Henry and Hodgman (via Mike Monteiro)
Henry and Hodgman (via Mike Monteiro)
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November 7, 2009
Paris from the Eiffel Tower
Paris from the Eiffel Tower, originally uploaded by Ben Heine.Incredible photostitch of Paris taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Thank You, New York
Two years ago, I was four months pregnant and covering the women’s race of the ING New York City Marathon. Paula Radcliffe, who’d had her first baby just ten months prior in 2007, won the race and...
Runner?s World contributor Lisa Jhung blogs about the struggles, the joys, and the?um?bladder issues of staying active while pregnant. Follow her here as she strives to keep both her baby and herself healthy over a challenging nine months.
Get Excited And Make Things!
It’s fair to say this post is a little behind-the-times, but I finally want to get round to recording the story behind my “Get Excited & Make Things” image – and also releasing the files, which was always my intention…
I was a little frustrated with myself and the world one day, and went to sit in Hoxton Square to do the Guardian crossword as a remedy.
Flicking through the G2 section I came across a short article about the “Keep Calm & Carry On” WW2 poster phenomenon.
It occurred to me that this was exactly the wrong sentiment for this age – and in fact the stoicism it recommends was been viewed ironically in the main by those who purchased it.
I started sketching on the paper a contrary statement, where stiff upper lip was replaced by a stiff upper arm from soldering…
The royal crown was replaced by one made of spanners (or wrenches, for our yanqui friends) – and Get Excited & Make Things was born.
I posted it to flickr, where to date it has had over 90k views. It got turned into t-shirt of the week by my friends at Howies (and became their fastest selling shirt ever, apparently!) with the proceeds going towards their Do Lectures.
Then, an art print by Jen and friends at 20×200 – with proceeds going to Creative Commons.
Along with that, It got featured in various press articles, and there’s a flickr pool for spottings in the wild.
It’s still available via my mates at Mule Design – with the proceeds going to Smallcanbebig.org.
I only mention it’s success (though gratifying personally, obviously – and I’m very happy that it’s provided some small contributions to good causes) – because it seems that it has resonated with so many people.
And that’s the really amazing thing – that there might be a determination, em-masse – to really get the blood pumping and make our way out of the messes we’ve created.
With that in mind, I’m offering the original files under a CC-non-commercial, attribution licence.
If you want to use the images for commercial means, we can talk of course – about you giving some donation to a good cause in exchange. I say that, as it’s cropped up in a few places being used without prior permission for commercial ends…
So here they are.
Thank you to everyone so far who has bought a shirt, a print – or just printed it out and stuck in up in their work place or college.
Please stay excited, please stay making.
Important Questions: Is Jay-Z's 'Empire State of Mind' the New 'New York, New York'? [Anthems]
There's an entire Sunday Styles item on Jay-Z's nu-New York anthem, which has now been performed at the VMAs, the World Series, City Hall, your son's bris, and everywhere else. Should Hova step off, or should Sinatra step over?
Penned by one Mr. Ben Sisario—whose writing is typically quite wonderful—the song is broken down as such:
...roughly 50 percent rote Jay-Z chest-beating ("I'm the new Sinatra"), 30 percent tourist-friendly travelogue ("Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade") and the rest a glorious Alicia Keys hook.
Which is true! Jay-Z goes from the Bronx to Tribeca and back; most people who live in the West Village like Jay-Z think they get nosebleeds above 14th Street and apply for visas every time they cross the East River. For all intents and purposes, Jay-Z has probably visited more locales in New York than Sinatra ever did, even goddamn Williamsburg. Sinatra was from Hoboken, Hov is from Marcy. And Jay-Z can even get the hardest reservation in New York, a tabled at famed mobster hangout Rao's (as evidenced by his D.O.A. video), something only someone like Sinatra could pull off back in the day. And Sisario makes a great point, noting that when you're Jay-Z, who do you beef with? Where do you go from here?
But there's a more basic explanation for this new rivalry: If you are the king of rap, and you've already topped all the charts, trounced all other M.C.'s, and even run a major record company, what's the next challenge? Where do you go? Answer: You start beefs with pantheon heroes, thus muscling your way into their realm. And it seems to be working pretty well: "The Blueprint 3" has sold 1.2 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and after eight weeks it is still in the Top 10.
