randomwalks/dj

[photo courtesy of xerones on flickr]

Those who grew up knowing only the figs that came in Newtons have a lot to learn. Figs are undoubtedly one of the most luscious fruits on earth, and they're now in season--get 'em while they're ripe.

Rich in taste, figs are even richer in history. The fig tree was a common theme in the Bible, and the Egyptians considered figs to be sacred, often burying the dead with baskets of figs. In ancient Greece, Plato wrote that athletes were fed figs to make them stronger. Fig culture spread to the northern Mediterranean and Adriatic shores until it reached southern Italy, and then the rest of Europe. When the Spanish planted figs in Mexico, and the Franciscan monks moved northward with pockets full of figs--that's when they came to the States.

Some figgy recipes, after the jump.

Figs are highly perishable, so only purchase them when you know they will be eaten within a couple of days. There are several different fig varieties. The most popular, the Black Mission fig, has blackish-purple skin and that stunning pink flesh we are most familiar with. The Dakota fig has green skin and purple flesh, and the Calimyrna, a greenish-yellow skin and amber flesh. The Adriatic, which is used most commonly to make fig bars, has a light green skin and pink-tan flesh.

When selecting your figs at the market, look for a deep, rich color, a plump, but not mushy appearance, and a sweet fragrance. When storing figs at home, make sure that they are refrigerated and stored in a safe place where they cannot be bruised or crushed. Take advantage of the tail end of the fig season and stock up on this delicious fruit. Here are some recipe ideas to celebrate the fig.

Recipes

• Fig, Goat Cheese, and Caramelized Onion Sandwiches
• Ham, Manchego, and Fig Tartines [from Spork or Foon]
• Warm Prosciutto, Fig, and Goat Cheese Salad
• Clay-Pot Ginger Pork with Figs and Pickled Fennel
• Dried Cranberry, Apricot, and Fig Stuffing
• Fig and Honey Cream Galette
• Author Margaret Maron's Fig Preserves
• Sauced Figs

How do you like to use figs?

Originally posted by Claire Sellers from Serious Eats, on September 26, 2009 11:00 AM

Women with their pistols at the ready: ladies champions team of the Missouri University shooting club. [1934].

(via AC)

Originally posted by ry from Modcult, on September 26, 2009 9:05 AM

Despite missing 2 1/2 months due to a deep bone bruise in his knee, Carlos Beltran has quietly hit .332 in 75 games this season, including .311 with two doubles and a home run since returning from the disabled list on September 8.

…this is the first quiet .330+ batting average i can ever remember, although it will encompass only about a half of the season…

Beltran claims he is not in any pain, but Jerry Manuel thinks that he is subconsciously compensating for his knee to protect himself, which could be a cause for his drop in power, as he feels his swing is “not as fluid” as he would like it to be.

…what was the cause of the drop prior to the injury, Jerry…

Originally posted by Michael Baron from MetsBlog.com, on September 26, 2009 6:43 AM

A Factory Like a City
By David Bacon
from TruthOut.org

Last month Toyota announced it would close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, California, after General Motors annnounced it was withdrawing from the partnership under which the plant has operated for over two decades. The plant employs 4500 workers directly, and the jobs of another 30,000 throughout northern California are dependent on its continued operation. Taking families into account, the threatened closure will eliminate the income of over 100,000 people.

People have spent their lives in the NUMMI plant in Fremont, probably more time with the compressed-air tools at their workstations than with their families at home. The plant is like a city, thousands of jobs and thousands of people working in a complicated dance where each one's contribution makes possible that of the next person down the line. And like a city, it supports the people who work in it.

A NUMMI job brings the paycheck that pays the mortgage and the (now astronomical) tuition for kids in college. A NUMMI job makes possible the friendships that grow over years laboring in the same workplace. Working at NUMMI means being part of the union, with all the frustrations and infighting, but also the ability to pull together to get the contract that makes an industrial job bearable, and ensures that a kid's visit to a doctor or dentist doesn't bottom out the family bank account.

General Motors used to run this plant by itself, back in the 60s and 70s, when it was GM Fremont. It was a feisty plant with a feisty union, and a lynchpin for years in the movement to stop concessions in union bargaining. When GM closed the plant the first time, in the early 80s, many thought it was revenge. Afterwards, autoworkers from Fremont became migrants. Many lived a lonely existence in motels in Oklahoma City or Texas, trying to hold onto seniority in a union auto job, sending money back home to families in Caifornia. Others lost their homes, and worse. In the wave of plant closures of the early 1980s, the Department of Commerce even kept a statistic of how many people committed suicide for every thousand who lost jobs when their plant shut down. No one in Washington has the courage to face that number anymore.

When GM and Toyota announced their partnership to reopen the plant, desperation was so great that people to agreed to a union contract outside the national pattern before the lines even started moving. Big concessions to the "Japanese style of management" often pitted workers against each other and against their union too. It took years to fight those problems out with management.

When General Motors withdrew from its partnership with Toyota, everyone knew that spelled trouble. What sense did it make for GM to withdraw from a plant that consistently made vehicles that sold well, at a profit? But the GM bailout put the company under managers with no concern for keepiing people working and plants open. Making GM profitable again meant getting dividends and profits flowing to a tiny group of bankers and investors, who already have more money than they can spend. And keeping production going at low-cost plants outside the U.S. will bring that profitability back, although at the cost of the jobs and welfare of tens of thousands of people. Whose interest was our government serving with such a bailout? Even in France the conservative Sarkozy told French automakers they had to keep the factories running if they wanted a government subsidy. But here in the U.S., who was bailed out, and who wasn't?

Without a GM partner, Toyota is moving to close the only plant it owns in the U.S. with a union. And they just got a big taxpayer-funded present too. More vehicles sold under the Cash for Clunkers program were Corollas made at the NUMMI plant than any other model. The administration and Congress vote to throw three billion dollars at Toyota and the other auto giants, to reduce car prices and increase sales. But there was no requirement that the subsidy come with a commitment to keep the people working who made the cars they sold.

Look at the photographs of the people of NUMMI. These experienced and talented people could make anything. If Toyota doesn't want to make cars in Fremont, why not put the plant to use making busses or the railcars for BART and local transit systems (for which taxpayers have already agreed to give up billions of dollars)? And if Toyota and GM don't want to give up the plant or put it to that use, then a true government commitment would be to use its power of eminent domain to take it over and ensure that the abilities of its workers don't go to waste, and that their families and the others depending on continued production there aren't plunged into misery and despair.

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on September 26, 2009 5:25 AM

We're making some upgrades behind the scenes today that'll allow us to bring some new, cool features to the site that we think you'll like. Beginning this morning at 8:00 a.m. ET, all community features will be disabled (commenting, favoriting, and new submissions to Talk and Photograzing). We expect the upgrade to take approximately 4 hours and as soon as it is complete, community features will be restored. Thanks for your patience!

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from Serious Eats, on September 26, 2009 3:30 AM

Rap pioneer KRS-One recently shared his thoughts on Def Jam Records and said the company Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin founded has "destroyed" the hip-hop genre.

[Visit SOHH.com for more information]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from SOHH.com Dailies, on September 26, 2009 3:30 AM

In some ways, it's easy to love Miranda July's work.  Her portraits of lonely people speak to the outsider in all of us.  Some of her characters in No One Belongs Here More Than You, for example, broke my heart.  But there's also something uncomfortable about her work, something creepy and alarming that comes as a shock.  (In her book, you start off thinking that her characters are the Jane Adams character in the movie Little Children, but sometimes they end up feeling a little closer to the Jackie Earle Haley character instead.)  July's series of photos for Vice magazine, in which she calls out the extras in old movie scenes, conjure up the same intriguing, unsettling feelings.

The older I get, the more I appreciate this kind of unpredictability.  It's the same thing I love about the TBA Festival.  I have an idea of what the terrain is going to be, but I have no idea where I'm going to end up.  The journey will hold the kind of intellectual surprise that seems like a real rarity for me these days.

I was thinking something along these lines while listening to Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome" recently.  Where have the Public Enemies of the world gone?  When is the last time a band stood up for something in such a direct and formidable way and demanded to be heard?  When is the last time a band felt really, truly threatening to the status quo... and made great songs, too? 

Leonard Pitts, who's probably my favorite op-ed columnist, wrote an interesting piece about the lack of authentic rebellion in music recently.  He wrote:  "Popular culture is increasingly home to artificial outlaws and fake rebels, revolution on the cheap that looks like the real thing unless you look too close." 

I know there are plenty of bands out there now who are making political music, but why haven't any of them acquired as large a following as Public Enemy?  Is it because they're not being picked up or promoted by increasingly conservative record companies?  Or is it because there are so many bands one can choose to listen to now (via web and filesharing) that their impact is diluted?  Is it because we, the audience, don't want to be challenged or made uncomfortable?  Or is it because record companies don't think we do?  Or something else?

Originally posted by Valarie Smith from Crazed Teacups, on September 25, 2009 10:09 PM

thatfotoguy posted a photo:

the first and only official/unofficial revs show put together by espo for revs shortly after his arrest to raise money for legal fees.if anyone has any more info to add or if my info is wrong let me know and i will edit it.i think this show was in 2002 in philadelphia.i have no photos from the show and i'm not sure what or how many pieces were there,but this flyer a gem in itself.

Originally posted by nobody@flickr.com (thatfotoguy) from Recent Uploads tagged revs, on September 25, 2009 4:46 PM

My 1983 Topps set is finally complete after 26 years. I found the last card for the set when I took a detour on the way home to Atlanta Sports Cards after a dreadful week. I was scrounging through the dollar box for old cards when I looked through the Orioles pile on a lark. There was Cal, swinging away. I really need to print out a cheat sheet of cards I need for the times I randomly show up at card shops. I found a ton of neat stuff there cheap. I'll show some of it off over the next week.

I want do do something cool to celebrate the completion of this set, but I'm not sure what to do. A 6 in 30 for the binder? Post the best card from every team? Scan and post a 9 card sheet every day for 88 days? Leave me some suggestions in the comments and I'll put a poll up on Monday.

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on September 25, 2009 4:43 PM

Squidoo founder and author Seth Godin has backed down on creating company pages by default as part of their new ‘Brands In Public’ service that launched a few days ago. The idea behind the new service is that brands are able to track feedback from customers on a public ‘lens’ (aka. a web page).

Feedback is aggregated from multiple sources, but mostly twitter and mostly by matching against the brand name. The concept itself is not an evil one, but Squidoo setup feedback pages for over 200 brands at launch without the express permission from the vast majority of them. The hitch was that if a brand wanted to control the lens and the feedback, they would have to pay Squidoo $400 a month – and it was that part of the deal that made a large number of people rightfully angry.

Godin says in a blog post today that they will remove the brands they created by default, and instead make the program opt-in. This is a big step back from yesterday where he left a comment on an excellent blog post by Lisa Barone, who criticized the product as being ‘brandjacking’, by saying:

I’m not sure it’s brandjacking any more than a Google search or a Twitter search is brandjacking. I guess the difference is that we’re making it really easy for the brand to show up next to the stream of comments.

Godin has built a reputation, on the back of his books, as being a marketing and community guru. He must have read some of his own work overnight because today on his blog he says the policy has changed to:

When a brand wants a page, we’ll build it, they’ll run it and we’ll both have achieved our goals.

Godin opens his post today with:

The response from the brands we’ve shared it with has been terrific, but other people didn’t like elements of it. And they were direct in letting me know.

Well we know he didn’t hear that ‘direct feedback’ using Squidoo’s own ‘Brands in Public’ page, which during the storm yesterday conspiquously didn’t mention a single point of negative feedback about the campaign.

Godin also does not have comments enabled on his blog, but the launch of the new Squidoo service just happen to time with the launch of Google Sidewiki – which allows users to leave notes on a website. Many flocked to Sidewiki out of frustration, including SearchEngineLand editor Danny Sullivan, and left constructive and well thought out arguments against ‘Brands In Public’. It is ironic that the ‘customer feedback’ for a product that is meant to aggregate just that all came from other sources such as sidewiki, blog posts, twitter and comments on blogs.

We were going to reach out to Godin yesterday, but instead figured we could write this story by aggregating what everybody in the world thinks of Squidoo, and then asking him to pay us $400 to remove the parts he may not agree with.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco

Originally posted by Nik Cubrilovic from TechCrunch, on September 25, 2009 2:11 PM

To sort out the uncultured, ill-tempered, and just plain ugly, Moscow clubs use a process called face control (or feis kontrol), a particularly picky version of the typical velvet rope system employed at clubs around the world.

Not that Pasha doesn't take his role seriously. As he sees it, his job, or that of any face control expert, is necessary because Russia is filled with "people who have just made their first million and think they deserve to be in the club, that they should get everything they want." This, of course, is a problem. "But in fact they're just a bunch of miners and day laborers," Pasha said. "They don't have respect or culture."

Tags: Moscow   Russia

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 25, 2009 1:44 PM

You can’t get away from the internet.

Originally posted by hello@rocketboom.com (Rocketboom) from Rocketboom, on September 25, 2009 1:26 PM

As we head into the weekend, I’d like to extend a very special thanks to all of you who read The Awl on a regular basis. I’m not trying to get sentimental or anything here, but this—hard though it sometimes may be to believe—is actually a burgeoning small business (emphasis on “small,” appropriate laughter on “business”), and we are indeed most appreciative of your continuing custom, not just for the helpful tips and thoughtful comments you provide, but also for your valuable demographic information. And while we’re on that subject, I have a brief question that may help us plan our post schedule on Monday. It’s rather delicate, in that I don’t want it to look like we privilege one group over the other, but let’s just put it this way: How many of you are planning on, say, not eating that day? And for those of you who will, for whatever reasons, not be eating, will you also be refraining from the Internet? We’re just curious is all. Anyway, no matter what your dietary restrictions, have yourselves a wonderful weekend and, yes, thanks for being on the deck of this gay pirate vessel. I love each and every one of you, and I’m sure Choire feels the same. (Cho, on the other hand, thinks you’re all dicks.) S’hana! Or however they say it. See ya Monday.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on September 25, 2009 1:00 PM

The little coffee shop on West 21st Street has, dangling under its potato chip rack, a row of flip-flops.

I pointed to them today as I bought my pretzels. "Sell a lot of flip-flops?" I asked the owner, an affable woman who's always manning the register.

"You know, we open sometimes on Saturday nights, when the weather's cool," she explained to me. "And all the clubs around here, they don't let women in wearing flats. So all these girls come out after wearing their heels all night, and they say to me, 'Do you have flip-flops? I'd pay anything for a pair of flip-flops!'

"So, we got some flip-flops. I know how they feel--I once spent $20 on flip-flops after a night like that. But they're all college girls, you know? I don't want to rip them off, so I just charge five dollars."

Have your customers voiced unexpected needs to you? How are you solving their problems?

This is a cross-post from aiaio.

Originally posted by David Wertheimer from Ideapad, on September 25, 2009 12:56 PM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Home Sweet Home, on September 25, 2009 12:52 PM

There’s this conversation rolling around the developers’ world; it started with chapter in Coders at Work by the one & only JWZ, which I haven’t read, but which Joel Spolsky enthused over, praising the practice of “duct-tape programming”. Uncle Bob Martin weighed in. I have opinions and examples too.

First, Joel is right that you want to pay attention to what JWZ says, since he’s shipped more code that more people have used than any dozen or two average programmers. Also he’s funny. So I’ll buy that book.

Joel is right that complexity is your enemy. We’d all like to write code to a higher level of abstraction than, say, C and Unix system calls provide, but when you’re eight levels up the stack in something like Spring or Websphere, chances are one or two of the levels are going to generally suck, because that’s how life generally is. So it’s really sensible to worry about all those levels.

TDD I

Joel is wrong to piss on unit testing, and buys into the common fantasy that it slows you down. It doesn’t slow you down, it speeds you up. It’s been a while since I’ve run a dev team, but it could happen again. If it does, the developers will use TDD or they’ll be looking for another job.

In related news, I’m trying to learn Haskell, and it’s a good thing that I’m using the online Real World Haskell because I would have launched a physical book across the room during the extended snotty lecture about how those poor dynamic-language programmers have to use unit testing because they lack the miraculous benefits of strong static typing. Static typing is not a substitute for unit testing. Sheesh.

Uncle Bob piles on: “Programmers who say they don’t have time to write tests are living in the stone age. They might as well be saying that man wasn’t meant to fly.”

Problems and Solutions

But then he says (slightly paraphrased): “I think that any programmer that’s not smart enough to use templates, design patterns, multi-threading, COM, etc is probably not smart enough to be a programmer period.”

