said: What do you think? We can't finish our job, since it's infinite.
Q: Was it difficult for him to accept this?
A: I think it was. He never managed to tell me what he meant by "finished". We knew we would not be able to photograph everything. In Russia, for example, it turned out to be too difficult, we did not manage to get permission to work there.
Q: Were there family photos at the Becher's house, for example at Christmas?
A: That didn't exist with Bernd, but I always had a small camera on me. It was important for me, to keep memories.
Q: Who did you take pictures of?
A: Our son, my mother, just family. Doing group portraits was my favourite thing to do. But I did not just shoot left and right but arranged everybody: the first row sitting down, the second row standing, the third row [standing] on a table. Very conventional.
Q: Why was your husband not interested in such photos?
A: He rejected them because he was not interested in taking them. Actually, he was never interested in photography.
Q: That is an unusual statement about a man who spent his whole life on it.
A: Originally, Bernd did sketches. In the beginning, he sketched industrial landscapes. But he never managed to finish his work, because he was so precise. Often the object was demolished right in front of his eyes [...] The demolishing, the decay happened faster than he could sketch it.
Q: So then he took photos?
A: Right. He borrowed a 35mm camera and took photos, to use them for his sketches. That's how it started, photography as the means to an end.
[...]
Q: Did you sometimes go on vacation together?
A: A real vacation, two or three weeks, that we never had. Bernd was not interested in that at all. I am currently trying to make up for it. My son is helping me. Just a little while ago we went to Cuba together.
She said the city was spending $700,000 to create the string of blocklong plazas from 42nd to 35th Streets. That includes painting the bike lane green, buying the chairs, tables, benches, umbrellas and planters and applying a coat of small-grained gravel mixed with epoxy onto the pedestrian areas, which will set them off from both the street and the bicycle path.Looks like Bloomberg is going ahead with his battle against Manhattan car traffic without Albany's help. I can think of several more areas that could benefit from a full or partial closure...Bleecker St would make a great pedestrian mall, as would any number of streets in Chinatown. So would St. Mark's in the East Village. And while we're at it, close all the streets in Central Park to cars (except the transverses).
(link)
I've been wondering about this for weeks -- especially since the May fundraising totals came out, which showed McCain and Obama roughly even for that month. Just how much money has Barack Obama been raising since the end of the primaries? After all, if he's going to bring in these astronomical sums everyone's talking about there aren't that many months left. He's got to start putting up some big, big monthly totals.
This piece in tomorrow's Post suggests that the strain of raising money to retire Clinton's debt and some continuing resistance from Clinton's donors (to give to Obama's campaign) has put the Obama machine under some pressure.
We don't know Obama's totals. And obviously having difficulties, if that's what's happening, has to be understood in the context of the massive totals they're planning on bringing in.
But one thing that has occurred to me recently is the very different tempo of small donor fundraising, or at least the sense of it I get watching from my vantage point. There are established networks for big dollar giving. It has a bit more of a command and control quality. But small dollar giving seems highly dependent on the intensity of the moment and the spikes of the campaign cycle. During the heat of the Obama-Clinton battle, giving money was one of the most direct ways supporters around the country could participate in the fight -- except when the campaign trundled into their states. And that applies to both campaigns since, by any standard other than up against Obama, Clinton's 2008 monthly numbers were astounding too.
All time is precious in a general election cycle. But in relative terms we're in a bit of a downtime now, a lull. People may support Obama every bit as much as they did in February. But my feel of the situation is that people are taking a bit of a breather. And that may not change until the conventions, which are still almost two months off.
Perhaps too, when you hear that Obama's going to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, that the sense of participation you get from sending in your $25 isn't quite as great.
I should make explicitly clear that I've made no real study of the small donor giving. These are more questions and impressions I have from my perch running TPM. But I wonder if this isn't a limitation of the small-donor model that has not been sufficiently appreciated.
Filed under: Blogging, iPhone, App Store
I've been blogging for way too long, and for a good chunk of that time my personal blog has been hosted on Six Apart's TypePad. I'm a big fan of the service (though some might recall it was a little flakey in the early days, I'm happy to report I can recall no major downtime in the last 2 years) and that's why I was very excited to see TypePad was coming out with an iPhone native blogging app.