Let's be honest: Jay-Z's stature, at this point, is a little absurd. He could've had a fighting chance against Bloomberg if he were on the ballot; he surely would've gotten a more ringing endorsement from this website than Billy Talen, for one thing. But he needs to catch paper, and he needs the mayor in his pocket to do that, and the only rapper trying to start fights with him is Beanie Siegel, who, exactly. So who does Jay-Z beef with? Sinatra. Obviously. But is Jay-Z's anthem as utilitarian as Sinatra's?
"New York, New York" is built around a handful of memorable phrases ("I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps") that resonate with a universality perfect for a baseball stadium. Ms. Keys supplies that ingredient in "Empire State of Mind," singing somewhat trite slogans ("These streets will make you feel brand new") in a huge, rousing voice. Yet like all Jay-Z songs, "Empire" is, in the end, solely about Jay-Z. And while his personality may fill Yankee Stadium more persuasively than any other pop star, would 50,000 fans ever have the timing, or the memory, to recite "Say what-up to Ty-Ty, still sippin' Mai Tais/Sittin' courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high-five"?
For better or worse, I'm willing to bet that there's a significant difference in the number of people who can rattle off four out of five members of the Rat Pick as opposed to the number of people who can tell you what a Ty-Ty is, though both groups of people definitely have no idea why they should care about Joey Bishop.
Then again, rap is crossing over into audiences who'd never listened to it before—primarily, more adults, who were once the kids that grew up on it—and was "New York, New York" ever a song of the people, or was it always a song of rich privilege? Sure, there's a peasant's, hustler's tone to it, and sure, as Sisario makes clear, Sinatra came from the 'hood, too.
Real talk (oh yes): more people have heard "New York, New York." But what Sisario only hints at is that Sinatra's song will only be heard on one kind of radio station. Jay-Z's will be heard on at least three.
Derek Jeter, a person, walks out to Jay-Z's song. The Yankees—the rich, evil organization with an administration even Yankees fans detest—play "New York, New York" when games end. Rap like Jay-Z's is becoming more accessible to more people, while kids and adults alike aren't exactly going to be (and have never been) bumping Sinatra. Some people will call this a shame. Others will call it progress. I call it a win-win situation.
[Photo via Getty Images]
Mark Blankenship: Should We Want Movies Like Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side?
Mark Blankenship: Should We Want Movies Like Sandra Bullock's The Blind Side?:This movie is based on a true story. A rich white family really did adopt Michael Oher, a homeless black teenager, and eventually, he became an NFL star. In the real world, that’s very moving.
In the manipulated world of movie trailers, however, Oher’s story is a disturbing revival of the “benevolent white master” trope.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-blankenship/should-we-want-movies-lik_b_293888.html&cp
Canadian Editors: Freaking The F**k Out, Just Like Their American Counterparts [Blame Canada]
Funny Canadians. Our editors get into knockdown-dragout brawls where they kick the shit out of each other just for bad writing. The Northern version? Your union editing job: outsourced. Take a memo, mark it up, send it to the internet!
Via Torontoist, the story goes like this: the Toronto Star—Canada's largest daily circulation newspaper—is, like every other newspaper, starting to come to terms with how completely doomed it is. So they're going through the company's biggest restructuring in its history, offering buyouts to everyone in the company, and outsourcing both copy editing and pagination work. First of all, is pagination work really that hard? There are people at the New York Observer who write Very Short List, half of Transom, and do Kushner's taxes. Pussy Canadians. Learn from us.
But apparently, it is, or it's hard enough to require outsourcing. Also, they vaguely alluded to this nice gem:
The plans could expand to include editorial content and other production, he added.
So, you know when you call American Airlines and they pick up and they're like AMEERICKAN URLUNES CHALO DEES IZ, URR, BOB, OW CAN YOU BE HALPED PLEEZE? And you're like, Bob, I know you're name isn't Bob, and you're not picking up this call in Austin either, are you? Well, imagine what happens when they start outsourcing your editorial content to the same people who pick up American Airlines' numbers?
Or so was the thought process of a certain Toronto Star editor, who took a memo written by the Star's publisher, John Cruickshank, to the editorial staff, and showed Cruickshank just how much they need their in-house copy-editors by leaking it to Torontoist. Observe:
LEDE!! indeed. If anything, this only serves to remind me how patently annoying copy editors are. Besides, isn't that what #commenters are for? Punctuation Nazis, all of them, imposing their draconian rules on the beautiful words of beautiful writers with flowing hair and long, circumspect...typing fingers. But from a publisher's standpoint, they might, you know, come in handy every once in a while. Like when you're writing a doomsday memo to your staff.
