randomwalks/dj

I found this image on my friend Jude's ipod.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 2, 2009 7:34 PM

I found this image on my friend Jude's ipod.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 2, 2009 7:34 PM

    

Photos from rebranca46, billbalance - busy, and hickoree.
View more photos in our rock balancing clusters.

Originally posted by Heather Champ from Flickr Blog, on May 2, 2009 6:55 PM

I've been to two games this year and both had rain delays of over an hour and a half each. Today's game was kind of crummy too, with the Braves offense going cold and Chipper making the error that cost them the game. However, it was still nice to get to the ballpark and thanks to the delay I finally got to see Tooner Field. Also...

2009 Braves Season Tickets are AWESOME!!! I wish I had bought a package just for the tickets now. Photos soon if any of them came out any good.

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on May 2, 2009 5:41 PM

Eyesore of the Month by James Howard Kunstler: Instead of repairing the discontinuities of recent decades we just celebrate them and make them worse. That's decadence at its purest.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 2, 2009 5:17 PM

something, such as a distressed building, that is unpleasant or offensive to view.: except that it’s not. (doing some recommended reading)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on May 2, 2009 3:52 PM

Step up, Florida: The Times has an attention-grabbing series of U.S. maps comparing the clustering of organic farms with the locations of all farm operations across the country. It won’t surprise anyone that the bulk of organic farms are concentrated on the West Coast, in the Northeast, and around the Great Lakes. The clusters match up well with the clusters of other farms in general, but we noticed one glaring exception: Florida, which has lots of orchards and some vegetable farms (such as worker-abusing tomato ones), but very few organic farms. Some sobering or exciting stats, depending on whether you’re an optimist or pessimist: organic vegetables now account for 5% of all vegetable sales, and organic dairies (the fastest-growing sector) now produce 1% of U.S. milk. (New York Times)

Originally posted by Ethicurean from The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing., on May 2, 2009 3:49 PM

Still. Old. Friend: which print magazines and newspapers do you still read?

Mine are Paper Magazine, The New Yorker, the New York Times on Saturday & Sunday, Gourmet and Saveur. Adriana also gets Poetry Magazine.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 2, 2009 2:15 PM

Last night (NYC time at least) I was able to have a great brainstorming conversation with rafl, confound and others regarding new ways to declare Catalyst Actions. This conversation was set off by a blog post and my response. A few things came up in the conversation that warranted me stepping back...

http://jjnapiorkowski.vox.com/library/post/catalyst-actions-part-2-details-and-clarification.html

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Originally posted by John Napiorkowski from david’s Neighbors, on May 2, 2009 12:09 PM

We left the house today to go for a walk and close by our apple tree were a few beautiful morels!
So psyched for our free food foraging! We are going to eat them with pesto we made from arugula we grew last year and froze. It has lasted all winter. It is amazing how much food we grew and were able to store and eat all winter!

Disclaimer: never ever eat any mushrooms you find without properly identifying them first!!! You need more information than this picture since there are look alikes that are poison!
Talk to a local mycologist before eating.

Originally posted by Meredith Stern from Just Seeds: Blog, on May 2, 2009 7:35 AM

It’s hard to believe I am only 100 days into my gig at Topspin. When I mentioned that anniversary to Ian Rogers recently and told him it felt more like 3 years, he replied “Good, that means we’re getting our money’s worth.” We’re both getting our money’s worth actually. I have the best job on the planet (or to borrow some legalese from entertainment lawyers circa 1991, the best job “in the universe”). After gathering data from 100,000+ transactions across 50 artists big and small, brilliant marketers, analysts, and web designers like Gary Brotman, Adam Bates, and Peter Brambl (in marketing, analyst and web designer order) on the Topspin Artist Service team have actually applied that learning in real time to bands like Beck, Jimmy Eat World, Metric and Beastie Boys. In just 100 days, the Topspin Artist service team has learned and applied an incredible amount of knowledge about marketing music in the 21^st century for artists of all sizes. To estimate the difference between best practices execution on the Topspin platform and simply slapping buy buttons on your web site, enter your data below. We can’t name names, but we’ve seen artists either totally ignore or totally embrace best practices. The difference in revenue is ridiculous and we have hard data to back it up. Check it out and share it with your music industry friends.

Here’s the embed code!

<embed src=”http://share.topspin.net/jbum/jamesWidget_v2.swf” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#000000″ width=”380″ height=”280″ name=”jamesWidget_v2″ align=”middle” allowScriptAccess=”sameDomain” allowFullScreen=”false” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” />

I realize this bold opening paragraph begs many questions. Two that come to mind are “who are these Artist Service people?” and “what exactly did they learn?” Fair enough. We owe you more than the hollow hyperbole that often fills the blogosphere. So before you call bullshit - an oath. I hereby solemnly swear to add a second loud Topspin voice to the music community to answer and expand on these questions (and others) over time. My voice will be different mind you. (Not to mention any names, but the world of music doesn’t need another irreverent, punk rock loving, skate boarding, CEO of a much hyped music start-up adding to the chorus.) My voice will be filled with data. Lots and lots of data. It’s flowing in people and we need somewhere to put it. Why not in the hands of artists and their managers, labels, marketers, and web designers?

So who are these Topspin Artist Services folks anyway? Many theories are out there, most are incorrect. Allow me to clarify. We’re here to discover new ways to create demand for our artists, immortalize this knowledge in the Topspin app, then educate and train our partners on how to apply it. One theory I want to dismiss quickly. We are not a marketing services company. In fact, the word “partners” in the previous sentence encompasses marketers of all flavors – independents and in-house teams with managers and labels. We want to train you on our software and ideate with you on how to kill it in the direct-to-fan space. Said another way, we are not your competition. ‘Nuff said.

I will end my virgin Topspin blog with one challenge and one promise. The challenge - we all need to help our artists execute with excellence in the direct-to-fan space. The business of music is much better for fans and artists when we are thoughtful and focused in this channel. The promise – we will share more data on best practices over the coming months and years via this blog and the Topspin Green Room. Join us there please and join the conversation.

Originally posted by JLamberti from Topspin, on May 1, 2009 8:13 PM

I forgot, with all the hubub about 4/20 [Hitler's birthday, the Pirate Bay decision, other stuff] that my blog is now ten years old. Older than most, younger than some. I’ve become a much less frequent updater, and often on Fridays for some reason, but I’m still enjoying writing it, reading it, interacting on it and being immersed in blog culture generally.

Thanks readers, for a decade of sharing library information here. Here’s a link to the first ten days of librarian.net.

Originally posted by jessamyn from librarian.net, on May 1, 2009 6:45 PM

I forgot, with all the hubub about 4/20 [Hitler's birthday, the Pirate Bay decision, other stuff] that my blog is now ten years old. Older than most, younger than some. I’ve become a much less frequent updater, and often on Fridays for some reason, but I’m still enjoying writing it, reading it, interacting on it and being immersed in blog culture generally.

Thanks readers, for a decade of sharing library information here. Here’s a link to the first ten days of librarian.net.

Originally posted by jessamyn from librarian.net, on May 1, 2009 6:45 PM

michelledeluca:

Mrs met image by 6-Point_Star on Photobucket

I WANT A BABY MET

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on May 1, 2009 5:46 PM

Who can tell me the names of some good, up-and-coming political comics in New York City?

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on May 1, 2009 5:09 PM

The CBC has a clip of Jane Jacobs talking about Toronto and Montreal from 1969. In it, she makes the distinction between the two urban organizational forces at work in Toronto, a sort of "civil schizophrenia": the vernacular spirit ("full of fun") and the official spirit ("stamp out fun"). I also found a video on YouTube about Robert Moses and his difficulties with Ms. Jacobs which concludes with a cheeky update of Arnold Newman's iconic photo of Moses.

Tags: cities  janesjacobs  montreal  nyc  robertmoses  toronto  video 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on May 1, 2009 3:48 PM

DAvid Jacobs is the MOST REsponsive Web 2.0 Friends in the whole NETOSPHERE!
Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

This is still true! Try following me on Typepad to see for yourself.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 1, 2009 3:29 PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 1, 2009 2:16 PM

One more bit on last week’s Lady Gaga column before we make way for some wildlife.

One of the conceits of the Gaga piece is that the lifespan of a pop artist (or a pop song) is hard to determine, often because the inappropriate bit of soft science is being used. If a “one-hit wonder” keeps coming back with that hit every decade, isn’t that artist perhaps more important than the sincere, well-liked band that critics and fans snuggled up to for a few years and then dropped like a stoneàAnd aren’t some spikes of popularity awfully, well, spikyàThere are few debuts that sold as well as Boston’s 1976 album, and yet I can’t think of a single working band that apes Boston, nor do I hear Boston songs popping up in bromantic comedies or alt-soaps like “Brothers & Sisters.” (That’s real estate for Ray Lamontagne and David Gray to fight over.) But, then, maybe that’s what Boston was for: owning 1976 and nothing more.

One of the pieces of writing that helped me think about duration and lifespan is “Good Pop, Bad Pop: Massiveness, Materiality, and the Top 40,” an essay written by my friend, the poet, critic and professor Joshua Clover. Clover’s paper was first delivered at the inaugural Experience Music Project Pop Conference in 2002, and appears in “This Is Pop,” a collection of papers presented at the E.M.P. conference. For our purposes, Joshua has kindly posted the essay in full on Facebook. (The relevant section is “The Land of Milk and Honey.”)

I recommend following Clover in general, either at his blog or his “Marx and Coca-Cola” column in Film Quarterly. His book, “1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About,” will be published in November by University of California Press. (Clover has been posting excerpts from the book on his site.)

Since “1989” is about the intersection of historical moments and pop music, I asked Clover if he thought the E.M.P. essay and his book were in any way connected. He responded:

The only real link between the good pop essay and “1989” is, maybe, that both are interested in seeing the ways that class structure, beliefs, and antagonisms simultaneously haunt and hide themselves in both pop music and pop music criticism, even though pop is often considered not to be an arena of such reputedly old-fashioned struggles.

Originally posted by Sasha Frere-Jones from Sasha Frere-Jones, on May 1, 2009 2:08 PM

Streetsblog San Francisco's Bryan Goebel attended the NY400 event yesterday, where Dutch Cabinet Minister Frans Timmermans presented Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber and NYC & Company CEO George Fertitta with 200 orange commuter bikes as part of a year-long commemoration of "four hundred years of friendship between the Netherlands and the City of New York." To mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival, the bikes arrived in Manhattan via a water taxi on the Hudson River.

The bikes will be used for special events throughout the year, then will be donated to Recycle-A-Bicycle. 

Bryan reports that the event, which included a tour of the Hudson River Greenway and a ride to the Museum of the City of New York, was tempered by the pedestrian injuries and deaths at the hands of a motorist during a Queens Day parade in the Netherlands.

See more of Bryan's photos on Flickr, and visit City Room for more NY400 coverage.

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on May 1, 2009 12:39 PM

By artist Christopher Locke. He has a whole "modern fossils" collection. You can own one for a straight hunnerd bucks, although I suspect the postage will be quite high, what with it being made of concrete.

(via)

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on May 1, 2009 12:20 PM

Owen Thomas, the longtime writer of the Silicon Valley gossip website Valleywag, which was recently chopped back and folded into Gawker, is departing. From an email inside the Gawker mothership:

“There’s still a couple weeks to give Owen a proper send-off, but I just wanted to let you all know that he is indeed leaving us. But Valleywag will live on, and he’s agreed to help out the new person — someone who you may already know! — who will be taking over. As they say, more to come…”

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 11:35 AM

MSNBC.com has quietly launched an experiment that re-engineers how Web stories are consumed. Here's Craig Saila, an interactive designer at MSNBC.com, describing the changes:

The primary goal is to showcase what msnbc.com has always done best: rich, online journalism. As a result, the design integrates interactives, photo slide shows, and videos directly into the page. For too long, mainstream online journalism has often come from the print mentality: text, supported by some pictures.

The new msnbc.com design concept aims to thread these elements together into one cohesive story by featuring interactive journalism in ways not previously possible. In fact, just linking to any of the media elements allows the page to change its core layout. One view might showcase the words of Pulitzer-prize winning investigative reporter Bill Dedman, another view highlights the richly visualized Moody's data produced by msnbc.com's team of renegade cybergeeks.

In addition to the way the page actually changes based on how you link to it, there are a number of navigation features sprinkled throughout, the most prominent being a little navigational dashboard at the bottom that lets you browse the various media included with the story: From text to pictures to video.

It's a pretty disorienting experience at first. But we're bound to see more and more experiments like these, as designers start unlocking what Ajax can do. And the strategy is certainly spot on: Nielsen has moved away from page views as an attention metric, in favor of time spent on a page. MSNBC.com is trying to make richer content easier to find and harder to ignore. The site plans on tweaking the system, and then rolling it out in larger sections. Does it work? Is it too complicated? Will the complexity drive away viewers? In a time when there's an increasing push for more simplicity and less functionality on websites, is this a matter of giving people too much, too soon?  How would you tackle the problem?

[Via Fimoculous] 

Originally posted by Cliff Kuang from Fast Company, on May 1, 2009 11:00 AM

Nice hack:

Last year, when law professor Joel Reidenberg wanted to show his Fordham University class how readily private information is available on the Internet, he assigned a group project. It was collecting personal information from the Web about himself.

This year, after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made public comments that seemingly may have questioned the need for more protection of private information, Reidenberg assigned the same project. Except this time Scalia was the subject, the prof explains to the ABA Journal in a telephone interview.

His class turned in a 15-page dossier that included not only Scalia's home address, home phone number and home value, but his food and movie preferences, his wife's personal e-mail address and photos of his grandchildren, reports Above the Law.

And, as Scalia himself made clear in a statement to Above the Law, he isn't happy about the invasion of his privacy:

"Professor Reidenberg's exercise is an example of perfectly legal, abominably poor judgment. Since he was not teaching a course in judgment, I presume he felt no responsibility to display any," the justice says, among other comments.

Somehow, I don't think "poor judgment" is going to be much of a defense against those with agendas more malicious than Professor Reidenberg.

Originally posted by schneier from Schneier on Security, on May 1, 2009 10:52 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on May 1, 2009 10:31 AM

Early in Frost/Nixon, we meet Irving Lazar, who negotiates on behalf of Richard Nixon with David Frost. He didn't get that much screen time, but Lazar struck me as an interesting character¹ so I looked him up on Wikipedia after the movie. Michael Korda, himself a publishing bigwig, wrote a profile of Lazar for the New Yorker in 1993. Korda was befriended by Lazar early on in his career and went on to do many deals with the legendary agent.

Early on, Lazar hit upon three rules that have stood him in good stead for over fifty years. The first was that he could always reach anyone, anywhere, any time. His secret weapon is the world's largest address book, full of the private, unlisted numbers of people whom nobody else can reach. Who else can pick up the phone and call Mrs. Norton Simon, Jack Nicholson, Barry Diller, Larry McMurtry, Arthur Schlesinger, Richard Nixon, Cher, Gregory Peck, or Henry Kissinger, and get through immediately? The second rule was always to go directly to the top. Lazar doesn't deal with underlings. The last rule was to insist on a quick answer. Even now, if I tell Irving that I want to think something over or discuss it with someone else he will snap, "Never mind, I can see you're not interested, I'll talk to Phyllis Grann."

[1] My first impression was, this guy seems a bit like Truman Capote to me. Well, duh: the actor playing him, Toby Jones, also portrayed Capote in Infamous. ↩

Rating: 4.0/5.0 Tags: davidfrost  frostnixon  irvinglazar  movies  richardnixon 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on May 1, 2009 10:28 AM

Shared by Eve
Tim, like I was saying about the apartment across from yours...

Signs of the Recession:

So a guy walks into the Stuyvesant Town leasing offices and asks about a specific line of apartments. (Stuy Town, for those who might not know, is a massive apartment complex just north of the East Village in Manhattan; it is 80 acres and has 35 enormous brick buildings and lots of squirrels. For many years, it was affordable middle-class housing, with a years-long waiting list to get in; then it was sold a couple years ago for almost $6 billion, and rents got raised, perhaps illegally.) So! The leasing office quotes this guy a price. And the guy says, that’s funny, I already live in an identical apartment here and now not only am I definitely not paying the rent increase you just gave me on my new lease here (although, by the way, the gang at Curbed hears new leases aren’t getting price increases), I’m going to pay 12% less in rent, because that’s how much less of a price you just quoted me as a new tenant. Do try this at home! Because that is awesome. And yes this was just overheard at my local coffeeshop.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 10:17 AM

In a report for FoxSports.com, Ken Rosenthal quotes Omar Minaya as saying, while the team does not lack leadership, the team’s stars do lack a certain ‘edge.’

“We have good guys, solid professionals,” Minaya told Rosenthal.

“There is a smile on David Wright’s face, a smile on Jose Reyes’s face. But there is not an edge to them… Some people see edge as leadership.  Sometimes, you need a little meanness to your game.  Some people perceive leadership as meanness.”

…ugh, well, here’s the thing, omar, when you try to build a team full of choir boys, guess what happens… you get choir boys… so, should it be a real shock that the team lacks edge… unreal…

…Jerry Manuel needs to tap back in to his inner ‘gagsta,’ i think, and work to put a chip on this team’s shoulder… there is one for the taking too, which is that every team in baseball might very well hate the Mets, especially the Phillies… they all seem to love mocking us, the team, the city, and so on… the Mets play in New York, it’s time they start acting like new yorkers…

According to Rosenthal, Minaya believes Alex Cora and Gary Sheffield will provide that edge, adding, “We needed that. I think it will pay off in the end.”

…thanks to Bobby K for the Rosenthal link…

Rosenthal also breaks down the Mets-Phillies rivalry, and previews tonight’s match up between the two teams in Philadelphia.

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on May 1, 2009 9:19 AM

muxtape:

Sigur Rós on Muxtape.

mp3 upload jinx!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on May 1, 2009 9:14 AM

Mark Penn, chief pollster for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, tells ABC that had John Edwards chosen not to run because of the whole affair-and-babymaking thing, “it would have been a very different race,” because Edwards voters were “focused on demographics” and Hillary would have been their other white meat. “We will never know for sure,” says Penn, for whose sterling services Clinton still owes $2.3 million, “but it will be the woulda, coulda, shoulda of this race.” Or, you know, one of them.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 9:00 AM

As continue to my benchmarks http://www.mysqlperformanceblog.com/2009/04/30/looking-on-54-io-bound-benchmarks/ on 5.4 I tried in-memory load (basically changed buffer pool from 3GB to 15GB, and database size is 10GB). The results are on the same spreadsheet http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rYZB2dd2j1pQsvWs2kFvTsg&hl=en#, page CPUBound.

I especially made short warmup (120 sec) and long run (2700sec) to see how different versions go through warmup stage.

The graph is

In default mode I would say XtraDB performs almost the same as 5.4, but dips are a bit worse than in 5.4.

Now about dips - all of them are caused by InnoDB checkpoint activity, InnoDB is doing intensive flushing of buffer_pool pages and that basically causes stall for some period of time in all user processes.
In XtraDB we have special mode adaptive_checkpoint, you see result in this mode. While max performance is worse, there is no dips, and average performance is better.

If Sun Perfomance engineers read this - I call attention to this problem and do not ignore it if Sun started to make changes to InnoDB anyway.

If InnoDB engineers read this and are interested - then, yes, we are ready to provide adaptive_checkpoint patch under BSD license.

Also I was asked what if we set small innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct , will not that help with such dips - you can see results for 5.4 with innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct=15. There really no dips, but average performance is not acceptable. I also tried innodb_max_dirty_pages_pct=30, but results in this case similar to usual 5.4, so I do not show them.

---

Entry posted by Vadim | No comment

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Originally posted by Vadim from MySQL Performance Blog, on May 1, 2009 8:41 AM

The drive to customize and make something your own runs deep. Just take a look at this portfolio of Mexicans who have personalized their face masks. Thanks to Facebook friend LaRon Batchelor for the link.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on May 1, 2009 8:05 AM

octoberspazbaby:

Near perfect.

That was awesome.

That was awesome.

And what was completely awesome was coming home and reading about it happening on Twitter. I walked out of my office.

“What’s up?” TBF asks.

“Matt Garza pitches for the Rays, right?”

“Yep.”

“He’s on Twitter? He started a blog?”

I turned the TV on.

“Ah. He’s throwing a no-hitter.”

Thank you MLB Network.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on May 1, 2009 8:04 AM

Scene: The Boston Red Sox Dugout, just after their 13-0 loss last night.

(David Ortiz is contemplating his season after his 0-2 performance.)
Papi: I don't know what is wrong with me? (coughs) Why can I no longer hit de baseball? (complains about headache) Big Papi should play better than this! (fevers) Big Papi will play better! (exhibits further flu-like symptoms)

(Dustin Pedroia walks in)

Dustin: Hey David, know how you were on the cover of a video game?

Papi: Yeah.

Dustin: Well you're not the only one anymore!

Jason Varitek: We know, now shut up about it you stupid hobbit.

Dustin: Well, just in case, here's a free copy. (passes out copies of MLB 09: The Show)

Josh Beckett: Screw you Dustin! (throws video game high and inside, strikes Dustin in the face)

Dustin: (nose bleeds) Hey, screw you, I'm an MVP! (leaves)

Beckett: Douche.