Typepad Mobile, as it is called within the program itself, is available now on the App Store for the low, low price of free (of course, Typepad isn't a free service). It is a blogging client that lets you post directly to your TypePad blog from your iPhone as you might have guessed from the name. You can also snap a picture with your iPhone's camera and post that to your blog, or you can post a photo from your iPhone's photo roll in just a few clicks.
During the course of my testing this app was very zippy, and it did everything I would expect from a 1.0 release. I hope to see some more blog management features in future updates (being able to approve/delete comments would be very cool).
Check out this gallery for a a quick tour of this neat little app.
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"because you insisted, here's the unedited screaming version."
Filed under: iPhone
Back at the introduction of the iPhone (was it only just over a year ago? How the time flies) we all cast a jaundiced eye at Apple's "develop for the Web" philosophy for extending the platform, while simultaneously wondering if Apple might provide a true SDK for the device of the future; I seem to recall a conversation back on an early talkcast where a couple of people (yours truly included) stated for the record that a Apple SDK was an inevitability, with the only question being exactly when.
Now, on the cusp of the official App Store and 2.0 firmware launch and ensuing flood of iPhone/iPod touch native applications, we owe a moment of acknowledgment to the folks who refused to take "Safari" for an answer when it came to making iPhone applications: the jailbreakers and community toolchain developers.
Not to take anything away from the diligent work of the Mobile Safari application developers -- many of their results, including TUAW fave Hahlo, stand up well against desktop apps -- but it's hard not to feel some degree of astonishment when a few (sometimes fractious) loosely-affiliated bands of hackers, with some help from our friends, start from the barest hints of access to the iPhone's system and create castles floating on air.
Scores of applications (some great, some not-so) including music, games, dictionaries, utilities and not one but two complete or nearly-so ports of the BSD subsystem, complete with sophisticated software deployment capabilities, are currently available for jailbroken iPhones and iPod touch handhelds. This is a notable body of work, and what makes it more surprising is that it's been done over the course of one year, absent any support from the device manufacturer (to say nothing of active discouragement) and with no particular financial incentive to proceed. This is hacking in the original, non-pejorative sense: diving into the innards of the coolest gadget under the sun to figure out how it works and how far you can take it.
As exciting as the App Store is, there's a bit of wistfullness amidst the hype and enthusiasm; we are replacing the grimy, rough-edged and self-sustaining Times Square of iPhone application development with the sanitized, "Disney/Apple" reworking of the original. Knowing that a substantial fraction of the jailbreak app developers are under 18 and cannot legitimately join the authorized development program until they come of age, we can only hope that the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the iPhone will not be lost to another mobile platform.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Rick Linklater gives a nice list of things about Two-Lane Blacktop that he loves on the original Alamo blog:[...] Because unlike other films of the era with the designer alienation of the drug culture and the war protesters, this movie is about the alienation of everybody else, like Robert Frank's [The Americans] come alive [...]
Two-Lane Blacktop and The Shooting will both be playing at the alamo on the 23rd. Director Monte Hellman will be in attendence.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Austin: In honor of Monte Hellman and TWO LANE BLACKTOP, an appreciation by Richard Linklater.
The newest issue of CoroCoro is out and fans have plastered scans all over the Internet of its article on Pokemon Platinum. What follows is a break down of the important nuggets of information contained therein.
- Pokémon Platinum is set for a September 13th 2008 release in Japan
- You have to face Team Galactic once more, but it seems their plans and HQ have been stepped up a fair bit
- The Battle Frontier returns and takes place in the Fight Area in Sinnoh. There are different areas in the Battle Frontier, their battle quirks are not yet known. However, it does still contain the Battle Tower
- The WiFi area has been enhanced with various areas which support up to 20 people at any one time
- The Poffin making has taken a step up and has a new feature that involves a Swalot machine. You essentially throw berries into its mouth. This can be done over WiFi in the new WiFi area
- The Battle Recorder, an item seen on the Shaymin pictures last week, allows you to record battles that you hold and share them with your friends. This is done at the new & improved GTS in Jubilife City, which has a bigger global terminal
- There is also confirmation of the Shaymin form changes and a note about the Giratina ones. It appears that like in the movie, Giratina’s Origin Forme can only be used in the Torn World, and its in its Another Forme elsewhere. It is unknown if there will be an item to use to keep it in its Origin Forme, but the main method will be revealed next month
- Shaymin Sky Forme’s ability is Serene Grace. It appears to be more focused in Speed and Special Attack and knows the move Air Slash.