What?! My experience suggests that there are few surer ways to doom a big software project than via the Design Patterns religion. Also, that multi-threading is part of the problem, not part of the solution; that essentially no application programmer understands threads well enough to avoid deadlocks and races and horrible non-repeatable bugs. And that COM was one of the most colossal piles of crap my profession ever foisted on itself.

I’d like to agree with Bob’s basic argument, but I don’t think we’re in agreement on problems and solutions.

Consider the Passenger

Let’s go back to the issue of complexity and layering. My own most successful software productions have been down-to-the-metal stuff, usually in C, full of memory-mapping and byte-level I/O. But these days, you can get fantastic results with certain highly-layered approaches. Consider my recent write-up on Ravelry, which is built in Rails, itself a pretty high stack of abstractions. They’re running it via Phusion’s Passenger.

Similarly, check out some recent DHH tweets, which I’ll reproduce for convenience:

Basecamp is now handling more than 50 million Rails requests per week. We're peaking out at around 200 req/sec. Damn! (*)

Basecamp's average response time is 90ms and 87% of all requests finish in less than 200ms. Great stats thanks to jumping off virtualization. (*)

Basecamp runs on 4 dedicated Dell R710's (2xL5520@2.27Ghz CPUs with 12GB RAM) serving Rails through Apache/Passenger. Zippy bastards! (*)

Another Passenger success story. And what is Passenger actually? It’s an Apache module. For those who don’t know, an Apache module is about as close to the raw metal as you can get in Web infrastructure; uncompromising C code where you get to munge each request as the server works its highly-optimized way through the business of parsing and dispatching it and delivering the results.

This seems like existence proof of the assertion that layering is your friend (as in all that Rails machinery making Ravelry and Basecamp maintainable), but so is being close to the metal (Passenger’s C code greasing the path between the Internet and the app).

TDD II

If you read the comments around this debate, it’s increasingly obvious that we as a profession don’t have consensus around the value of TDD. Many of our loudmouths (like me for example) have become evangelists probably to the point of being obnoxious. But there remains a strong developer faction out there, mostly just muttering in their beards, who think TDD is another flavor of architecture astronautics that’s gonna slow them down and get in their way.

I think we need to bash this out in public. We need to organize a good head-to-head practitioners’ debate at a conference or on some good online property, and see if we can at the very least come to a good understanding of our disagreements.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from ongoing, on September 25, 2009 12:00 PM

Eric Spiegelman put together this amazing stream of 130 photos of Obama posing with dignitaries during this week's U.N. meetings (long video after the jump). And Obama's smile never changes. Of course you may suspect some Photoshopping, but Spiegelman defends himself by directing us to the State Department's flickr site. [Via Daily Intel]

Originally posted by John Kuhner from Gothamist, on September 25, 2009 11:12 AM

In a 1981 novel set in 1969, a newly megafamous author gets a letter from a TV producer.  “Dear Mr. Zuckerman,” it begins,

“For a number of years I have been planning to film a series of half-hour television shows (in color) to be called “A Day in the Life of …” The format, which is no more than a carbon of the ancient Greek Tragedy, is a recitation of the hour-by-hour activities of a well-known person, and offers an intimate personal look at someone who, in the normal course of events, the audience would not see or meet [ ...]  Basically, it inolves filming one complete day, from breakfast to bedtime, of a celebrity who will excite the interest of millions of onlookers.  To achieve one day without dull spots, we will average four days of filming candid unrehearsed material.”The letter goes on in this vein for a bit before concluding, “My guess is that such a production will enhance your career — and mine too.”

In the novel, the newly famous author refuses. Since then, a lot of people in the real world have said yes, including — semi- shockingly — Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

You’d think, based on what you think you know about Anna Wintour, that she would have tossed out a documentarian’s entreaty the moment it crossed her immaculate desk.   What could she have hoped that saying yes would accomplish?  This is a woman, after all, whose feats of self-construction are already responsible for two enormously commercially successful renderings of what life is like for the staff of Vogue.  “The Devil Wears Prada” has permanently cemented in the public’s imagination an image of Wintour ruling the global fashion industry with an iron-cast, fur-lined velvet glove, dismissing millions of dollars and thousands of hours’ worth of work with a barely discernible smirk and a subdued “That’s all.”

But for whatever reason — egotism, or a continued cultivation of a Martha Stewartian unexpectedly-good-sportish persona, or orders from her corporate overlords (phrased of course as faint suggestions) — Wintour acceded to R.J. Cutler’s request to film the production of the magazine’s September 2007 issue, no doubt with some heavy-duty contractual caveats about what could and could not be shown.  The resulting film is noteworthy simply because it exists.   It is noteworthy that no one involved in making it was dissuaded from doing so by worries about whether the preexistence of a successful and convincing fictional take on a situation might render documentation of the “reality” of the same situation superfluous.   And it is still more noteworthy that the film succeeds, though maybe not in the way that it intends to, in spite of this valid concern.

I didn’t watch the movie with the intention of writing about it, so I don’t pretend to really be “reviewing” it here.  If you are looking for a review, Mahnola Dargis’s review is very good.  Dargis is evenhanded and precise in her delineation both of the movie’s high points and its failure to indict fashion for, essentially, glossing over the worst aspects of capitalism with a veneer of shiny, pretty Art:

“Of course it really is all about money. Despite being crammed with glossy images of beautiful, weird, unattractive, ridiculous and prohibitively expensive clothes and accessories, Vogue isn’t about fashion: it’s about stoking the desire for those clothes and accessories. It’s about the creation of lust and the transformation of wants into needs. Almost everything in this temple of consumption, including its lavish layouts and the celebrities who now most often adorn its covers, hinges on stuff for sale. Some of that stuff comes with a price tag, but some of it is more ephemeral because Vogue is also in the aspiration business. Mr. Cutler doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about any of that, which makes his movie as facile as it is fun.”

Yes to that, except for one thing: I didn’t think this movie was fun at all.  I was transfixed by it, but as I sat watching it I started to feel sadder and sadder, and then I went home and went to bed and slept and had nightmares — really bad ones! — about being some kind of junior assistant at Vogue.  I told a friend who’d worked at magazines about my dream (she’d been in it), and she said that when she’d seen the movie, it had “kind of felt like being at work.”  And this is, ultimately, the important thing “The September Issue” manages to convey that “The Devil Wears Prada” powerfully hinted at, but never captured: the vivid horror of being in a work situation where you have drunk so much of the company Kool-Aid — you had to, you realized early on, in order be able to do your job at all — that now you don’t even notice anymore that you are drinking it.  It’s water to you now, or air.

This is the one arena in which “reality” almost incidentally, and maybe inadvertently, trumps fiction: the haunted eyes and hardened faces of real Vogue staffers make their self-inflicted suffering and its source plain in a way that the actresses who played them in “The Devil” couldn’t replicate with artifice. Watching that movie, you wondered, “Why don’t they just quit?”  Watching this movie, you understand perfectly well why they never will.   And while this may not be the aspect of her legacy that Wintour had hoped to enshrine, it does make for riveting viewing.  Then again, so do those PETA slaughterhouse videos, and in much the same way.

Originally posted by emily from Emily Magazine, on September 25, 2009 10:31 AM

I've seen a lot of hard working entrepreneurs fail, and I've come to the conclusion that working hard, while never a bad thing, is not really the magic thing that leads to great inventions or successful outcomes. Edison, of the "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" quote, tried thousands of materials looking for the right filament for the electric bulb. That might have been hard work, and the fact that he persisted through many failures is key to making something work, but he was also working on the right problem. So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.

When we were building Flickr, we worked very hard. We worked all waking hours, we didn't stop. My Hunch cofounder Chris Dixon and I were talking about how hard we worked on our first startups, his being Site Advisor, acquired by McAfee -- 14-18 hours a day. We agreed that a lot of what we then considered "working hard" was actually "freaking out". Freaking out included panicking, working on things just to be working on something, not knowing what we were doing, fearing failure, worrying about things we needn't have worried about, thinking about fund raising rather than product building, building too many features, getting distracted by competitors, being at the office since just being there seemed productive even if it wasn't -- and other time-consuming activities. This time around we have eliminated a lot of freaking out time. We seem to be working less hard this time, even making it home in time for dinner.

Watson and Crick, who discovered the structure of DNA, are described in Richard Ogle's book Smart World:

At times the two central protagonists behaved like people whose day job was working up skits for Monty Python....they had distinctly lackadaisical work habits. Watson played several sets of tennis every afternoon and spent his evenings alternately chasing 'popsies' at Cambridge parties and going to the movies. Crick, who rarely showed up at the lab before 10 AM and took a coffee break and hour later repeatedly appeared to lose interest in the problem of DNA. On more than one occasion, vital piece of information were obtained not through hard work but as a result of chance conversations in the tea line at the Cavendish laboratory.

Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that's what you like to do.

Originally posted by caterina from Caterina.net, on September 25, 2009 7:25 AM

1) Upper West Side: Multiple tipsters write in to report that the old Aix/Bloomingdale Road space on 88th and Broadway is getting renovated: "There's now a sign that says something is coming soon. I think it's called (aged) and will be a steakhouse, but I have to admit I was across Broadway and couldn't see the banner too well. I hope it's pricey and underwhelming, because that seems to work so well in that spot." [PLYWOOD]

2) West Village: Says another tipster: "The former Chanto space on 7th Avenue and 10th Street is going to be a second location of midtown Irish pub, Galway Hooker.

3) Lower East Side: Grub Street reports that the old 87 Bar space at 67 Ludlow St. will soon become a branch of Uncle Charlie's, a gay piano bar with a location in Midtown: "we imagine it’ll have the same homegrown vibe, BYOM (bring your own music) karaoke nights, generous drink specials, and pianists performing show tunes, pop, and jazz." [PLYWOOD]

4) South Slope: The Strongbuzz brings word that David Massoni of 'inotecca plans to open Thistle Hill Tavern this December with NOFX's Mike Burkett: "The restaurant, which will be located at corner of Seventh Ave. and 15th St. in the South Slope, will serve robust regional seasonal cuisine in a very laid back, turn-of-the-century tavern setting." [PLYWOOD[

5) Village: Fork in the Road learns that Patty & Bun an "Authentic American Tavern," is opening soon on West 8th Street near 6th Ave. [PLYWOOD]

6) Clinton Hill: Brownstoner reports that a new restaurant is going in on Fulton St.: "We saw a rather stylish gentleman dismounting from a single-gear bicycle and entering the space this morning, a sign perhaps of an equally stylish establishment?" [Brownstoner]

7) Upper West Side: A press release reveals that a new soon-to-be-named wine bar is going in at 434 Amsterdam Ave. at West 81st St. The space is 1,350 sq. ft. and they took it over on Sept. 1. [PLYWOOD]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on September 25, 2009 7:20 AM

Shared by Bru
Awesomeness. bought it yesterday, it's brilliant. Subscription is like £3 for 6 months (first 6 months come with the app).

McSweeney's has an iPhone app called Small Chair.

We hereby announce the debut of the Small Chair, a weekly sampler from all branches of the McSweeney's family. One week you might receive a story from the upcoming Quarterly, the next week an interview from the Believer, the next a short film from a future Wholphin. Occasionally, it might be a song, an art portfolio, who knows. Early contributors will include Spike Jonze, Wells Tower, Chris Ware, and Jonathan Ames. This material will not be available online and is pretty sure to be good stuff.

My iPhone usage has been almost exclusively baby-related for the past few days, but I hope to try this app out soon.

Tags: iPhone apps   McSweeneys

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on September 25, 2009 6:45 AM

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys! I finished my edumication. I wrote down everything I learned, fixed up the margins and the linespacing (what a plague!) and handed it in. Then I spent the summer peregrinating, collaring people to tell them about it. And finally I made that long pilgrimage back to Edinburgh, Scotland, and then I stood up and defended myself for a few hours, and then they slapped me on the back and taught me the secret handshake of scientists.

It was such a big milestone I couldn't even write about it. It's an unaccountable validation: no one can ever again tell me I am not a computer scientist!

What a relief. Now that that's out of the way, I don't even have to act like a computer scientist! I can do anything I want. Hot-air balloonist, lathe operator, type designer! Tee-riffic. Can't wait to start goofing around again.

Originally posted by ezra from Letters to an Unknown Audience, on September 25, 2009 5:47 AM

If you ever need to order a quart of live ladybugs, Home Depot has them.

(I was looking for something that would trap mosquitos, which seem to be taking up residence in my apartment despite the late season, and keeping me awake at night by either biting the crap out of me or buzzing in my ears. They’re killing me with sleep deprivation if not West Nile virus.)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Spiersblr, on September 25, 2009 5:16 AM

the 'notepod' by jacky winter and inventive labs is a 100 page notebook in the shape of the iPhone.





one side of each page has a white space the size of an iPhone screen (52mm by 77mm)
that can be used to doodle ideas for apps, while the other side has a light 6mm grid.





another product also intended to help with app design is the the iPhone stencil kit from design commission,
which has been updated since its first release and now includes new icons.



design commission also offer printable templates here.


the design-aerobics paper course has started!
this week designboom's online design education course on paper is started. the course explores the many
possibilities of the material beyond a writing surface - from furniture, architecture and packaging, from the
planning stages to finished works. we are still accepting participants though the courses are now filling up quickly!
enroll soon to avoid disappointment!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Designboom - Weblog, on September 25, 2009 2:00 AM

start_response = out

Yesterday I asked if we should support optional start_response like Python's WSGI, and Yuval came in on this blog comment as well as #http-engine (irc.perl.org) to say No. Rather than just discussing what to do instead, we challenged him to implement the echo streaming server (that prints the current time every one second as a server push) without start_response stuff, blockingly in most apps but non-blockingly in some backends like AnyEvent and Danga::Socket.

He proved that you can do it with creating a mock IO object (temporarily called IO::Writer in addition to some nifty IO related utilities like IO::Coerce) that can be called non-blocking read from some specific implementations like AnyEvent, but still can be coerced into a normal filehandle by other implementations by using his magic of pipe, fork and then re-bless.

At first I was afraid of depending on such a black magic technique, but in the 4 hours of chat session we agreed that it's not a hard dependency, and it doesn't add any complexity to the PSGI spec itself while leaving the room for non-blocking optimization for backends like AnyEvent.

So, start_response is out. We do pass one arg $env and return 3 arg response, while $body can be a IO object that can possibly do non-blocking push if the server supports it (and otherwise still works as a blocking read).

CGI::PSGI

Mark Stosberg is back from his vacation and wrote about possible PSGI support in CGI.pm. My patch was actually merged to his main repo under psgi_support branch, and he also asked for feedbacks from other CGI.pm maintainers.

He specifically asked three things: 1) Do we need CGI::PSGI just to set the flag, 2) is the API sane and 3) Can this be implemented externally.

My initial reaction to these questions, a few weeks ago, was that 1) Yes (for the app developers to inspect if CGI.pm supports PSGI) 2) Sort of and 3) No.

Today I've been chatting and toying with my experimental code and the answer has changed to all of them: 1) No, we need CGI::PSGI as a subclass to implement PSGI support, not as a flag setter 2) the proposed CGI.pm patch and API is not cool, CGI::PSGI can do it better and 3) Yes, CGI::PSGI can be implemented without touching CGI.pm internal at all.

This is a subclass that stores PSGI's $env internally and sets that to local *ENV appropriately whenever calling methods that touches %ENV. Yes it still depends on CGI.pm internal a little bit, but it's much less risky and most importantly, doesn't modify CGI.pm internal code at all.

I cloned a few test case from CGI.pm and adjusted to make sure it works sane. All tests passed, and this new CGI::PSGI has already ported and tested with CGI::Application::PSGI, Squatting::On::PSGI and Dancer!

With CGI::PSGI all you need to modify in your code is to change CGI->new into CGI::PSGI->new($env), and then call $q->psgi_header($content_type) if you want to get $status and $headers_ref, but you can completely ignore it and construct status code and headers by yourself, like most web application frameworks do.

This CGI::PSGI can individually be shipped to CPAN and web application framework can switch from directly using CGI.pm to CGI::PSGI. Separately CGI.pm can add a native support of PSGI if they want to: (but not with CGI::PSGI as a flag setter -- Mark. let's remove it!) As said, my CGI.pm patch was as minimal as possible and its API to support PSGI is a little awkward -- it's user's responsibility to localize %ENV hash to refer to PSGI $env, and $q->header() behaves differently, even though the app users need to change that part anyway.