Varitek: Hey, you don't look too good David, maybe you have that Swine Flu they're talking about.

Papi: Does Big Papi look like a pig? No! So Papi no can have pig flu!

Beckett: No, see, Swine Flu is just a type of regular flu that started in pigs and affects humans now.

Papi: So now you is calling Papi a pig too? (vomits)

Beckett: Oh gross!

Jonathan Papelbon: Hey guys, (spots puke, does jig over it) what's wrong with Ortiz? Dude looks sick.

Varitek: He's got swine flu.

Papi: No I don't! Why does everyone keep sayings that Papi is a pig?!

Beckett: Because David, you ARE a pig.

Papi: (looks down at hands as they turn into pig's feet) AHHHHHHHH!!! Papi suddenly feels attracted to Miss Piggy!!! (Ortiz proceeds to grow tail and turn into a pig)
AAAA-oink! Oink! Oink!

Terry Francona: David, David wake up.

Papi: (wakes up) What? Where am I? Am I a pig?

Francona: Huh? No, you were just having a dream.

Papi: Oh thank goodness. And my horrible season, that was just a dream too right? I'm not really hitting .230 with no home runs right?

Francona: No, that part is real.

Papi: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Originally posted by LittleWaynesBleedingHead from 3:10 to Joba, on May 1, 2009 8:00 AM

This is a little bit brilliant. Here and There are a pair of maps of Manhattan that start from an on-the-street viewpoint and curl up as you gaze uptown or downtown until you see the rest of the island from a traditional "flat map" view.

As the model bends from sideways to top-down in a smooth join, more distant parts of the city are revealed in plan view. The projection connects the viewer's local environment to remote destinations normally out of sight.

Prints are available. This is like a 3-D version of the spider maps for London buses, in which a local street grid relays information about the immediate vicinity while the surrounding schematic shows connections to the rest of the system.

Tags: jackschulze  london  maps  nyc 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on May 1, 2009 7:59 AM

From the recently-shuttered Portfolio’s homepage. Nice to see that someone over there was able to maintain a sense of humor.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 7:41 AM

The hamfisted Air Force One NYC photo op cost taxpayers more than $320,000. Photoshop expert Scott Kelby says that using the graphics editing program for two minutes could have saved a lot of money and trouble.

Update: The NY Daily News had the same idea. (thx, @tshane)

Tags: nyc  photography  photoshop  remix 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on May 1, 2009 7:39 AM

Signs of the Recession:

So a guy walks into the Stuyvesant Town leasing offices and asks about a specific line of apartments. (Stuy Town, for those who might not know, is a massive apartment complex just north of the East Village in Manhattan; it is 80 acres and has 35 enormous brick buildings and lots of squirrels. For many years, it was affordable middle-class housing, with a years-long waiting list to get in; then it was sold a couple years ago for almost $6 billion, and rents got raised, perhaps illegally.) So! The leasing office quotes this guy a price. And the guy says, that’s funny, I already live in an identical apartment here and now not only am I definitely not paying the rent increase you just gave me on my new lease here (although, by the way, the gang at Curbed hears new leases aren’t getting price increases), I’m going to pay 12% less in rent, because that’s how much less of a price you just quoted me as a new tenant. Do try this at home! Because that is awesome. And yes this was just overheard at my local coffeeshop.

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 6:57 AM

Yep, I'm wearing this dress right now. It's the same pattern (Vogue 9760) once more -- in fact, I made this one BEFORE I made the last two ones that I showed you. Which is why the print doesn't match as well.



I really like the orange facing. It's probably what makes me happiest about this dress. Aside from the fact that it's Liberty fabric, of course. I forget what the name of this Liberty pattern is, but it shows up on ebay.co.uk pretty often, if you are now struck by a boundless yearning for it, just keep an eye out.

And in a behind-the-scenes look, here's the hem:



I love this pattern -- probably more so than it deserves, but hey, the heart wants what it wants, yes? -- and I have one more cut out on the sewing table. I wouldn't put it past me, either, to make a couple more before I finally stop ...

Originally posted by Erin from A Dress A Day, on May 1, 2009 6:57 AM

The pace of baseball is such that one wonders about all the baseball players whose last names are adjectives.

Woody Rich, Pop Rising. Harry Sage. Several Savages. Mac Scarce. Bill Sharp. Bill, Chris, Dave, and Rick Short. Many Smalls. One Smart guy (JD). Three Starks. Adam Stern. Of course, there's Doug Strange (and Alan and Pat, too). Jamal and Joe Strong. Even a guy named Sturdy, literally: Guy Sturdy. DIck Such. Bill Swift, x2.

Tags: baseball  language  sports 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on May 1, 2009 6:50 AM

There have been all sorts of confusing and contradictory numbers coming out of Mexico over the last few days relating to cases of Swine Flu and deaths attributed to it. What caught our eye was that the Mexican government actually announced that tests have now shown that a substantial number of the deaths (about half of them) originally attributed to Swine Flu were actually caused by different ailments. And only a very few have been confirmed as swine flu cases.

Dealing with statistics in a climate such as this is a tricky business because you don't want to inspire panic or sow complacency. What's more it's important to remember that the number of confirmed or suspected deaths in Mexico is just one variable of many in trying to find out how virulent the virus is. But we've been getting a lot of questions from readers about what these numbers mean and why they seem to be changing. So we've put together a post explaining the latest numbers and what's led to the changes.

(ed.note: To understand the bigger picture, here's a good piece from the LAT from yesterday which argues that there's a growing consensus that this mutation of swine flu is not as virulent as once feared. And here's a blog post by an infectious disease expert explaining why even if swine flu is very mild it would likely be hugely disruptive and a much bigger deal than the seasonal flu. The gist is that even if swine flu is no worse for each individual than the normal seasonal flu, so many more people could get it that it could put a massive strain on our health care system.)

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on May 1, 2009 6:48 AM

The Limits of Control, which opens today, is not to be missed. The Zen-like cool direction of Jim Jarmusch mixed with the almost supernatural beauty of cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s imagery help strike the mood for this languorous tale of a loner (Isaach De Bankole) on an inscrutable mission in Spain. Dressed in iridescent shiny suits, the stoic loner sits in endless cafes ordering two espressos in separate cups -- and waits. There are oblique encounters with strangers (Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal) who wax metaphysically while exchanging tiny matchboxes across the table. His journey leads him to an armed encampment with a mysterious American (Bill Murray). There is an anti-action French New Wave feel to the proceedings, like Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai in many ways. Beautiful, strange and like a perfect piece of jazz, it sends you out of the theater in a blissed haze.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on May 1, 2009 6:19 AM

So there’s this:

“The medical term was gynecomastia, but around the clubhouse they called them “b—- t—” or “man boobs” - and heaven help the player who sprouted them in the middle of his career and then took his shirt off in the locker room,” the Daily News reporters wrote in “American Icon.” “Roger Clemens had man boobs, and he must have been embarrassed because he was often the first Yankee out of the shower and the first to get dressed after the game.”

Sports Illustrated columnist Selena Roberts reports in her new book - “A-Rod” - that Rodriguez was called “B—- T—” by other players, a reference to his enlarged breasts. Roberts refers to a 2007 Letterman skit on YouTube in which Rodriguez is seen shirtless on a park bench having cream rubbed on his shoulders and quotes Jose Canseco as saying, “That’s where you see the b—- t—. It’s right there.”

Look, if you can’t spell out “bitch tits,” maybe you shouldn’t be discussing them at all.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on May 1, 2009 6:19 AM

From A Hamburger Today

I visited Iceland from April 18 to 24. Although this sparsely populated country may not be known for its cuisine, there was plenty of interesting food to report on. I've been sharing it via these Snapshots from Iceland.

Burgers aren't what you think of eating when you go to Iceland, but when you're a part of AHT, burgers are always on the brain. During my recent vacation to Iceland, I made it a point to visit Hamborgarabúllan, an easy choice because it was pretty much the only place that came up when I searched for where to get a burger in Iceland. (There are other restaurants in Reykyavik that serve burgers, but they're not as burger-centric.) My choice was reinforced by reading this interview with proprietor Tommi Tómasson, who started making burgers in Iceland in the 1980s and, with four locations of Hamborgarabúllan under his belt, shows no sign of stopping.

Opened since April 2004, the original location of Hamborgarabúllan on Geirsgata is a small burger joint with a comfortable, homey feel—from the handwritten sign outside to the interior adorned with Christmas lights and a mish mash of signs handwritten notes of burger love. You could forget that you're in Iceland until you look out the window and see a quiet harbor with mountains in the distance.

I went with a double burger (890 ISK), strawberry shake (550 ISK), and small fries (300 ISK). Before my trip a friend warned me that food was expensive in Iceland, but due to the economic collapse (unfortunately, probably the only reason I could afford to go to Iceland), the prices were perfectly reasonable. As of this writing, 890 ISK is about $7, 550 ISK about $4.30, and 300 ISK about $2.40.

The double burger comes with two 80/20 beef patties for a total of about five ounces, topped with lettuce, tomato, American cheddar cheese, chopped onions, Heinz ketchup, Dijon mustard, and mayonnaise. The buns are the standard soft, squishy, white burger buns. For a little extra, you can get bearnaise sauce or cocktail sauce on the side, primarily for fry-dipping, but Tommi says that customers sometimes replace all the sauces on the burger with their homemade bearnaise.

The first sound I heard when chomping into the burger was a cronch—that was some crispy lettuce leaf. Unfortunately the bun didn't lend any crunch; although warmed on the griddle, its cut side didn't reach crunch level. On the upside, the meat was moist and exhibited a satisfying amount of pink, especially considering the thinness of the patties.

The pinkness is easier to see in my friend's single cheeseburger.

Meat, bun, and salad parts = yay, but sauce = uh oh. Tommi takes a page from his favorite burger joint, Burger Joint in New York City's Le Parker Meridian Hotel, by using ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, but the sauce content was too heavy handed for my tastes. It saturated the bun; what was once perfectly soft and squishy lots its integrity in the face of too much moisture. By the time I reached my last few bites I was shoveling the burger into my mouth with ketchup-slicked fingers so it wouldn't completely fall apart. The great amount sauce in my burger (there seems to be less so in the single) also meant that I tasted less beef, more ketchup—fine if the meat is dry and flavorless, which doesn't seem to be the case here. But "here" is in Iceland, where Tommi says the preference is to use more sauce than we do in the US. I don't think I'll adopt this saucing practice at home, but when in Iceland I can eat as the Icelanders do.

There's a selection of condiments available near the front door in case you want more stuff on your burger. Relish and Tabasco sauce, anyone? Perhaps the way to go is to order a sauce-less burger and add condiments yourself.

The fries and strawberry shake were satisfying in more ways than one. Fries were of the thin, crispy McDonald's-esque sort, and the thick and creamy strawberry shake made of Kjörís ice cream reinforced that Icelandic dairy products are awesome. (Other awesome dairy products I ate during my vacation: skyr and whipped cream.) But aside from taste, I loved that the fries and shake were just large enough to satiate my hunger: a small pouch of fries and a 12-ounce cup of shake goodness. While I know these sizes exist in the US, when eating at a burger joint I tend to run into unmanageable sizes (for example, the "small" fries from Five Guys, or the huge-ass shake from Stand) that knock me into a food coma. (Admittedly, this is because I have almost no self control. You might fare better.)

Aside from the fries and shake, the burger is a good size too. A single would've satisfied me, but I was feeling greedy (or is that "hungry"?) when I went for the double. I finished off all of my food without feeling too bloaty.

My friends and I walked off the burgers (or a minuscule percentage of them) by strolling down the neighboring dock under the late setting Icelandic sun (this photo was taken around 9 p.m.). If only more evenings of burgers could be like that. I'll be sure to do it again when I go back to Reykjavik.

Hamborgarabúllan

Geirsgata 1, 101 Reykjavik (map)
Open daily, 11:45 a.m. - 9 p.m.
011-354-511-1888
For other locations in Iceland, visit bullan.is

Originally posted by Robyn Lee from Serious Eats, on May 1, 2009 5:45 AM

• Paterson's 'New' MTA Funding Idea: Cave to Senate Dems (NYT, Post, Politicker, 2nd Ave Sagas)
• Bloomberg's People Involved in Latest Transit Rescue Talks (News)
• Chrysler Files for Chapter 11 (NYT)
• Advos Ask Senator Dodd to Help Restore Federal Support for Transit Operations (MTR)
  
• NYPD Rolls Out Hybrid Squad Cars, Gets Lots of Green Publicity (News, City Room)
• Will Dutch Bikes Catch on in NYC? (City Room)
• Downtown Express Puts Anti-Cyclist Spin on West St. Bikeway Story
• SF's Pilot Bike-Share Program Delayed by Environmental Review (CC Times via Planetizen)
• Portland Considers Dedicated Funding Stream for Bike Projects (Bike Portland via Streetsblog.net)
• To Fund Transpo, Higher Gas Tax Should Be on the Table (TOW)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on May 1, 2009 5:18 AM

Happy May Day!

(via

cathy

)

Originally posted by finn from Modcult, on May 1, 2009 5:07 AM

Make or buy? How cost-effective is it to make homemade pantry staples?

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rebecca's Pocket, on May 1, 2009 3:15 AM

Well, I missed it of course, but April 27 was the 10th anniversary of Rebecca's Pocket. Can you believe it? Once I started, I couldn't imagine not having a weblog, but I honestly don't think I would have predicted I'd be doing it 10 years later. As always, thanks for reading.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rebecca's Pocket, on May 1, 2009 3:14 AM

yesbutnobutyes.com

I don't think the interweb at large is ever going to get tired of looking back at breakfast cereals of the past. Once you've seen a gallery or two of vintage cereal boxes, you've pretty much seen them all. We're certainly guilty of such retrogazing, and Yes But No But Yes is just the latest blog to pour a big bowl of nostalgia.

But what I'm doing so awkwardly here at this hazy early morning hour is using their post as a jumping off point to ask dbcurrie a question that's been bugging me—and probably a few serious eaters as well: Did you ever figure out what the heck cereal it was that you asked about here?

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats, on May 1, 2009 3:00 AM

'nestle application group' building by rojkind arquitectos
all images © paul rivera courtesy rojkind arquitectos

rojkind arquitectos have designed the 'nestle application group' building in queretaro
mexico. the building consists of a laboratory, a tasting area, an auditorium and offices.
for their design they had to adhere to certain building constraints as the area was declared
a UNESCO historic site in 1996. the new building had to have a portico with arches.

rather than use sophisticated technology to create the specific parts of the complex geometry
of the spheres, local workers built the semi spherical domes assembled with arches and rings
of steel rods.

the building consists of a metallic, glossy exterior, with colorful interiors.


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


'nestle application group' building


stairs into the laboratory


laboratory


'nestle application group' building

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Designboom - Weblog, on April 30, 2009 11:38 PM

AP: "Using U.S. military might to coerce Iran to halt its nuclear program would yield only temporary results, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, adding that sanctions make more sense."

Everything stems from that judgment.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 30, 2009 8:52 PM

Like this one from Bloomberg: "Chrysler Lenders Tried Obama's Patience, Lost Game of Chicken"

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 30, 2009 8:50 PM

Elephants and Jason Polan.

Digg This    Save to Del.icio.us

Originally posted by Jen Bekman from Personism, on April 30, 2009 8:46 PM

A group of Kenyan Women’s Organizations has asked thousands of Kenyan women to go on “sex strike” to avert rising ethnic tensions in the east African nation.  Fear is spreading across Kenya that the heightened feuding between rival political parties will lead to renewed instability and violence across the country which has occurred as recently as early 2008.  The hope of the protesters is that the denial of sex to men around Kenya will help them to reconsider the deadly course on which the nation is currently headed.

The strike intends to take both the high road and low road, with women’s groups hoping to persuade the wives of both the Prime Minister and President to “just say no” to their husbands’ advances, while plans are being put in place to pay prostitutes to not work during the weeklong protest. 

While this form of protest certainly has a rich history, spanning thousands if not millions of years, it generally takes place on a more intimate, discrete, one to one basis.  Also working against the protesters is the fact that Kenyan law allows polygamy, giving husbands more options than one distraught wife, even in their own homes.  But this is certainly a novel idea and somewhat unprecedented form of social action.  It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

LINKS:

The Times (South Africa): Sex strike against Kenya chaos

ABC (Australia): Kenyan women on sex strike

UPI: Women’s group organizing Kenyan sex strike

Originally posted by Jon Popham from TakePart Social Action Network™, on April 30, 2009 6:00 PM

Michael Pollan spoke last month at the Georgia Organics Conference, and had a few choice words to say about the impact of industrial food production on climate change.  As my garden grows bigger every week, I am constantly reminded of the miracle of photosynthesis to produce food energy, which Michael smartly points out.  Watch the segment below, and check out the entire talk at Mother Nature Network

By removing ourselves from the industrial food system and eating locally as much as possible, we can reduce the stress placed upon the planet and our bodies.  Learn more about climate friendly foods in the Act section below.

Originally posted by Danny Jensen from TakePart Social Action Network™, on April 30, 2009 5:36 PM

Proving its planned takeover of the world is not just the stuff of Super Bowl ads, Hulu announced today that Walt Disney Co. will become a full partner and investor in the online video-sharing venture. Disney’s addition means that three of the four major networks (Disney’s ABC, Newscorp’s Fox and GE’s NBC) now have a financial stake in the media-sharing site, putting it in a prime position to compete with web giant YouTube.

Following months of negotiations, Disney has agreed to purchase a 25 percent share in the company, and provide Hulu.com exclusive rights to post episodes of hit ABC shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Lost. Disney will also be given a major say in the website’s growth as it finalizes plans to take the platform global within the next year.

The added content will make Hulu the major source for television shows on the web, giving it a leg up on competitors who lack legal access to the latest TV releases. With three media giants keyed into the website’s success, Hulu is already the distributor of choice for the networks, and may become a major vehicle for change as TV adjusts to the web. This may prove dangerous for YouTube, which has been struggling to monetize the bandwidth-sucking behemoth that is has become. (This month, YouTube announced that it will offer a paid movie rental program to try to raise profits.)

Due in part to its network support, since its launch just 18 months ago Hulu has become the third largest video-sharing site on the web after YouTube and Fox Interactive.  According to Reuters, 380 million videos were streamed from the site in March alone, which is still far behind YouTube’s count of 5.9 billion.

Originally posted by Travis Kaya from TakePart Social Action Network™, on April 30, 2009 4:38 PM

Photos from Eneas, Héctor Raúl González M., and sarihuella.
View more photos in Swine Influenza (Flu) Porcina México and Influenza 2009: Free distribution photos.

Originally posted by Heather Champ from Flickr Blog, on April 30, 2009 4:24 PM

Yankees beers of the world. did they not allocate money for signs here, or did joba's two year old create the design?

Originally posted by Sara Pepitone from Scoreboard Gourmet, on April 30, 2009 4:08 PM

The folks at Lostpedia have a great interview with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the producers of Lost. I just loooove the fact that the writers / producers of the show actually rely on Lostpedia every once in a while for information about their own show...

You know, obviously one of the questions that Carlton and I get asked very often is like “Is there a Lost Bible that has all the details of the show? Is there a database?”, and our answer to that question is “Yeah we have this guy named Gregg Nations, who is the keeper of all the information”, but there is also a website that is like Wikipedia, that is sort of fan aggregated, that has sort of every little detail about the show ... When we've visited the site we are incredibly impressed with sort of the level of detail. There are occasions where we basically say “What was Juliet's husband's first name?”, and if Gregg is not sitting in his office we will log into Lostpedia to get that answer.

One of my favorite meta-discussions with fellow Lost fans is debating just how much the show's arc has been pre-determined by the producers and writing team, and how much they're making it up as they go along. And yesterday a few of us at the office realized -- if the Lost producers are relying on Lostpedia for information about their own show...is there an opportunity for Lostpedia to hack some misinformation into the show itself? And if that happened, would that information then become Lost canon, which would mean that Lostpedia then needs to treat their misinformation as real information?

Thinking through a self-referential hack like that hurts my head...it's almost like trying to figure out how time travel works.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on April 30, 2009 4:06 PM

My new seats at yankee stadium. hate the no back, but not as much as i hate the lack of clear definition between each seat. small people severely penalised in bleachers. i have half a seat, possibly a quarter. all men, not small surrounding me and taking my space. they all owe me a dollar

Originally posted by Sara Pepitone from Scoreboard Gourmet, on April 30, 2009 3:59 PM

From Human landscapes from above on the Big Picture.

Originally posted by btrott from Stupidfool.org, on April 30, 2009 3:41 PM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on April 30, 2009 3:20 PM

* Photo from summer 2007: Drool warning.

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on April 30, 2009 3:04 PM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on April 30, 2009 2:46 PM

Superman is know for his strength and superpowers. He does all the work. He can save people all by himself without the help of anyone else. Why shouldn’t he do all that? After all he’s, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Some people may die when Superman does his work, but he is a superhero and will save the world from bad things.

Leaders on the other hand empower others. Leaders don’t do all the work on their own, but instead inspire other people to create something amazing, to work towards a cause, or to move a project or humanity to a better place. When a leader is present, everyone works and often together. Gandhi is known for renouncing violence and empowering others to do the same. Really, what good is creating anything for people if everyone is injured or dead? JFK is known so well for asking people what they can do for their country. He empowered others.  When a leader is truly leading, people aren’t left behind, but brought along and inspired into action.