- Giratina’s Origin Forme’s ability is Levitate.
- The pictures also indicate and confirm new sprites for each Pokémon including Bidoof, Giratina’s Another Forme & Shaymin’s Land Forme
- Confirmation of the new characters shown last month, one is a member of Team Galactic, and the other is part of an international police force and is hunting Team Galactic
With a September release date I expect an American release date around March 2009.
The inclusion of a Battle Park (as in Emerald) is going to be great! Couple that with Wi-Fi in the Underground and I expect Platinum to sell very well indeed.
As I get more information I will post it.
via [serebii]
You Know It, Baby
Photo by Donna Ruhlman
Summer is flying by too quickly and I've been buried in all the good things--work and family and friends and food. Ma was here and I showed her the Iron Chef show with Symon v. Bloomfield and she was so enamoured of Symon's idea of putting a yolk inside pasta, I made some for her (above, on a bed of sheep's milk ricotta I got from Paul Minnillo at Baricelli Inn, seasoned with citrus and espelette), served with a simple brown butter sauce. Sooo. Good . Yolk spills out into the butter. Then off to NYC to judge an Iron Chef competition, then back home on the 4th for Old Chicago's on the grill at my Dad's and fireworks viewed from the first fairway of a local course, then Pardus, my chef was here, for reasons I won't reveal now, but we cooked a meal that is worth a blog post on it's own. His visit of course required a two day restoration of the body and soul before work began again.
Yesterday I was with Symon as he was making some of his own egg-yolk-only pasta dough and he said something interesting that I'd never thought about. He made it very dry and scarcely kneaded it. I believe in kneading for at least ten minutes till it's satiny smooth, but Symon believes that the key to great texture is in not creating too much of a gluten network (which happens by kneading) so he treated it practically like a pie dough. It makes sense. I don't know if I'm willing to give up that satiny pasta dough, but it's an interesting idea, and his ravioli were very tender. Is this a common thing? Not kneading?
For those of you wanting to try an egg yolk ravioli, they're very easy. Marcella Hazan recommends a cup of flour and two eggs to make a pasta dough, mixed and kneaded till it's satiny, about ten minutes. While it's resting in plastic wrap in the fridge, mix into a cup of ricotta, citrus zest (any kind you like, lemon and orange are great, maybe a little juice), black pepper, espelette if you have it, some chives or minced shallot if you have it, kosher salt (and taste it for to make sure it's delicious). Make a pillow on the pasta for the yolk, put a little cheese on top to protect the yolk, and fold the pasta over it, using water or egg wash to seal the pasta. Boil gently for a few minutes and serve with a brown butter and some julienned parsley. The yellow ooze is worth the effort.
Posted by Robert Hamilton and David Singleton, Google Mobile Team
Our first downloadable iPhone application is here. It's free, and it makes searching faster and easier. It's never as easy to type on a mobile phone as on a full keyboard and the mobile network is rarely as fast as a desktop connection. So Google Mobile App starts working as soon as you type. Smart features mean you'll get what you're looking for in fewer key presses than before. For instance, we've added the power of suggest (type "lost in" and one touch completes "lost in translation") and My Location (type "coffee" and one touch shows cafes right where you are on a map) to help you search.
We've also brought Google search to your iPhone's address book to make it easy to contact the people you call or text most often. To learn more and see a video showing the App in action, check out this post on the Google Mobile Blog.
U.S. users can get Google Mobile App right now. Tap the App Store icon on your iPhone, or open iTunes, and search for 'Google Mobile App'. (You need to have the latest iPhone software update to see it.)
I've had one of the biggest traffic days in months, post the whole Playboy mention. Of course, anyone coming here looking for sexy photos was probably disappointed to read about nothing but my book tour!