The "complete" PSGI support on CGI.pm is to tie STDOUT and then capture the output to create $status, $headers, [ $body ] thing but then that's something we already do with CGI::Emulate::PSGI to generally work with any (even if it doesn't use CGI.pm) CGI scripts in Perl.

So, hm. We could just hold on a little for a native PSGI support in CGI.pm. We can discuss further, but not right now since we have an alternative that can be shipped today.

Originally posted by miyagawa from bulknews.typepad.com, on September 25, 2009 12:53 AM

Filed under: Gaming, Humor, Software, Odds and ends, Developer

I can personally attest to Bioshock being a terrific game, but the problem is that probably, many of you can as well. Let's be honest -- it actually came out for PC and consoles a full two years ago. At this point, a Mac port is probably useless, but it's coming out anyway. Feral Interactive has announced that they'll be releasing the port on October 7th of this year, so those of you Mac diehards who refuse to play games on any other platforms can finally get your fix. The game will be released for $49.95 in the US, and can be preordered on Feral's store right now. Or, you know, you can run out to Best Buy, pick up a copy for $20 and run it in Boot Camp, it's up to you.

If you are going for the Mac version, however, you should know that the game doesn't support the Intel GMA integrated video cards, so you'll need a dedicated video card in your Mac to play it. Bioshock is a great game, as I've said, and if you really stretch it out, it might give you a good six months of free time entertainment -- just in time for you to pick up the Mac port of Hellgate: London, a game released in December of 2007. Oh wait.

TUAWBioshock for Mac on October 7th originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally posted by Mike Schramm from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on September 24, 2009 5:35 PM

Shared by sippey
I love The Sartorialist. Such a great blog.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from The Sartorialist, on September 24, 2009 5:26 PM

“Yeah,” he says, “At the end of the day, ship the fucking thing! It’s great to rewrite your code and make it cleaner and by the third time it’ll actually be pretty. But that’s not the point—you’re not here to write code; you’re here to ship products.” My hero. via joelonsoftware.com

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello typepad, on September 24, 2009 4:55 PM

The Last Magazine and NewWork

Originally posted by Tyler Askew [New York] from M a blog / Tyler Askew, on September 24, 2009 4:07 PM

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

It's good to hear the Massachusetts state legislature has its priorities straight. The Fluffernutter sandwich (marshmallow Fluff plus peanut butter) may become the state's official sandwich. According to the Boston Globe, it's one of three foods (joining Necco Wafers and the Charleston Chew candy bar) that will be considered for official state status by a legislative committee tomorrow.

As a Californian, this got me thinking—what would our state sandwich be? Avocado with sprouts on seven-grain bread? What sandwich would best represent your state?

Related
Marshmallow Fluff Help [Talk]
PBJ Debate: Jelly-Side Up or Down?
The Sandwich on '30 Rock' Sandwich Day Episode Revealed: Fiore's in Hoboken, NJ

Originally posted by Erin Zimmer from Serious Eats, on September 24, 2009 3:30 PM

Updated 6:37 p.m. By Garance Franke-Ruta and Michael A. Fletcher Yosi Sergant, who became well known during President Obama's presidential campaign for his work with artist Shepard Fairey around the iconic HOPE poster, resigned Thursday from his job at the National Endowment for the Arts. "His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately," NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said in an e-mail. Sergant, a public relations professional from Los Angeles, had come to Washington to work in the Office of Public Engagement at the White House. He moved to the NEA in May and was reassigned from his post as communications director two weeks ago after coming under fire from conservative Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck. The talk show host accused Sergant of arranging an August conference call with the Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a service initiative of the administration, to recruit artists to create

Originally posted by (author unknown) from 44, on September 24, 2009 3:04 PM

Trapper-Kindle, courtesy of lunchbreath’s Flickr stream

Each one is funnier than the before it. Depending on what order you read them in. No, I’m kidding, they’re all funny no matter where you start. Go, laugh. And thank you Mr Toby Lunchbreath (if this is your REAL name).

---

Posted by Luc Latulippe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: cartoons, Flickr, funny, Toby Lunchbreath, Webcomics

Originally posted by Luc Latulippe from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on September 24, 2009 2:44 PM

"Neel Shah, who has been at Page Six for 10 months, is now the most veteran member of Richard Johnson’s rowdy fleet."

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Alex Balk, on September 24, 2009 1:03 PM

The alleged societal benefit of patent law is that it creates a financial incentive to innovate.  The societal drawback is that it reduces competition, reduces the spread of innovation, and creates deadweight legal costs.

Perhaps patents are necessary in the pharmaceutical industry.  I know very little about that industry but it would seem that some sort of temporary grants of monopoly are necessary to compel companies to spend billions of dollars of upfront R&D.

What I do know about is the software/internet/hardware industry. And I am absolutely sure that if we got rid of patents tomorrow innovation wouldn’t be reduced at all, and the only losers would be lawyers and patent trolls.

Ask any experienced software/internet/hardware entrepreneur if she wouldn’t have started her company if patent law didn’t exist.  Ask any experienced venture investor if the non-existence of patent law would have changed their views on investments they made.  The answer will invariably be no (unless their company was a patent troll or something related).

Yes, most venture-backed companies file patents (I have filed them myself), but this is because 1) patents can have some defensive value, 2) they can grease the wheels of an acquisition (mostly because big companies want a large patent portfolio for defensive purposes), and 3) occasionally failed startups will get funded by investors whose intention is to go around suing people (hence providing “downside value” for the initial investors).

Articles like this recent one in New York Times promote the urban myth that the main beneficiary of patents are lone inventors whose idea is stolen by the big guys.  I have no special knowledge of the situation referred to, but I find it hard to believe in 1995 the idea of tying GPS to mobile devices wasn’t obvious to anyone in the field.   Almost all software and technology patents that I’ve ever come across are similarly obvious to practitioners at that time.  In theory obviousness is grounds for disallowing patents, but in practice patent examiners grants tons of silly patents.

Take the case of Blackberry and NTP.   NTP is a “patent holding company” – a patent troll – whose sole purpose is to sue people.  Now, I’ve been around long enough to know that the idea of mobile email is as old as email itself.  What RIM did was they actually went and made it a reality.  They figured out how to make a simple device that people loved, how to market it, and how to convince investors to give them money for what probably at the time seemed like an overwhelmingly difficult project.  The founders of RIM are the heroes of the story.   They didn’t need to sue anyone because they built a product and made money by actually selling a product people wanted.

How did having patents help society here?  NTP never tried to build any products.  No one is claiming RIM took the idea from them.  The only beneficiaries here are a company that never built anything and a lot of lawyers.

Software/internet/hardware patents have no benefit to society and should be abolished.

Originally posted by chris from cdixon.org - chris dixon's blog, on September 24, 2009 11:47 AM

It's so cool that we get über blogger and MetaFilter proprietor Matt Haughey to help us with Interbike. Just Sayin'.

Check out his photos from Interbike on Flickr.

Originally posted by Jason Swihart from Bike Hugger, on September 24, 2009 11:21 AM

According to a poll, New Yorkers don't want President Obama telling Gov. Paterson not to run for governor. They want to tell him not to run themselves.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on September 24, 2009 11:00 AM

PRESS RELEASE: 37SIGNALS VALUATION TOPS $100 BILLION AFTER BOLD VC INVESTMENT:

CHICAGO—September 24, 2009—37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on September 24, 2009 10:56 AM

Tom Chiarella took a stack of $20 bills with him to New York City just to see what he could get by offering them to the right people at the right time. Turns out, quite a bit. I probably linked to this a few years ago (it's from 2003), but it's worth another look. I just love this kind of thing...probably because I'm too much of a candy ass to ever attempt something similar.

A twenty should not be a ticket so much as a solution. You have a problem, you need something from the back room, you don't want to wait, you whip out the twenty.

I could have stood in line at the airport cabstand for fifteen minutes like every other mook in the world, freezing my balls off, but such is not the way of the twenty-dollar millionaire. I walked straight to the front of the line and offered a woman twenty bucks for her spot. She took it with a shrug. Behind her, people crackled. "Hey! Ho!" they shouted. I knew exactly what that meant. It wasn't good. I needed to get in a cab soon. One of the guys flagging cabs pointed me to the back of the line. That's when I grabbed him by the elbow, pulled him close, and shook his hand, passing the next twenty. I was now down forty dollars for a twenty-dollar cab ride. He tilted his head and nodded to his partner. I peeled another twenty and they let me climb in. As we pulled away, someone in the line threw a half-empty cup of coffee against my window.

A few months later, Chiarella tried the same technique in Salt Lake City, Vegas, and LA.

I pushed around; the ballsier I became, the more success I experienced. I got tablecloths, a personal garlic press, a dozen extra forks in one meal, chopsticks in a steak house. I bought primo parking spaces from people who had just parallel-parked.

Aha, turns out I linked to a similar article by Chiarella in which he haggles on items like hot dogs, TiVos, and gasoline. (via big contrarian)

Tags: economics   Tom Chiarella

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 24, 2009 10:39 AM

That’s certainly one of the stranger headlines I’ve ever written.

Blame German artist Adrian Riemann, who presents us with this series of 16 portraits featuring characters from Masters of the Universe as, well, hipster fashion models.

With a new MOTU film in the works, I expect this won’t be the last we’ll see of Prince Adam of Eternia.

---

Posted by John Martz on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: 1980s, Adrian Riemann, Fashion, German, He-Man

Originally posted by John Martz from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on September 24, 2009 10:01 AM

I won’t go into my conspiracy theory about how Upper Deck caters to hockey and football fans because it’s already been discussed. I just wanted to show readers of Wax Heaven one of the cards hockey collectors have a chance to pull from an upcoming product.

2009/’10 SP Game Used Edition promises six memorabilia or autographs per box. While you won’t get to crack this product until January of 2010, Upper Deck has posted lots of information and images on their Facebook account.

Can you imagine how great these cards would look in a baseball release? It’s not often (or ever) that I get excited about a memorabilia card but this pretty much did it for me. It would be a must-have for any serious player collector.

I know I’d risk bodily harm to get my hands on an Andrew Miller, were it available.

Originally posted by Mario A. from Wax Heaven, on September 24, 2009 9:56 AM

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Gramercy: A tipster on the scene this very moment reports that the First Lady Michelle Obama is dining right this minute in the main dining room of Gramercy Tavern. Good to hear the Obamas have finally left the Washington Sq. Park area. Any reports from the scene—What is she eating? Who is she with? What is she wearing?—are greatly appreciated. Oh and also, Danny Meyer wins.
Update: They are scanning everyone who enters the restaurant with metal detectors.
Update No. 2: There are no visible snipers (as was the case with the Obama/Clinton lunch date at Il Mulino). Of course, Danny Meyer is in the house.
Update No. 3: Related: Danny Meyer's Hudson Yards catering company provided the food for the US Presidential Reception for the United Nations General Assembly at The Met yesterday.
· Obama & Clinton Lunching at Il Mulino RIGHT NOW [~E~]
· EaterWire Saturday Special: Obamas Dine at Blue Hill! [~E~]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on September 24, 2009 9:07 AM

Originally posted by John Michael Boling from Rhizome Inclusive: News, Blog, and Digest, on September 24, 2009 9:00 AM

As usual they are made in the USA with non-toxic inks and replenishable basswood. Buy a set or two here.

Originally posted by Bondé Prang from House Industries Show and Tell, on September 24, 2009 8:45 AM

What was billed as a book reading by famed Talking Heads frontman David Byrne on Tuesday evening took on the air of a teach-in on cities and bicycles, with Byrne and fellow cycling superstars Janette Sadik-Khan and Paul Steely White taking turns extolling New York City's blooming bicycle infrastructure before a packed house at the Union Square Barnes & Noble.

The occasion was publication of Bicycle Diaries, Byrne’s idiosyncratic meditation on cities, urban form, culture and fashion, distilled through his three decades as touring musician and bicycle tourist. In the introduction, Byrne writes of navigating New York and other cities a velo, as both a smart way of getting around and a means to a fresh vantage point:

This point of view -- faster than a walk, slower than a train, often slightly higher than a person -- became my panoramic window on much of the world over the last thirty years -- and it still is.

Byrne "came out" as an urban bike advocate a few years ago and periodically does events with Transportation Alternatives. Over the years, too, his artistic focus has branched out from art-rock innovator to world-music collaborator and design philosopher. Inviting DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan and TA head honcho White on stage allowed Byrne to serve his twin impulses of advocate and curator.

Byrne’s presentation drew on his mordant photos of dreary cityscapes drained of human activity. “Most of America is like this,” he intoned over scenes of empty boulevards and ghoulish strip malls, mixed with design images from brutalist architect Le Corbusier (“We must kill the streets”), which Byrne likened to termite mounds. “We’re not termites,” he insisted, invoking livable streets deity Jane Jacobs before turning over the mic to the professionals.

Sadik-Khan’s affectionately titled slide show, “NYC’s Bicycle Diaries, 2007-2009,” offered a stirring response to Byrne's plea to city shapers to stop “separating everyone in separate pockets.” Insisting that streets be “places of social exchange” as well as of movement, Sadik-Khan located cycling infrastructure in a larger context of World Class Streets that includes walkability, better transit and fewer cars. Her parade of heartening statistics on new bike lane miles, burgeoning cycling volumes, and fewer pedestrian injuries on bike-laned streets flew by too quickly to jot down. What lingers is Sadik-Khan’s passionate regard for cycling as key to a more humane city, and her zeal to grow and defend all DOT has wrought in her two-and-a-half years at the helm.

White picked up Byrne’s riff in Bicycle Diaries about “the aura of uncoolness and the danger” of NYC cycling in the punk era, and traced cycle culture’s progression from “freak” to “geek” to today’s nascent “chic.” With cycling finally entering the mainstream, it’s time, White declared, for cyclists to retire their outlaw persona and adhere to the pedestrian-friendly street code in TA’s Biking Rules. He also exhorted the crowd to defend the embattled Grand Street bike lane against grandstanding politicians: “Call [Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate] Bill Thompson (212-608-6555) and tell him that safety is not negotiable on NYC streets.”

The audience questions -- all earnest and mostly from women -- brought out the visionary in Byrne. (From the next seat, my middle-school son made me promise not to sing out, “My building bike lane has every convenience / It’s gonna make life easy for me.”) To a recent arrival from Amsterdam (“I’m really amazed that in a short period of time, so much positive change has been made in the City of New York... What’s to prevent a new mayor from taking that away?”), Byrne replied, “If we can get a third of the people biking to work, like in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, it would be pretty hard to turn that around.” To a questioner worn down by internecine cyclist-pedestrian conflict, Byrne offered this: “We’ve gone through eight or ten years of a bully culture -- on Wall Street, in politics. I think we’re turning a corner.”

Originally posted by Charles Komanoff from Streetsblog New York City, on September 24, 2009 8:08 AM

Hey!

This week I am interviewing this platform’s creator, Mr. David Karp. The focus will probably be on Tumblr’s audience, it’s distinct use, and some future development.

But what else should I ask him? What are the things you always wanted to know? Help!

???

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Fimoculous, on September 24, 2009 8:07 AM

If you can handle the one-time fees - $7,500-$20,000 - keep reading. You probably already know you need to pay the fee before you buy your tickets.

The best club at New Giants Stadium is the Coach's Club. It's between (approximately) the 30-yard lines, directly behind the Giants bench. There's a patio that's actually 15-feet behind the bench where you can hang and drink and eat. Oh, yes, food is included, and nonalcoholic beverages too. Price per seat per season, after $20,000 buy-in: $7,500.

Next best is the Blue part of the Mezzanine Clubs. That's both sides of the field, approximately between the 20-yard lines. $12,500 buy-in, plus $5,000 per seat per season. You have access to "upscale" dining, more leg room, cushioned seats and free VIP parking.

Yellow follows Blue. Same amenities but your seats are approximately between the 20 and End Zone. That's $7,500 buy-in, and $4,000 per seat per season.
Purple follows Yellow. Same $7,500 buy-in but your seat faces the corner of the End Zone and will run you $2,500 per season.

Ticket prices are fixed for three years. They will do walk-throughs for people who put down deposits. Anyone want to sponsor SG?