In the design practice we also see these two extremes. We talk about genius design and design as the silver bullet. We also talk about participatory design and user innovation.

The distinction of these two extremes occurred to me during a leadership class I recently took. It wasn’t explicitly part of the curriculum, but it occurred to me how much time I’d spent trying to be a hero in my work when I thought I was being a leader. Trying to be a hero only worked out so-so. I’m now committed to empowering others in their work and ideas. I don’t always do this perfectly, but I sure  find I’m more relaxed and able to cause and create new things I didn’t think were possible.

What about you? In your work, are you a hero or are you a leader? What has worked? What hasn’t?

Originally posted by Julia from Adaptive Path, on April 30, 2009 2:34 PM

Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch

Last month Amazon released the free Kindle application for the iPhone in the US [App Store link], shortly after the Kindle 2 hit the market. If you haven't used it yet, it works quite well. Users can buy books (but not subscriptions) from the Kindle Store via Mobile Safari for reading on their iPhones, although the purchasing process is easier from a desktop browser. Unlike the Kindle, the iPhone app is able to display color images, but it lacks text-to-speech as well as a direct connection to the Kindle Store. Whispersync, which synchronizes ebooks between the iPhone app and Kindle, works as advertised.

A few weeks ago, we posted a comparison of ebook readers featuring, among others, the iPhone app Stanza [App Store link]. As Steve mentioned, Stanza works with nearly every ebook format, even Project Gutenberg etexts. I only used Stanza briefly to check it out and I can say that the UI was very nice. Additionally, the folks who created Stanza have an existing relationship with ebook seller Fictionwise. In fact, Fictionwise created an ebook store just for Stanza users.

This week, we've learned that Amazon has acquired the company behind Stanza. We can only assume that aspects of Stanza will make it into a future release of Kindle for the iPhone.

TUAWAmazon has acquired Stanza originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Dave Caolo from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on April 30, 2009 2:00 PM

I think most of us can see that despite some painful setbacks, and likely more to come, time is definitely on the side of marriage equality in the United States. But are we hitting some sort of tipping point under a new administration and with a rush of recent successes in several states around the country?

A few days ago, the NYT/CBS poll showed support for full marriage equality jumped a full 9 points over the course of one month -- from 33% support last month to 42% this month. According to NYT/CBS that's now the plurality position -- with the 'nos' divided between 28% oppose any legal recognition and 25% supporting civil unions. The overall numbers are very encouraging. But I was inclined to chalk the dramatic move over the course of a month up to statistical noise.

But a new poll out just this afternoon from ABC/WAPO shows 49% of the population supporting full marriage equality versus 46% opposing, the first time more have supported than opposed. We don't have a similar question in a recent ABC/WAPO poll. The last time the question was asked was in 2006 when 36% supported and 58% opposed (in itself a dramatic shift over a less than three years).

The counterpoint is a Quinnipiac poll that came out today showing 38% support and 55% opposition -- virtually unchanged from when Quinnipiac asked a similar question question last year (for 36%, con 55%). But here too the difference may be rooted in a subtle difference in the way the question was asked.

Last year Quinnipiac asked "In general, do you support or oppose same-sex marriage?" -- a similar wording to the other polls. But this year their question read: "Would you support or oppose a law in your state that would allow same-sex couples to get married?" (emphasis added).

It's speculation. But adding "in your state" may trigger a bit more discomfort in people who are only just warming to the idea.

All told, though, the trend, perhaps an accelerating one, is quite encouraging.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 30, 2009 1:41 PM

Suck it, lower 48! Anyway, good news from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Twitter, which looks like someone took a cheesy poster from the seventies and vomited a bunch of stars on it. (And I say that as someone who works on a site whose horrible design was absolutely deliberate.) Seriously, it’s like an unholy combination of a Charlie’s Angels pin-up and “Hang in there, kitty.” Yuck.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 30, 2009 12:20 PM

(via

jedwards

)

Originally posted by finn from Modcult, on April 30, 2009 11:58 AM

Captain Canuck recently sent me a package with this rainbow beaut inside:

See what a nice guy he is to send me ultra shiny serial numbered rookie photo event worn/used red and black jersey swatch mojo?

You can get your own cards direct from Canada as Canuck is having a Stanley Cup Playoff contest right now. The deadline is 5pm Mountain time tomorrow, all you need to do is pick the winners of some hockey playoff games. The prize is insanely awesome so put in those picks.

Since Captain Canuck is being nice enough to give away free swag, be nice to him back and see if you can find these two cards to complete his 2008 Allen & Ginter set. #312 Brandon Wood and #313 Harriet Beecher Stowe. Someone out there has to have doubles of these things.

Hooray for Canada!

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on April 30, 2009 11:35 AM

If you've followed Ovid's use Perl journal recently (and you should), you've seen a lot of practical discussion over the use of Perl roles in his work at the Beeb. There's also plenty of theoretical discussion.

I joined the Perl 6 design team in 2003. I spent a lot of time thinking about problems in every object system I'd ever seen. When we released Apocalypse 12 in 2004, we included a new feature called roles. The design borrowed from a Smalltalk idea called Traits, but (as usual) we Perl people have our own take on things.

Rakudo Perl 6 provides a very usable implementation of roles, and the Moose object system for Perl 5 allows you to them as well.

Roles are different from so-called traditional class-based or prototype-based or even multidispatch object systems in several important ways.

Role Goals

In my mind, object orientation provides two essential features: encapsulation and polymorphism. A well-designed object oriented system models domain concepts along well-defined boundaries, hiding internal details from the outside world and treating like concepts as like concepts because they share the same interfaces.

Careful readers will note that the word "inheritance" does not appear in that paragraph. That is no accident.

Polymorphism is an interesting concept. I see it as providing genericity and extensibility. I may not know all of the potential uses for an object when I create it, but I need to have an accurate idea of how the object behaves. I need to be able to name that collection of behaviors. If I've created the object well, the collection of behaviors the object provides has a meaningful and understandable name.

A role is a name for a discrete collection of behaviors.

When you want to perform operations on an object, you need to know what kinds of behaviors that object supports. Is it a GUI widget? Does it represent a customer? Can you introspect it? Can you serialize it? Does it know how to log debugging information?

In effect, you're asking the object "What do you do? Do you perform this role?"

Once you start asking that question, you can (and should) stop caring about how the object performs its role. I've said nothing about inheritance, or delegation, or composition, or allomorphism. Those are mechanisms. Those mechanisms should be well-encapsulated inside the object where you can't poke or prod at them because they're none of your business.

The important question is not "Do you have a method called log_debug_output?" or "Do you inherit from DebugLogger?" but "Do you perform the DebugLogging role?"

That's subtle, so let me repeat it a different way. If you write code mindful of roles and you don't know the specific class of an object you receive but you want to call a method called log_debug_output on that object and have it behave as you expect, you want to check that that object performs the DebugLogging role. It doesn't matter how the object has that method. It could inherit it from a superclass. It could mix it in from a collection of unbound accessory methods. It could delegate it to a contained object or proxy it to a remote object. It could reimplement the method directly. It could compose it in from a role. It doesn't matter how the object has that method -- that's none of your business outside of the object -- only that it does have the method, and that it understands that method in terms of the DebugLogging role.

That last part is also subtle. The duck typing hypothesis suggests that method names alone are suitable to determine appropriate behavior. Roles avoids problems there by requiring disambiguation through naming. A TreeLike role's bark method has an obviously different context from a DogLike role's bark method.

Roles allow you to express (or require) context-specific semantics, especially when combined with your type system. A role-aware type system allows you to express yourself with better genericity: as long as you hew to a well-defined interface and do not violate the encapsulation of objects, you can enforce well-typed programs based on the specific behavior of objects regardless of their implementation.

This is very theoretical. Don't worry; I'll show specific examples in future entries.

Role Features

Roles are more than just tagged collections of behavior. You can think of them as partial, uninstantiable classes.

Roles can provide default implementations of behavior they require. By composing a role into a class, you can import its methods (and other attributes) into the class directly at compile time. There are rules for disambiguation and conflict resolution and requirements and provisions, but you get the rough idea. A role also provides a mechanism for code reuse.

Parametric roles take the concept even further by customizing their composable behavior based on arguments provided at composition time. They're intensely powerful.

The final -- and perhaps most subtle -- feature of roles comes from building them into your type system. Every class implies the existence of a role. If you declare a DebugLogging class, other code can access the DebugLogging role. They may not be able to compose in behavior from that class -- unless you write the class to make that possible -- but they can say that they perform the DebugLogging role, with all of the concomitant role composition checks to enforce this, to produce an object which may successfully substitute for a DebugLogging object anywhere that expects a DebugLogging object -- even though there's no formal relationship between the original class and the class which performs its role.

As I said, this is powerful but theoretical. Tomorrow I'll discuss roles versus inheritance.

Originally posted by chromatic from Modern Perl Books, on April 30, 2009 10:56 AM

Bummed that I can't use Hatchet with the iPhone Kindle app. AFAIK, you need a Kindle to get the email address that you can use to send attachments to your devices. Perhaps I should just use Instapaper but I've gotten used to page-flipping interface on the Kindle app.

Tags: hatchet  iphone  kindle 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 30, 2009 9:49 AM

GM just announced it was laying of 21,000 more of its workers, as a means of assurring the Treasury Department the company is worthy of more bailout money. A Treasury official was quoted as saying approvingly that the goal is a "slimmed-down" GM.

What? Having General Motors or Chrysler cut tens of thousands of jobs in order to be eligible for a government bailout reminds me of "saving" Vietnam by bombing it to smithereens. Aren't we giving these companies billions of taxpayer dollars to save jobs? If not, we're just transferring money from taxpayers to GM and Chrysler bondholders and shareholders.

I agree with those who say the United States needs an auto industry. But there's no point spending tens of billions of taxpayer dollars for an auto industry that's a tiny fragment of what it was before. We could achieve that objective by doing nothing.

Besides, as I've said before, the "American auto industry" shouldn't be defined as auto companies whose headquarters are in the United States. The true "American auto industry" is Americans who make automobiles. At the rate the Big Three are shrinking even as they’re bailed out, foreign automakers with American plants may soon employ more Americans than the Big Three do. The Big Three have gone global anyway. A Pontiac G8 shipped by GM from Australia contains far less American labor than a BMW X5 assembled in the United States. General Motors' European subsidiaries include Opel and Saab. Ford also has operations around the world. It even owns Volvo.

The purpose of any auto bailout ought to be to help American auto workers keep their jobs, regardless of whether they work for GM or Toyota or anyone else. Or if they lose their jobs, help them get new ones that pay almost as well. Yet we’re doing exactly the opposite: We're paying GM and Chrysler billions of taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat while they cut tens of thousands of American jobs and slash wages. There's no good reason why taxpayers should foot any of this bill unless the Big Three agree to keep their workers employed while they try to turn themselves around.

Originally posted by Robert Reich from Robert Reich's Blog, on April 30, 2009 9:20 AM

This has to be one of the most sublimely wonderful UIs I've ever seen. Every little detail has been worked out. But don't just look at the top level of it, get in and poke around, the sense of 3d space has been polished and refined to such an extent that every little thing is a delight to interact with. I think I need to go learn some actionscript. Go on now and dive in The site is also a finalist in the 2009 National Design Awards.
Via Pentagram: Lisa Strausfeld has been selected as a finalist in the Interaction Design section of this year’s National Design Awards presented by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. This is the first year the awards have recognized interaction design as a category. Lisa's co-nominees are Potion and Perceptive Pixel. The New York Times calls this year's awards "the 10th annual incarnation of the design world’s Oscars.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Monoscope, on April 30, 2009 8:12 AM

Finally, just the break the bright pink and surreal dessert haven needed: The Gwyneth stamp of approval. Today on her newsletter GOOP (strangely not updated online yet), Paltrow suggests Sweetiepie, Centrico, Landmarc, and Alice's Tea Cup as good places to take the kiddies. [GOOP]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on April 30, 2009 7:10 AM

We must now stop accepting orders for the doughs and batters ratios chart.  All orders received up to this point will be filled, any subsequent orders will be refunded. Thanks for the enthusiastic response to it. I'm making some changes to this site, including the addition of a high resolution PDF of the chart.  Perhaps one day, we'll put together charts for all the ratio sections.  But for now, it's time to get back to work.

One last note on all this. The new book is entirely my own creation, but it was not created in a vacuum.  In addition to two chefs who looked over drafts of the manuscript and made valuable comments, Dave Cruz, chef de cuisine at Ad Hoc, and Cory Barrett, pastry wizard at Lola, three other individuals were invaluable. Michael Pardus, my skills chef at the CIA a dozen years ago, was always available for discussion and advice; I leaned on him often.  Bob del Grosso, aka The Hunger Artist, read and commented on the the first and second drafts of the manuscript and was enormously helpful from both food science and literary vantage points. And last, Marlene Newell, an Ontario-based self-taught cook and the creator and manager of the cooking forum Cook's Korner, ran, managed, and kept track of all the testing of the recipes; Marlene was invaluable, I'm grateful to her, to the testers she marshaled and for her excellent site.

Originally posted by michael ruhlman from ruhlman.com, on April 30, 2009 6:28 AM

How I love this manipulative Danish man!

Lars von Trier is known for many things and at the top of the list is his founding of the Dogme95 cinema movement, his seeming hatred of America (and refusal to come here), his horrible treatment of women in his films and his tendency to work his actors to death.

That being said he, I think, chooses to tell stories about the way the world is - not the world that should be - and he often tells uncomfortable stories to do so.  I think his films give us the opportunity to think about why they make us feel bad/cry/feel angry.  And in turn, that allows us to look at the world around us.

For his birthday check out the trailer for his latest film, Antichrist.  Which looks terrifying to me.

Originally posted by Gina Telaroli from TakePart Social Action Network™, on April 30, 2009 6:00 AM

Joe's going to get himself in hot water for these remarks on the swine flu this morning on the Today show, though kudos for his bracing honesty. It beats officialdom's "now is not the time to panic" mantra (when should you ever panic?):

Biden's office just released the following statement saying he wasn't going any farther than the official government line:

"On the Today Show this morning the Vice President was asked what he would tell a family member who was considering air travel to Mexico this week. The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the Administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the Vice President has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week. As the President said just last night, every American should take the same steps you would take to prevent any other flu: keep your hands washed; cover your mouth when you cough; stay home from work if you're sick; and keep your children home from school if they're sick."

You be the judge.

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on April 30, 2009 5:22 AM

Shared by anildash
This is goddamn service journalism.

Attention New York City cat lovers! There are at least three little round beds of catmint growing in Stuyvesant Square Park, at East 16th Street and Second Avenue, tucked just behind the gates on the west side of Second Avenue, right where you enter from the crosswalk. (The park across from Friends School, where Julianne Moore is dropping off her children now, not the park across from Beth Israel, where Jews are convalescing.) The plant looks like mint, obviously, and grows in a circle with a little hole in the middle. Bring a leaf home to your cat friend today, he will thank you with insanity and perhaps violence.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from The Awl, on April 30, 2009 4:38 AM

Today is my 40th birthday, and I have an announcement: I’m not teaching any more.

I love teaching, and my students have been truly excellent — motivated, creative, fun. However, as the company has grown, the weeks that I spend teaching have become more and more problematic. When I return from a week of teaching, I rush around trying to write new materials, mentor the other instructors, and find new classes. Well, it turns out that these tasks that I have been shirking are actually the most important responsibilities that I have.

I must stop teaching to create time to write new materials, mentor my instructors, and find new classes/instructors. Also, there are two small boys who need me to spend more time around the house.

This change has been a long time coming. In preparation for this day, I’ve assembled a team of excellent instructors to take my place at the front of the classroom. Scott Ritchie and Juan Pablo Claude will be teaching desktop Cocoa development. Joe Conway and Brian Hardy will be teaching iPhone development. Mark Fenoglio will teach C and Objective-C. And I will be the puppet master. (”Bwah-ha-ha-ha”)

I will teach the three classes that are currently on the schedule under my name: June 13 - 19 in Atlanta, July 13 - 17 in Germany, and July 27 - 31 in Atlanta. (Click here to sign up for one of these classes)

Also, Juan Pablo and I are finishing the sequel to “Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X”. It is not a book yet (and won’t be for at least a year), but Juan Pablo will be teaching it in Atlanta the week of July 13 - 17. Contact Jaye Boyer to reserve a seat: (404) 931-3359 (We are still adding material to the book, but here is the state of the Table of Contents. We are taking suggestions for things you would like to see added to the class.)

I will not be at WWDC this year, but Scott, Juan Pablo, Joe, and Brian will. They will have on cowboy hats. If you see them, please introduce yourself. They are all brilliant programmers and genuinely kind men. I would not leave my students in the hands of anyone but the most knowledgeable, articulate, and patient instructors.

If you are one of my students, I sincerely hope that the stuff I taught you has proved useful and that the experience itself was satisfying. I can assure you: the eight years that I have spent at the front of the classroom have been truly gratifying to me. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.

Originally posted by Aaron Hillegass from possible/probable, on April 30, 2009 3:36 AM

Citing this Amazon forum, Publishers Lunch Deluxe reports: We extracted about 75 percent of the responses on age (representing about 700 responses, taking equally from the earliest and most recent...

Originally posted by Urban Prankster from Blogs.com: Economics Posts, on April 30, 2009 3:35 AM

Is there any innovation left in online news design? Let's look at the experimental msnbc.com story page which creates layers for text, photos, data, videos, etc. Craig Saila describes how it's attempting to forgo pageview-driven logic in favor of "capturing the intent of what a page view is."

Originally posted by rex@fimoculous.com (Rex Sorgatz) from Fimoculous.com, on April 29, 2009 10:00 PM

OK, so yesterday I heard from a friend that it was reported that the government spent an estimated $360,000 for that “Photo Op” debacle which had the President’s 747 flying low over New York City (good plan!), escorted by a fighter jet (luckily the President wasn’t on board).

I heard what they wanted was a shot of Air Force One (of course, it’s only called Air Force One if the President is actually on board, so we’ll just call it “Big Blue and White 747″) flying over the statue of Liberty with Manhattan in the background. There were probably more cost efficient ways getting that image, and so in literally less than two minutes I hacked together the composite you see above in Adobe Photoshop CS4, using a background from iStockPhoto.com and an official White House shot of “Big Blue and White 747″ from their web site.

Now, here’s my plea to the White House. Rather than spending $360,000 somewhat foolishly (wink, wink), whatdayasay we work out a deal?

I’m trying to raise money for furniture and household appliances for an orphange in Kenya (run by Americans), and I’d be happy to actually take 90 minutes (or more; whatever it takes), and really do the compositing job right, and all you have to do is buy a freezer for around, say $360. You can keep the other $359,640 or give it to GM.

Anyway, by next weekend my schedule will have freed up, so if you’re interested just drop me a line here or call my cell phone (you know the number).

Originally posted by Scott from Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby, on April 29, 2009 9:59 PM

Wow! The 100th episode of Lost did not disappoint. It had everything. There were revelations, answers, excitement, emotion, theories and death. We finally got to see much more of Daniel's back story, which as we've seen before, doesn't always bode well for a character's chance of surviving the episode.

The highlights of Lost season 5 episode 14 (100th episode) "The Variable":

1. Charles Widmore is Daniel's father. I've suspected it all along but now there is confirmation. It does make sense since he has always funded all of Daniel's work, taken care of Theresa and was with Ellie on the Island. We still don't know who Penny's mother is/was. Is it possibly Eloise? Are Daniel and Penny full brother and sister or just half? Even though Eloise said to Widmore outside the hospital "Your daughter is inside", she could have meant "your" in the respect that the one he had custody of.

2. Desmond, Penny and little Charlie survived Ben's attack and are all okay. I really think, and hope, they will all make it to the end of the series alive. It would just be too sad and tragic to have anything happen to any of them.

3. Daniel spoke to young Charlotte on the Island, just as Charlotte said before she died. She even mentioned eating chocolate before dinner again.

4. We now know where the very first scene of Season 5 "Because you Left" came from. It was repeated tonight as Daniel went down into the Orchid.

5. We now know for sure that it was Charles Widmore that planted the plane at the bottom of the ocean.

6. There are numerous references to the "Incident" at the Swan. Daniel told Chang that it would be catastophic and that he should get everyone off the Island. When Chang asked how he knew this, Daniel told him he was from the future and that Miles was his son, also from the future. This must have been the reason that Chang sent his wife and baby Miles off the Island. I wonder if that might be why Miles lied and said Daniel was crazy. He didn't want to be sent off the Island.

7. There was another discussion of the Incident between Daniel and Jack when Daniel told Jack about his plan to change the future by preventing the Incident from occurring. He told Jack that his original theory of "what happened, happened" is wrong. He had been focusing too much on the constant and forgot about the variable. The variable is them, people and they can change what is going to happen.

8. Daniel was shot and killed? by his own mother. Did Eloise really send him to the Island for this reason as Daniel said? Could she have really planned that, and if so why? What Daniel was saying that he could change the future, I had a feeling that if he died it would be because maybe he was originally right that what happened, happened and this was a way to prevent him from stopping the Incident.