I'm a little surprised people have balked so much at the Playboy thing. Clearly, I would never consider actually posing nude and assume most of the girls on the list wouldn't either. (No, TechCrunch commenters, not even for a lot of money. Seriously, what is wrong with men? Just because they'll get naked at the drop of a hat they think it's somehow irresistible?) But that's not all Playboy is about either. Loads of politicians, celebrities, business people have been interviewed and featured in Playboy before, even if no one really reads it for the articles.
And look at what Playboy actually said about me:
"Sarah cut her teeth as a Silicon Valley reporter for publications such as Business Week (where she continues to write their online tech column Valley Girl), as well as the new book Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good (Gotham) that chronicles the rise of Web 2.0. But hiding behind all that smart writing is a curvy brunette that Silicon blog Valleywag.com declared "the hottest reporter in the tech world." Luckily, Sarah's new vlogging gig at Yahoo! Finance's Tech Ticker lets us enjoy her journalistic talents from a more visual perspective."
That is far less objectifying than what people write in the comments on my Yahoo show DAILY! Even some of the blogs that derisively wrote about Playboy's move were far more objectifying in their commentary. Maybe a few years ago I would have been scandalized, but I guess I've just been so desensitized by everything that's been written about me, the above mini-profile just sounds like a compliment. (Hello, Fake Steve Jobs, I'm talking to you!) Playboy doesn't insinuate any of us only have jobs for our looks and had a generally respectful tone in all of the pieces. Aren't we taking ourselves a little too seriously if we get upset about it? Also, it's Playboy! That's what they do! It's not like Newsweek wrote the piece.
I guess my main reaction was just laughter. It never ceases to amaze me that anyone could describe someone holding one of the least sexy jobs in the world-- a business reporter-- as somehow professionally sexy. And I guess others agree since my vote tally is so low! I'm guessing it's definitely a BusinessWeek first. I just hope they're not embarrassed, because I'm certainly not.
The Mets (48–44) defeated the Giants (39–53) by the score of 7 to 3 today, completing a three-game sweep.
The Mets have won six in a row, and eight of their last 11 games.
For a boxscore, recap, stats, etc., go to SNY.tv.
The Mets left men on first and second in the second inning. But, in the same situation one inning later, Carlos Beltran drove home Argenis Reyes, which was followed by a bases-clearing double from Fernando Tatis. The best part of the play was Beltran, totally blowing off a stop sign from third base coach Luis Aguayo.
- In the fifth, John Maine, who was wild all day, erased his previous 105 pitches by letting the game become tied at three. It’s a shame, because he was striking batters out left and right. However, he had no command, and continues to go full on every batter, then goes through a foul-ball parade, thus jacking up his pitch count to a point where, even if he’s doing well, he must leave the game after five innings. I’m a bit worried about Maine, because he just doesn’t look right, mechanically speaking. Hopefully getting a few days off during the break will help.
- Reyes, Argenis that is, nearly drove in a run with a hit in the gap during the sixth inning, but Randy Winn ran it down for an out. Nice catch.
- Speaking of nice catches, he made a nice pick up on a potential bunt, then flipped the ball with ease to Carlos Delgado for an out.
- Following a lead-off double by David Wright, Fernando Tatis tattooed a fastball in to the bleachers in left-center for a two-run home run. As my friend Johnny G said in a text message, ‘Tatis is partying like it’s 1999.’
- Thank you, Jose Castillo, for throwing away an inning-ending ground out beyond first base, allowing an insurance run to score. Reyes, Jose that is, then knocked home Brian Schneider to further expand the lead.
- Lastly, Carlos Muniz, Scott Schoeneweis, Duaner Sanchez and Billy Wagner each pitched an inning of scoreless relief. The bullpen did not allow a single run during the entire three-game series with the Giants.
The Mets start a three-game series with the Rockies tomorrow at Shea Stadium, starting at 7:10 pm, with Oliver Perez (6-5, 4.62 ERA) taking on Aaron Cook (11-6, 3.66 ERA).
Uh yeah, because Nader has always made addressing POC issues a priority..? There are numerous places where I wish Obama spoke louder (and leaned further left), but these communities Nader says Obama is neglecting are basically the same ones I've...Originally posted by jsmooth995 from hiphopmusic.com:, ReBlogged by Jamie Allen on Jul 10, 2008 at 03:23 PM
In the "bark is worse than its bite" category, the New York Times has an awesome web piece today on the apparent manipulation of yesterday's Iran missile shoot.