Originally posted by Sara Pepitone from Scoreboard Gourmet, on September 24, 2009 6:48 AM

Tough town

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on September 24, 2009 6:47 AM

Why do people take Marty Singer seriously? The cage-rattling, form-letter-rewriting Hollywood lawyer spews lawsuits like anxious starlets spew breakfast. Now, in his latest complaint, against Gawker, the New York Times refers to him as “the legendarily pugnacious Mr. Singer.” The suit, according to Gawker (we have not read it, and as near as we can tell it has not been published online), asks for damages of $1 million—I know, seriously, what? A whole million dollars? You mean maybe six weeks of Gawker ad income? What a pitiful request!—for their publication of a video which depicted TV actors hanging out in states of undress. I have read and received letters from Marty Singer’s office. You probably have too! They are often factually incorrect, distorting to actual events, and they create such a tenuous legal bubble of reasoning that one can barely take them seriously. They are particularly prone to insane misreadings of the texts that they complain about. Less experienced publishers find them frightening, mostly because they are 1. very long and 2. very irritating and 3. because Marty Singer (along with Lynda Goldman, and the rest of his crew) has worked very hard to establish his reputation as a bulldog or a terrier or whatever sort of dog is a tenacious ankle-biter. But the real sign you’re in legal trouble with a celebrity is if they hire a lawyer who is not Marty Singer, and Gawker honcho Nick Denton is totally right to mock it on his Twitter.

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on September 24, 2009 6:41 AM

WholeDi: Over the past year or so, Portland's Stumptown Coffee has slowly begun to conquer the New York coffee scene. First by being the supplier of choice for cafes like Ninth Street Espresso and Cafe Grumpy, and eventually showing up in restaurants such as Frankie's Spuntino, Freemans and the Momofukus. After riding a wave of hype generated by its cult-like ex-pat fan base and media friendly owner/shaman Duane Sorrenson, Stumptown opened its first proper NYC shop on the first floor of the Ace Hotel on Labor Day. On to the good, the okay and the bordering on worship:

The Amazing News: One yelper familiar with the Original Portland location of Stumptown says that the coffee at the New York shop is not only brewed like it is back on the West Coast, but it is actually brewed by the very same baristas who have now been moved to New York: "...the Stumptown at the Ace here on 29th and Broadway is JUST like back at home. They even brought in some of the PDX baristas. So what I'm saying is, the same sexypants with the floor plans for tattoos that used to make me my amazing latte back in PDX, just now poured me an amazing latte. Right here, in my own neighborhood. This seals the deal, I'm never moving back to the west coast. Now that Stumptown's here, I have no reason to." [Yelp]

The Okay News: After three visits, this yelper finds the service inconsistent, and the coffee generally very good: "First visit, okay service (they seemed a little unsure of everyones job) the coffee ( a cappucino) drinkable,barely. Second visit I stood there for about 7 minutes before anyone acknowledged me, there were only 2 of us in line...this time an espresso, wonderful..the 3rd time,,. horrrible attitude, great coffee..so my conclusion is this..if they are very professional and nice to you, walk away, if service is bad, stay.." [Yelp]

The Fantastic News: Oliver Strand gets on the blog to pen a rave for the coffee mecca: "This kind of tasteful austerity works when the coffee is this good. A macchiato ($2.80) was exceptional if on the large side, a shot of Hair Bender espresso topped by a thick froth of steamed milk. A cappuccino ($3.30) was 10 cents cheaper than at my local Starbucks, a difference that could become significant for frequent caffeinators. [T]his could be a game-changer. The Manhattan Stumptown is more polished than anything on the West Coast, including the other Stumptowns. And the style is distinctly its own – it isn’t evoking Milan or Marseilles. It feels like New York." [DinersJournal]

The Yummy but Pretentious News: HotelChatter, admittedly not experts, files their opinion: "...we aren't exactly coffee experts; we're hotel experts, but we tried an Americano and a Cappucino for the hell of it and can report that they are pretty tasty. Although we weren't lectured on the heritage of the beans as we had expected, the cafe does have an appropriate level of pretension. We wouldn't make it an outing again, but we would swing by if we happened to be in the area (which isn't often, it's not much of a destination neighborhood)." [HC]

The Good News: An Eater reader thinks it's a great addition to the nabe, leaving some positive feedback in the comments: "Went by this afternoon for a macchiato. Though I was skeptical, the staff were surprisingly friendly and the coffee was exceptional. Great addition to NYC coffee scene, esp. in such a dry nabe." [EaterComments]

The Twitter Roundup News: From a tidal wave of tweets: @kerrynewberry writes "it's fabulous coffee, my absolute favorite; stumptown in nyc, love it!," @seadevi thinks there's a door policy, "The uniform for sitting in Stumptown: deep V-neck T shirt. Wasn't wearing one, so forced to get takeout," and @notfortourists deems the coffee perfect, "Absolutely perfect cappuccino served by hipster baristas at Stumptown in Ace Hotel @ 29&Broadway. Thank u Portland." [Twitter]

Originally posted by Eater Staff from Eater, on September 24, 2009 5:33 AM

An Indonesian woman gave birth to this 19.2 pound bundle of joy, the country's biggest baby ever. Doctors think gestational diabetes is to blame. We think he's just an awesome giant. That other baby doesn't even know what to think.

Originally posted by Andrew Belonsky from Gawker, on September 24, 2009 1:00 AM

Originally posted by Yi from FOTO!, on September 23, 2009 9:07 PM

Did your invite to our 25th anniversary bash get lost in the mail? Check out this video of what you missed...

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on September 23, 2009 2:37 PM

Congrats to the team at Dopplr on their acquisition by Nokia. Of course, the source is TechCrunch so grain of salt and all that.

Tags: Dopplr   nokia

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 23, 2009 2:22 PM

Shared by Mike
I didn't think the Atlantic Yards story could possibly get any more bizarre. I was very, very wrong.

A Russian billionaire, an amateur basketball player the size of an N.B.A. power forward, signed a tentative $200 million deal Wednesday that would make him the principal owner of the New Jersey Nets and an investor in the team’s new home, an arena planned for Brooklyn.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from www.nytimes.com, on September 23, 2009 2:16 PM

I have to say, this is a pretty well-thought-out system. (Via Sippey.)

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on September 23, 2009 1:40 PM

Shared by sippey
Upon further review, I really like this blog post I wrote earlier.

The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg argues that we should stop performing executions with lethal injections, given the recently demonstrated issues with finding veins:

Perhaps this is an area where we could learn from our Chinese friends. Their method of execution, I’m convinced, is the kindest of all: a pistol shot to the back of the head. It’s quick, it’s inexpensive, and it’s not as messy as you might assume. No one knows for sure how it feels, obviously, but I expect that because the bullet instantly destroys the brain stem, the pain, if there is any, is minimal. You’d feel the blow, I imagine, like getting slapped on the back really hard or tackled unexpectedly from behind, but it’d but just wham, lights out.

Coming across this in my trusty Google Reader, the post offended my delicate liberal sensibilities, and led me down a deep dark path of despair: I was starting to worry a little about Hertzberg and wonder just what the hell was happening to my steady media diet of opinion I already agree with. Until I reached the end...

On the other hand, it might be better still to get out of the capital punishment business altogether.

...and all became right the world again. Whew. That was close.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from sippey.com, on September 23, 2009 12:52 PM

Steve Kornacki demolishes the idiot speculation that Barack Obama told David Paterson not to seek re-election because he was scared Rudy Giuliani might run for president again in 2012.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on September 23, 2009 12:31 PM

Twitter’s new geolocation support was supposed to launch for developers at today’s Twitter Conference in LA (which I’m attending), but it wasn’t quite ready yet. Still, Twitter’s platform lead Ryan Sarver announced several details about how it will work, at least initially, in a developer session. In quickly-jotted bullet points:

• Twitter will soon be able to store location data–that is, latitude and longitude points–on a per-tweet basis, and for your user profile.
• Including location information in your tweets will be opt-in only. You will have to visit your Twitter account’s settings page on the web site to allow Twitter to store that data. It will not be enabled by default. Even if your Twitter client sends lat/log points along with your status update, if you didn’t explicitly opt into including that information, Twitter will drop it at the point of entry and it will not be stored or published.
• Users won’t see any new features on the Twitter web site when geo launches except for the settings page where you opt in. Twitter is giving API developers a head start to display and transmit geo data in tweets in their apps first.
• In practice, expect to see your Twitter client include a checkbox below the posting area labeled something like “include my location with this tweet.” If you check the box when you send a tweet but you haven’t given Twitter permission to store your location data, you’ll have to visit your settings page on the web site to do so.
• Interesting: Twitter will scrub geo-data stored in tweets more than 14 days old to avoid subpoenas about a user’s location. They will outright delete the location information from their database, not just anonymize it.

• While Twitter usually encourages application developers to cache data, in the case of geo, they recommend apps drop historical location data so that developers don’t become a subpoena target, either. They also recommend “fuzzing” location and time data, so that instead of knowing that Joe Smith was at 8th avenue and 15th street at 2:11PM Eastern time on March 7, 2008, you only show that Joe was in Brooklyn on that day.
• The geodata-scrubbing isn’t a permanent solution. They are looking into ways to store this data in a “safe” (anonymized?) way in the future, so Twitter won’t always scrub +14 day old data, just at first.
• Besides just using the free-form text field in the location field already available in your profile, there will be no way to tell Twitter you’re in a broad area, say, a city or neighborhood like San Diego. They will only take and store lat/log points. On the front end, they may only display a broad area name, like a city or a neighborhood instead of a specific point, but they will store lat/long points.
• Right now, Twitter does support some light geolocation functionality based on the inspecific location field in profiles. Try a search for happy hour near:11215 -RT to see tweets (minus retweets) about happy hour in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
• Two interesting location-based Twitter apps available now: Happn.in, and Trendsmap.

This is pretty exciting stuff, if still nascent. Questions? I’ll answer what I can in the comments.

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Smarterware, on September 23, 2009 12:04 PM

The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg argues that we should stop performing executions with lethal injections, given the recently demonstrated issues with finding veins:

Perhaps this is an area where we could learn from our Chinese friends. Their method of execution, I’m convinced, is the kindest of all: a pistol shot to the back of the head. It’s quick, it’s inexpensive, and it’s not as messy as you might assume. No one knows for sure how it feels, obviously, but I expect that because the bullet instantly destroys the brain stem, the pain, if there is any, is minimal. You’d feel the blow, I imagine, like getting slapped on the back really hard or tackled unexpectedly from behind, but it’d but just wham, lights out.

Coming across this in my trusty Google Reader, the post offended my delicate liberal sensibilities, and led me down a deep dark path of despair: I was starting to worry a little about Hertzberg and wonder just what the hell was happening to my steady media diet of opinion I already agree with. Until I reached the end...

On the other hand, it might be better still to get out of the capital punishment business altogether.

...and all became right the world again. Whew. That was close.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from sippey.com, on September 23, 2009 9:44 AM

Dan Hill's post at City of Sound about the dust storm is the perfect complement to Tom Coates' gallery on Flickr.

At first it seemed like a very odd sunrise. Then we realised the red wasn't a sunrise red, but something duller, earthier. A kind of powdered mineral deep orangey-red, like vermillion or cadmium perhaps with a dash of ochre ... or like dust from the parched interior of Australia, in fact.

Complete with personal photos inside and outside his house; worth reading in full.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from sippey.com, on September 23, 2009 9:23 AM

Stacey is an easier way to create a portfolio site. No database setup or installation files, simply drop the application on a server and it runs. Your content is managed by creating folders and editing text files. No login screens, no ‘cms’. This is really awesome, it's SO simple and refined, two of the traits I look for in a tool. In the past setting up sites for my 'flat' design work has been an exercise in deleting the myriad of features in modern content management tools, and even then I'm left with so much extra code making simple edits is a pain. If you need a simple print or image portfolio this is for you, after all your portfolio should be about your work, not your site. -> Go get it --> Signal vs. Noise

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Monoscope, on September 23, 2009 8:47 AM

“Bobby Valentine is on the verge of signing a lucrative multi-year deal with ESPN,” according to Bob Raissman of the Daily News.

…on one hand, that’s awesome, because i thought he was great on Baseball Tonight, and it made me want to watch the show… and, for what it’s worth, i have not watched Baseball Tonight all season… he would change that, no doubt… also, i look forward to him fighting with Steve Phillips… now we’re talking TV…

…on the other hand, it means he more-than-likely will not be managing in 2010, which, depending on how you look at it, could be a good thing…

…i suspect he’ll have an out-clause in his ESPN deal, like last time, meaning he could jump ship any time… also, if the Mets are committed to Jerry Manuel, it means valentine could still be available at some point over the next few seasons, despite no longer managing in Japan…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 23, 2009 7:49 AM

This breathtaking place is a former Dominican church that was converted into a new retail location for bookseller Selexyz Dominicanen. The architecture firm was Merkx+Girod. From Design Top News:

The store demanded 1,200 sq m of commercial area where only 750 were available.

The initial idea of the client to install a second floor within the church was rejected by the designers, because this would completely destroy the spatial qualities of the church. The solution was found in the creation of a monumental walk-in bookcase spanning several floors and situated a-symmetrically in the church. In doing so the left side of the church remained empty while on the other side customers are lead upstairs in the three- storey ‘Bookflat.’

The ground floor gives room to several different book displays, information desks, magazine-stands and cash registers, all made of standard sheet materials in different colours and surfaces.

Merkx+Girod Architects: Bookstore Selexyz Dominicanen in Netherlands (Thanks, Lindsay Tiemeyer!)

Previously:

• Neat organization at new NYC bookstore - Boing Boing
• Awesome kids' bookstore in China - Boing Boing

Originally posted by David Pescovitz from Boing Boing, on September 23, 2009 7:43 AM

I wrote the other day about delaying design decisions until the last responsible moment, per the belief that only at that point do I have sufficient knowledge to design the feature to meet current needs. I can anticipate future needs, in the sense that I do not work to prevent them, but sufficient unto each release are the troubles thereof.

This principle rests upon the assumption that I have sufficient knowledge at each last responsible moment. Perhaps I've talked to the people who want the feature and have a detailed list of behaviors and expectations I can turn into tests. Perhaps I have a specification or RFC or test suite I must pass. Perhaps I'm writing the feature for myself and know exactly what I want.

Still bugs happen.

I'm not necessarily happy about this, but I do like the feedback. Not only are people using the software, but they care enough about it to tell me what they expect it should do. More important is that a good bug report gives me additional details about user expectations.

Would it be nice to have them before adding the feature? Of course! Would it be nice to have them before releasing the software? Undoubtedly. Would I like to avoid bugs in general? You know it!

Yet bugs happen.

Some bugs are bugs of understanding. I may write a lovely JIT for Parrot and receive effusive praise and a repurposed bowling trophy, but when someone says "That's 32-bit x86 only, and we'd really like it on our 64-bit processors," I know I have more work to do. That's good and that's valuable -- not only to give me a better understanding of what real users need, but to remind me to talk to people to discover what they really want and really need.

Some bugs are bugs of implementation. Perhaps I don't understand the pipeline and instruction scheduling system of a 64-bit processor and the resulting JIT code is unaligned and four times slower than it should be. As much as I'd like to avoid these problems, they happen. That's good and it's valuable, not just to improve the software for users, but also to help improve the test suite.

Furthermore, analyzing the causes of both types of bug can help me improve the process of creating software. Perhaps I'm not testing enough. Perhaps the characteristics of my sample workloads do not match real world uses. Perhaps the assumptions I've made about how people use the software need to change; perhaps their goals and values have changed.

I wish I could get this information reliably before I add a feature, but I'm a practical guy sometimes. Sometimes the best feedback you can expect is "Hey, it doesn't work!" That you can fix.

Originally posted by chromatic from Modern Perl Books, a Modern Perl Blog, on September 23, 2009 7:24 AM

“New York, You’ve Changed” is a new Scouting NY site feature in which the New York depicted in movies is compared with the city of today. This is not the usual list of shooting locations and addresses to visit next time you tour the city. Instead, this is a full shot-by-shot dissection to see what New York once was and what it has become, for better or worse. I’ve tried to recreate the angles and framing as best as possible, and have presented the shots (more or less) in the order they appear in the film. This is Part 2 to our look at Ghostbusters – Part 1 is here. Enjoy!

With this article, we’re completing our “New York, You’ve Changed” look at Ghostbusters. Picking up where we left off, Egon, Ray, and Peter have been kicked out of Columbia and have since purchased a Tribeca firehouse to base their fledgling ghostbusting business in.

In this scene, Ray drives up in what will soon become the iconic “Ectomobile” – not a hearse, as some believe, but actually an old ambulance (to be specific, a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor limo-style endloader combination car [ambulance conversion]). If you look in the background, you get a brief glimpse of the neighborhood surrounding the firehouse on North Moore Street.

You get a better view later in the film, when Peter arrives to find EPA officer Walter Peck attempting to shut down the powergrid. As you can see in both pictures, a lot has changed, primarily the complete gutting of what I think was the “Vera Electronics Company,” now the Cercle Rouge Brasserie. Lots of building painting changes to boot. Also, North Moore Street has lost meter parking but has gained some foliage.