9. How are Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley, Miles and Jin going to get away from Dharma and to the beach? Radinsky is crazed with anger.

10. Sawyer was completely against bringing Daniel to the Hostiles. When Kate agreed to take them, at Jack's request, Juliet gave code the alarm code. Why did she go against Sawyer's wishes. Did she do so to get Kate away from Sawyer?

11. Sawyer had 2 nicknames for Daniel: Twitchie and H.G. Wells (author of the Time Machine).

12. J.J. Abrams shoutouts:

• During the title sequence at the beginning, stars began shining and the Starship Enterprise appearing and it suddenly became a Star Trek commercial. J.J. Abrams' is the director is the new Star Trek.
• There is a Wired magazine at Daniel's house. J.J. Abrams is the guest editor of this month's issue of Wired.

13. Noteworthy quotes from The Variable:

• In the hospital, Penny asks Eloise if her son is Benjamin Linus. Eloise: "Good Lord, no!"
• Hurley, after finding out that the island group traveled back to 1954, "You guys were in 1954, you mean like Fonzie time?"
• Daniel to Jack when explaining his new variable theory, "Any one of us can die Jack".
• Daniel as a child after his mother told him that he doesn't have time for the piano or other distractions, "I can make time mom". Eliose: "If only you could."

14. How did Daniel get the last name Farady instead of Hawking or Widmore?

15. It looks like Jack is going to try to carry out Daniel's plan. Will he be able to succeed?

16. When they all get to the beach, will Rose and Bernard be there?


Bookmark this on Delicious

Originally posted by Jennifer from Connect with your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology, on April 29, 2009 9:00 PM

Shared by Jake Dobkin
in the end, cameron shoots ferris, right?

More recent Ferris Bueller goodness from Metafilter: the Fight Club theory.

My favorite thought-piece about Ferris Bueller is the "Fight Club" theory, in which Ferris Bueller, the person, is just a figment of Cameron's imagination, like Tyler Durden, and Sloane is the girl Cameron secretly loves.

One day while he's lying sick in bed, Cameron lets "Ferris" steal his father's car and take the day off, and as Cameron wanders around the city, all of his interactions with Ferris and Sloane, and all the impossible hijinks, are all just played out in his head. This is part of the reason why the "three" characters can see so much of Chicago in less than one day -- Cameron is alone, just imagining it all.

Whoa. (via cyn-c)

Tags: ferrisbuellersdayoff  fightclub  movies 

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on April 29, 2009 6:48 PM

Lazer Urbanize Tron Helmet, Ibex Wool, Hugga Tee, Rudy Glasses --- seemed stylish to me. The crew at Hugga HQ was laughing.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Originally posted by DL Byron from Bike Hugger, on April 29, 2009 6:21 PM

MySQL 5.4 comes with Innodb engine which seems to have much better performance than MySQL 5.0 - this is due to locking and IO patches from Google integrated in this release (which are similar to appropriate Percona patches) as well as some unique fixes such as different innodb_thread_concurrency handling and other optimization.

Should we take Innodb from MySQL 5.4 and merry it with unique Percona patches (adaptive checkpoints, additional undo slots, profiling, etc) and integrate it with MySQL 5.0 ? How useful would you find it ?

Currently we see a lot of customers not quite ready to update to MySQL 5.1 in particular as there is little in this version which benefits their workload, which consists of the queries running just fine on 5.0.
5.4 especially introduces optimizer changes which besides positive impact for some queries may break something which works well now.

In general I find the current situation with Innodb is quite strange - leaving apart Innodb derivatives, like XtraDB there are 3 innodb versions around. There is MySQL 5.0 version which did not get significant changes for around 2 years now. There is Innodb Plugin which has significant architectural changes such as new storage format, compression and fast index build. Innodb plugin 1.0.3 got some Google changes for CPU scalability but not IO patches. I expected Innodb to announce plugin is now stable at users conference and may be release the version with complete set of changes from google but instead we get MySQL 5.4 release with yet another set of Innodb changes. Why not to include plugin in MySQL 5.4 with relevant performance changes instead ? This would highlight it status as future Innodb code base.

Now I’m confused - if Innodb Plugin is not taking place of default Innodb in MySQL 5.4 will this ever going to happen ?

Looking at initial benchmarks I’m very impressed with Sun Performance Team work though it looks like there was not a lot of cooperation with Innodb team (otherwise I’d expect plugin to have same codebase). I also do not think development was done in true open source spirit - trading making a big marketing splash for true openness.

Where does this leave XtraDB ? The new MySQL 5.4 release is faster than XtraDB in some workloads and this is great. Competition makes the blood move and keep developer excited. We will look into the changes and adopt the best to XtraDB.

---

Entry posted by peter | No comment

Add to: | | | |

Originally posted by peter from MySQL Performance Blog, on April 29, 2009 5:58 PM

So this is the kind of thing Awl Business Manager David Cho thinks might help to expand our demographic. Also this.

Anyone who knows the lad well might suggest that David Cho’s ideal readership is David Cho, but perhaps I’m being a little too dismissive. Without attempting to prejudice you one way or the other, I’d like to very sincerely ask you to let us know if this is the kind of shit you want us cluttering up the website with. I promise not to take it personally either way, even if you inexplicably decide that perhaps Cho has a point in terms of growing an audience and appealing to a wider group of advertiser-friendly readers. But, again, it’s completely up to you! I look forward to your responses.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 5:26 PM

Nicolas Lampert Pittsburgh Crawler $20 A silkscreen print of a recent image that is part of the machine-animal collage series. silkscreen 19" x 12" off white colored paper with visible fibers signed/unnumbered

Originally posted by Nicolas Lampert from Just Seeds, on April 29, 2009 5:11 PM

ABC's Jake Tapper just asked Obama if he thought that the Bush administration "sanctioned torture" in its use of waterboarding and Obama, after a moment's hesitation, said "Waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it's torture."

In his opening statement he also said that his administration put an end to torture, and there's no reason to say that unless you think torture was happening. But it's probably the most direct admission to date and, given recent events, it comes at noteworthy time.

After making that acknowledgment, Obama reiterated many of the points he made when he addressed the CIA after greenlighting the release of the Bush-era torture memoranda--that torture makes the country less safe, is untrue to American values, and less effective than humane interrogation techniques.

Originally posted by Brian Beutler from TPM Election Central, on April 29, 2009 4:23 PM

Shared by Eve
Brock! Is this a two cats prototype possibility?

On behalf of all of us here at The Awl, I wanted to ask Ken Layne, proprietor of Wonkette, some questions about how to run a website, and also about the politics, which he supposedly knows about. And about how the world is flat, and how bad that last fake “Star Wars” movie was. Also the hobos in our neighborhood. So we did it on video! (PLEASE NOTE: It takes a second to buffer. PLEASE NOTE: Please don’t be horrified by The Awl’s offices. ALSO: I am an idiot.) Anyway, it’s just like BLOGGING HEADS, but half as long and with slightly more cursing, and with more drinking and smoking. We like to call it: Talking Hats. (But we are open to suggestions.)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 4:21 PM

In which we peer into the minds of our beloved SNY commentators with a random quote from a recent game...

Gary: ...and it wasn't his lower leg like most guys, it was his upper leg. Just a gruesome injury.
Keith: His femur.
Gary: Your anatomy skills are fantastic.
Keith: Not to be misconstrued with the humerus; the upper arm.
Gary: Why would you confuse the humerus and the femur?
Keith: Because you're so humorous.
Gary: Wow... I think that's overstating the case.
Keith: I'm feeling kind of chirpy this morning, so bear with me.
Gary: You probably didn't sleep at all last night, did ya?
Keith: No.

Originally posted by Mike from Mandatory Mustache, on April 29, 2009 4:19 PM

Last Saturday I was lucky to be able to take part (at least marginally) in a great project organized by the Public Ad Campaign. Dozens and dozens of artists and volunteers descended on Manhattan (at least from Midtown down) and first whitewashed a significant number of corporate posters and advertisement spaces (all of which were technically illegal), and then went back hours later and covered them with art. Part of the idea was to show the city that these spaces could be used for something way more interesting, engaging, and ultimately more democratic, than advertisements. Turns out 4 people ended up getting arrested, 2 whitewashers, a videographer, and one of the artists. It's interesting to me that the whitewashers took the biggest hit for destroying the ads, not the artists, who were doing graffiti, something which the city claims is much more criminal.

Personally I was feeling the whitewash more than the art part, but that might be because I've been in a serious "Less Is More" mood of late, and I really like the visual breathing room the whitewashing created. For me in was enough to allow the city to project its own ideas onto these newly blank canvasses, there was no need to immediately fill them back up. I guess in this way I'm thinking more in line with the European anti-advertising movements that have developed in the past 10 years, like Stop Pub in France, which regularly covers ad space with blank white posters.

There has been a bunch of media coverage about the project, but the best 2 places to read about it are on the Public Ad Campaign's own website, and on Animal NY's blog. I'd love to hear what other people think. Both about ad creep and ways to combat it, but also the differences and similarities between corporate advertising and street art, so much of which has basically become advertisements for the artist's current of future art world career.

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on April 29, 2009 11:51 AM

Sport Science recently tested to see whether professional golfer Padraig Harrington could drive the ball further than normal by employing a Happy Gilmore swing.

The good stuff doesn't get going until around 3:00. The running swing technique increased Harrington's distance by an average of 30 yards but his accuracy suffered. The split-screen view of his stationary and running swings is amazing...it's the same swing.

Tags: golf  happygilmore  movies  padraigharrington  sports  video 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 29, 2009 10:59 AM

Here's a really nice write up on Favianna's recent trip to Toronto, from the Rabble website. Click here.

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on April 29, 2009 10:20 AM

I went to see “Tyson,” the documentary about aging supermodel and VH1’s 1995 man of the year Tyson Beckford—oh wait, no, it was about the boxer Mike Tyson—because you and A. O. Scott told me to. This is a terrible movie, and I hate you and A. O. Scott.

Kidding, I don’t hate Tony Scott, even though apparently he hates me because he thinks I am another writer, who is named Josh Stein, who once wrote something nasty about him on Gawker while I was on vacation and not at all there or at all being Josh Stein. Which leads one, or at least me, to believe that Tony Scott doesn’t understand the Internet, which leads me to question his larger understanding of textual strategies (ha, it is the early 90s up in here!) and authorship and the shapes of functional things overall. Therefore I question his understanding of film sometimes, particularly in this case, because, though he notes that “Tyson” is “not an entirely trustworthy movie,” he still thinks it is “profoundly honest.”

Anyone who has been to at least one mandatory bad 12-step meeting or prison visit has seen this sort of not-really profound honesty before. It’s Mike Tyson, the subject and also a producer of the film, sitting on his couch, in what appears to be one of the two actual interviews conducted with the subject of the film, spewing his guts out. (The third view of Tyson in the film is of him gazing pensively into the Pacific in golden California beach lighting, which, whatever, WHY.) The interviews were supposedly conducted over the course of a week, though Tyson is in the same shirt and pose for the vast majority of the footage—and this week was while Tyson was in rehab, apparently, a strange fact which makes everything make less sense. Rehab for what? For why?

This first-person telling of Tyson’s life, even though in this case it originates from him, is already familiar. It is the story of his life presented in his rape trial, and reproduced by the press.

From the account of the trial coverage in “Social Meanings of News,” by Daniel Allen Berkowitz, a professor at the University of Iowa:

The second primary depiction of Tyson in the press portrayed a victim. Emphasizing the hard poverty of his childhood in Brooklyn, this portrayal recounted Tyson’s orphaned life on the streets, his lengthy childhood criminal record, and his tenure at an upstate reform school…. Other reports, while not absolving Tyson of culpability, placed blame for Tyson’s fall on a larger system of entitlement that society grans to athletes….

This was Tyson’s narrative, presented entirely on his own. And it was fascinating, often, to hear him talk about himself! Sort of like a fun homeless person, waiting 90 minutes for a bus. He is quite a strange mammal so that is interesting to listen to.

The woman sitting next to me walked out shortly after Tyson glossed over his rape conviction (though maybe she just had to pee for 45 minutes and needed to take her bag and boyfriend with her and not come back?) and if it were really the early 90s I probably would have too. Maybe, it is possible, as Tyson says, that he did not rape a teenage Desiree Washington! And also maybe he did not beat his first wife! Maybe we don’t need to understand how a professional fighter would suddenly be so loony as to try to bite off an opponent’s ear twice, instead of finding some other way to deal with being head-butted. How would we know? This is an unusual problem for a documentary, in that we don’t learn the truth about anything. Maybe I know less about Mike Tyson than I did before.

It may be misplaced interest, but for me the most-fascinating unanswered questions have to do with money. Tyson has apparently spent it all, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, more than once. How did he both make it and spend it?

The film’s biggest mistake, though, is to proceed through Tyson’s life chronologically. Somewhere at the end, we learn that he has had six children. And we meet his ex-wife (Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele’s sister!) who is casually presented as the mother of his children, even though in real life she is only the mother of two of them.

Four more came from elsewhere. Who knows?

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 10:17 AM

Steve Brodner at Drawger; “Here’s to Obama’s 100 Days and our obsession with this arbitrary signifier. This piece for today’s LA Times shows Obama’s achievements, or those in progress, in the tidy out-box on the right. And Obama and Bo putting everything else to good use.”

Originally posted by Jocko from Jockohomo Datapanik, on April 29, 2009 10:17 AM

look up health code violations at dinner and which street you're likely to get mugged on the way home  

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on April 29, 2009 10:07 AM

Bone is a springy and salty wonder that is proving much more functional within the human body than originally thought.

The skeleton is a multipurpose organ, offering a ready source of calcium for an array of biochemical tasks, and housing the marrow where blood cells are born. Yet above all the skeleton allows us to locomote, which means it gets banged up and kicked around. Paradoxically, it copes with the abuse and resists breaking apart in a major way by microcracking constantly. "Bone microcracks, that's what it does," Dr. Ritchie said. "That's how stresses are relieved." [...] But like all forms of health care, bone repair doesn't come cheap, and maintaining skeletal integrity consumes maybe 40 percent of our average caloric budget.

The article leads off with the story of Harry Eastlack, whose body repaired itself with bone-building cells no matter what the injury, essentially giving him a not-so-Wolverine-like second skeleton. Here's a photo I found of Eastlack's skeleton, which is housed at the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians.

Tags: biology  bone  harryeastlack  medicine  science 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 29, 2009 9:38 AM

Photographer Jason Hawkes returns to The Big Picture once more, this time venturing away from London (seen previously here and here). Recently, Hawkes has been carrying his Nikon D3 aboard helicopters around the world, hanging out the doorway and capturing landscapes - most somehow affected by humans - below. Today, he has shared with us 26 more of his favorite photos from above France, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, the UK and more - with links to Google maps where available. (26 photos total)

Red vans awaiting shipment, parked on disused aerodrome at Upper Heyford Oxfordshire, UK. [google map] (© Jason Hawkes)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from The Big Picture, on April 29, 2009 9:32 AM

In honor of Barack Obama’s first hundred days—have you heard anything about that?—I put together a gallery of images inspired from the swine flu pandemic which might just show that Tupac Shakur is still alive, but in light of the news that the GDP dropped 6.1%, I decided it would be better if I presented a more sober face to the world, particularly given the dangerous conflict in Pakistan. So I deleted it. God, I am so over this day.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 9:05 AM

Fashion's always held a fascination with Cindy Sherman - and vice versa.

She's worked on ad campaigns with Marc Jacobs and titled a series of photographs "Fashion" - but now she's actually designed clothes.

She, along with costume designer Adam Kimmel's, outfitted the dancers in I Drink the Air Before me, Stephen Petronio's 25th Anniversary production which kicked off at the Joyce Theatre last night.

There are three sets of costumes, the middle features jumpsuits - the womens' look like this Alexander Wang and the mens' are reminiscent of this Stella from Spring 06 and the final set features a collection of perfectly striped tees.

We wish we could own a Cindy Sherman designed outfit, but watching one on a spectacular dancer isn't half bad.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Fashionista, on April 29, 2009 8:07 AM

EBay

Facebook

Flickr

Hotmail

Twitter

YouTube

Friendfeed

Just a few that occurred to me. More ideas? Let me know.

Or has someone already gathered these up somewhere? It wouldn’t surprise me, but if it’s out there I couldn’t find it.

UPDATE: I opened the comments, they were closed by mistake. Plus: Adding some more examples after the jump, and will keep adding as they come in or otherwise come to my attention.

LastFM

CarDomain.com

Goodreads (female)

Goodreads (male)

Garageband

MySpace

Tumblr

Yahoo!

Skype

Topix

Google Accounts

* Thx to Dan S. for CarDomain.com. Thx to E for eBay. Thx to Randy L. for Garageband & MySpace. [See comments for more credits.]

Originally posted by Rob Walker from MURKETING, on April 29, 2009 7:55 AM

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Astor Place: Though we all knew this was coming, it's still not easy for some to witness the final dismantling of the Starbucks on Astor Place East (a.k.a. the corner of Starbucks and Starbucks), which served its last Caramel Macchiato on Saturday. Walking by the 'Bucks this morning, a distraught passerby asked, "Is it gone forever?! It's my faaaavorite." Yes, indeed. It's gone for good. Head here if you need to properly mourn. RIP.
· Starbucks Astor Place East: Eater's Insta-Oral History [~E~]
· BREAKING 'Buckswire: Astor Place East Branch to Shutter!

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on April 29, 2009 7:54 AM

In recent years, Jane Austen has become one of the most celebrated writers in history. Many of her books, especially Pride and Prejudice, have had numerous adaptations of various kinds. Not only has Pride and Prejudice been made into both theatrical and television movies and stage shows, but there have also been many works based on the classic such as the films Bridget Jones's Diary and Bride and Prejudice and the recent book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now, Marvel Comics is getting in on the act and is publishing a five issue comic book of Jane Austen's most famous book.

Pride & Prejudice #1 (of 5) written by Nancy Butler and penciled by Hugo Petrus was recently released. You can see a sneak peek of a few pages of the comic here at Marvel Comics website. The comic has stayed mostly faithful to the book, however the language was been updated just enough to make it easier to understand. I actually love the language used in Austen's books, but I know that it is a turn-off to many people that would otherwise love her stories.

It would be wonderful if these comics would open up the world of Jane Austen to a whole new audience. Hopefully they would then move on to her books. Mr. Darcy is an iconic character that everyone should be familiar with. My favorite Jane Austen book is actually Sense and Sensibility, but that might be because I fell in love with the 1995 movie production written by and starring Emma Thompson. Maybe if the Pride & Prejudice comics work out, Marvel will make a Sense and Sensibility comic next.


Bookmark this on Delicious

Originally posted by Jennifer from Connect with your Teens through Pop Culture and Technology, on April 29, 2009 7:45 AM

The Book Cover Archive Blog gets the skinny on using NASA images in creative work.

All of the media produced by NASA is public domain, meaning that anyone can use it any way (as long as they obey restrictions of publicity and privacy).

They also point to NASA Images, which is operated by Internet Archive and contains a copy of almost every image that NASA has ever produced. Just for the heck of it, here's the first photo of the Moon taken by a US spacecraft.

Tags: moon  nasa  photography 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 29, 2009 7:20 AM

Shared by ginevra
hooray!

This blog’s fairy godmother, Six Apart, is spoiling me: first, they made it so you could create profiles in the comments and now they’ve granted me a wish I’ve been wishing for for a very long time. You see, the posts on my blog are all very formal: big title, big picture, lots of text [...]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Icerocket blog search: "six apart", on April 29, 2009 6:11 AM

Well, here is the definitive end-of-Portfolio-magazine story:

At first we were all high-end, we were thought leaders,” said a staffer. “Early on, our stories were about the biggest house, the biggest hedge-fund member, or if you can only own one jet, what should you buy? All top luxury brands. Then we had to shift the magazine to: How fucked are we.”

So yes, it’s hard to shake the delusions when your head has been shoved so deep in the bubble you can’t see daylight.

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 4:44 AM

There’s something very Zen about this correction: “An article on April 14 about John Grunsfeld, an astronaut who is scheduled to lead the final servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, referred incorrectly to the capacity of the indoor pool where Dr. Grunsfeld does some training for the mission. The pool holds 6 million gallons, not 11 million. The article also described incorrectly the events leading to his decision to return to the United States after working in Tokyo. Dr. Grunsfeld was living in a Zen monastery, meditating in the morning and then going to work at the University of Tokyo. He came home early one day and found the monks watching baseball on television, breaking the spell of his experience there. He did not find the monks playing baseball.”

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 29, 2009 4:20 AM

I have some things to share with you.

• Alice Marwick's extraordinary keynote speech on internet celebrity from last year's ROFLCon. It was the highlight of the event, imbued with both humor and a conscience.

• Mike Pusateri: "I am American, so I make bacon from pork belly."

• Rafe Colburn: "If your mechanic wants to buy your car, it’s not time to sell it."

• Wes Felter: "The rug isn't under you now."

• Jason Kottke: "[M]isleading at best and a complete fucking lie at worst."

• Rogers Cadenhead: "She's trying to corner the market on an infinite resource."