Mackerelville
Photo Source: NYPL
It has come to my attention, via Luc Sante's Low Life, that the area bounded between 11th and 13th Streets and 1st Avenue and Avenue C used to be known as Mackerelville, and was dominated by the Mackerelville Gang and Germans. It was considered the worst and hellish neighborhood in New York during the second half of the 19th Century, filled with cholera, filth, crime and densely packed families. There are many references to Mackerelville during the Civil War era, usually as a shorthand to describe the filthiest scum of the earth. As a key example of this, Robert Penn Warren, in a 1961 article for Life Magazine, used Mackerelville next to the words "gutter rat" to describe how young men from different walks of life came together in the Civil War battlefield.
So, in an effort to reclaim history, I hope all of my faithful readers will now start to call this area by its historical name, Mackerelville, instead of the North East Village, my former nomenclature for this area.
New York Shitty blog found a reference to a Mackerelville in Red Hook, Brooklyn. So there were TWO? I will stick to the Manhattan version. But honestly, in my research, I never came across this reference anywhere else.
A book written in 1886 called "Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations" describes Mackerelville as such:The region which most engrosses the attention of the police is that conspicuously known as "Mackerelville," which for some years past has borne rather an unsavory reputation. While there are many deserving and worthy persons dwelling in the locality,quite a different type of humanity also makes its home there. The neighborhood in question is comprised in Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, and First avenue, and Avenues A, B and C. It harbors a wild gang of lawbreakers, ready and willing to commit any kind of lawless act, in which the chances of escape are many and detection slight. Notwithstanding the decimation of its ranks by frequent and well-deserved trips to the penitentiary of its members, for every crime from murder down, it appears to survive, to the terror of the respectable poor living in the neighborhood and the constant dread of the police officer. It is a locality and a gang much dreaded at night, but not nearly so much now as formerly, for when a member commits a crime of any importance now he is invariably ferreted out, arrested and punished.This same book describes the demise of Mary Maguire, a member of the Mackerelville gang:For the love of one of these little girls, Mary Maguire, a member of the notorious Mackerelville gang met a tragic end, at the hands of a jealous rival in City Hall park, by being stabbed to death. Little Mary was only fourteen years of age. She was afterwards sent to the House of the Good ShepherdIn July 1857 the famous gang, the Dead Rabbits, were supposedly coming to Mackerelville for a riot with the 40 Thieves and Atlantic Blues to start a fight with the Metropolitans. Some were seen crowded around 13th Street and Avenue A and there was word that gang members waited with bricks and stones on the roofs. Read more about this interesting event, and the lack of police presence here. Later that week a Letter to the Editor said that there was no riot at all, and the story was a fabrication.
In December 1858 in a letter to the NY Times, a writer laments the rowdyism in the city, and sites a long and bloody fight at Tompkins Square Park where Mackerelville gangs took over the northeast corner of the park, with no police in sight. Also, a 19 year old Mackerelville thug harassed a 14 year old girl all the way from her school on 10th Street to her Avenue B home.
In July 1864 a "desperate thief," Mackerelville gang member and army deserter was re-arrested after being on the lam after breaking out of jail. He had originally been arrested for robbing a man at the corner of Third Avenue and 8th Street. His arrest was the result of an "exciting chase" along Fourth Avenue, which ended when he ran into an oyster saloon at 12th Street and Broadway.
In August 1865 Mackerelville gang members had a fight in a liquor store at 438 2nd Avenue (near 25th Street and which has had a series of failed restaurants at this location in recent years though I'm not sure what is there now) where a man was stabbed and another had his jaw broken.
In September 1865 John McNamara, a resident of East 11th Street near First Avenue, was arrested for stabbing Michael Doherty three times in the face during a drunken brawl. In that same month, two Mackerelville cart drivers named John Mulligan and John Fagan were arrested for attempted robbery while walking near 275 Avenue A. (Note: this address was near 18th Street, when Avenue A wasn't interrupted by Stuyvesant Town)
Also in September 1865 one young man exposed the ways of the Mackerelville gang, whereby they made friends with employed young men and then coerced them into robbing their employers. The details of this complicated scheme are explained here, and have to do with making wax keys and other nefarious methods of bilkery.
In a book about the Civil War, there is a reference to Mackerelville as one of 60 telegraph lines to General Butler's headquarters, "which was supposed to contain the worst population in New York."