Also,  note the squat brick building on the corner, which you can see in this aerial view when the storage facility blows.

This brick building was purchased by a wealthy family, who recently built a five story home on top of it (yep, that’s a single family house). Because the brick building is landmarked, they had to integrate it into their design. Ha, I’d sort of rather live in the firehouse, but then, I’m nuts.

As Peter listens to Ray’s endless list of car repairs, we get a glimpse across Hudson Street, which has completely changed (the restaurant on the corner is now Walkers). Also note that the “ENTRANCE AROUND CORNER” sign on the firehouse still exists:

After meeting Dana Barrett, the Ghostbusters complete their first successful bust at the Sedgewick Hotel. Where is its New York counterpart? You’ll have to go to California for that one – they filmed at LA’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

We next get a montage taking us through their rapid successes at busting ghosts, and I’m going to need a little help identifying this first location. Anyone recognize it? It feels very familiar to me, but I just can’t place it. I think that sign says “Mens Wear” on the right, though I doubt that helps. Also, the bearded guy looking into the camera is actually an actor.

The next part of the montage appears to have been shot around the Little Italy/Chinatown neighborhood. I was excited to go searching for some of the more obscure shots, but was ultimately thwarted by the San Gennaro festival (for non-New Yorkers, thousands of people descend on Little Italy for an enormous street fair, making photography, walking, even breathing nearly impossible). I’m planning on returning to the area after the festival is over sometime this November. We get a shot of the Ectomobile passing by the infamous Umberto’s…

Next, we see Peter and Ray in Chinatown. I really feel there’s enough clues in this picture to locate this (the metal railing, the yellow sign, etc.) and for shooting purposes, I bet it’s very close to Umberto’s.

This next shot of Egon with a smoking trap had me wondering, until I noticed both a “Luna Restaurant” and a “PIZZA” sign in the background. Granted, this could be ANYWHERE in New York (there are several “Luna” establishments in the city), but if they were doing montage shots in Little Italy, it seems to be a safe bet that this was there.

It would also make perfect sense to find an apartment building with a lower level like this in the neighborhood. If anyone knows differently, please let me know!

Here, we see the Ectomobile cruise past St. Patrick’s and Saks Fifth Ave. In many of these shots, it’s actually Dan Aykroyd driving the car, even though you can’t see him. Looks like the awnings are gone. Also, for reasons unknown, we now need to put up with that incredibly frustrating sidewalk barrier:

Finally, we see the Ghostbusters running up Rockefeller Center. Apparently, they had no permission to shoot there, and you can actually see a security guy (maybe the man in white on the left?) running after them in the shot.

After the montage, Peter chats with Dana about Zuul and Gozer in Lincoln Center. The fountain was recently replaced, to the dismay of preservationists, with a modern version that will entertain tourists with computer-controlled water displays.

Bad things quickly begin happening in Dana’s apartment building. For the life of me, I can’t find this location in Central Park. It’s obviously faked – Dana’s apartment is superimposed where it simply doesn’t exist. But I can’t seem to find this curve. Any guesses? The best I could come up with is the entrance at 72nd Street, which doesn’t feel totally right.

With a terror dog right behind him, Louis Tully flees to Central Park and desperately tries to get into Tavern on the Green via the patio (I believe the statue was a prop).

Inside, a birthday party is in full swing (trivia – the birthday girl is Debbie Gibson). I located the correct side of the patio by that tree, which is hidden behind the hanging flowers in the below picture.

Louis runs to the left and desperately tries the door, which is locked (FYI for anyone running from terror dogs, the door is still locked):

Finally, in what has to be one of the more sympathy-inducing scenes in modern cinema, Louis backs against a window – it’s the second one to the right of the tree trunk.

Shortly after, Walter Peck shuts down the protection grid and the containment unit blows. As you watch the enormous explosion blow out of the Ghostbusters roof, you could be forgiven for not noticing the MATERA CANVAS ad on the building to the left, which is still there today:

The ad advertises a store at 5 Lispenard Street, which was in business as recently as 1990, having been around since 1907 (more info in this NY Times article).

During the commotion, Louis manages to escape – anyone know what street this?

A quick tidbit you might have missed – in this shot, you can see a “STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOWS” wall ad on the building to the left (wouldn’t that be a great addition to the now otherwise ugly wall?).

As ghosts escape, we see one fly out of a subway station, which can be found at the City Hall RW train entrance on Broadway west of City Hall (the newsstand seems to have shifted south a block):

Next, a commuter gets in a cab with a corpse. Any idea what avenue this is?

I’ve had this cab driver before:

The cab takes off, sending traffic swerving out of its path. This might give a second clue to the location of the scene:

For a brief moment, we get a shot of Louis crossing the street as he makes his way to Dana’s apartment. What I find interesting about this shot is an awning that reads “WIENERWALD – Austrian Restaurant.” I had never heard of a WienerWald before – apparently, it was the largest fast food restaurant in Europe during the 1970’s, and had attempted to expand to America. Now, there are only 63 locations left in Germany and Austria.

Slimer makes another appearance, this time in a hot dog vendor’s cart outside of the McGraw-Hill building at Rockefeller Center:

Dana sends a signal to Louis, who hears it in Times Square. This is the weirdest shot – it’s like the went out of their way to hide the fact that it’s Times Square. I only recognized it for the TCKT booth (boy has that changed) and the George Cohan statue. Odd that they would shoot in the heart of Manhattan and not show the surrounding area (methinks they got this shot on the fly).

After a meeting with the mayor at city hall…

…the boys in gray peel out and head uptown…

…vowing to “run some red lights.”

Much of the destruction that occurs to the street in front of Dana’s building was actually shot on a soundstage in California with a full two-story replica of the apartment’s facade (if you pay close attention, it’s very clear when they’re on the set):

Finally, the one and only Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man makes an appearance in Columbus Circle. Aw, I miss the old Museum of Arts & Design building, even if it was one of the ugliest buildings in the city (for years, I thought it was some sort of parking garage). Note the sliver of an old Marlboro Cigarettes ad on the right:

As terrified New Yorkers flee, they have no idea that the store on the corner will one day be a FedEx-Kinkos:

As Stay-Puft approaches the building, you can see just how drastic the building addition is:

I had to post this great shot – I never noticed that two great villains, Walter Peck and Stay-Puft, appear in one brief shot.

Finally, years later, the marshmallow has been cleaned up and New York is basically back to normal.

As it turns out, most of the changes between the New York in Ghostbusters and the New York of 2009 are pretty small, due to the fact that the movie was mostly shot in locations where change is not allowed (the New York Public Library, Columbia, Rockefeller Center, etc.). In my mind, it’s a very good thing that these New York’s treasures are still standing strong more than 25 years later.

With the recent success of 80’s nostalgia reboots (G.I. Joe, Transformers, etc.), there’s been renewed talk about a Ghostbusters 3. A script was commissioned by Sony Pictures, with writing duties handed to Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, the writers of Year One.

The writers of Year One. Are you fucking kidding me?

Look, I’d kill to see the Ghostbusters hit the streets of New York for one last fight against the paranormal, but when I say the Ghostbusters, I don’t mean a new crop of comedic actors. Nothing makes me fear for the worst more than thinking of  Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Seth Rogan, or Paul Rudd hefting on a proton pack (in his defense, Seth Rogan is on record as saying he will not be the guy to ruin Ghostbusters). I’ve heard industry-types say that there’s no way Murray, Aykroyd, or Ramis could support a tentpole movie like Ghostbusters 3.

Bullshit. If Harrison Ford can pack ‘em in at 67 for a subpar Indy IV, there is no question that audiences will turn out in droves to see Ray, Peter, Egon, and Winston save New York one more time.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! I’m going to try to make this a regular site feature. Next time, we’ll move a bit further back in film history.

-SCOUT

Originally posted by Scout from Scouting NY, on September 23, 2009 6:50 AM

[Emma Watson's foil dress faces the muggle giggles of Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Testino at the Burberry Prorsum show that closed London Fashion Week yesterday. Image via Getty]

Originally posted by Brian Moylan from Gawker, on September 23, 2009 6:38 AM

Plenty of disgruntled fans have said they wanted their money back after an underwhelming performance. But how many have made that complaint -- and then received a check in the mail, signed by the coach?

Originally posted by ESPN.com news services from ESPN.com, on September 23, 2009 6:35 AM

Braves reporter Mark Bowman, of MLB.com, says C Brian McCann is happy for his friend, Jeff Francoeur, who was traded from the Braves to the Mets in late July.

“I’ve still got a lot of good friends over there,” Francoeur told Bowman. “But, I’m really happy here and have enjoyed everything about playing in New York.”

…i was able to talk with francoeur in the tunnel before monday’s game… he doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall, and i’m sure he had better things to do at that moment than talk to me, but, he never stopped smiling, and he seemed genuinely appreciative of the conversation and well wishes… he also seems very upbeat, energetic and intense… i notice he talks to every one on the team, giving high-fives and asking questions… of course, he still needs to draw more walks… but, in terms of being able to play in New York, with the fans, media and expectations, he doesn’t seemed phased in the least… if anything, he strikes me as the kind of guy who runs toward the challenge, not away from it…

To read quotes from McCann, who talks about the difference between Francoeur in Atlanta and in New York, read MLB.com.

Speaking of Francoeur, in a report for the Daily News, Adam Rubin says David Wright plans to join Francoeur at Howard Johnson’s house for a mini-camp of hitting this winter.

…hey, everybody, party at hojo’s house…

Francoeur also told Rubin he expects the Mets to approach him with a three-year contract, which will cover his first year of free agency.

In a post to NY Baseball Digest, Howard Megdal explains why it is a bad idea to give Francoeur a guaranteed three-year deal.

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 23, 2009 5:39 AM

The Times chronicles Mayor Bloomberg's eating habits, hinting that he's a hypocrite for using too much salt, eating fatty foods, and not drinking enough water while at the same time promoting a healthy eating agenda. Clever, eh? Policing the food police? Also of note: he dislikes Blue Smoke and orders spicy shrimp at Shun Lee Palace. [NYT]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on September 23, 2009 5:38 AM

Other People’s Responses to the fact that I am a Computer Science Major

Graph by: lucyrickyalex via Graph Jam Builder

Originally posted by Cheezburger Network from GraphJam: Music and Pop Culture in Charts and Graphs. Let us explain them., on September 23, 2009 5:00 AM

The Third Annual Red Hook Film Festival will be dedicated to Robert Guskind, the legendary blogger who created the much missed blog Gowanus Lounge. Guskind died in February.

The festival's opening film will be Blue Barn Picture's special tribute to Guskind.  According to festival planners, "the entire festival is dedicated to Robert Guskind, to The Gowanus Lounge, and to local storytelling."

The Red Hook Film Festival takes place on October 3rd and 4th at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition screening room at 499 Van Brunt Street.  The screenings begin at 1pm on Saturday Oct. 3rd, with "Robert Guskind: 1958-2009" by Blue Barn Pictures, followed by a special 10th anniversary screening of the seminal Brooklyn documentary "Lavendar Lake: Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal" directed by Alison Prete.

The rest of the weekend will feature short film gems from neighborhoods around Brooklyn, including pieces about a Bushwick tailor, rooftop farms in Greenpoint, the Atlantic Yards boondoggle, Coney Island's lost roller coaster, Williamsburg industry, and a whole program of films about Red Hook!

The screening schedule can be seen online at www.redhookfilmfest.com and at www.myspace.com/redhookfilmfestival

web: www.redhookfilmfest.com
myspace: www.myspace.com/redhookfilmfestival
facebook: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165019430983

Originally posted by louise crawford from Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, on September 23, 2009 4:27 AM

We don't know exactly how to say this without overloading your nerd subsystem, but this R2D2 unit packs eight consoles, an integrated sound system and a projector for throwing your Jet Grind Radio sessions onto a wall. The only extras you'll need are the masses of controllers you see above and the steady constitution to not erupt into geek euphoria. Popular Science reader Brian De Vitis is the man you have to thank for this splicing of console goodness, and he's been kind enough to also provide a picture of the R2's mobo-laden innards. It awaits just past the break.

[Via Hack N Mod]

Continue reading R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

R2D2 turned into retro gaming shrine, includes head-mounted projector originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Vladislav Savov from Engadget, on September 23, 2009 2:30 AM

Google Chrome Frame: This is really, really awesome, and really, really significant. Replace IE’s rendering engine with WebKit via one simple plug-in.

Originally posted by Mike D. from Mike Industries, on September 22, 2009 10:57 PM

If you’re describing something, and you find yourself saying “blah blah blah” to close out the thought, it may not just be a shortcut to the next sentence. Instead, it may be a sign that you haven’t thought enough about what you’re trying to describe. Try finishing your explanations with real words to make sure you’re actually on the right track.

Originally posted by Jason F. from Signal vs. Noise, on September 22, 2009 7:19 PM

After “countless hours” of work, the Google Wave team has thrown up their hands and decided not to make Wave work in Internet Explorer natively. Instead, they released Google Chrome Frame, an IE add-on that puts Chrome’s backend inside Internet Explorer. Next week another batch of Google Wave invitations will go out, and IE users will have to install Chrome Frame or switch to Firefox or Safari to try Wave. (The screenshot is the prompt IE users will get when they try to log into Wave.) Google explains why Internet Explorer just doesn’t have what it takes to run Wave:

Google Wave depends on strong JS and DOM rendering performance to provide a desktop-like experience in the browser. HTML5’s offline storage and web workers will enable us to add great features without having to compromise on performance. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer, still used by the majority of the Web’s users, has not kept up with such fairly recent developments in Web technology.

My experience using the developer preview of Google Wave (which I’ve never even tried in Internet Explorer) has shown that Wave is consistently more stable in Chrome, and even noticeably faster in Chrome than Firefox or Safari. As such, I usually run Wave in a separate Chrome window while I do my regular surfing in Firefox–and I wouldn’t be surprised if more early adopters do the same as Wave rolls out. Until then, the IE team has a lot of work to do, because for them, hearing “my webapp is too advanced to run in your browser” from Google has to sting.

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Smarterware, on September 22, 2009 6:50 PM

The latest version of StreamToMe — for streaming audio and video from your Mac to your iPhone/iPod Touch — is now available on the App Store. It has only been one month since I released version 1.0 but I have lots of new changes to share.

New Features

You will need to download the latest version of ServeToMe to take advantage of these new features.

The "Seek to anywhere" update

StreamToMe version 1.1 adds a number of requested features, most prominent of which is "seek to anywhere". You no longer need to wait for the end of the file to be encoded before you jump ahead — you can seek to anywhere at anytime and it will "just work".

Remote WiFi and 3G access

StreamToMe now supports connections via 3G and from non-local WiFi locations. Bitrates between 96k and 1600k are chosen by the iPhone based on the available data rate. These lower bitrates are also available on local WiFi connections for situations where interference means a lower bitrate is required.

A remote connection requires that you have configured your Mac's network to make ServeToMe's port accessible remotely. This configuration is left to you since it is dependent on how you are connected to the internet, your modem/router and firewalls.

Password protection

To protect access to your files (especially when made available over the internet) you can now password protect the server.

Minor changes and fixes

Of course, there are numerous little fixes and changes too:

• Fixed playback of many common MOV codecs, so many more Quicktime MOV files will be supported.
• The server now only encodes video as needed, resulting in much lower average CPU usage.
• Fixes for occasional broken socket (network dropout) problems on Snow Leopard.
• Fixes for session ID problems that caused "The requested file couldn't be converted for streaming" to be incorrectly sent for supported files.
• Scroll indexes now used for large directories.
• Shinier file and folder icons.

Still coming...

I can't deliver everything all at once but the following frequently requested features are still planned for a future version:

• Windows support for ServeToMe
• Alternate audio tracks
• Subtitles
• Thumbnail previews

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of the updated application in action:

Originally posted by Matt Gallagher from Cocoa with Love, on September 22, 2009 4:59 PM

Your eyes are not deceiving you! If you don't believe us, head to Twitter and see the hundreds of people talking about it!

People in Sydeny, Austraila woke this morning to see a deep reddish haze unlike anything they have ever seen before. And weather experts are amazed as well!

But how can this be?!

Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jane Golding says that the color comes from an exorbitant amount of dust that has collected in the area, saying:

"The reason for the dust is we had some really strong winds in the inland areas of NSW and in South Australia for a sustained period yesterday. That's lifted a whole lot of dust off the ground because it's quite dry out there, many of those areas are still drought affected…I've not seen anything like this before."