• Chris Lehmann in The Awl, 2009's Best New Blog:

By no measure, was capital distributed “efficiently”—let alone to places “where it was most effective” in the investor-invented calamity known as the mortgage meltdown. What’s more, the question of where capital “is most needed” is inherently a political one. Post-Katrina New Orleans certainly could make do with a whole lot of efficiently delivered private capital, but somehow it was never kicked up, even in the headiest days of the housing bubble. Likewise, the “exceptional role” played by the nation’s princeling capital-herders, as the piece goes on to ploddingly rehearse, consists largely of emailing to their foreign-market counterparts at odd off-work hours; what they’re really up in arms about—with their New York magazine enablers feverishly goading them on—is seeing their social status in free-fall. “No offense to Middle America,” one of these firebreathing social prophets emails, “but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?”

• The Awl also does justice to last year's Best New Blog: The Big Picture. Alan Taylor's been justifiably lauded for doing great journalism as only someone native to the web could do, earning a Punch Award, the New York Times' internal awards for outstanding performance (emphasis mine):

The Big Picture ... is the winner of the Journalism and Community Service category. The concept for this photo blog originated with Alan Taylor, a Boston.com software engineer. He envisioned telling stories on the Web with visual power, then brought his idea to life, using high-quality imagery with a focus on current events.

Alan developed and promoted the blog largely on his own time. And we’re so glad he did. Since its inception in June 2008, The Big Picture has garnered almost 37 million page views and engaged its audience in new and profound ways. What’s more it has gained praise from online leaders...

• Andrew Anker: "If you love something, charge for it"

• Caterina Fake: "People who have broken a leg like video games such as Madden NFL 09 and NBA 2K9, whereas non-leg-breakers prefer Little Big Planet, Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Galaxy and World of Goo." A glimpse into a larger vision:

Hunch is essentially a tool for experts to help non experts -- and when we say experts, we don't necessarily mean people with Ph.D.s, but more often people who have taken the time to do research.

• These stories of first nights in New York City, found through Jason's link, are incredibly moving and evocative to me. I've long been a fan of Danny Meyer's, but his story of coming to NYC the night John Lennon was shot nicely explains why I changed from being "someone who lives in New York City" to being "A New Yorker" after 9/11:

It was an amazing feeling: a moment of community and realizing that this horrible tragedy had brought that many human beings together. It wasn’t the violent act that scared me as much as it was the beauty of its aftermath that attracted me.

When I left New York City a few years ago (I returned home to NYC in 2007), I described my second night in the city, in a similar vein to those stories shared above:

I walked down the block at about three in the morning, when it was too late at night for me to call anybody who would reassure me, and having far too much pride to actually break down and start crying. At the end of my block was a pretty standard bodega, with the usual mishmash of newspapers and fresh flowers and other essentials, and next to it was a man opening up a packing box. The box was filled with fresh mangos, mangos that had probably been on a tree in Mexico 48 hours before. And now, for less than a buck, just a block from where I lived, I could have a mango.

In the little town where I'd grown up, mangos had only shown up in the local grocery store a few years earlier, being considered an ethnic food. My mother had brought them home for us regularly, partially in celebration of their availability, but mostly because they were delicious. And here, now, was this fruit in my hand, in the middle of the night. I'd always been a night owl, but this somehow seemed like a sign, that this crate was being unpacked at three in the morning. This city was about exactly that kind of potential.

I'm sitting here tonight eating some Indian mangos as I write this. And seven years after I came to New York City, I went back to that same market just a few blocks from where I live today, bought a mango, and gave it to my wife as I proposed to her. Tonight's mangos are pretty good, too.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on April 28, 2009 8:52 PM

In fact, inside Condé Nast, a lot of Portfolio’s apologists blame the demise of the magazine on Internet schadenfreude…

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Spiersblr, on April 28, 2009 6:03 PM

Examiner column for April 28.

    Short of overhauling the factory model of our public middle and high schools, what options are open to teachers and administrators that will give students a sense that they are valued as unique individuals, not as cookie-cutter products?

    We should treat all students as though they are “gifted.” I realized this during teacher training at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology, a magnet school in Alexandria, VA. Teachers were introduced to activities designed for gifted minds and temperaments so we could adjust our teaching to accommodate their special needs.

    In “carouseling,” named because groups moved in clockwise circles, students moved around the room with magic markers, brainstorming topics on butcher-block paper hung from walls. Since each group wrote with a different color, we could see how ideas built as groups arrived at a new “station.” We learned from the groups who’d previously written with their designated color, and had to stretch our minds to avoid repeating obvious ideas and facts.

    This worked equally well for a thematic novel session before a test, and a fact-checking history review. At TJ, even science teachers used the method. It got students on their feet, jogged their memories, made them reach for answers and ideas, and encouraged learning from one group to another.

    At Oakton High School, I found this technique worked just as well for regular students who were not among the “chosen.” I imported other ideas from my gifted training, too. Allowing students to share, in writing or orally, before a discussion always increases participation and gives students’ comments a depth and breadth they would otherwise lack. Ben Stein, the history teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” would not have had to intone, “Anyone?…anyone?” if he’d first asked students to share ideas in pairs or groups.

    At TJ I learned that gifted students like a variety of activities, like to take charge of their own learning when appropriate, like working with others, and like frequent feedback on how they’re doing. These precepts for the gifted work equally well in all classrooms--yet they don’t fit into the  “quiet,” assembly line model. Interactive activities produce noisy classrooms.

    Schools lauded for success in difficult circumstances have this in common: every student is made to feel unique and appreciated. One of Fairfax’s principals-of-the-year used to greet every student in his elementary school by name as they entered the front door each morning. In KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools, teachers speak frequently by phone to parents. My students were always more involved if I invited parents to a simulation of one of our “Senior Seminars,” forging a unique connection.

    Teachers can also plan a year-end assembly where parents see projects by their children and their classmates. It might be a “fair” with booths, or a performance, with PowerPoint and videotaped presentations. Working towards that “performance” has the effect of making students feel “on display”---which, of course, they are.

    Encouraging these activities should ideally come from the principal, yet lacking that support, teachers can still change the classroom dynamic--and many teachers have. Anything we can do to make the assembly line less stultifying will improve our children’s educations. Anyone?...Anyone?

Originally posted by Erica Jacobs from TeacherTalk, on April 28, 2009 4:57 PM

So good: Mule Design is selling the Get Excited And Make Things shirt previously seen here. $20 cheap!

Originally posted by torrez from Andre's Notes, on April 28, 2009 3:09 PM

It's been a day for changing titles. Former Kansas governor was confirmed earlier this evening to be President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services. The vote was 65-31. Among the 65 was former Republican Arlen Specter (D-PA). We'll post the Roll Call when it comes down the pipe.

Interestingly, Specter also voted in support of an major piece of anti-fraud legislation earlier today, and, in that roll call, the Senate website still lists him as a Republican. Amateurs.

Anyhow, NARAL/Pro-Choice America has been pushing hard for Sebelius' confirmation, and the group's president, Nancy Keenan, had this to say:

We applaud the Senate's vote to confirm the eminently-qualified Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to serve in this critical position. Anti-choice advocates tried every desperate trick in the book to derail her confirmation, but this vote shows that a majority of senators understand that Americans are tired of the antagonistic politics of the past. As our country faces challenges on a number of fronts, especially on the issue of affordable health care, we look forward to ensuring that women's health and sound science are a priority, rather than the failed political maneuvering that damaged this agency during the previous Bush administration.

Late update: Roll call here. He's still listed as a Republican. Somebody should call the clerk!

Originally posted by Brian Beutler from TPM Election Central, on April 28, 2009 2:23 PM

Earlier in the afternoon today, Michael Steele appeared on CNN and was asked whether he was surprised about the developments with Arlen Specter.

"No I'm not, to be honest with you I had a feeling," said Steele. "Sen. Specter had very few options at this point. He had stepped on the toes of many Republicans with his vote on the stimulus bill, which is a core principle in terms of our views on economics."

In the course of the interview, Steele elaborated on his displeasure with Specter for having betrayed Republicans who'd supported him in the past.

"For the senator to flip the bird back to Senator Cornyn and the Republican Senate Leadership, a team that stood by him, who went to the bat for him in 2004, to save his hide is not only disrespectful but down right rude," said Steele. "I'm sure his mama didn't raise him this way."

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on April 28, 2009 2:22 PM

I'm very happy to announce that Kickstarter is live! I first mentioned the project back in September, and have been privileged to sit on the board and advise their development for the last ten months.

Kickstarter aims to let creative people of all kinds -- journalists, artists, musicians, game developers, entrepreneurs, bloggers -- raise money for their projects by connecting directly with fans, who receive exclusive access and rewards in exchange for their patronage. Like Josh Freese and Jill Sobule, the site allows creators to have multiple tiers of rewards (e.g. $20 for the book, $50 for signed copy) with optional limits for each.

The model is simple: a project creator sets a fundraising goal, deadline, and an optional set of rewards for backers. If the goal's reached by the deadline, then everyone's charged via Amazon Payments and the backers get their goodies. If the goal's not reached, nobody's charged. It's all or nothing.

If you want to raise money to build an iPhone app, make a run of t-shirts, or print a book, you can do it with absolutely no risk or up-front costs. If there's enough demand for your idea, you'll be able to sell every copy before you've spent a dime.

Kickstarter also offers publishing tools, where creators can post project updates with audio and video, either publicly or for backers only. For projects without a physical reward, exclusive updates could be a great incentive for people to get involved. Check out this project for a good example.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to see what people come up with! For now, anyone can back projects, but you'll need a Kickstarter invite to be able to create your own project. (But I'm giving out creator invites to Waxy readers, so email, IM, or leave a comment with your project idea and I'll hook you up.)

 

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on April 28, 2009 2:20 PM

(Note: Review was done as part of our consulting practice, but is totally independent and fully reflects our opinion)

I had a chance to take look TokuDB (the name of the Tokutek storage engine), and run some benchmarks. Tuning of TokuDB is much easier than InnoDB, there only few parameters to change, and actually out-of-box things running pretty well.

There are some rumors circulating that TokuDB is ”.. only an in memory or read-only engine, and that’s why inserts are so fast”. This is not actually the case, as TokuDB is a disk-based, read-write transactional storage engine that is based on special “fractal tree indexes”. Fractal Trees are a drop-in-replacement for a B-tree (based on current research in data structures by professors at Stony Brook, Rutgers, and MIT). I can’t say exactly how it is improved, because the engine itself is closed source.

Along with its “fractal tree indexes”, TokuDB also uses compression, which significantly ( Graph 1) reduces dataset and decreases the amount of IO operations. The benefit of small size is also that TokuDB can keep in memory much more records then InnoDB / MyISAM. Actually in internal cache records are stored in uncompressed form, but OS Cache can keep compressed pages in memory. For the data set we tested, TokuDB used 6.2x less disk space than InnoDB, and 5.5x less disk space than MyISAM.

For tests I used Dell PowerEdge R900, with RAID 10 on 8 disks (2.5″ SAS disks, 15K RPMS) and 32GB of physical RAM, but restricted on kernel level to 4GB to emulate case B-Tree does not fit into memory.
As benchmark software I tried iiBench, which you can take there https://launchpad.net/mysql-patch/mytools

What makes fractal indexes so interesting is the amount of IO operations to update index tree is significantly less than for usual B-Tree index. It’s as if Fractal Trees turn random IO into sequential IO. This is why you see the results that you do in iiBench test ( Graph 2), and the number of inserts/sec is almost linear even when table size bigger than available memory. For the last 10M rows inserted, InnoDB averaged 1,555 rows/sec while TokuDB averaged 16,437 rows/sec - about 10.6x faster. One consequence of having such fast indexes, is that you can maintain a richer set of indexes at a given incoming data rate, enabling much higher query performance.

Beside iiBench we run benchmarks of SELECT queries again one of our click analyzing schema, in two modes - 1. data size is much more then memory and 2. data fits into memory.

As you see in IO-bound case TokuDB outperforms InnoDB 1.4-2.5x times, but CPU-bound is not so good. I think there we meet one of current restrictions of TokuDB - SERIALIZABLE isolation level for transactions.

Speaking about restrictions, the current problems I see are:
- Transactions only support the SERIALIZABLE isolation level. Beside it TokuDB does not scale well on multi-cores even in only SELECT queries. What this practically means it that you can’t get benefit of multi-core boxes running concurrent threads. Tokutek plans to fix this in one of the next releases.
- We did not tested wide range of queries, but by design expect there may be not good results for some kind of queries, i.e. point select queries, as in this case TokuDB has to read and decompress big portion of data.
- Despite Inserts and Deletes are fast, updates are not expected to show the same performance gain, as to update we need to read data, and in this case - read previous comment.
- The version we tested did not yet support recovery logs. The code for it is ready, and will be available in a release soon.
- The ways to do a backup is mysqldump/mysqlhotcopy. It is not fully transparent backup, as it applied TABLE LOCK on copying table. When recovery logs are supported, I guess it will be possible to run LVM backup. Actually I would say backup is only partially the problem of storage engine. The biggest problem is that MySQL does not yet provide an interface for that. This is going to be fixed in MySQL 6.0, but I can’t yet say how it will work with mix of storage engines.
- The Tokutek engine I tested comes in binary form and mysqld binary does not contain InnoDB. Tokutek tells me that InnoDB will be included in a future release.

With all the given advantages and drawbacks, I see a good practical usage of TokuDB for log analyzing and log reporting queries. By log analyzing I mean any kind of log producing application, it can be from simple apache logs put into mysql, application performance logs to more complex log like clicks, user movements and actions on site, visits tracking etc. While it may sound like an easy and trivial task, it is not at all. The more logs there are, the more space they take, and we have had setups where logs are 80% of total database size. Also there is the problem of being able to run custom reporting queries on logs. To do this, you often need many, often complex indexes which gives us the problem of random IO, waste of RAM memory and slow inserts. This is where I think Tokutek appears to be positioned to do quite good at. There are operation issues which make things more complex and, probably, I would not put yet TokuDB on customer production boxes, but it may good fit to non-critical slave where you can run analyzing queries.

---

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Originally posted by Vadim from MySQL Performance Blog, on April 28, 2009 2:15 PM

Gay Talese is writing a new book about his marriage to Nan A. Talese, a union that was almost ruined by a previous book Gay wrote about the sexual revolution.

The book, originally published in 1980, is about the sexual revolution, which Talese believed would be the most important cultural shift in decades, and which he spent most of the seventies intimately researching. It's the research itself -- particularly Talese's tendency to take the participant-observer concept to the extreme -- that turned out to be the unintended legacy of the project. "If you want to write about orgies," says Talese, who at 77 is still slim and handsome, "you're not going to be in the press box with your little press badge keeping your distance. You have to have a kind of affair with your sources. You have to hang out! I wanted to write about sexuality and the changing definition of morality. Maybe if I had put that in a subhead on the cover I might have gotten a better hearing."

As detailed in a 1973 New York article (written seven years before Talese's book came out), part of Talese's research included managing two massage parlors, living in a California sex commune for six months, and attending orgies.

Tags: books  gaytalese  nantalese  sex 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 28, 2009 1:55 PM

via img261.imageshack.us

via We’ve Got Heart

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on April 28, 2009 1:51 PM

Getting Started with Perl Catalyst Top Ten Resources for New Catalyst DevelopersTen links to get you started using Perl Catalysthttp://dev.catalystframework.org/wiki/http://catalystframework.org/http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Manual/http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Runtime/http://planet.catalystframework.org/http://jjnapiorkowski.vox.com/http://www.catalyzed.org/http://use.perl.org/http://perlmonks.org/http://www.perl.com/

http://www.squidoo.com/perlcatalyst

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Originally posted by John Napiorkowski from david’s Neighbors, on April 28, 2009 12:46 PM

In a post on his great blog, The Year in Pictures, James Danziger discusses some of the photography featured in a forthcoming book, The Final Four of Everything, including Danziger's own selections for Iconic American Photographs. The Final Four of Everything seems to be a sequel of sorts to The Enlightened Bracketologist by the same authors...or perhaps just the same book with a much better title.

Tags: books  jamesdanziger  markreiter  photography  richardsandomir  theenlightenedbracketologist  thefinalfourofeverything 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 28, 2009 12:38 PM

The following is an edited and updated version of a Moose advocacy bit I wrote on the Google AppEngine for Perl project mailing list quite a while ago. I decided to republish it here since with the recent release of Catalyst 5.8, which uses Moose... Read and post comments | Send to a friend

http://planet.catalystframework.org/

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Originally posted by John Napiorkowski from david’s Neighbors, on April 28, 2009 11:42 AM

swings on BART, originally uploaded by y3rdua.

A great shot from a local take on Caroline Woolard's Swing on the Subway piece from 2006. There's a Flickr pool in case it happens again... As the kids say, [this is good].

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on April 28, 2009 11:30 AM

For the cover of Esquire's June issue, photographer Greg Williams shot ten minutes of video footage of Megan Fox, from which the best stills were selected for the cover and inside the magazine.

As resolution rises & prices fall on video cameras and hard drive space, memory, and video editing capabilities increase on PCs, I suspect that in 5-10 years, photography will largely involve pointing video cameras at things and finding the best images in the editing phase. Professional photographers already take hundreds or thousands of shots during the course of a shoot like this, so it's not such a huge shift for them. The photographer's exact set of duties has always been malleable; the recent shift from film processing in the darkroom to the digital darkroom is only the most recent example.

Esquire's moving cover reminds me of two other things.

1. Flickr encourages their members to think of short videos as long photos. When he guest edited kottke.org last year, Deron Bauman wrote about short video as a contemporary version of the photograph. Matt Jones argued that looping short video is the real long photography. So maybe the photograph of 10 years from now might not even be a still image.

2. In order to get the jaw-dropping slow-motion footage of great white sharks jumping out of the ocean, the filmmakers for Planet Earth used a high-speed camera with continuous buffering...that is, the camera only kept a few seconds of video at a time and dumped the rest. When the shark jumped, the cameraman would push a button to save the buffer.

Tags: meganfox  photography  video 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 28, 2009 10:46 AM

 
photos by Roll Call 09

On Sunday we went to see our friend Lizzie Scott's performance piece, the Styrene Fantastic, in the Movement Research Spring Festival. We headed out into the heat with me carrying W in a backpack not sure of what would happen.  The festival was billed as a parade and we thought it would wind itself down Orchard Street and the galleries of the LES. Instead it turned out that it was actually a bunch of little performances in gallery spaces, which changed the logistics somewhat. We didn't want a hot and cranky 20 month old to ruin it for everone, so we carefully sat near the door. Much to our amazement however W sat rapt with attention with her hands around my neck with not a peep except for her amazing laugh when the dancers took pratfalls. It was a funny piece and her laughter woke up the crowd. A woman behind us told us she "was remarkable" and we couldn't have agreed more. B thinks it is because she met the dancers beforehand and because it was fairly short at 9 minutes. In any case it was a special moment.  After the performance we went to get Malaysian food with B and I just beaming all the way. The performance was great too.

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on April 28, 2009 10:46 AM

I just found out about this opportunity to take part in an act of radical knitting. CODEPINK's Mother's Day vigil for this year includes quilting a cozy for the fence in front of the White House. Little pink and green knitted/crocheted squares pieced together to spell out, "We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child."

Wish I'd known about this yesterday, and I could have spent the afternoon at our homeschooler's parkday knitting pink squares instead of that same hat I've been working on since November. That's right, the hat that was supposed to be Adam's Christmas present, then birthday present, and finally, anniversary present. Now that I've got some activist knitting to do, looks like we're back to Christmas.

Originally posted by Lorraine from blueperiod., on April 28, 2009 9:01 AM

Dear Answer Lady,

I’m new to karaoke. How should and shouldn’t I go about doing it?

Thanks,

Cherry-aoke

Dear Cherry-aoke,

What are the odds that you would ask this question after I did karaoke last night? Crazy. It’s almost like you don’t exist and I made up your question so that I would be able to talk about a pet topic.

So, one of the reasons that I am qualified to be an expert on karaoke etiquette is that I have in the past been a total psychotic abject failure of it. Yes: I have been that girl who ruins your birthday party by singing a song from Pippin when everyone else just wants to shout along to ‘Baby Got Back.’ I have also, in the past, snatched the mic out of people’s hands because they were “doing it wrong” (sorry Pareene’s girlfriend! You caught me on a really, really bad night).

But I’ve come to recognize the error of my ways, and if the rest of the karaoke-doing world could also come to realize the error of THEIR ways, we could meet halfway and come together in perfect, um. Well. Let’s just work on melody for now, I don’t want to get too ambitious.

So my problem is that I err on the side of being a total mic-hogging diva who refuses to read the mood of the room when selecting or performing her songs. This is Karaoke Person Type One. I actually have encountered worse examples of this type than myself! I was out with one of them recently. She has an amazing voice but seems not to understand that having an amazing voice is not the point of karaoke. She was halfway through that long-ass Nina Simone ballad about “Youuuuu kiss me, I hear the sound of mandolins,” her second or possibly third song in a row, when someone said, “Uh, should we all just leave so that you can be alone with this song?” Exactly, and exactly what not to do. You must always keep in mind that you are performing for other people. It’s ok to take pride in your performance, but an obvious and useful metaphor here is sex: you are having fun by making it possible for someone else to have fun, and if you’re not, you might as well be doing it by yourself.