In January 1866 a group of Mackerelville thugs went into a bar at 160 First Avenue, had some beers and refused to pay. One of the thugs, John Dugan of 188 E 11th Street was shot in the arm by the saloon keeper after a fight ensued. The saloon keeper was arrested. You can now live at Mr. Dugan's address for $1575 per month.
In an 1873 reference in the NY Times the 17th Ward is described as "what was once known as Mackerelville" in an article about a police picnic in Excelsior Park near Yonkers for the poorest children of the "overcrowded ward." It is described as densely crowded with each house having 10 to 24 families inside. The picnic gathering place was at the precinct, located at 5th Street and 1st Avenue, at which point the children will be marched to the pier and taken aboard a barge, complete with music from the Governor's Island band.
Another 1873 article wonders what would happen if an earthquake shook up Mackerelville to reveal the countless dead bodies that must be buried beneath.
In an 1881 article about missionaries, Mackerelville was described by a minister as "the nearest place to hell in New York City" and remembers first arriving and being hooted out of town, and in one case having hot water thrown on his head.
In August 1904 a gang of Mackerelville thugs lured a 19 year old Irish girl onto a boat in the East River, robbed and beat her and left her on some rocks to die. According to the report, because she was allegedly drunk at the time of the assault, they locked her up and made no attempt to find the culprits.
That's where the references seem to end, though I am sure more research would reveal a lot of crime ridden history during those years. What is missing from this record is the history of the large German population that lived here, and what they were doing at that time.
Inside Apple's industrial design lab
Shared by Bud
Impressive interview with Apple design chief.A rare visit with the man who designed the iMac, the iPod and the iPhone
Jonathan Ive. From Gary Hustwit's "Objectified."
"I guess it's one of the curses of what you do," says Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president for industrial design, "is that you are constantly looking at something and thinking 'Why why why is it like that? Why is it like that and not like this?'"
Ive's five-minute appearance in Objectified is the centerpiece of Gary Hustwit's 2009 documentary about contemporary industrial design. It's a follow-up to Hustwit's amazing Helvetica (2007), the only full-length film about a typeface. Objectified may not be as surprising or groundbreaking, but it does feature this rare inside look at Apple's (AAPL) secretive design lab, an inner sanctum on the Cupertino campus only slightly less guarded than Fort Knox.
"I remember the first time I saw an Apple product," says Ive as the camera pans across a busy Apple Store. "I remember it so clearly because it was the first time I realized when I saw this product I got a very clear sense of the people who designed it and made it."
Below fold, unless Hustwit has pulled it, a YouTube clip of that video.
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Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really) | Popular Science
via www.popsci.com "With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched" (Thanks, Leah)
McClure's Revive in SF
Revive
an exhibition of new works by Nikki McClureNeedles & Pens
3253 16th Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94103
Friday, November 6, 2009, 6:00 - 9:30 PMOn display will be a collection of original paper cuts from the Olympia-based artist's 2010 Calendar and from her latest children's book, "All In A Day."
"Revive. Embrace. Sew patches onto patches. Extend. Insure. Rely on stones and Mothers. Tell time by crow flight. Always learn and grow. Please. Make enough to spare. Seal summer away. Invite winter. Eat out. Make sauerkraut. Expand your use of tools." - Nikki McClure
Created from a single sheet of paper and an x-acto blade, McClure's highly-detailed works were first popularized through their use on record covers and fanzines of the 1990's Riot Grrrl movement. Today, her iconic, intricately hand-crafted imagery can be seen in magazine illustrations, journals, children's books, apparel, and in her much sought-after yearly calendar. Don't miss out on the opportunity to experience her infrequently shown works in person!
(Revive will be on display through December 8th, 2009)Artist will be in attendance.
Apple Store Carrousel du Louvre opens today
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail
Apple typically opens retail stores in high-end shopping areas, and this one is as high-end as it gets.
Beneath the great glass pyramid that marks the entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris is Carrousel du Louvre, home to shops, a gourmet food court, exhibition space and, as of this Saturday, an Apple Store. This will be the first Apple Store in Paris and in France. Another Apple Store is poised to open in the seaside town of Montpellier next Saturday.
This location has the now iconic glass spiral staircase that's featured in other flagship stores and two levels total. If you can't visit Apple Store Carrousel du Louvre this weekend, check out the photos and coverage from ifoAppleStore as well as these photos on Flickr. C'est Magnifique!