She also pointed out that the reddish haze is expected to fade as the sun gets higher in the sky, changing from "a crimson red to orange by about 7am."

A severe weather warning has gone out across the city, as the dust has made visibility terrible and the winds carrying this reddish dust are as high as 60km/h and expected to get worse!!!

This is just crazy! It looks like the "end of days" over there!!!

Originally posted by Perez Hilton from Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton, on September 22, 2009 2:22 PM

Two books by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il are available at Amazon: Kim Jong Il on the Art of Opera and On the Art of the Cinema. From the preface of the latter:

The cinema is now one of the main objects on which efforts should be concentrated in order to conduct the revolution in art and literature. The cinema occupies an important place in the overall development of art and literature. As such it is a powerful ideological weapon for the revolution and construction. Therefore, concentrating efforts on the cinema, making breakthroughs and following up success in all areas of art and literature is the basic principle that we must adhere to in revolutionizing art and literature.

Here's more information about Dear Leader's cinematic and operatic interests.

On the Art of Opera describes how Kim and his dad, the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung, discovered the husk of a tired art form and gave it a much-needed shot of North Korean communism. Any impartial observer would agree that Kim's aesthetic prescriptions are every bit as crowd-pleasing as his economic policies.

"In conventional operas," Kim writes, "the personalities of the characters were abstract, their acting clumsy, and the flow of the drama tedious, because the singers were forced to sing unnaturally and their acting was neglected." Furthermore, until the arrival of the Kims, "no one interwove dance and story very closely."

And now? "The 'Sea of Blood'-style opera," he observes, "has opened up a new phase in dramaturgy." In case you've been living in a cave, Sea of Blood is North Korea's longest-running production, the Cats of Pyongyang. It has been staged 1,500 times, according to the official Korea News Service, which calls it an "immortal classical masterpiece." Kim claims to have revamped the form by chucking the aria out the window and replacing all solo performance with a cunning Kim innovation: the pangchang, a more satisfying off-stage chorus representing groupthink.

Tags: books   kimjongil   movies   North Korea   opera

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 22, 2009 1:20 PM

Alex, you sly dog  

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on September 22, 2009 12:33 PM

From Recipes

[Photograph: Blake Royer]

Normally, French onion soup is a time-consuming process, involving long bouts of caramelization and keeping a close watch on the stove. For this column Nick and I have explored ways of shortening the process to keep it at less than one hour of cooking—doing things like cranking the heat to high while stirring like crazy to prevent burning. But I was intrigued by this recipe from Patricia Wells's well-known volume Bistro Cooking. She calls it an easily "digestible" version from a brasserie in Paris called Pied de Cochon, and rather than having to stand over the stove watching the onions, you toss them into a blazing oven with a bunch of butter and white wine.

The result is not the sweet, shrunken onions of traditional French onion soup; rather the onions are tender and infused with white wine but not deeply caramelized. Beef stock is replaced with lighter chicken stock, which should be of the highest quality, preferably homemade—it's the primary flavor of the soup. With the secondary replacement of red wine with white, this is a different soup altogether from the classic recipe—chickeny and light rather than beefy and deep like red wine. But it's a good recipe in its own right—and even better, it's very undemanding to make.

Quick, Light Onion Soup

- serves 4 -

Adapted from Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells.

Ingredients

1 pound sweet white or yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 cups dry white wine, such as Muscadet
2 tablespoons butter
6 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
4 slices crusty bread or baguette
2 cups (5 ounces) freshly grated Gruyere cheese

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F. Combine the onions, wine, butter, and a large pinch of salt in a baking dish and cook, uncovered, until the wine is absorbed almost completely into the onions, and they are tender and golden, 45 minutes or perhaps a little longer.

2. In the meantime, bring the chicken stock to a simmer in a large saucepan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. When the onions are finished, divide them among 4 deep broiler-safe bowls. Cover the onions with chicken stock to fill the bowls, and place a slice of bread on each. Distribute the grated cheese over the bread and broil until the cheese is golden and bubbling, 2 to 3 minutes.

Originally posted by Blake Royer from Serious Eats, on September 22, 2009 12:30 PM

It's a triforce, alright!

Question is: is this very, very old or have we really only just noticed?

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on September 22, 2009 11:57 AM

What CNN was reduced to ...

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on September 22, 2009 11:45 AM

so i designed this kitchen and youngna took the photos

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on September 22, 2009 11:17 AM

Perhaps you know that Adam Dunn hit exactly 40 homers every season from 2005 to 2008. If you're counting, that's 4 seasons in a row.

As of this moment, Dunn has 37 HR this season. He projects to, you guessed it, 40 HR again this season.

I wonder what the highest number of homers any player hit 5 seasons in a row. I would think it's been done with 1 or maybe 2 HR each year for 5 years but I can't imagine the record is any higher than that. If Dunn hits exactly 40 again this year, it'll be a piece of trivia remembered for all time.

Originally posted by Andy from Baseball-Reference Blog, on September 22, 2009 10:56 AM

People hate IE6; they’ve made that abundantly clear on the web. Unfortunately, plenty of people are still stuck using it for reasons such as their work not letting them upgrade. So Google is doing something about it.

Chrome Frame is a new browser plug-in developed by Google to give you a Chrome browsing experience inside of Internet Explorer. Let me restate that slightly to make it more clear: Chrome Frame turns IE into Chrome.

Yes, it’s both hilarious and awesome (or hilariously awesome, if you will) that Google seems to dislike IE so much that it has spent its own time improving it. Google claims its goals are noble. Talking to Group Product Manager Mike Smith and Software Engineer Alex Russell, they tell us that they simply want to make a more seamless web experience for both web users and developers. That said, they are only targeting one browser, IE, right now.

And that seems fair. IE, which is of course made by Google nemesis Microsoft, is both the largest web browser and the one with a poor history when it comes to web standards. Things have gotten better since IE6, but that’s really not saying much. And standards aren’t the only issue, performance is as well. Chrome Frame injects the latest versions of Chrome’s Webkit and JavaScript engines into IE. These are the versions used in the dev channel builds of Chrome, so they’re actually newer than the ones found in the latest regular release of the browser.

So how does this work? Basically, it’s just a plug-in that creates a new frame inside of IE that is the Chrome browser. The plug-in itself is lightweight (around 500K or so, I’m told), but then it must download around 10 MB of Chrome-related data to work correctly on a machine. The look will be so seamless that a user shouldn’t realize they’re not simply browsing with their regular old version of IE, albeit a much faster and more compliant one, I’m told.

While it is obviously more system-intensive to run two browsers rather than one, I’m told that the overall difference is pretty small since Chrome is designed to give resources back to your machine when you’re not using them with the browser.

In terms of promotion of Chrome Frame, Google says that while it won’t be explicitly advertising it, it will use subtle methods to alert users to its existence. For example, if you browse to a Google app in Internet Explorer that may render better in Chrome, Google might have a message on the page telling you about the plug-in.

The hope is that other developers will use similar messages on their pages. Many already do something like this to tell users to upgrade their browser, but again, this is just a plug-in, rather than requiring you to install a whole new browser. It’s pretty ingenious.

Smith and Russel wanted to make it clear that this plug-in, which is still technically in the testing phase, is just as much for developers as for web surfers. They know all too well the pain of having to design sites specifically for IE’s “quirks” and hope a tool like this can make the web a smoother and easier to develop for environment.

To target the Chrome plug-in for IE, developers simply have to insert a meta tag in their HTML code. If Chrome Frame isn’t found, the page will render just as it normally would in IE.

Chrome Frame will work with IE6, IE7, and IE8 on any Windows-based machine.

I cannot wait to see Microsoft’s reaction to this. This isn’t quite the nuclear bomb that the Chrome OS revelation was, it’s more like a smart bomb.

You can find Google Chrome Frame here. And learn more in the video below.

CrunchBase Information

Google Chrome

Windows Internet Explorer

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

TechCrunch50 Conference 2009: September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco

Originally posted by MG Siegler from TechCrunch, on September 22, 2009 10:30 AM

There are about five hours left until the end of the Summer of Death (TM symbol goes here!), so this may be my last chance to fulminate about how Big Media continues its campaign to deny me credit for coining the phrase.

This weekend the AP played its part in this sickening conspiracy, noting that during this season of mortality, “The phrase ’summer of death’ popped up, perhaps first used by New York magazine, which cheekily claimed the trademark.” [Italics mine, but only because there has yet to be invented a kind of stylizing which accurately displays the anger and contempt I feel when reading that misattribution.] Screw you, AP! Screw you, New York! Me me me Alex Balk me I created “Summer of Death”!

Also, note the picture above, which we posted on the day the legendary phrase was coined: It seems so empty now. Who knew that there would be so much death this summer? Oh, right, ME. Anyway, you had a good run, Summer of Death. Nice try with Robert Byrd, but you can’t win them all. Still, it was indeed a heck of a summer. Of death. (Credit: Alex Balk.) I hope you’re confident and serene when you hand over the scythe to Autumn this evening.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on September 22, 2009 8:40 AM

Over 8 years ago I blogged about LineDrive, a mapping technology that attempted to simulate the types of maps humans draw. I was even emailed by it’s creator, Maneesh Agrawala.

This morning, as I read the SF Gate, I found out that Maneesh just won a MacArthur fellowship! I hadn’t kept up with him, but he’s now teaching at UC Berkeley, and continues to endeavor to understand how people process visual information, including maps. Lots and lots of maps. I’m probably fooling myself if I think I’ll find the time to look over what he’s done the past few years, but it sure seems worthwhile!

Originally posted by peterme from peterme.com, on September 22, 2009 6:12 AM

Kristin here—

We’re coming up on the third anniversary of our blog’s debut in cyberspace. In previous years, as a new school season starts, I’ve written up a summary of entries that might prove useful to teachers using our textbook, Film Art: An Introduction. By now, “Observations on Film Art” has accumulated almost 290 entries, adding up to an enormous amount of verbiage and images. We realize that it’s a real chore to search it for relevant entries. That chore will only get harder as we post new pieces.

To help teachers, we’re innovating a feature in the ninth edition of Film Art, due out in December. We’ve sifted the entire set of entries and matched relevant ones to specific passages. You’ll find brief descriptions, titles, and URLs for those entries in the margins beside the text.

That doesn’t mean that the “Is there a blog in this class?” series will end. Three years go by between editions of Film Art, so we’ll keep updating. For the 2007 entry, go here, and here for the one from 2008.

Most of our entries include links to other online sources for alternative information and opinions.

General entries

Looking for a classic film to show your students? In “Class of 1960,” David discusses eight that he programmed for a Belgian summer school. He also describes the work of the master Japanese filmmaker, Shimizu Hiroshi, now being rediscovered on DVD, in “Pierced by poetry.”

“Slumdogged by the past” takes such a broad look at the play with “forms and formulas drawn from across film history” in Slumdog Millionaire that the entry might be used in conjunction with several chapters. The discussion of the film’s narrative structure, stylistic choices, genre conventions, and ideology draws upon many concepts and terms used in Film Art.

Chapter 1 Film Art and Filmmaking

The questions asked in “Has 3-D already failed?” are going to remain relevant for years. This entry looks at issues that reflect how the film industry introduces new technology. Students most likely have their own opinions on this particular subject and might find learning about the historical background intriguing.

A little-known aspect of filmmaking, free military assistance to commercial productions, is discussed in “Your tax dollars at work for Michael Bay.” For some big action films, the savings can be considerable.

Jacques Tati is one of our favorite filmmakers, as the examples in Film Art show. We discuss his little-known but important collaborator, artist and designer Jacques Lagrange, in “La main droite de M. Hulot.”

DVD supplements can be handy for teaching—if they’re substantive. We offer more recommendations for meaty ones in “Beyond praise 2: More DVD supplements that really tell you something.” (For the earlier round, see here.)

In the section on exhibition, you can send students to see some beautiful pictures of a restored movie palace in “A tale of 2—make that 1 and 1/3—screens.”

At the end of the chapter, we complain about what showing films on television can do to their images. “Bugs: The secret history” tackles another annoyance: the superimposed logos that intrude into TV screenings, as well as their more charming ancestors, the little logos inserted into silent-film scenes for copyright purposes.

Chapter 2 The Significance of Film Form

A film’s title can give us clues to its subject and themes—or baffle us. We consider the various kinds in “Title wave.”

Chapter 3 Narrative as a Formal System

Flashbacks are a key concept in this chapter, particularly with Citizen Kane serving as our major example. In “Grandmaster flashback,” we go into depth concerning the rise of the flashback-based film in the 1920s and 1930s, dwelling particularly on The Power and the Glory, a film that influenced Welles. For advanced students, this entry could provide contextual background as a lead-in or follow-up to viewing Kane.

Some students find it difficult to grasp the chapter’s distinctions between perceptual and mental subjectivity. We’ve modified that section slightly for the new edition. Our entry “Categorical coherence: A closer look at character subjectivity” goes more deeply into the subject than space allows in Film Art, adding some examples that may help clarify this concept.

“Archie types meet archetypes” is an analysis of comic books rather than film, but it discusses narrative tactics very similar to the “what if” plots we write about in the “Closer Look” box, “Playing Games with Story Time.”

“Now leaving from platform 1” examines the phenomenon of “transmedia storytelling,” where a film or series of films may have continuations of their narratives in videogames, novels, and other formats. This entry is challenging, but advanced students might enjoy it, and again, this phenomenon is one that some of them will have encountered already.

The new edition of Film Art has added a “Closer Look” box on credits sequences and how they often relate to the narrative. In “Color, shape, movement … and talk” we give some background about Saul Bass. Some of the illustrations will be familiar, since the blog entry inspired the new box.

Chapter 4 The Shot: Mise-en-scene

Teachers always want more material on acting. “Acting up” offers some discussion and examples, as well as links to useful online pieces by other authors.

Acting includes staging, and we examine some ways filmmakers place actors in the frame, including in depth, to guide the viewer’s eye in “Gradations of emphasis, starring Glenn Ford.”

Our entry “Coraline, cornered” provides some fascinating examples of depth cues. Quite apart from the fact that the film was made in 3D, it uses differences in perspective to contrast the two worlds between which the heroine moves.

Chapter 6 The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing

One standard function of continuity cutting is to show us shots of characters reacting to what’s going on in the scene. In “They’re looking for us,” we argue that characters’ expressions and gestures can cue how we’re supposed to react.

Chapter 8 Summary: Style as a Formal System

“Searching for surprises, and frites,” illustrates many striking stylistic moments from films of the 1910s era.

In “Niceties: how classical filmmaking can be at once simple and precise” examines motifs of framing, gesture, and screen direction in The Prestige. (The ninth edition of Film Art uses The Prestige as its major example of sound techniques. “Niceties” could form a follow-up.)

Chapter 10 Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films

Nina Paley’s computer-animated feature Sita Sings the Blues demonstrates how visually striking and imaginative an essentially home-made film can be. Students can download and watch Sita for free on the film’s official site. “Take my film, please” is the transcript of an onstage Q&A I conducted with the filmmaker after a festival screening. Her unusual decision to give the film away in order to publicize and later make money from it also relates to do-it-yourself filmmaking and distribution as mentioned in Chapter 1.

The new edition uses Waltz with Bashir as an example of an animated documentary. For more discussion on the boundary between fiction and documentary in animation, see “Showing what can’t be filmed.”

Chapter 11 Film Criticism: Sample Analyses

We offer some thoughts on the nature and history of movie criticism in “Love isn’t all you need.”

“(50) Days of summer (movies), Part 2” is a discussion of three films from the 2009 summer season: The Taking of Pelham 123, Public Enemies, and Inglourious Basterds. The analysis of the first two is relatively brief, but the discussion of the Tarantino film goes into detail concerning narrative, style, and genre conventions. It could be used as an example of a critical essay or in relation to Chapters 3, 8, and 9.

Chapter 12 Film Art and Film History

New collections of historically important films are increasingly appearing on DVD. We review a collection of Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette animated films and one of Belgian experimental movies in “Forgotten but not gone: more archival gems on DVD” (both also useful for Chapter 10). There’s also a lengthy version of Gance’s La roue. That film provided a few of our illustrations in Film Art, and it belongs to the French Impressionist movement chronicled here. “An old-fashioned, sentimental avant-garde film” provides information on the restored print and comments on Gance’s place in history.

Douglas Fairbanks’ career before he went over to swashbuckling epics is too little known. In “His majesty the American, reaching for the moon” we review that early career on the occasion of the release of a new DVD set with a group of his comic features, films that skillfully used the emerging classical Hollywood style to hilarious effect.