Also, long slow songs like that one are a huge faux pas unless you are an amazing master and you’ve perfected your French-Canadienne accent and are about to wow me with “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now,” because I’ve always fantasized about someone doing that. “There were nights of endless pahleahhsshure!”

Karaoke Person Type Two is the opposite of type one: the timid shy karaoke flower who needs the moral support of two or three friends in order to shout the lyrics of ‘Like A Virgin’ into the microphone with her back to the audience, giggling. No. No! Commit. Commit or go home. If you don’t enjoy getting up onstage by yourself and singing in front of people, maybe karaoke is not for you and you should consider an alternative activity, such as: Anything besides karaoke. I understand it’s your first time and you’re scared, but you’ll never get used to the temperature of the water by dipping your toe in. Be brave and relax and for God’s sake, face the audience. You know the words!

But actually please avoid that song, or anything else from the Immaculate Collection. Also please avoid:

· Rapping unless you know every single word and can nail it. Rap fail is the worst to watch. Rap success is amazing to watch, especially when a cute girl dominates ‘I’m a Flirt’ or some such. No one in the history of time has ever succeeded at the rap part of ‘Waterfalls’ except Lisa Left Eye Lopez and she’s dead, so.

· Chumbawamba

· ‘Stay,’ unless you are ok with everyone singing along. Seriously, it’s shocking: Burly muscular tattooed crustpunks will totally belt “keep me cause you know you’re just so scared to looooose.” Ditto ‘What’s Up’ (4 Non Blondes), which makes me sad because it used to seem like this was my exclusive jam. I guess it’s ok that it’s not anymore, though, because it is a little sad to have to be like “Twenty-seven years of my life and still, trying to get up that great big hill of hope for a destination.”

· Songs from musicals unless it is a safe space for that. Know your audience. If there are more than five heterosexual men in the room, limit yourself to ‘Hunger Strike’ and Weezer (stealth gayness).

· Songs no one knows.

· Creed.

· Britney, unless you have a vocoder implanted in your chest.

There are probably more rules that I could think of but I drank bubble tea cocktails last night (why??) and it’s time for me to put my head down on my desk for a while.

Previously: Making Plans, Selling Out and the Prisoner’s Dilemma of Friendship Communication.

Originally posted by Emily Gould from The Awl, on April 28, 2009 9:00 AM

From Recipes

Fish tacos from Pinche Taqueria.

Fish tacos are sold all over the southwest coast of California. San Diego even has a fast food chain entirely devoted to them. One of the best tacos I've ever eaten was made in a converted hitch trailer parked on a dusty road in Ensenada, Mexico. Unfortunately, most places on the East Coast don't do justice to this Baja Classic. In Tacos, Mark Miller explains how Japanese fishermen brought together Mexican ingredients and Asian cooking techniques to create the fish taco.

The simple combination of batter-fried white fish, shredded cabbage, doctored-up mayo and a squeeze of lime is fresh tasting and clean, not to mention easy to make at home.

Win 'Tacos'

As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have a few copies of Tacos to give away-five this week. Enter to win here »

Baja-Style Tempura Fish Tacos

- makes 10 tacos -
Adapted from Tacos by Mark Miller

If you can't find the shark called for in this recipe, any firm-fleshed white fish will do. Mahi mahi or tilapia are good alternatives.

Ingredients

Chile-Lime Marinade

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
10 cloves garlic, sliced
2 serrano chiles, seeded and stemmed
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano, ground
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
2 pounds young shark fillet, cut into 4 by 3/4 inch strips

Baja Tempura Batter

3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon ice water
2 1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard (optional)
1 cup bleached all-purpose flour
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
10 (5 1/2-inch) soft white corn tortillas, for serving

Garnish
Baja Cabbage Slaw (recipe follows)
Lime wedges
Pickled jalapeno slices.

Procedure

1. To make marinade, in a large bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups water, lime juice, garlic, chiles, oregano, and salt. Add the fish strips and let marinate for at least 20 minutes.

2. To make the tempura batter, in a separate bowl, whisk together the ice water and mustard. Gently stir in the flout, but don't over mix; a few lumps are okay. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Drain the shark pieces and pat them dry with a paper towel.

4. Have a plate lined with paper towels ready. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, heat at least 2 to 3 inches of oil over medium heat until it reaches 360&deg F on a deep-fat thermometer. Remove the batter from the refrigerator and stir once more. Dredge the fish pieces in the batter, a few at a time, to evenly coat. Drop them in the hot fat, 2 pieces at a time, adding 2 more pieces every 30 seconds (fry no more than 4 pieces at a time). Monitor the temperature of the hot oil throughout frying, letting the oil return to proper temperature, if necessary, between batches; to ensure crispness, it must remain a constant 360&deg F to 380&deg F. If too low, the fish will be oily; if to high, the pieces will burn.

5. Fry them until crisp, light golden brown, and floating in the oil, about 2 1/2 minutes per batch. With a fine-mesh skimmer, transfer the fish tempura to the paper-towel lined plate to absorb the excess oil. Repeat with the remaining pieces of fish. During the frying, be sure to remove any pieces of floating batter, or they will burn and darken the oil, which will transfer a burned flavor to the tempura. Serve immediately.

6. To serve, lay the tortillas side by side, open faced and overlapping on a platter. Divide the slaw and filling equally between the tortillas and top with salsa and garnish. Grab, fold, and eat right away. Or build your own taco: lay tortilla, open face, in one hand. Spoon on some slaw, then filling, top with salsa, fold, and eat right away.

Baja Cabbage Salw

- makes 2 cups -
Adapted from Tacos by Mark Miller

Ingredients

1/2 head small (5-inch diameter) green cabbage
2 tablespoons regular mayonnaise (not light)
3/4 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 drops jalapeno Tabasco sauce (optional)

Procedure

1. Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage. Cut a V-shaped wedge around the tough inner core and remove the core and discard. Halve the cabbage to make 2-quarter sections.

2. With a large, sharp knife, slice each section crosswise into a thin julienne (about 1/8-inch thick) or julienne with a hand-held Japanese mandoline. Transfer the julienned cabbage in to a large bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, lime juice, and Tabasco. Toss the mayonnaise mixture with the cabbage, refrigerate, and use within a few hours.

Originally posted by Caroline Russock from Serious Eats, on April 28, 2009 8:45 AM

The account of how the folks at 4chan hacked Time's Most Influential Person poll is worth reading for their clever manipulation of the reCAPTCHA mechanism. But the author unfairly dumps on Time.com...it sounds like they knew the poll was being manipulated, did what they could, but were fully aware of the futility of securing such a thing from a large group of determined distributed attackers. (via waxy)

It's worth noting the difference in Time's approach to this hack and a similar one from several years ago. In 1999, some friends of mine and I conspired to place ourselves on top of Time's Digital 50 poll. Scripts were written, readers were enlisted, and a few of us soon passed the likes of Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds on the list. Unlike today, when Time not only let moot stay on the list but win the entire poll, Time repeatedly deleted us from the Digital 50 list entirely and none of us made it anywhere near the final listing. I'd say that's progress on TIme's part.

Tags: 4chan  timemagazine 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 28, 2009 8:07 AM

I'll put this squarely in the 'I'll believe it when I see it' category. But Human Events and TNR both have alerts

Holy crap! Specter's switching to the Democratic party.

Late Update: Articles with short shelf lives ... The Hill: Specter courts conservatives in Pa. rematch

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on April 28, 2009 7:59 AM

Today we glad to announce release 1.0.3-5 of our XtraDB storage engine.

Here is a list of enhancements in this release:

• move to MySQL 5.1.34
• removed rw_lock patch, so we now use Google’s rw_locks
• fix crash after upgrade 5.1.31 -> 5.1.33
• fix mysql-test

Percona XtraDB 1.0.3-5 available in source and several binary packages.

XtraDB is compatible with existing InnoDB tables (unless you used innodb_extra_undoslots) and we are going to keep compatibility in further releases. We are open for features requests for new engine and ready to accept community patches. You can monitor Percona’s current tasks and further plans on the Percona XtraDB Launchpad project. You can also request features and report bugs there. Also we have setup two maillists for General discussions and for Development related questions.

---

Entry posted by Evgeniy Stepchenko | 2 comments

Add to: | | | |

Originally posted by Evgeniy Stepchenko from MySQL Performance Blog, on April 28, 2009 7:42 AM

What if espresso was made by extracting UP instead of DOWN?

Originally posted by Nick from portafilter.net, on April 28, 2009 6:50 AM

Admit it, you want to talk about the hobbits: Times science guy John Noble Wilford goes long on the prehistoric Indonesian island dwellers, the discovery of whose existence has provoked a flurry of speculation among scientists as to their origin and classification. What’s so interesting about them?

Everything about them seems incredible. They were very small, not much more than three feet tall, yet do not resemble any modern pygmies. They walked upright on short legs, but might have had a peculiar gait obviating long-distance running. The single skull that has been found is no bigger than a grapefruit, suggesting a brain less than one-third the size of a human’s, yet they made stone tools similar to those produced by other hominids with larger brains.

Also, they are called HOBBITS. The scientific aspect of the story is actually pretty cool, but you will also enjoy the way they use the word hobbit about 36 times throughout the article. My favorite? “Scientists who reviewed hobbit research at a symposium here last week said that a consensus had emerged among experts in support of the initial interpretation that H. floresiensis is a distinct hominid species much more primitive than H. sapiens.”

Can you imagine?

“So, what do you do?”
“I’m the head of hobbit research at UT Jackson School of Geology.”
“Interesting. What do you study?”
“Mostly hobbits.”

And so on. Anyway, HOBBITS!

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 28, 2009 6:29 AM

Many people seem to think that if you talk about something recent, you're in favor of it. The exact opposite is true in my case. Anything I talk about is almost certain to be something I'm resolutely against, and it seems to me the best way of opposing it is to understand it, and then you know where to turn off the button."

That's Marshall McLuhan. (via submitted for your perusal)

Tags: marshallmcluhan 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 28, 2009 6:09 AM

According to the latest Twitter post from @bklynbotanic, the recent heat wave has brought out the cherry blossoms slightly ahead of schedule. If you're fortunate enough to have some time off today, you might want to take advantage of Free Tuesdays at BBG.

Originally posted by Brownstoner from Brownstoner, on April 28, 2009 5:30 AM

Raising Katie is a thoughtful, and I think very balanced, look at transracial adoption, and the specific issues faced by an African-American family raising a white child. What seems clear to me from everything I've read is that for Caucasians, these adoptions bring to light racism they've been unaware of (unexposed to); and that for all races, these adoptions bring to light the adoptive families' own previously unrecognized assumptions about race, some of them rather uncomfortable.

Originally posted by Rebecca Blood from Rebecca's Pocket, on April 28, 2009 2:15 AM

We got into a heated discussion in the office about WYSIWYG web editors today. While heated discussions are nothing new to us, neither side even being happy with their own argument was. When people are arguing over things they don’t even believe in, there can be no positive outcome.

My side was as follows: All web editors — including TinyMCE, YUI, and FCKEditor — are broken in different ways, and the only software I’ve seen which can satisfactorily desuckify one of them is WordPress. Because of that, we should deconstruct what WordPress has done to TinyMCE and apply the same duct tape to our own editor on Newsvine (we use TinyMCE currently, but are in the process of moving to YUI).

Our development staff’s side was as follows: All web editors — including TinyMCE, YUI, and FCKEditor — are broken in different ways, and because of the crazy amount of ridiculous cleaning, converting, regexing, transforming, and other shenanigans WordPress has to do to their editor just to get it to the state it’s in right now, it’s not worth spending the time to recreate such a mess, only to have it remain imperfect and possibly break in upcoming browser releases.

There are several things wrong with each editor but the particular problem we are trying to solve is that when you’re in HTML mode, you can’t create paragraphs just by putting double newlines between them. Some people say that because you’re in HTML mode, you shouldn’t expect an editor to do this for you, but I’ve been using blog software for six or seven years and that is the behavior I — and I believe most others — are accustomed to, so I couldn’t imagine releasing something without it. As mentioned above, the WordPress team has craftily hacked this functionality into their WYSIWYG system, but other platforms like Typepad have not.

I could go on and on for another hour about details, but after going through all of the WYSIWYG editor machinations we’ve gone through, I’m left wondering why the web development world still hasn’t figured this out yet. We can write an entire e-mail application, a replacement for Excel, and whatever the hell these things are, but we can’t replicate a toolset we’ve had in MacWrite since 1984?

Think of how much has happened in the last 25 years, and we haven’t been able to nail that.

TinyMCE circa 2009: Millions and millions crrrrrrrrazy features. Doesn’t work satisfactorily.

Microsoft Word circa 1991: Just enough features. Works plenty fine for most people.

I know hard-core coders like to hand-code html even when writing web comments (self included), but 90% of the world would rather not be bothered with that. What’s it going to take for this problem to go away? If you’re involved in WYSIWYG editor development, I’d love to know. Is it the disappearance of old browsers? Is it something that should be Flash-based? Is it just that no one’s really worked full-time on the problem yet? Why isn’t WordPress’s crazy hackery built into TinyMCE in the first place? So many questions…

So far, the one effort I’ve noticed that seems to take the cleanest possible approach is the WYSIWYM Editor. What-You-See-Is-What-You-Mean essentially translates to “the HTML code associated with what users type will semantically match what they intend”. Meaning, if I type two blocks of text separated by a double newline, I get two properly <p>d paragraphs out of that… not just a blob of text separated by <br> tags. Or if I bold some text, I get <strong> tags instead of other ridiculousness.

Sadly, the WYSIWYM Editor seems to have been in development since 2006 and is only at 0.5b, but happily, there appears to be a healthy flurry of activity around it lately. I really don’t mean to disparage the hard work that’s gone into all of these imperfect WYSIWYG editors in the past, and I do realize that browsers are the core culprits here, but it’s 2009 already and I’d prefer a solution to this longstanding real-world problem over almost anything promised in HTML 5, CSS 3, or any of the other specs we’ve been eagering awaiting for the last several years.

Originally posted by Mike D. from Mike Industries, on April 27, 2009 5:57 PM

A week on, I'm really enjoying The Awl, Choire Sicha and Alex Balk's new project. (And I'm not just saying that because Choire is a friend. Hell, I don't even know what Balk looks like.)

There's something starkly refreshing and pleasant about the site, greater than the sum of its parts: forced lack of design, missing headlines, unironic self-consciousness. With a crack staff of professional writers but no publisher overhead, the site is as snarky as it damn well pleases, but not in an off-putting way. It's more of, "This is how we feel, read it if you like, wander over to one of Nick Denton's sites if you must, we'll still be here. Fucker." Well, okay then. And so I'm reading it all day.

I'm also a fan of the subject matter, which, thanks to its writers' sensibilities, hews toward the Spy/Radar/Gawker-circa-2003 detached observer's angle. The Daily Show-style news dissection is a nice addition to the daily RSS routine, and it's varied enough to keep me paying attention.

The juxtaposition of top-quality, to-the-moment critique and messy, low-budget blog hasn't been executed quite like this, at least not in some time, and not by a staff. Choire and Alex ostensibly have a business model up their sleeve, but as of now, the site is creeping along, filled by a roster of un- and underemployed bloggers. It's a fascinating experiment, and one that, even if it cleans up before it turns platinum, will no doubt make for great reading. I wish them much success.

Originally posted by David Wertheimer from Ideapad, on April 27, 2009 5:05 PM

Update: ESPN got wise, and removed the mysterious Unicornification ability reported below. It was fun while it lasted!

You need to stop what you're doing right now, and go to ESPN's Web site, because something magical is going on, and we don't know how long it will last. Once the front page loads, enter in the Konami Code (which we shouldn't have to tell you by now, but just in case -- Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A). Then start pressing Enter on your keyboard. Something will happen that isn't even remotely sports related. Is it an Easter egg? A well-executed hack? A hilarious practical joke from a disgruntled ESPN web programmer? We don't know, but we offer an enthusiastic Kudos to whoever pulled this one off.

[Via FourZeroTwo's Twitter]

Konami Code turns ESPN.com into a Lisa Frank wonderland [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Griffin McElroy from Joystiq, on April 27, 2009 4:30 PM

Initially, i thought Tina Brown’s but-I-thought-it-was-good defense of Portfolio here (and Joanne Lipmann in particular) was indicative of the fact that she’s so far removed from magazines at this point that she doesn’t know what “good” looks like anymore, but on review, I don’t think that’s the case.  Tina’s not an idiot.

Now I think it looks more like something I read a few years ago in a humor book by Lewis Lapham (I know, I know; stay with me here) titled Lapham’s Rules of Influence.

From the Chapter “On Being Nice”:

The percentages favor the practice…

Two days before President Nixon left the White House in disgrace, Katherine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post, sent him a courteous note, wishing him Godspeed and looking forward to a happier time when they might get together for cocktails.  Mrs. Graham’s paper had done the president a good deal of harm: it had discovered the news of the Watergate burglary, relentlessly pursued the story for two years through the long series of congressional investigations, tirelessly advanced the cause of Mr. Nixon’s impeachment.  And yet here was Mrs. Graham, a principal figure in what the president regarded as the liberal media conspiracy responsible for his ruin, writing a little note of sentimental farewell.  She understood that the departing president might once again be transformed into a wise statesman, a marketable commodity, or a god.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Spiersblr, on April 27, 2009 3:51 PM

Sports fans with a taste for glittery unicorns should run, not walk, to ESPN.com and remember their Konami Code, because it appears that some soon to be possibly unemployed web designer is having a laugh.

As a couple of unicorn-loving tipsters with a thirst for sporting news have informed us, inputting the infamous Konami cheat code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter) will infest the official ESPN web site with mystical ponies. And they'll keep spawning if you keep clicking.

Not only do you get an eyeful of unicorn and rainbow, you'll also get a heaping help of Comic Sans. And every story will become "cute," "magical" or "sparkly." Thanks to Ken and CronoX2 for the mystical tip!

Update: Looks like ESPN.com has removed the "Cornify" code from the majority of its web site. It was glorious while it lasted.

Originally posted by Michael McWhertor from Kotaku, on April 27, 2009 2:20 PM

Earlier today, Jerry Manuel told reporters Oliver Perez will start on Saturday.

Manuel cited Perez’s success against the Phillies, saying he needs to give his pitcher the benefit of the doubt and let him show what he can do.

…i get no sense that there is a trip to the minors in the cards for perez… in short, if the Mets want perez to get it together, he needs to be around manuel, his teammates and Dan Warthen… it wouldn’t shock me if he were skipped one turn, should he stumble against the Phillies, but that is a long way from now…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on April 27, 2009 1:59 PM

I hope some of Stanza’s usability transfers over to the Kindle iPhone app.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on April 27, 2009 1:38 PM

USA Today reports:

Verizon and Apple are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, people familiar with the situation say.

But last week, Tim Cook said:

From a technology point of view, Verizon is on CDMA, and we chose from the beginning of the iPhone to focus on one phone for the whole world. When you do that, you really go down the GSM route because CDMA really doesn’t have a life to it after a certain point in time.

Sounds like a contradiction, but I think Casey Liss nailed it:

Yes, everyone (including Verizon) is moving to a compatible 4G technology called LTE, but even if that were to start happening in 2010 as news media is reporting, I understand that to be more than just a software update on all of their equipment. Thus, if we take my understanding/assumption to be true, they’ll need to update all of their towers with new equipment, thus eliminating the one major draw of Verizon: their ubiquitous network. This 4G iPhone will only be able to use their updated towers, not the entire Verizon coverage area AT&T users are lusting after.

Tim Cook’s remark makes a lot more sense now. He didn’t say that there would never be a Verizon iPhone — he just implied that there were no plans to make a CDMA iPhone.

We’ll probably see a Verizon iPhone once Verizon has a large enough LTE deployment, but there’s no way that’s happening in 2010. To give some perspective, Verizon started large-scale deployment of EVDO in 2004, but there were still large areas of their network that weren’t upgraded to EVDO as recently as 2007. I’m not sure how much of their network is still left without EVDO coverage, but I bet it’s nontrivial. (Verizon users: ever see your phone drop from “EV” to “1X”?)

Since they plan to start deploying LTE in 2010, they probably won’t have enough coverage to realistically deploy a high-profile, LTE-only phone until at least 2013.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on April 27, 2009 1:36 PM

You gotta hand it to Japan – Our trademark certificates arrived today on heavy cardstock, printed with bright gold foil and striking red ink. I keep saying I want to frame these suckers:

These stand out because from the rest of the world, the same certificates look like this:

Thank you, Australia, for being particularly boring.

Originally posted by Sarah from Signal vs. Noise, on April 27, 2009 1:36 PM

Filed under: Features, How-tos, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch

In the last iPhone Dev 101 post, I told you a little about creating your first project using Xcode; however, in this post, I want to show you how to create your first application that will run in the iPhone simulator. In honor of staying with the classic way of teaching programming, we'll create a "Hello World!" application as our first one.

Creating the new project
If you have installed the iPhone SDK/Xcode, then you can launch Xcode by navigating to /Developer/Applications. Once there, you can double click on the Xcode application (you may also find it handy to just drag the icon to the dock if you will be using it a lot).

Once Xcode launches, click File > New Project. Under the iPhone OS section on the left side of the resulting window, select "Application." Select "View-based Application" from the templates that show up on the right side, and then click the "Choose" button. You will then be prompted to specify a project save name -- this will also be the name of your resulting application, so choose your project name wisely.