Also notable this week is the new Musee du Louvre app that's available for free from the App Store [iTunes link]. Coincidentally, of course.TUAWApple Store Carrousel du Louvre opens today originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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November 6, 2009
It's not you, it's the feed
For some unknown reason my most recent links post, which is pushed to my blog from delicious.com/werty once a day, won't stop posting. I went so far as to turn off the notification stream this afternoon, but it's still showing up. Apologies to folks whose RSS feeds are choking with my repeats.
I'm not sure how to fix it--suggestions are welcome (@djacobs, hint hint).
Why PHP?
Two good reasons: speed and stupidity.
Aaron Straup-Cope leaves Flickr, joins Stamen Design
one of my favorite geeks joins one of my favorite companies
Langer: “The guys in the office knew I was freaking out...
Langer: “The guys in the office knew I was freaking out about turning thirty, so they got me a birthday cake in hexadecimal to help soften the blow.”
Collectors Still Love Bo Jackson
Are you ready to feel old? It’s been 23 years since Vincent Edward Jackson made his baseball debut with the Kansas City Royals in 1986. It seems almost that long since he played his final game in 1994 with the California Angels.
You’ll never see Bo Jackson inducted into Cooperstown and with stars like Albert Pujols in the game today, it’s easy to forget what Bo accomplished on the baseball field so long ago but thankfully, collectors still remember.
The two-sport star may have only made a small impact on the diamond but despite his short tenure, collectors are still buying up his cards at an alarming rate, especially his certified autographs, which can be found in Topps & Upper Deck products.
Need proof of Bo’s 2009 Hobby dominance? Check out the final price of this 2009 Triple Threads 1/1 featuring a sticker autograph and pieces of game-used memorabilia. Now check out this 2009 Sweet Spot jumbo patch sale.
I don’t know about you but $500 dollars for two cards of a guy who Baseball-Reference compares most to Nick Esasky & Greg Vaughn is pretty damn impressive. Remember, due to his football injury, Bo didn’t even reach 150 career home runs.
As for the card below, it’s a Donruss 20th Anniversary Buyback Autograph #’d to 87 which recently sold for just under $100 dollars. It’s Donruss’ greatest contribution to The Hobby since 1998 Donruss Crusade.
… that’s another blog, however.
Nas' "Illmatic" To Land On Bookshelves, Writers Reflect On Rapper's Debut LP
Grammy-nominated rapper Nas' Illmatic will land in a textual form next month with writer Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai's release of Born To Use Mics, a break-down of the New York emcee's debut album.
[Visit SOHH.com for more information]
Weekend Giveaway: Nudo Olive Tree Adoption
One of the best gifts I've probably ever given a friend was adopting a manatee in her name through the Save the Manatee Club. She received an actual photo of Brutus, her new sea cow bundle of joy, his bio, and a super official certificate. [Ed. note: this was very much inspired by manatee enthusiast Robyn.]
Our weekend giveaway has nothing to do with manatees but it's another neat opportunity to support an adoptive cause. Nudo is a family-run co-operative of olive groves around a small hilltop village in the Marche region of Italy. Through this one-year adoption ($150), you get to follow the progress of your own tree—the olive variety is up to you—and of course get some of the quality olive oil.
The oil deliveries will be spread out over 2010: four 500ml tins of first cold press extra virgin olive oil in the spring and three 250ml tins of infused extra virgin olive oil (like lemon, chile, or orange) in the fall. Not only do you get to douse salads and dunk bread in the tasty stuff but support an Italian family farmer who grew those olives.
To enter to win, just tell us your favorite type of olive. And even if you don't win, the adoption still makes a great holiday gift.
Contest will end and comments will close at 3 p.m. ET, Monday, November 9, 2009. One entry per community member. The standard Serious Eats contest rules apply.
"Empire State of Mind" Jay-Z | Alicia Keys [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
I favorited a YouTube video: Check out the OFFICIAL VIDEO for "Empire State of Mind" Jay-Z | Alicia Keys! Visit www.Jay-Z.com for all Jay-Z News and Updates!
[that is all]
Aaron leaves Flickr: "The good news is that I've accepted a position to frolic around and play with the trouble-makers that are Stamen Design because "it seems like too good an opportunity and one that I would always wonder about if I'd said no". It's not often you get to say something like that twice in a row and in the immortal words of Gibby Haynes: 'It's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done.' That's what I told myself five years ago, anyway."
GameStop Survival Guide
Written by Brian Altano & Brian Miggels
Get in. Get game. Get out.