“Preserving two masters” details the good work of the Munich Filmmuseum in releasing two DVDs of restored prints. One is a longer version of the still incomplete Ernst 1922 Lubitsch epic Das Weib des Pharao, the second a disc containing the complete surviving work of Walther Ruttmann up to Melodie der Welt. That includes his abstract animated films and the classic Berlin.

Our blog avoids 10-best lists at the end of each year. Instead, we’ve fallen into an annual habit of listing the 10 best films of 90 years ago. Last year it was “The 10 best films of the year … 1918.” Stay tuned for our 1919 list.

“It’s the 80s, stupid” examines the attractions of a decade usually thought of as less productive of significant films than the 1970s had been. The entry proved surprisingly controversial. It could be used in conjunction with the New Hollywood part of this chapter.

Chapter 12 ends with a section on Hong Kong cinema. “Happy birthday, Film Workshop!” updates it and comments on Tsui Hark’s career.

In March of this year, the third edition of our other McGraw-Hill textbook, Film History: An Introduction, appeared. In “Around the world in 750 pages,” we discuss the state of film-historical studies in the late 1980s, when we set out to write the book, as well as how we went about researching and organizing it. About a year ago, David added an essay, “Doing Film History,” to his website. Among other insights, this essay might help students better grasp why people think watching old movies is worthwhile!

By the way, once our web czarina Meg gets back from the Toronto Film Festival, we’ll be asking her to change the name of the blog from “Observations on film art and Film Art” to the simpler “Observations on Film Art.” When we started out, we thought we needed to signal that the blog would be about both matters relating directly to the textbook and those that lie outside its scope. We think that’s pretty well established by now, so we’re simplifying our title.

Originally posted by bordwellblog from Observations on film art and FILM ART, on September 22, 2009 6:11 AM

Jane Jacobs on Ideology from 'Dark Age Ahead' (WP):

Overall, Jacobs argued that the very concept of “ideology” is fundamentally flawed and detrimental to both individuals and societies, no matter what side of the political spectrum an ideology comes from. By relying on ideals, she claimed people become unable to think and evaluate problems and solutions by themselves, but simply fall back on their beliefs for “pre-fabricated answers” to any problem they encounter.

As a poignant example, she cited the Chicago Heat Wave, which killed hundreds of mostly elderly Chicagoans in 1995. The “official” reason, according to the United States Department of Health (following a multi-million dollar study), was that the victims simply did not take precautions such as maintaining a steady water supply, finding air conditioning, or circulating air in their buildings.

Jacobs argued that the study, in addition to spending millions of dollars to state the obvious, was flawed because of its inherent ideology, which was individualism. She noted that a sociology graduate student, Eric Klinenberg, wrote his thesis on the disaster, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, which proved much more enlightening.

By examining the social atmosphere of different Chicago neighborhoods, Klinenberg discovered that many deaths were not dependent on individual factors, such as wealth, but rather on the cohesiveness of the neighborhood. Within tightly-knit and older neighborhoods, he found, elderly people at risk of heat stroke were more likely to be checked on by neighbors, less afraid to leave their homes to get help, and more likely to find sympathetic people and businesses that would allow them to relax in an air-conditioned environment (for example, dropping into a neighborhood grocery or barbershop, and having a proprietor willing to simply let them sit). In contrast, within neighborhoods where neighbors rarely socialized, the elderly were isolated and unable to get help.

Jacobs, citing the two studies, argued that the federal study was unconsciously biased by the prevailing political and economic ideology (that is, neoliberalism), which promoted individualism to the point of becoming completely oblivious to community and social factors, even though, as Klinenberg found, these were the factors that ultimately caused the deaths.

Using this and other examples, Jacobs argued that modern political and economic ideologies were in effect no different than those dominant in Western civilization’s past Dark Ages, such as Middle Age Roman Catholicism. In both cases, she claimed, the dominant ideology prevented and discouraged people from finding rational and scientifically-verifiable explanations and solutions.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Final Boss Form, on September 21, 2009 11:29 PM

Don’t get me wrong, I like my reductio ad absurdum BART map (and if I may say so myself it looks quite good on a black t-shirt).  But it was a parody, designed to highlight the half-assed job BART did on its new map with its awkward combination of forced straight lines yet strangely detailed coastline. (And let’s face it, the previous map, even with its Mission curve, wasn’t very good either.)

Behold our friends at San Francisco Cityscape who have just updated what is quite possibly the BEST TRANSIT MAP EVER – zoom of SF below, click the map for the entire Bay Area.

“…we’d like to think that this version combines the simplicity of the BART map with a relatively accurate rendering of geography, and it includes some detail that the BART map doesn’t, like major Muni stops.”

Indeed. I would be very comfortable giving this to anyone visiting from out of town, and would pray that such a map existed wherever I travel.

BART, at least consider replacing the maps inside the cars with this one.

If one didn’t know any better, this SF Cityscape map would make you think the Bay Area has a coherent transit system.

The SF Cityscape folks have created dozens of interesting maps.  I particularly like the SF Main Line map, the Spider Map and a plan for the California High Speed Rail map of the hopefully near future (rotated for your viewing pleasure).

Oh, I am so looking forward to the bar car on the trip to LA zipping along at 220 mph.

Hey, here’s an idea – if you have an electric car, you can drive onto the train.  You get a charge and you can drive you get there! This idea is of course void if LA were ever to build a subway system like the one below (by Numan Parada, read more about it in the LA Times story).

I swear I will write about something other than BART or Sutro Tower soon.  Really.

Originally posted by burritojustice from Burrito Justice, on September 21, 2009 10:44 PM

NewsToday

Originally posted by (author unknown) from this isn't happiness., on September 21, 2009 8:23 PM

 If I'm doing really well on the Sunday Times crossword, I can do 2/3 - 3/4 of it on my own before I need to start opening the dictionary for help.  And that's if I'm really on fire.  For last week's puzzle, I completed all but six spaces on the entire puzzle with no external help of any kind.  It's taken me 16 years of working on the Sunday puzzle, but I'm almost there....

Originally posted by Valarie Smith from Crazed Teacups, on September 21, 2009 7:50 PM

Just saw that Brownstoner covered the brownstone conversion that is next to our building. At least it is finally finished; four years+ in the making, stop work orders, drilling through the walls, disappearing contractors, blocking our chimney with debris, garden with a huge amount of Brooklyn weed that I have to keep pulling as it jumps our fence. On the one hand we would just like it occupied so it stops being a safety hazard on the other I've been inside and don't think much of the apartments.

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on September 21, 2009 7:08 PM

Hello everyone. I'd like you to meet Ollie's little sister, Minna Kottke.

Big yawn! She was born at home (on purpose!) early this morning; mother and baby are resting comfortably. I am weakened by an unrelated sickness but proud and happy. Ollie can't stop talking about her. "Minna! Minna!" He's going to be a great big brother.

So, things are going to be a little slow around here for a bit, especially the rest of this week. Starting next Monday, I'll be joined by a part-time guest editor for a couple weeks. But more on that later. Now: sleep.

Tags: Jason Kottke   kottke.org   Meg Hourihan   Minna Kottke

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 21, 2009 6:14 PM

On Reddit, an informal Q&A with a $30 million lottery winner about how the money has changed his life.

I went to the lottery's website after finding the ticket and realized that I had won. I freaked out ran up to my apartment's door and locked all the locks. It was completely irrational.

(via cyn-c)

Tags: finance   lottery   money

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 21, 2009 3:33 PM

How big a Democratic fundraiser was Hassan Nemazee? FEC filings give you a glimpse.

We've also posted the Nemazee indictment here.

Originally posted by David Kurtz from Talking Points Memo, on September 21, 2009 2:56 PM

This is Adrian Bejan on how the current offensive explosion in NFL scoring can be thought of in terms of a river's effect on its basin.

Over time, a river relentlessly wears away its banks and, as a result, water flows faster and faster toward its mouth. When obstacles fall in its way, say, a tree, or a boulder-or in the case of an NFL offense, beefy linebackers like the Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis or the Chicago Bears' Brian Urlacher-it will figure out how to wear those away, too. "The game is a flow system, a river basin of bodies that are milling around trying to find the most effective and easiest way to move," says Prof. Bejan. "Over time you will end up with the right way to play the game, with the patterns that are the most efficient."

Tags: Adrian Bejan   football   sports

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 21, 2009 11:16 AM

Originally posted by btrott from Stupidfool.org, on September 21, 2009 11:09 AM

To the alarm of the big pharmaceutical companies, the placebo effect appears to be getting stronger. The reasons are many and interesting.

It's not only trials of new drugs that are crossing the futility boundary. Some products that have been on the market for decades, like Prozac, are faltering in more recent follow-up tests. In many cases, these are the compounds that, in the late '90s, made Big Pharma more profitable than Big Oil. But if these same drugs were vetted now, the FDA might not approve some of them. Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s. One estimated that the so-called effect size (a measure of statistical significance) in placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time.

Tags: drugs   science

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 21, 2009 9:14 AM

Recently we received some questions about how Google uses (or more accurately, doesn't use) the "keywords" meta tag in ranking web search results. Suppose you have two website owners, Alice and Bob. Alice runs a company called AliceCo and Bob runs BobCo. One day while looking at Bob's site, Alice notices that Bob has copied some of the words that she uses in her "keywords" meta tag. Even more interesting, Bob has added the words "AliceCo" to his "keywords" meta tag. Should Alice be concerned?

At least for Google's web search results currently (September 2009), the answer is no. Google doesn't use the "keywords" meta tag in our web search ranking. This video explains more, or see the questions below.

Q: Does Google ever use the "keywords" meta tag in its web search ranking?

A: In a word, no. Google does sell a Google Search Appliance, and that product has the ability to match meta tags, which could include the keywords meta tag. But that's an enterprise search appliance that is completely separate from our main web search. Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don't have any effect in our search ranking at present.

Q: Why doesn't Google use the keywords meta tag?

A: About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called "off-page" factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.

Q: Does this mean that Google ignores all meta tags?

A: No, Google does support several other meta tags. This meta tags page documents more info on several meta tags that we do use. For example, we do sometimes use the "description" meta tag as the text for our search results snippets, as this screenshot shows:

Even though we sometimes use the description meta tag for the snippets we show, we still don't use the description meta tag in our ranking.

Q: Does this mean that Google will always ignore the keywords meta tag?

A: It's possible that Google could use this information in the future, but it's unlikely. Google has ignored the keywords meta tag for years and currently we see no need to change that policy.

Posted by Matt Cutts, Search Quality Team

Originally posted by Michael Wyszomierski from Google Webmaster Central Blog, on September 21, 2009 9:00 AM

The world’s tallest man has arrived in New York City, and, like King Kong and Godzilla before him, he is looking for love. He told the Daily News that he has never even had a girlfriend. How hard could it be? Go to Craigslist, type out “Hi, I am the world’s tallest man, who wants to get it on?” And there will be a line. Basically any kind of fame will get you some in this town.

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on September 21, 2009 8:50 AM

Today marks the first installment of “New York, You’ve Changed,” a new Scouting NY series in which the New York featured in movies is compared with the city of today. This is not meant to be the usual list of shooting locations and addresses to visit next time you tour the city. Instead, this is a full shot-by-shot dissection to see what New York once was and what it has become, for better or worse. I’ve tried to recreate the angles and framing as best as possible, and have presented the shots (more or less) in the order they appear in the film. Enjoy!

Though there are many movies I’m excited to cover for “New York, You’ve Changed,” I had no choice but to start with the movie that first introduced me to New York City…

I first saw Ghostbusters when I was about 8 years old and instantly fell in love with it. I watched it over and over, to the point where I could recite the entire film. Watching guys trapping ghosts with backpack nuclear accelerators was like a child’s fantasy come to life, and I defy you to find a kid of the ’80’s who will not confirm the magic Ghostbusters carried in their youth.

I had never been to New York City at the time, but the film made me desperately want to go. The public library, the university, the firehouse, Dana’s apartment building…New York seemed completely different from Boston, the only city I knew as a kid. Unfortunately, I only set first set foot in the city in 2000, and by then, New York was a completely different place.

Ghostbusters was shot in New York over a four week period beginning in October ‘83, then returned to L.A. for months of soundstage photography.  Yet in those short four weeks, director Ivan Reitman and team managed to capture enough of the city to make Ghostbusters an iconic “New York” movie. The New York of 1983 is very different from the post-Giuliani city of today – it feels dangerous, gritty, dirty, tough, angry, and exciting. It seems like a struggle just to cross the street. How much has New York changed a quarter of a century later? Let’s have a look…

The film opens at the New York Public Library, which has a ghost residing in its stacks. The first image of the film cranes to one of the NYPL’s lions…

…which seems to be thankfully unchanged all these years later. One of Reitman’s goals in shooting was to focus on New York statuary, and it seems appropriate to start off the film with one of the city’s most iconic symbols.

At the time of shooting, the Ghostbusters crew was disappointed to find that the library was going through restoration work, and had to shoot tight to avoid showing too much scaffolding. Nevertheless, this shot reveals the extent of the work…

Today, the library is yet again under restoration – the top portion is covered in canvas, and the bottom right area is blocked off. While the main reading room was shot on location, the stacks were actually filmed in LA.

Next up is Columbia University, shown beneath the logo. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of color correction, a bad film transfer to DVD, or that New York was simply much smoggier back in the day, but I’ve never seen the campus look so dingy…

Today, like the New York Public Library, the campus is essentially the same, although the building on the right in the Ghostbusters picture, Ferris Booth Hall, was demolished in 1996 to create the much larger Alfred Lerner Hall, the current student center. Other than there seeming to be much less smog than in 2009, little has changed, a rarity in New York.

When we first meet the Ghostbusters, they’re working out of “Weaver Hall,” the “Department of Psychology.”

In reality, Weaver Hall is actually Havemeyer Hall, a classroom building primarily dedicated to science and math (in fact, this building has what I consider to be New York’s finest lecture hall – you can see it repeatedly in the Spider-man films; nice to know Peter Parker and Peter Venkman hung out in the same building). In comparing the two pictures, you can see that we’ve come so far since the ’80’s – we now recycle, and we no longer believe in handicap access! (just kidding, I’m sure there’s an alternate entrance somewhere). Here’s the full building, located in the north-western portion of the campus:

After getting booted from the university, Peter and Ray have a life-altering conversation on the east side of the campus.

I was shocked to see that Columbia has not installed a plaque on this block announcing that “Bill Murray drank here.” If there was one single scene in a film that made me think “drinking is what the cool kids do” as a child, it was this. Other than some noticeable differences in foliage, Columbia continues to look the the same.

As they continue their conversation, you get a reverse view, and again, you can see the difference in student centers. Also note that a gate has been put up, preventing you from going into the area where they have most of their conversation.

After deciding to go into business for themselves, the crew takes a trip to the generically-named “Manhattan City Bank” to take out a mortgage on Ray’s childhood home (”Everyone has a third mortgage nowadays”). I can tell from the footage that they were filming across the street from the New York Public Library…

…but I think the entrance to this building has been completely renovated.

The only clue that this is the correct location is that wall of stone on the left hand side, which seems to match in color to the above photograph. I think the original entrance was more inset.

Finally, the Ghostbusters find their home: Tribeca’s iconic Hook & Ladder #8 (also seen in Hitch and Seinfeld).

Note the new glass-curtain building on the right. The building to the left, which was probably considered a dump in 1983, is now the Bubbles Lounge champagne bar. Times have changed. The alley next to the firehouse is used for firefighter parking.

Shortly after Ray proclaims “You’ve gotta try this pole!”, we head uptown to Dana’s apartment at 55 Central Park West. Our first shot is of the building towering over the skyline, as seen from Central Park. Compare that to the actual view…

Dana’s building is dead center, but in reality actually seems somewhat squat compared to the surrounding buildings. Of course, the first image is actually a matte painting, in which a very realistic painting is superimposed on actual footage of Central Park. Not only did they give the building a much more menacing appearance, they also blotted out a number of the surrounding buildings. I wrongly assumed the field was Central Park’s Great Lawn; it’s actually the Sheep Meadow. Stand on the east side under the trees to get the correct view.

This is an aerial photo of the building in 1983…

…and a sketch of the addition:

Originally, the filmmakers had been planning to use 1 Fifth Avenue, the first building north of Washington Square Park, for Dana’s apartment. Not only is it much taller…

…it also features a roof that would lend itself naturally to a temple…

…especially compared to the top of 55 Central Park West:

Also, it was perfectly located for an iconic shot of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man passing by (or perhaps destroying) the Washington Square Park Arch. Unfortunately, the 1 Fifth Ave condo association couldn’t come to an agreement on filming, and shooting was moved uptown.