You're project has now been created, and the Xcode window that is displayed will contain all of your code, resources, etc. There isn't much there now, but the application is fully functional at this point. You can click the "Build & Go" button in the toolbar, and the application will be compiled and launched in the iPhone Simulator. Again, this is a fully functional application, but it doesn't do anything useful at this point -- the usefulness of the app is up to your coding, but Apple supplies you with the base code and dependencies.

Continue reading iPhone Dev 101: The "Hello World!" app

TUAWiPhone Dev 101: The "Hello World!" app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Cory Bohon from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on April 27, 2009 1:30 PM

Isn't it amazing? Wall Street has gone from being dead broke one minute to making money hand-over-fist! After a 2008 that was, shall we say, a bit rough around the edges, the universe has apparently been remastered, and the first-quarter profits of the largest financial institutions have enabled them to put aside cash for bonuses on par with those of the halcyon days of 2007, when the world was already falling apart, but didn't yet know it, and making big money on Wall Street had not yet inflamed the masses.

How did they do it? As we all know, every winning trade must have a corresponding loser, so someone's pockets are being picked. Whose?

A clue was provided last week when banking analyst Brad Hintz criticized Morgan Stanley for not using sufficient leverage to exploit its "excellent flow trading results" in fixed income, a.k.a. bonds.

Apparently, Goldman Sachs made $6.56 billion trading bonds, while JPMorgan scored $4.9 billion.

We had no idea what "flow trading" was, but we sure liked how it sounded. So easy, so smooth. Maybe we could do it! What is it? We asked a friend who works at a hedge fund to explain. "Basically it means that the bond market was in such disarray, the big banks were able to rip off their customers without the customers knowing," he told us, via email.

Oh. He went on:

"For example, in a boring bond market, a bond might fluctuate over a full year between 98 and 102, let's say.

So, if I trade that bond ... the broker-dealer might make a market 99 to 99.25 and hope to work for a quarter point. (I pay 99.25, the guy who sold it to the dealer got 99 ... the dealer makes .25 (effectively half from me and half from the seller.)"

We took some time, we won't ever admit how long, to digest this, and soldiered on.

Now let's put the market into disarray ... and that bond (usually a boring thing) ... falls from 100 to 65 in two months.

On any given day, I might get to pay 72 and the fellow selling might get 70 and the dealer makes two full points. The market isn't that transparent, and the dealers charge what they can get away with. In a disconnected market, fear and greed take over. The seller is more anxious to sell and the buyer is more anxious to buy, and dealers take advantage. In the previous example the dealer needed to trade eight times as much to make that. So, by being in the flow, the dealers make a fortune in a disconnected market."

Okay, we try not to be willfully naïve about how the world works, but this kinda makes us want to hurl. We understand that by buying and selling in these volatile times entails extra risk, and traders ought to be properly rewarded for that&#8212 IF ONLY THESE RISKS WERE NOT BEING UNDERWRITTEN BY THE U.S. TAXPAYER! (Sorry, we needed to bust out the all-caps). You know what they call this? Gouging. The market dislocation that Wall Street is now profiting from was caused by Wall Street, and should the renewed spirit of risk taking, heaven forbid, somehow backfire and result in more losses, you can easily guess who's going to get stuck with the tab.

After Off Year, Wall Street Pay Is Bouncing Back [NYT]

Read more posts by Hugo Lindgren

Filed Under: brad hintz, goldman sachs, jpmorgan, morgan stanley, white men with our money

Originally posted by Hugo Lindgren from Daily Intel, on April 27, 2009 12:40 PM

Amazon bought makers of Stanza iPhone app:

This is big. Stanza is the biggest ebook-reader iPhone app and is immensely popular. Congratulations to Lexcycle! (thanks for the link, Jason Snell)

We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition. Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read ebooks from our many content partners. We look forward to offering future products and services that we hope will resonate with our passionate readers.

It’s pretty obvious that Amazon intends to sell books through the Stanza app. Their own Kindle iPhone app is pretty minimally featured and needs a lot of help, but they have the best catalog of ebooks available, while Stanza is a very mature and full-featured app that needs a bigger ebook catalog. This was a no-brainer for Amazon.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on April 27, 2009 12:20 PM

Joe Clark:

Companies committed to a culture of antidesign (also consultants like Jakob Nielsen) may occasionally succeed in the marketplace, but they do so in spite of their antidesign, not because of it. Of course we can’t prove that; we can’t run a controlled experiment, let alone 41 of them with distinct shades of blue. It is merely one of those things a visually literate person knows.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on April 27, 2009 11:24 AM

Be vigilant, America—your entrepreneurs are on the hook for bigger tax payments! That was the plain moral of an addled page one dispatch from this morning’s Washington Post. The bulk of the piece, by Lori Montgomery and V. Dion Hayes, plies the heart-wrenching tale of one Gail Johnson, who operates a multistate chain of preschools out of Richmond, Virginia, and as the possessor of $500,000-plus annual income, faces the prospect of a 19 percent increase in her tax liability, from $120,000 to $143,000.

Never mind that Johnson’s resourceful accountant, who has supplied these estimates, has her down for $90,000 in annual deductions—or indeed, that he avers that his client “is unlikely to owe any federal taxes this year due to accounting changes that confer a one-time benefit”—a detail that Montgomery and Hayes leave until, oh, the 20th paragraph of the piece to relate.

If those deductions get capped at 28 percent, Johnson will lose $10,000 off her itemized deductions, and the marginal regular increase of 13 percent goes through, well, that’s another 13 grand right there.

And wouldn’t you know it, Johnson’s plight is the canary in the coal mine—or rather, the spilled ink in the accounting suites—for the nation’s “3 million high-earning families and the nation’s business,” which are the only “two sources of funding for [President Obama’s] ambitious social agenda.”

Well, that can’t be right! Surely there are some business lobbyists who can explain the injustice of such arrangements. “We’re going to be a permanent target, and we understand that,” says Catherine Schultz, the vice president for tax policy at the National Foreign Trade Council. “The way they see it, corporations don’t vote.”

“They’re desperate for revenue,” says an equally haunted R. Bruce Josten, chief lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “And therein lies the concern of the broader business community.”

Of course, what the White House has really done is to let the top-heavy tax cuts of the Bush years expire, and upper-bracket rates return to the marginal levels of the Clinton era—you remember, that dark time when small business owners roamed the streets in packs, foraging for food. And as Montgomery and Hayes are themselves forced to concede, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has found that that projected hikes in small-businesses taxes will affect some 3 percent—or 750,000—of the employers classed as small businesses.

What’s more, the authors also note in passing that the past generation’s worth of tax cuts have created absurdly lavish benefits for the nation’s most fortunate taxpayers—an after-tax increase in the incomes of the nation’s top 1 percent earners of $863,000, or more than 250 percent, compared to a paltry $9,200, or 21 percent, for the chumps in the middle reaches of yon socio-economic hierarchy.

The funny thing about today’s poignant Post alarum is that you hear precisely nothing from anyone from this far vaster swath of taxpayers—let alone anyone in the woeful lowest quintiles—even though they are all receiving tax cuts under the Obama plan. One could describe those cuts—and even that sinister sounding “ambitious social agenda” issuing from the Oval Office—as measures of simple fairness, and quite possibly stimulants to the flailing economy into the bargain. In Montgomery and Hayes’ account, these notions rate just one rueful dependent clause mention—dismissing it as a “politically popular” campaign pledge.

Nor do our authors supply the basic background for their embattled tax heroine’s reasoning in reporting her business income on a personal return in the first place—she is able to incur lower tax liabilities by circumventing higher corporate tax rates.

But such considerations simply don’t exist in the gilded terrarium known as the official Washington debate on taxation. No, the only conceivable point of departure in such discussions is the zero-sum notion that small businesses generate the majority of the nation’s job, and if you raise marginal rates on even 3 percent of those enterprises, well, you can just kiss your cherished little plans for economic recovery goodbye. Cue the dour prophecy of Hawkeye scold Charles Grassley, the ranking GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee: “Tell these business owners their taxes will go up. Odds are, they’ll cut spending. They’ll cancel orders for new equipment, cut health insurance for their employees, stop hiring, and lay people off.”

Now, the image of small businesses as the prime source of American jobs is a myth, roughly equivalent to the long-venerated “family farm” that Grassley spends a good deal of his time propping up to make the case for repealing the estate—er, excuse me, “death”—tax. Small business hires are far more volatile and short-lived, short on pensions, benefits, and flextime—and subject to shoddy record-keeping across the board, which is why journalists and political leaders can continue to herald their fanciful role as job incubators of first resort.

More than that, though, many elements of that “ambitious social agenda” the Obama White House is so wedded to would produce tax and income benefits for smaller employers—chief among them, universal health coverage, which would drastically tamp down the greatest labor expense for all the nation’s employers, large and small. But of course, in the foreshortened, perennially right-leaning DC tax debate, no one ever gets anything in return for tax dollars—that presumes, of course, that government actually does shit, other than confiscating your hard-earned wages for those damned vanity-laden ambitious social agendas.

You start conceding those points, and it’s but a short step to acknowledging that big government creates jobs, extends loans (including to small-business start-ups) and even generates revenues for itself. The zero-sum number would be up, and business federations would have to resort to exclusively publishing their own PR releases—instead of getting them written up handsomely on the front page of the Washington Post.

Previously: Rich People Things: On New York Magazine.

Originally posted by Chris Lehmann from The Awl, on April 27, 2009 11:11 AM

Nas recently spoke on his relevance outside hip-hop, revealing a new motivation to make more inspirational-based music.

[Visit SOHH.com for more information]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from SOHH.com Dailies, on April 27, 2009 10:30 AM

Kees van Dongen's The Corn Poppy (c. 1919, at right) has both seduced and puzzled me. It hovers between fetching and fauve, between caricature and considered. It's a 'pop tune' painting: That red swath of hat is guaranteed to stick in the back of your head for days.

There isn't much Kees van Dongen in the U.S., so I've long wondered exactly where van Dongen fits in the firmament. This spring the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts put together a van Dongen retrospective, the first North American van Dongen survey since 1971. The show was accompanied by a relentlessly thorough catalogue, as authoritative an English-language tome as the artist is likely to receive. (The catalogue wasn't distributed in the U.S., but it's available here through the Montreal MFA.) For the last couple months I've been working my way through it, trying to determine whether van Dongen is a significant figure or whether he was a flitty gadabout.

Both stylistically and biographically van Dongen was all over the place. He hung out with Picasso & Co. at the Bateau Lavoir, but painted like Matisse and the fauves. His painterly interest in the female nude rivaled Modigliani's, only van Dongen's figures seem more brazen, more sexually confrontational. After sleeping his way through the avant garde, van Dongen followed a Vuillardian path and evolved into a society portraitist. Finally, the work of his last 25 years is so undistinguished that virtually none of it is in the Montreal catalogue -- the few examples that are here don't require much more supporting evidence. Van Dongen's oeuvre is inconsistent, at least, but when he was good he was memorable.

In a couple of posts later this week I'll walk through the scholarship-loaded catalogue and I'll try to see if I can figure out exactly where van Dongen fits...

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Modern Art Notes, on April 27, 2009 10:22 AM

“As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder in Mac OS X.”

- Apple support document HT1865

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on April 27, 2009 10:15 AM

Fancy Fries and Funky Beer at Citi Field's Box Frites:

The Scoreboard Gourmet offers good advice to save $$ at Citi Field.

I would also add to avoid the bay fries at Catch of the Day, or the Garlic Fries in the Market. Stick to Nathan’s.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on April 27, 2009 10:04 AM

World War 3 Illustrated Release Party

Thursday, April 30, 2009 7-9PM
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA)
594 Broadway, Suite 401 (Between Houston and Prince st.)
New York, NY 10012

Come celebrate the release of "Wordless Worlds" issue #39 of World War 3 Illustrated.

Featuring multi-media presentation of art by:
Peter Kuper
Mac McGill
Seth Tobocman
Paula Hewitt Amram
Sabrina Jones
Eric Drooker
Kevin Pyle
Chuck Sperry
Rebecca Migdal
and many others...

with an animated film by Onur Tukel
and live music by Eric Blitz, Steve Wishnia, Andy Laties, Breeze and more!

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on April 27, 2009 9:43 AM

I spent the weekend on my apartment floor suffering from a series of small panic attacks. The reasons are not surprising—my deteriorating financial condition, swine flu, the fucking Celtics—but in any event, I only wandered out briefly, during which time a bird shit on my head (this is absolutely true, and it was a not inconsequential amount of shit) and I was made well aware that I am not at all prepared for summer. More specifically, I faced the recurring dilemma the horns of which I find myself impaled upon each time the season turns more temperate: Should I wear shorts?

See, I’m an old-school, square-jawed kind of fella. I believe a man drinks bourbon neat, smokes nothing lighter than Marlboro Reds, and, most importantly, does not wear short pants. But it seems like attitudes have changed recently. Everywhere I look, gentleman well past grade school age are walking about in half slacks, dude capris, and hotpants. I want to uphold the tradition of machismo passed down by generations of decent, trousers-clad Balk men, but it does get kind of hot out there. Also, I am completely covered in hair, so technically I am pretty much always layering when I get dressed. I put it to you, Awl readers: shorts on a guy. Acceptable or another terrible symbol of the blurred lines between man and woman, child and adult? Set me free! But make no suggestions regarding denim shorts; even I know how tacky those are.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on April 27, 2009 9:16 AM

Ask Metafilter tackles the important questions of the day....like the crimes committed by Ferris Bueller and his friends on his day off.

At the restaurant, on the phone with the Maitre D' he says, "This is Sgt. Peterson, Chicago Police." Violation of 720 ILCS 5/32-5.1: False Personation of a Peace Officer. A person who knowingly and falsely represents himself or herself to be a peace officer commits a Class 4 felony.

Tags: crime  ferrisbuellersdayoff  movies 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 27, 2009 8:59 AM

Following matt’s post about people not blogging enough about Perl, I’ve decided to try to post once a week about Perl. So I will start by a series of articles about what we call modern Perl. For this, I will write a simple feed agregator (using Moose, DBIx::Class, KiokuDB), some tests, and a basic frontend (with Catalyst). This article will be split in four parts:

http://ironman.enlightenedperl.org/

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Originally posted by John Napiorkowski from david’s Neighbors, on April 27, 2009 8:18 AM

Today is George’s first day heading up the Open Library project, a project with a simple goal:

“a page on the web for every book ever published”

Woot! Something I’ve wanted for forever.

And George is a great person to head it up. Congratulations all around

Originally posted by Kellan from Laughing Meme, on April 27, 2009 8:18 AM

This Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith and Elizabeth Press brings us an update on the state of greenway development in the Bronx. Writes Robin:

The Bronx River Greenway and South Bronx Greenway plans apply community-driven design strategies to help undo years of top down, auto-centric planning and development in the Bronx. The greenways, when completed, will create a network of safe bicycle and pedestrian paths and routes, parks, and waterfront access points throughout the borough. See the Bronx River Alliance's 2009 calendar for a list of events and activities planned on or around the Bronx River. Also be sure to check out Sustainable South Bronx and The Point Community Development Corporation for more information about the projects and for ways to get involved.

The vid includes interview footage with Astrid Glynn, who has since stepped down as New York State DOT commissioner.

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on April 27, 2009 7:56 AM

I do not like to say negative things about french fries, but I cannot mis-report. The fries at Citi Field's Box Frites are mediocre, having much in common with most of the big plastic bags of frozen fries you cook at home. I'm surprised by this news and I waited until I'd tried them two different times to report. I expected, at least, potato-flavored fries. Damn you genetic engineering for being more concerned with look than taste.

The vendor told me that the bacon dipping sauce was the most popular, but I'm not into swine flu (kidding) so went with the olive+pepperocini, which is one of the mayos.
me: Will one sauce be enough for a large box?
vendor: No.
me: What's a good one?
two vendors:Chipotle.
That mistake cost me another dollar. First, unless you're scooping up sauce with a spoon you do not need two. Second, the chipotle flavor is too harsh for these bland fries. Mayo-based overwhelms less (that sentence rules).

And another thing happened at the Box Frites stand. Though I know well that "blanche" means "white" and that this concession is "Belgian-style" when the vendor told me that Blanche de Queens(the beer) tastes "like Brooklyn Lager" I fell for it. That was dumb. Blanche de Queens tastes like flowers and stems marinated in cream. That mistake cost $7.50. My brothers talked me out of returning the beer and admonished me for trusting the vendor. But she was so nice. But nice ≠ knowledgeable.

I have to say it. Nathan's fries are better than Box Fries and better than the Blanche de Shake Shake fries (did you ever notice how white those are?). Sure, maybe you'll get a soggy Nathan's batch, but at least they'll taste like potatoes.

Originally posted by Sara Pepitone from Scoreboard Gourmet, on April 27, 2009 7:45 AM

In a bit of a sequel to Proust Was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer talks to Teller (of Penn and Teller) and learns how the tricks that magicians do can be explained by neuroscience.

Our brains don't see everything -- the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules. "Every time you perform a magic trick, you're engaging in experimental psychology," Teller says. "If the audience asks, 'How the hell did he do that?' then the experiment was successful. I've exploited the efficiencies of your mind."

Tags: jonahlehrer  magic  neuroscience  pennandteller 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 27, 2009 7:40 AM

NYTimes.com | NY Observer| AllThingsD | Portfolio.com
Editor Joanne Lipman broke the news to the staff this morning, saying the decision had been made "because of financial reasons at Advance," Conde Nast's parent. David Carr reports advertising pages in the magazine were down 60.9% in the first quarter of this year compared with the same quarter last year. Portfolio launched in April 2007. || More from John Koblin, Peter Kafka and Jeff Bercovici.

Originally posted by Jim Romenesko from Romenesko, on April 27, 2009 7:05 AM

Michael Oher, the subject of Michael Lewis' The Blind Side, got drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens. Oher was chosen 23rd.

Tags: blindside  books  football  michaellewis  michaeloher  nfl  sports 

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on April 27, 2009 6:40 AM

I really shouldn't have to detail the proof that Cubs OF Milton Bradley is utter batshit crazy. He's proven his lack of sanity on numerous occasions and seems to think that everyone is out to get him. Aside from the fact that he's getting paid a lot of money to be on the DL play baseball, there are very few things that separate Milton from the homeless guy who sits on my street corner cursing at the ladies as they jog by. The latest adventure by Bradley has been a boycott of the "tough" Chicago media.

In a brief discussion with reporters attempting to clear the air with Bradley, he complained about the local media coverage, comparing Chicago to Los Angeles, where he endured a couple of rocky years with the Dodgers.

Though Bradley didn't elaborate on why he was upset, he suggested the media were focusing on him instead of the team, trying to create controversy.

...

"I'm a positive person, an upbeat person," Bradley told the Web site. "I'm trying to focus on what I'm trying to do here. My teammates are behind me, and the more reporters get in my face, the more I talk, the more things get written the way I don't say them or they're taken out of context, and that's when you lose teammates and you lose fans. The best strategy for me has always been to not say anything."

(stamps feet, pouts)

You mean to tell me that Milton Bradley is blowing something out of proportion again? Never saw it coming, truly! Odds Cubs fans try to attribute some kind of curse to this series of events? I'd be willing to take wagers.

Originally posted by J from 3:10 to Joba, on April 27, 2009 6:30 AM

The 2009 Percona Performance Conference finished up last week, and was overall a resounding success. Thanks to all of the speakers, O’Reilly, and Sun/MySQL for help making it happen! Most slides have been uploaded; look for the stragglers over the next couple of days.

---

Entry posted by Ryan Lowe | No comment

Add to: | | | |

Originally posted by Ryan Lowe from MySQL Performance Blog, on April 27, 2009 6:19 AM

Portfolio Donezo!

Conde Nast finally killing troubled business magazine. More news to come from Peter Kafka, allegedly. Update: The call from inside the house affirms the shuttering.

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on April 27, 2009 6:08 AM

More than a thousand people have tuned in to our 140-character quips on Twitter. Won't you join us? —JH

Hoefler & Frere-Jones on Twitter.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Hoefler & Frere-Jones, on April 27, 2009 6:01 AM

I’m having a hard time saying goodbye to Harry Kalas.