Of course the event got everybody up in a lather about Iran's capability and came darn close to a signing ceremony with SecState Rice and the Czech foreign minister on missile defense cooperation. But to me they sort of looked like '50s-era model rockets. Whoooo...scaaaaary....
[Photo from New York Times online.]
Anyway, sharp-eyed photogs have noticed that the smoke billowing from the launch can be attributed to three rockets, not four. And a photo later distributed by the AP shows three rockets with a fourth launcher that looks like it might have been a dud (or another Photoshopped image).
As news spread across the world of Iran’s provocative missile tests, so did an image of four missiles heading skyward in unison. Unfortunately, it appeared to contain one too many missiles, a point that had not emerged before the photo appeared on the front pages of The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times, The Chicago Tribune and several other newspapers as well as on BBC News, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, NYTimes.com and many other major news Web sites.
Agence France-Presse said that it obtained the image from the Web site of Sepah News, the media arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on Wednesday. But there was no sign of it there later in the day. Today, The Associated Press distributed what appeared to be a nearly identical photo from the same source, but without the fourth missile...
For its part, Agence France-Presse retracted its four-missile version this morning, saying that the image was “apparently digitally altered” by Iranian state media. The fourth missile “has apparently been added in digital retouch to cover a grounded missile that may have failed during the test,” the agency said.
So, looks as if the Iranians are trying to get a rise out of America and the Europeans with a little artistic license, I guess. And one has to wonder whether that country's threats are really credible.
-- Christian
Originally posted by lowe from Defense Tech, ReBlogged by Jamie Allen on Jul 10, 2008 at 03:21 PM
According to the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), Portland, Oregon's Pioneer Courthouse Square is one of the Top 10 greatest public spaces in the U.S. & Canada. I couldn't agree more. Affectionately referred to as the city's "living room" the charming and versatile block was once slated to be a parking garage in the 1960s. Thankfully the residents didn't let that happen.
Recently while grabbing lunch in Portland, I wandered into the "Festival of Flowers" - a beautiful urban meadow installation that was so pleasant and comforting, I just had to shoot some video. Ethan Kent from PPS has often said to me that the key to the success of Pioneer Courthouse Square (and many public spaces) is its amazingly diverse programming. He's right, I've been to Portland a dozen times and there always seems to be something wonderful going on there.
Great tip from Gina Trapani:
With the iPhone 2.0 software installed, hold down the Home button and press the Lock button and your screen will flash — and an image of your phone’s screen gets saved to your Camera Roll’s images.
Awesome day! NetNewsWire 1.0 for iPhone is available via the App Store. (It’s featured, even.)
I’ve been checking out some other apps — so far I like Remote, Twitterrific, and Exposure. (There are plenty more apps to come, I’m sure. I know of some apps that aren’t listed yet that I’m eager to see.)
So much fun. Of course, I’ve already got 1.0.1 in the pipeline, and I’m working on 1.0.2. But for now I’m still checking out the App Store.
NYC cyclists rejoice—there now exists a web-based mapping system designed just for you...
city transit iPhone app
In his latest podcast, Bill Simmons apologizes (sort of) for his stupid article on why tennis is sucky and boring, calling it "maybe the dumbest column I've ever written". But then he goes on to say that what Wimbledon needs is a retractable roof on Centre Court and lights so that matches can proceed without fear of rain or night. Both of which are totally happening next year, unbeknowst to Simmons.
If you're a sports columnist, it helps if you're, you know, interested in sports. Many columnists are only interested in the big three sports -- football, basketball, baseball -- and treat other sports with a not-so-veiled disinterest or even distain. Competition, both against others and with the self, is at the base of all sports and if, as a so-called "sports fan", you can't find something of that to love about tennis or badminton or NASCAR, maybe you need to look elsewhere for work. Simmons needs to bring himself up to speed on tennis; he's missed a lot.
And if you're writing about a sport you don't know much about and argue that it needs to be changed in such a way that makes it more exciting for the short attention span generation, you should also be prepared to advocate for the 35-game NBA season, the 60-game MLB season, moving the pitcher's mound back to 65 feet, eliminating charging in the NBA, and 11-on-10 in NFL games.
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