Back at 55 CPW, we first see Dana leaving a cab while struggling with groceries.

Notice a difference? While the buildings are very much the same, New York’s cabs have certainly changed…

Dana walks across the street to the entrance of the building, nearly getting hit (if there’s any major difference between New York of the ’80’s and today, it’s that I could stand in the street for a good 30 seconds taking pictures with cars swerving around me without a problem).

I believe that’s a new bus stop pole. It also looks like the building might have had central air installed, as the air-conditioning units have been removed. But all-in-all, still very much the same. I love the light-up taxi globe positioned over the entrance:

Louis Tully tries to get into Tavern on the Green! The Ghostbusters montage it up through New York! And more! Part 2 coming Wednesday!

-SCOUT

Originally posted by Scout from Scouting NY, on September 21, 2009 8:20 AM

The Restaurant: Hearth
The Deal: Hearth is bringing back its pig roasts for autumn. Now available on Tuesday nights, they'll serve three courses centered around a slow-roasted organically raised baby pig from Bev Eggleston. $42.
When/Where: Tuesday nights starting on the 29th; 403 East 12th St., 646-602-1300‎.

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on September 21, 2009 7:31 AM

Well, after 3 tries, I'm BLTed out. For this last attempt, I decided to wait for the great light instead of trying to create it. Early morning light would be beautiful, but can you really enjoy a BLT before 8am? So, the afternoon it is. The late afternoon sunlight is special this time of year. The rays are long and golden. The lighting for this can be tricky because of the dark shadows in the bacon and the bright highlights in the mayo. Because I lit from the front, I did have to burn in the mayo, bread and plate areas in PhotoShop.

With my camera on a tripod,  I used one white fill card behind the sandwich side to reflect some light back down. In my other attempts, I insisted on back lighting, and that didn't give me enough light for the dark bacon. So, this challenge got me to do things differently. Here are the other attempts:

First go: Bad choice of light—too much blue.                     Second try: Better light, but grill marks aren't Bread looks horrible!                                                          working and there's still too much going on. We                                                                                               also need to see sandwich interior layers better.                                                                                       

Originally posted by Donna from ruhlman.com, on September 21, 2009 5:49 AM

Obama gets to Albany at 11 a.m.. Our fine (kidding) governor David Paterson will meet him at the airport. Because it wasn’t enough that he sent envoys already to tell him not to run. (What is this, 1567?) This preemptive, insane execution of Paterson by Obama is the most poorly-handled bit of political dealings we’ve ever seen. (Though, you know, it doesn’t help that Paterson immediately makes anything public, and that makes Obama look bad. But it should make him look bad.) And now, where are we? Well! Here’s one way to give me a stroke first thing in the morning: “All hail Andrew Cuomo, the de facto governor-elect of New York.” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on September 21, 2009 5:29 AM

Photo by Donna (more comment from her here)

I don't think I've had more fun making a sandwich than for the BLT-From-Scratch Challenge.  And it wasn't the from-scratch part.  I do this stuff all the time—the from-scratch fun was sharing it with so many people and hearing your stories.  That I don't do all the time.  But the coolest part of this cooking challenge was how amazing the sandwich turned out to be.

I received dozens of entries in all kinds of forms, classic, reinterpreted, vegetarian.  Every one of them inspiring.  Donna will be reviewing all the photographs this week to choose this winner.  I will be determining the winners of "best overall," "best vegetarian or vegan," and "best reinterpretation." All winners will be announced next Monday.    

Donna and I made and photographed three different sandwiches, and they were all, well, not just fantastic. They were so beyond the realm of what normally stands in for a BLT, it made me want to reconsider every classic for what it might be. That was what was so surprising for me about this whole challenge.

These BLT's were some of the most meaty, delicious sandwiches I've ever eaten.  With the mayo, the explosively juicy tomatoes still warm from the sun, thick succulent tender slabs of cured pork belly—these were BLTs times ten times ten. Pork fat, tomato juices and mayo dripping down the chin.  They were so good and so surprising, had I served one to you, you might not have known you were even eating a BLT.

The key here is that the sandwiches featured the pork belly—the meat was thicker than the bread.  This is really a pork belly sandwich, garnished with L, T and mayo.

Here's the critical cooking point for using bacon this thick in a sandwich.  If you were simply to cook the bacon in a pan, it would be difficult to make it tender enough to eat without yanking it all out of the sandwich.  Belly is a well-worked muscle that need tenderizing.  Traditional bacon is tender because it's sliced so thin. The way to make slabs of bacon tender is through long gentle moist cooking.

I wrapped the slabs in foil drizzling a little water over them to make sure it would be steamy inside the foil, and cooked them in a 200 degree oven for 3 or 4 hours.  I let them cool and reheated them to make the sandwich. Some I reheated on the grill over hot coals to get some smokiness, some I sauteed in a pan.  The belly in the sandwich shown here (n.b. I did not grow the potatoes or harvest the salt for the chips), I braised till tender, then fried.  Slow-cooking, cooling and reheating is a fabulous way to serve belly.

I want to do one more BLT from scratch, featuring not the belly, but the tomato—a green tomato sandwich garnished with strips of bacon, lettuce and a spicy mayo.  I may even dredge the tomato in cornmeal as opposed to my preferred panko.

It turns out the BLT-From-Scratch Challenge has been just as much a thought experiment as a cooking challenge.  And for me that's some of the funnest cooking there is.

Originally posted by michael ruhlman from ruhlman.com, on September 21, 2009 5:00 AM

Welcome to Smarterware’s new look! (If you’re seeing this in your feed reader, pop open a browser tab, wouldya?)

This little blog is now workin’ the internet runway sporting a new logo and design. While I love Lucian Marin’s Journalist template that I launched Smarterware with back in January, I wanted to add custom imagery to the site, something readers would see in their tab bar and recognize immediately.

People in the biz call this a “logo.”

Since I’m the coder sort, I’m kind of thick when it comes to these matters. Thankfully, logo designer extraordinaire Annedien Hoen hooked me up. She and I first talked back in February (7 months ago!) and it was the first time I worked with a designer directly on anything. From the Netherlands to San Diego, our initial consultation was an intense hour and a half discussion–not about lines and colors, but about inspirations, motivations, intentions, and feelings.

Yup, it was a therapy session. I yammered on at Annedien about computers, teaching, learning, writing, habits, goals, cyborgs, automation, creativity, productivity, motivation, brainwaves, my childhood, and stuff I like to look at. She asked well-placed questions, and got me to tell her what I’m trying to do on these pages in ways I hadn’t articulated before. Then she turned all that into an image. I’m so pleased with the simplicity and containment of the result. I’ve got my own ideas about what the logo represents, but I’ll let you interpret it on your own.

Once the logo was done, Patricia Forest at 3ones waved her magic wand and designed the site’s pages around it. Trish wasn’t even a little bit judgmental when I confessed my love of circuit boards to her. As always, she did beautiful things with color and typography and made the posts and comments here look downright spiffy. This is why when you need online product development work done and ask me who to talk to, I send you to 3ones.

Finally, because I thought it would be a fun learning experience, I decided to turn the HTML and CSS Trish gave me into a working WordPress theme myself. I’d modified WordPress themes before, but never built one from scratch. Late in the game I got worried about this undertaking: When I asked my Twitter followers for tips, I got replies like “gird your loins.” But, call me a sadist. I really enjoyed pawing through the WordPress codex and getting it all to work bit by bit. Trish’s markup was clean and modular, and I speak PHP, so the process was pretty smooth and very satisfying. My favorite “WordPress can do that?” moment: Figuring out how to configure multiple sidebars and display them based on context. You’ll notice the sidebar content is different on a post page than on the front page than on a user profile than in search results. Booyah.

I finished up the theme in a mad dash that ended just before 4am, so most likely things are broken and it’s all my fault. Give the new look and feel a spin and let me know what you think in the comments. (They’ll look really good when you do, I promise.) Thanks to Annedien and Trish for all their work. I am going to bed now.

Originally posted by Gina Trapani from Smarterware, on September 21, 2009 3:06 AM

Hunting Space Invaders

via: tedr: superamit: mcahill

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rocketboom Blog, on September 20, 2009 11:42 PM

Nigeria has banned the film “District 9” from its movie theaters because of what it considers a poor portrayal of Nigerians. The country’s information minister, Dora Akunyili has asked movie houses in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to stop showing the movie because she feels it depicts Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals. The BBC reports Akunyili said “We feel very bad about this because the film clearly denigrated Nigeria’s image by portraying us as if we are cannibals, we are criminals. The name our former president was clearly spelt out as the head of the criminal gang and our ladies shown like prostitutes sleeping with extra-terrestrial beings…I have also formally written to Sony Pictures Entertainment, the company that produced this film, demanding an unconditional apology for this unwarranted attack on Nigeria’s image.”

I saw District 9 and thought it had a good social message, but then again I’m not Nigerian. I can understand why Nigerians are offended and I also understand what Malawian actor, Eugene Khumbanyiwa who played the gang leader Obasanjo (the surname of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo) said: “It’s a story, you know. It’s not like Nigerians do eat aliens. Aliens don’t even exist in the first place.”

Originally posted by blair@takepart.com from TakePart Social Action Network™, on September 20, 2009 8:10 PM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from xkcd.com, on September 20, 2009 8:00 PM

For many collectors, the Kazuo Uzuki April Fool’s gag by Topps was the final straw. Seeded once in every 72 packs of 2008 Topps, Kazuo cards were hot items on eBay where many collectors failed to catch on to the joke.

On the back of the card Topps wrote that the 5′11″ teenager had a fastball clocked at 104 MPH. That’s really all it took for some to buy into the hype, despite the fact that no one could find any information on “Kazuo Uzuki”.

As it turns out, the guy pictured on the card was not any kind of prospect but a New York University law student named Sensen Lin. He made a total of $600 for the whole stunt and did a pretty interesting interview with the Wall Street Journal which you can read HERE.

Originally posted by Mario A. from Wax Heaven, on September 20, 2009 7:24 PM

I spend large portion of my life working on MySQL Performance Optimization and so MySQL Optimizer is quite important to me. For probably last 10 years I chased first Monty and later Igor with Optimizer complains and suggestions. Here are some general ideas which I think can help to make optimizer in MySQL, MariaDB or Drizzle better.

Make it Plugable Every Major optimizer change causes a lot of pain for some of the users. Even if you improve performance 99 our of 100 queries there are going to be countless users complaining about the change. Due to this problem Optimizer Team was more conservative than I think they could have been. The solution is simple – make optimizer pluggable and make it possible to stick to old optimizer behavior with new MySQL Version.

Make Cost Model Adjustable MySQL Optimizer looks at query plan in terms of disk IOs/Seeks in same way for all data sets. In practice some people have their database 100% in RAM (even for Disk tables such MyISAM or Innodb) others keep database on SSD which has completely different ratio between CPU and IO cost.

Focus on Execution Methods Performance problems can be due to optimizer picking the wrong plan, such as doing full table scan when Index access is better or because MySQL simply does not have execution method to resolve query in optimal way – loose index scan, hash join, sort merge join are all the examples of such. For me it is most important to ensure MySQL has proper ways to execute the query. It may not always pick them right but at least it allows to get query going right manually.

Zero Administration Tunables and Hints Zero Administration is great. I would love to see Optimizer which always choses the fastest plan for the query (not the plan with lowest “cost” but the one which actually gives best performance). I also recognize there are always going to be cases when Optimizer will not pick the right plan. So I would like to see tuning knobs (which relates to cost model and various optimizations) as well as simply hints. Any way MySQL could possibly execute query should be possible to force with hints. In MySQL 4.0 this was the case, in recent versions number of optimizations have been added which can’t be easily forced with hints.

Another benefit of having ways to force any optimizer behavior with hints (rather than by changing the code) is the data Optimizer Team can get back from customers and community – it because very easy for users to show there is the plan which works better and so let the team know which cases are not handled best by the optimizer logic.

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Originally posted by peter from MySQL Performance Blog, on September 20, 2009 7:00 PM

In Diamond and Pearl, Regigigas can be captured in Snowpoint Temple by having Regice, Regirock and Registeel in your party. Now in Platinum it is somewhat reversed. By having the level 100 event Regigigas given away in the US at Toys-R-Us in March 8 to 21, 2009 and this summer throughout Europe and Korea or the Japanese Movie Regigigas in your party you have an opportunity in Platinum to capture the other three Regis in Sinnoh.

The first Regi that you have a chance to catch is Registeel. He is in a room connected to the last area deep in the Iron Ruins on Iron Island. He is at level 30 and has the following moves:<

• Stomp (Normal, Power 65, Acc 100)
• Metal Claw (Steel, STAB, Power 50, Acc 95)
• Curse - Raises Attack and Defense while lowering its Speed
• Superpower (Fighting, Power 120, Acc 100) but lowers Attack and Defense

The next one is Regice who can be found in the Iceberg Ruins at the end of the Mount Coronet caves leading to route 216. He too is at level 30 and has these moves:

• Stomp (Normal, Power 65, Acc 100)
• Icy Wind (Ice, STAB, Power 55, Acc 95) lowers opponent’s speed
• Curse - Raises Attack and Defense while lowering its Speed
• Superpower (Fighting, Power 120, Acc 100) but lowers Attack and Defense

The final one is Regirock who can be found in the Rock Peak Ruins in the Sandstorm area of Route 228. Like the others he is at level 30 and has these moves:

• Stomp (Normal, Power 65, Acc 100)
• Rock Throw (Rock, STAB, Power 50, Acc 90)
• Curse - Raises Attack and Defense while lowering its Speed
• Superpower (Fighting, Power 120, Acc 100) but lowers Attack and Defense

The Regis all have strong defenses and Registeel and Regirock resist False Swipe so it takes a some work to get them down to 1 HP. Bring a False Swiper and a status inducer (Sleep or Paralysis) to help catch them. Don’t bother trying to lower their stats as they all have the ability of Clear Body that prevent opponents from lowering them. I always have a synchronizer in the lead spot and I recommend adding to their strong Special Defense. I suggest Careful for Regirock and Registeel and Calm for Regice. The level 100 Regigigas is too strong to help much in lowering their HP and a Ghost type can resist two of their three attacks. Be careful of the defense lowering effects of Superpower as a physical attack will do more damage than had previously done and if you aren’t using False Swipe you may accidentally faint them. Luckily all these are found in caves so bring your Dusk Balls as they are the most effective.

Once you have gathered all three you can go to Snowpoint Temple and capture your own Regigigas. Only in Platinum instead of facing a level 70 monster, the Regigigas is only level one. As you can imagine, False Swipe is essential but because catching pokémon is affected by percent of depleted HP, lowering it from 13 to 1 does not have the same beneficial effect as it does a level 70 Regigigas that can sport up to 256 in HP. Because of this it is important to bring a status inducer and plenty of Dusk Balls.

Originally posted by Deneves from Poke Farm, on September 20, 2009 6:11 PM

Angel Villalona, a top prospect of the San Francisco Giants, turned himself into authorities this afternoon. He is suspected of murdering a 25-year old man in the Dominican Republic.

The 19-year old Villalona will face a judge on Monday and could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He made headlines as a 16-year old when the Giants awarded him with a 2.1 million dollar bonus for signing.

Unfortunately, while the power has not been a problem, Angel has been progressing slower than expected and ended the 2009 Minor League season injured.

In 254 career Minor League games, Angel has 31 home runs and 144 RBI.

Source: MLB.com

Originally posted by Mario A. from Wax Heaven, on September 20, 2009 6:04 PM

Nice Combo Breaker.

via Jason

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Final Boss Form, on September 20, 2009 2:28 PM

Today’s “On Language” column in The New York Times addresses the rise of the prefix “un” in the time of increased computer use and social networking.

A word unmentioned in the article, but which I’m growing to love, is “unsee“. It’s a strange word, because, as the phrase goes, once you’ve seen something, you can’t unsee it (I think I was introduced to this unfortunate reality when someone showed me tubgirl. Which I will not link to. As I don’t want you to see it, much less vainly try to unsee it.)

A different use of “unsee” comes in China Mieville’s latest novel The City and The City, set in a geography where two cities literally overlap and integrate in space, and residents of one are raised from birth to “unsee” what goes on in the other. It’s a concept that appears bizarre at first, until you realize, as a city-dweller, just how much you unsee of what’s around you (homelessness, squalor, nefarious activity).

Originally posted by peterme from peterme.com, on September 20, 2009 8:15 AM