He was a broadcaster with the Phillies from 1971 until this season. Here are the most homers by a Phillies player from 1971 to 2008:

  Cnt Player             **HR** From  To   Ages   G    PA    AB    R    H   2B  3B  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Mike Schmidt        548   1972 1989 22-39 2404 10062  8352 1506 2234 408  59 1595 1507 201 1883  79  16 108 156  174  92  .267  .380  .527  .907 *53/64
    2 Pat Burrell         251   2000 2008 23-31 1306  5388  4535  655 1166 253  14  827  785  47 1273  26   0  42 104    5   1  .257  .367  .485  .852 *7/3D
    3 Greg Luzinski       223   1971 1980 20-29 1281  5302  4618  618 1297 253  21  811  569  74 1093  61   1  53  96   29  27  .281  .364  .490  .854 *7/3
    4 Bobby Abreu         195   1998 2006 24-32 1353  5885  4857  891 1474 348  42  814  947  94 1078  23   4  54  88  254  80  .303  .416  .513  .929 *9/8D
    5 Ryan Howard         177   2004 2008 24-28  572  2442  2071  360  578  99   7  499  331  97  692  19   0  21  39    2   2  .279  .380  .590  .970 *3/D
    6 Mike Lieberthal     150   1994 2006 22-34 1174  4613  4141  528 1137 255  10  609  331  34  560  88  10  43 112    8   7  .275  .338  .450  .788 *2/D
    7 Scott Rolen         150   1996 2002 21-27  844  3643  3125  533  880 207  19  559  426  29  714  54   0  38  50   71  25  .282  .373  .504  .877 *5
    8 Darren Daulton      134   1983 1997 21-35 1109  4185  3504  489  858 189  23  567  607  57  709  23  12  39  34   48   9  .245  .357  .427  .784 *2/9D37
    9 Chase Utley         130   2003 2008 24-29  735  3126  2739  490  817 189  22  492  272  22  496  83   3  29  44   60  11  .298  .375  .526  .901 *4/3D
   10 Jimmy Rollins       125   2000 2008 21-29 1251  5787  5269  845 1461 307  90  544  426  34  695  30  31  31  75  295  61  .277  .333  .441  .774 *6/4
   11 Von Hayes           124   1983 1991 24-32 1208  4988  4306  646 1173 232  30  568  619  74  677  16   4  43  79  202  77  .272  .363  .427  .790 3897/5
   12 Juan Samuel         100   1983 1989 22-28  852  3780  3503  523  921 176  71  413  208  20  825  40   3  26  45  249  78  .263  .310  .439  .749 *4/895

Chase Utley had another homer in 2009 before Kalas’ death.

I don’t know if Kalas called all of Mike Schmidt’s career homers. Probably not–Kalas probably missed a game here or there due to illness.

Harry the K also was a broadcaster for the Houston Colt 45s (now the Astros) from 1965 to 1970. Here are the leading HR hitters during that period for the Astros:

  Cnt Player             **HR** From  To   Ages   G    PA    AB    R    H   2B  3B  RBI  BB  IBB  SO  HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB   CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Jimmy Wynn          163   1965 1970 23-28  882  3780  3167  534  845 152  19  484  543  49  713  17  21  32  54  130  47  .267  .374  .481  .855
    2 Joe Morgan           48   1965 1970 21-26  713  3158  2623  435  698 109  46  219  486  13  304  10  25  14  24  154  49  .266  .381  .398  .779 *4
    3 Doug Rader           44   1967 1970 22-25  456  1832  1640  218  428  76  14  239  157  19  287  13   8  14  51    6  12  .261  .328  .405  .733 *5/3
    4 Rusty Staub          43   1965 1968 21-24  594  2401  2101  228  614 129   6  290  243  63  222  13  21  23  56    7   5  .292  .366  .421  .787 3
    5 John Bateman         30   1965 1968 24-27  363  1281  1177   98  284  55   4  134   72  39  210  10   8  14  51    1   2  .241  .288  .371  .659 *2
    6 Denis Menke          29   1968 1970 27-29  458  1943  1657  210  455  74  17  238  233  28  248  15  21  17  27   13  20  .275  .366  .392  .758 *64/35
    7 Bob Aspromonte       20   1965 1968 27-30  565  2228  2033  184  528  64  12  208  153  32  218   9  16  17  66    5   8  .260  .312  .333  .645 *5/36
    8 Norm Miller          16   1965 1970 19-24  374  1292  1131  140  270  57  10  125  132  14  215  13   7   9  26   15  10  .239  .323  .349  .672 /52
    9 Joe Pepitone         14   1970 1970 29-29   75   299   279   44   70   9   5   35   18   9   28   1   0   1   7    5   2  .251  .298  .470  .768 /*3
   10 Bob Watson           14   1966 1970 20-24  169   580   522   65  135  29   2   74   43   2   99   7   1   7  17    2   1  .259  .320  .402  .722 /*32
   11 Jim Gentile          14   1965 1966 31-32  130   439   371   38   90  17   2   49   55  10  111   9   3   1   8    0   0  .243  .353  .412  .765 *3

Not much doing other than Wynn, thanks to the Astrodome.

Also, because I was curious, here are the most games by a Phillie from 1965 to 1970 against the Astros with at least one homer.

                   Games Link to Individual Games
+-----------------+-----+-------------------------+
 Dick Allen           20 Ind. Games
 Johnny Callison       7 Ind. Games
 Bill White            6 Ind. Games
 Tony Gonzalez         4 Ind. Games
 Deron Johnson         3 Ind. Games
 Wes Covington         3 Ind. Games
 Cookie Rojas          2 Ind. Games
 Don Money             2 Ind. Games
 Don Lock              2 Ind. Games
 Larry Hisle           2 Ind. Games
 Johnny Briggs         2 Ind. Games
 Rick Wise             1 Ind. Games
 Bobby Wine            1 Ind. Games
 Tony Taylor           1 Ind. Games
 Dick Stuart           1 Ind. Games
 Clay Dalrymple        1 Ind. Games
 Doug Clemens          1 Ind. Games
 Byron Browne          1 Ind. Games

Allen had 21 homers in those 20 games.

Anyway, sorry for my random musings. Like I said, I’m, having trouble saying goodbye.

Originally posted by Andy from Stat of the Day, on April 27, 2009 5:25 AM

Red Sox complete the sweep. Last game was not a blowout (I am so positive!) but did feature Jacoby Ellsbury pulling off the ever-bitchin' move of a straight steal of homeplate.

Video of Ellsbury's feat available here.

I hate everything.

Originally posted by J from 3:10 to Joba, on April 27, 2009 4:15 AM

The face of swine flu (according to Wikipedia):

Originally posted by btrott from Stupidfool.org, on April 26, 2009 8:59 PM

If you missed/passed on this the first time around like I did, check it out if you want to hear some thoughtful talk on the music industry, etc.

Originally posted by lhl from random($foo), on April 26, 2009 8:03 PM

The YouTube Symphony, a global orchestra assembled from online audition videos, may sound like yet another groan-inducing attempt to make classical music hip. But there’s some method in the marketing madness: YouTube has become a serious resource for professional musicians, who use it to investigate up-and-coming talent . . .

Originally posted by Alex Ross from The New Yorker, on April 26, 2009 8:00 PM

ha ha

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on April 26, 2009 7:37 PM

randomsox:

So this just happened…

A Jacoby straight steal home on his belly. STRAIGHT STEAL HOME.

First time in fifteen years a Red Sox player straight stole home - last time was Billy Hatcher back in 1994. That it was under the nose of the Yankees makes it even sweeter.

If there was a single human being in New England who was resisting the Jacoby Ellsbury freight train, I think they all just jumped on with a giant fangirling SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on April 26, 2009 6:28 PM

Bea Arthur R.I.P.
First Jack Wrangler, now Bea Arthur, who’s the next gay icon to go? Let’s just say that Bea Arthur rocked everyone’s world as Maude, then as the sassy Dorothy on Golden Girls (okay okay I couldn’t stand the Golden Girls, and it conflicted with my disco nap, but Maude, come on!) I bet I can better your gay tribute anyday, did you know Bea Arthur was a Marine, got her start as a lounge singer and never got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it’s true, check out 5 things you didn’t know about Bea Arthur over at Neetorama.

Extremely Cool LED Lighting in Milk Bottle Caps
Best your neighbors with this amazing milk bottle patio/deck lights made with LEDs. The PPE makes for good diffusion. They’re controlled by an Arduino Mini hooked up to a potentiometer. The arduino looks at the analogue reading from the pot and then depending on the value carries out instructions on which lights to turn on or off. Click above to watch video, directions on how to make the cool Arduino Controlled Milk Bottle LED Light’s Here.

Meat Cards
Morrissey is weeping! 100% beef jerky, that has your contact information seared into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER. Unlike other business cards, Meat Cards will retain value after the econopocalypse. Hoard and barter your calorie-rich, life-sustaining cards, these babies do not fit in a Rolodex, because their deliciousness cannot be contained. (Seriously this has got to be a joke.)

Hot Pockets and Bacon on a Stick
Grub Street takes a look Inside 675 Bar (formerly Level V Space) on Hudson nr. 14th St., prosciutto-wrapped “hot pockets.” And chocolate bacon on a stick, and the possibility of drinking a fine mezcal laced concoction lovingly names the ‘Algerian Typists”. Frankly I’d seriously be down with the grilled kielbasa, pommery mustard, horseradish, spicy ketchup and a beer.

Baconnaise Featured on Oprah
I heard Justin and Dave’s bacon flavored spread was featured on Oprah last Friday, does that mean it will start blowing off the shelves in grocery stores? I’m amazed that the product contains no bacon, is completely vegan, kosher and contains less fat than regular mayo. Not too sure about the Bacon Flavored Lip Balm though (rumored to be their best seller), do I really want to smell and taste like bacon? One last mention of bacon, I thought this were sort of odd and funny, all the cuteness of a cake pop, all the fun of an easy appetizer, and it’s all wrapped up in bacon; Bacon Pops!

Looking for something to shake up the summer playlist?

Jeanne C. Riley’s Harper Valley P.T.A. so right on so many levels. Wait, are my West Virginian roots showing?!

7 Foods Banned in Europe Still Available in the U.S.
I’m not a food nazi in any way shape or form, but the term genetically modified food turns me right off. Here’s a non-alarmist look at some of the food and food practices that are permitted in the U.S. that are banned in Europe and Canada for that matter. I’m unsure about the Stevie argument though given the millions of dollars the makers of Aspartame and Splenda spend on marketing, and just for the record Splenda does makes me ill. The Times runs down and compares some of the most popular artificial sweeteners, including Stevia.

Brew Your Own Coffee Liqueur
More hot tutorial action from Instructables and Lifehacker; You’ve already made skittles-flavored vodka, infused your own flavored vodka, and even made edible shot glasses. What kind of exotic libation could be left for your DIY distillery? Why, coffee liqueur, of course!

The Selby Photographs of Artist Spaces
I’m sure you’ve seen this by now, but just in case, and more as a note to self, The Selby features photographs, paintings and videos by Todd Selby of interesting people and their creative spaces. Start with Tim Soar, designer in London, Francois Curiel, President of Christie’s Europe and Josh Conner and Lyz Olko, designers of Obesity and Speed, at their East Village Apartment.

Originally posted by Jocko from Jockohomo Datapanik, on April 26, 2009 4:46 PM

Following today’s game, the Mets designated LHP Casey Fossum for assignment and promoted LHP Ken Takahashi from Triple-A.

Takahashi had 0.77 ERA in 11 innings with Buffalo.

By the way, Tim Redding pitched four scoreless innings today in an extended spring training game, according to the Daily News.

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on April 26, 2009 3:21 PM

letsgomets:

Oh

NO sympathy. none.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from metsgrrl.com's tumblr, on April 26, 2009 3:13 PM

Before Inauguration Day, President-elect Barack Obama said he wanted to hit the ground running. Instead, he hit the ground sprinting and hasn't stopped.

Consider: A $787 billion stimulus package. A 10-year budget including universal health insurance and a cap-and-trade system to combat global warming. Subsidies to help distressed homeowners stay in their homes. Public-private partnerships to clean up the big banks. A bailout of the auto companies. New regulations to clean up Wall Street. A G-20 meeting to harmonize global economic policies. A proposal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. A thaw in relations with Cuba and Venezuela. Overtures to Iran. A start to immigration reform. Even a dramatic rescue from pirates.

And this is just the first 100 days.

He also has done this without breaking a sweat. Obama is the serene center of the cyclone - exuding calm when most Americans are petrified about paying the monthly bills, offering assurance when everyone in the world is worried about loose nukes falling into the wrong hands.

All this activity has made the right angry and the left uneasy. But a whopping 65 percent of Americans think highly of him. And no president since John F. Kennedy has received such an enthusiastic welcome around the globe. By almost any measure, his presidency so far has been a triumph. (I give him only a C-plus on his economic policies so far, but that's mainly because of a provisional F on the bank bailout. See below.)

Yet Obama's success has rested on several delicate balancing acts. Whether he continues to succeed will depend on how well he shifts his balance in the months ahead.

Short-term or long-term economics?

The stimulus and bank bailouts have required the government to pump almost $1.5 trillion into the economy and the Federal Reserve Board to dramatically expand the money supply. This makes sense in the short term. With almost 1 out of 6 Americans either unemployed or underemployed - and consumers and businesses still tightening their belts - government has to be the spender of last resort. But as the economy recovers, Obama will have to rein in government deficits. If he does this too early, he risks prolonging the deep recession. Yet if he waits too long, he risks wild inflation.

Progressive vision or conservative governing?

Obama's 10-year budget presents the most ambitious and progressive vision of any president since FDR. But when it come to governing, Obama has been cautious and incremental. His stimulus was smaller than even conservative economist Martin Feldstein recommended. He has been unwilling to take over the banks. He won't push Congress on the Employee Free Choice Act. His mortgage relief program is modest. He doesn't want to prosecute CIA torturers. Yet if he wants to be a transformative president, he's got to move boldly. Universal health insurance will be his first big test.

Dominance of domestic or foreign policy?

So far Obama has focused on the home front, as he should, given the economy's plunge. But he's confronting a major foreign-policy challenge in Pakistan. And other challenges are emerging in Iran, North Korea, Russia, China and stateless regions of the world. So the big question here is whether foreign policy will come to define his presidency, notwithstanding his domestic ambitions. Presidents don't have much control over this. FDR's first two terms were defined by the Great Depression; his last was dominated by World War II. Lyndon Johnson wanted to create the Great Society but got bogged down in Vietnam. George W. Bush didn't know that his administration would be defined by Iraq.

Policy emerging from contending arguments or strong "czars"?

At first it looked as if Obama was hiring a "team of rivals" who would battle out hard policy problems. This management style allows a president to hear and consider contrary points of view, but it can also be chaotic. Yet Obama seems to be opting for strong White House "czars" instead, such as Lawrence Summers on the economy, Carol Browner on the environment and Rahm Emanuel on politics. This approach saves presidential time and focuses responsibility, but it can suppress contrary views. And it's often those contrary views that presidents need to hear to avoid major errors.

Working with Republicans or taking them on?

By temperament and inclination, Obama prefers to reach across the aisle and court Republican support. Yet so far this tactic has been notably unsuccessful. Republicans have moved almost in lockstep against him. They're already gearing up for the 2010 midterms, staging anti-tax rallies and laying the foundation for a major assault on his presidency. They fantasize about repeating the coup Newt Gingrich pulled off in November 1994. At some point before then, Obama will have to take off the gloves.

Making nice to Wall Street or kicking its butt?

Almost $600 billion has been poured into big Wall Street banks with nothing to show for it. They're still not lending to Main Street, still paying their top executives princely sums, and still issuing dividends and looking for acquisition targets. Yet apart from a few rhetorical blasts at a few Wall Street executives, Obama has so far shown remarkable solicitude to the banks because he thinks he needs their cooperation to get credit moving again. At some point, though, he'll have to get tough.

So far Obama has found a workable balance in all these domains. But all require increasingly fancy footwork, and some rebalancing will be needed. The central question for the next 100 days is how deftly he finds new footing.

Originally posted by Robert Reich from Robert Reich's Blog, on April 26, 2009 10:33 AM

Now more than ever don't go around hugging and kissing random elementary schoolchildren, or pigs, in Queens. [NY Times]

Originally posted by Max Silvestri from Gawker, on April 26, 2009 9:30 AM

My Crosspost to LJ for Movable Type index template is now at revision 0.4. I added some features, cleaned up a few things, and am in general trying to make it as functional and convenient as possible.

Future versions will, I hope, include slick stuff like automatically popping up the page when you post. So far the only way to do this seems to be to edit one of the templates within MT itself but that's only because I'm a n00b at actually hacking MT innards.

Originally posted by Serdar from Serdar | Genji Press, on April 26, 2009 9:09 AM

Maybe when I'm done teaching and fretting over my dissertation, I'll have the energy for a proper, narrative long post.  Here's another smattering of links, seemingly disconnected.

Vladimir Nabokov's "The Art of Translation," published in The New Republic in 1941, now available online.  I follow Words Without Borders on Twitter and received a link to this essay via a tweet.  I had read it before, and even have it in my files, but I really how WWB is using Twitter to bring good, thought provoking content on translation to its readers.

The pressing question "how did Sarah Hughes outscore Irina Slutskaya and Michelle Kwan for the gold medal in the 2002 Olympics?" is succinctly answered in this article (see the side bar for the details).

Wikipedia's list of "unusual deaths" is a major distraction.  Hypatia of Alexandria was flayed with oyster shells (though the word "ostrakois" may also refer to pottery shards).

I've been listening to Joni Mitchell's Clouds again.  

Some come dark and strange like dying 
Crows and ravens whistling 
Lines of weeping, strings of crying 
So much said in listening 

(from "Songs for Aging Children")

This 1970 profile of Mitchell provides some context for these songs.  My favorite quote: "Grass, it sits you down on your fanny."

Originally posted by Adriana from Stingy Kids, on April 26, 2009 7:30 AM

Just in:

In Burma/Myanmar, the military junta has ruled since 1962, brutally suppressing human rights and the flow of information. Yet in the fall of 2007, the military found itself challenged by Buddhist clergy and ordinary citizens who used nonviolent actions and 21st century technology to challenge the regime. Although the so-called Saffron Revolution failed to result in regime change, dedicated Burmese activists are continuing to risk their lives to work for change in their country. In a country of 58 million with less than 1% internet and cell phone penetration, how is technology being used to challenge a military regime?

Join us for an evening conversation on this topic, including:

-- A presentation by Digital Democracy on the use of technology inside and along Burma's borders.
-- Footage from the Sept. 2007 Saffron Revolution, where tech such as mobile phones and the internet allowed protesters to coordinate and publicize the largest protests seen in a generation,
-- A Q&A with "Stanley", a Burmese computer programmer and chairperson of the All Burma IT Students Union.

Monday, April 27th, 7:30pm, free
The Change You Want To See Gallery
http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org
84 Havemeyer Street, at Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Not in New York? Tune in to a live-stream broadcast at http://www.mogulus.com/notanalternative and follow #thechange and @NAA_NYC on Twitter for live-blogging coverage.

This is the inaugural event of the 2009 Upgrade! New York art and technology programming series, pertaining to open source activist and creative practices, co-produced by Not An Alternative and Eyebeam.

About Digital Democracy
Digital Democracy (D2) uses technology to empower civic engagement. D2 works with community partners on communications technology that encourages education, dialogue and participation. Since early 2007 our team has worked with Burmese communities in Thailand, Bangladesh, India, and China as well as with resettled Burmese populations in Indiana, Washington, DC and New York. D2 staff have published and presented research on Burma with an emphasis on technology use by displaced Burmese groups. In addition to Burma’s borders, we have conducted research in Cuba, Armenia, Mali, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
http://www.dtwo.org

About Stanley & ABITSU
Stanley is an I.T. Specialist and former political prisoner. Growing up in Rangoon, he became a student organizer for the High School Students’ Union during Burma's 1988 uprising . Exiled in 1989, he returned to Burma in 1996 and became involved in political and underground movements. In 1998 he founded the All Burma IT Student Union (formerly known as ABITSF) to mobilize I.T. students from inside Burma. He was arrested for this in 1999.

While serving a sentence for forced labor in Eastern Burma, Stanley was able to escape, and fled to Thailand where he teaches computer skills to Burmese refugees. He is chairperson of ABITSU. He and his team play an instrumental role in circumventing the military's severe censorship to share news from inside Burma with the outside world.

"ABITSU represents all the I.T. Students who are struggling for Freedom and Human Rights within Burma. We stand against the Burmese Military Regime and work to remove the Military Dictatorship, to generate more I.T. skilled personnel and build the infrastructure for a future democratic government of Burma. We also seek to obtain true freedom on the International Information High Way, and to get equal rights and opportunities for every nationality in Burma."
http://www.abitsu.org

Take Action
ABITSU is working with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners on a campaign to Free Burma's Political Prisoners Now! Their goal is to collect 888,888 signatures by May 24, 2009, the day democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi is supposed to be released from House Arrest. Sign it today, and pass it on.

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on April 26, 2009 4:39 AM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Hacks, Odds and ends, Road Tested

A tweet this afternoon pointed me to a post by Dave "MacSparky" Sparks titled The Netbook Experiment, in which he talked about his disappointment with a Dell mini 9 netbook. Since I was about to send out a tweet to the world at large announcing the sale of my Dell mini 9, I found it fascinating that Sparks had a similar experience to mine.

I wrote about creating a hackintosh (AKA hackb00k) out of a Dell mini 9 in a long post back in October of 2008, and at that time I was fairly impressed with the low cost and capabilities of the device. However, after actually using the mini 9 for six months, I find it almost useless as a "real computer" and have decided that it needs to go. The moral of the story? You definitely get what you pay for, and a $499 computer is not going to be a productivity tool. Even if you delude yourself into thinking that since you're only going to use it for email it will be a worthwhile investment, you're wrong. If you want to know how I came to these conclusions, read on.

Continue reading Road Tested: Why the hackb00k is a fail

TUAWRoad Tested: Why the hackb00k is a fail originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 26 Apr 2009 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Steven Sande from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on April 26, 2009 1:00 AM