Battling the hordes of shoppers, holiday seasons, and seasonal influenza we march on through the jungle of commerce towards the ultimate prize: New Game Day. For some of us this day is a rarity and understandably so, with the economy being in the dumper. But what if there was a way — a handy guide, perhaps — to coast through the consumerism and avoid the headaches and hurdles of the holidays? Now there is. So polish your luckiest pair of boots, zip up your over-sized jackets and get ready for the smell of fresh plastic tearing open on a crisp winter day.
Perl far from dead, more popular than you think
In short, Perl is alive and kicking. A new version, Perl 6, is on its way but still under development. Although Perl may never recapture its glory days of the early Web in the ‘90s, it isn’t dying on us anytime soon. It has become the gray-haired distinguished old gentleman next to the young hotheads like Python and PHP. via royal.pingdom.com Thanks, Abe.
The Ghost of Vannevar Bush Hacked My Server
The ghost of Vannevar Bush hacked my server. He appears randomly, rendered as HTML text.
How to ruin your morning in one step: run into the Yankees parade.
How to ruin your morning in one step: run into the Yankees parade.
The Voice of Wallace in 'Wallace and Gromit' Doesn't Like Cheese
Peter Sallis, the voice of the cheese-loving professor Wallace in the British animated series Wallace and Gromit, admitted he actually doesn't care for cheese. "I don't even know if I've ever eaten Wensleydale cheese," he told the Telegraph, referring to his clay-sculpted alter ego's favorite type.
Playing the Building (2008) - David Byrne
(Source for image and video: Creative Time)
Creative Time presents Playing the Building, a 9,000-square-foot, interactive, site-specific installation by renowned artist David Byrne. The artist transforms the interior of the landmark Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan into a massive sound sculpture that all visitors are invited to sit and “play.” The project consists of a retrofitted antique organ, placed in the center of the building's cavernous second-floor gallery, that controls a series of devices attached to its structural features—metal beams, plumbing, electrical conduits, and heating and water pipes. These machines vibrate, strike, and blow across the building’s elements, triggering unique harmonics and producing finely tuned sounds.
-- FROM THE DESCRIPTION FOR CREATIVE TIME'S PRESENTATION OF "PLAYING THE BUILDING" BY DAVID BYRNE
Note: Last year, Justin Downs wrote an article for Rhizome which outlined the design and fabrication of this project. Read it here.
Hunch blogger widget
If you look at the right sidebar on this blog you’ll see a new Hunch widget. It’s meant to be both fun and informative for the blogger and also the readers. via www.cdixon.org Here's mine. Check it out and then view reader results for my blog. document.write(unescape('%3Ciframe id="hunch'+(new Date).getTime()+'" width="298" height="303" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="background-color:#fffee6;" src="http://www.hunch.com/blogger/hello.typepad.com/w/?w=298&h=303&uid=2o892t&d=')+encodeURIComponent(window.location.host)+unescape('" %3E%3C/iframe%3E'));Powered by Hunch.com
The Food Lab: Turkey Brining Basics
It's time for another round of The Food Lab. Got a suggestion for an upcoming topic? Email Kenji here, and he'll do his best to answer your queries in a future post.
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
If my mom's roasting skills are representative of the nation's, then I'll assume we've all experienced dry turkey. I'm not talking the kind that frays around the edges as soon as a carving knife comes close to it or that instantly turns to sawdust when it hits your tongue—I'm talking the kind that is just good enough that you can still smile and say nice things during dinner, but just bad enough that you wonder why the pilgrims couldn't have eaten prime rib during that first fall.
The problem, as we all know, is with overcooking. So first, a quick look at what happens to turkey (and other meats) as it cooks.
- Under 120°F (48.9°C): The meat is still considered raw. Muscle cells are bundled up and aligned in long, straight cable-like fibrils wrapped in a sheath of elastic connective tissues, which is what gives meat it's "grain."
- At 120°F: The protein myosin, begins to coagulate, forcing some liquid out of the muscle cells, which then collects within the protein sheath.
- At 140°F (60°C): The remaining proteins within the muscle cells coagulate, forcing all of the liquid out of the cells, and into the protein sheath. The coagulated proteins turn the meat firm and opaque.
- At 150°F (65.6 °C): The proteins in the sheath itself (mainly collagen) rapidly coagulate and contract. Like squeezing a tube of toothpaste, all the water what was forced out of the cells and has collected within the sheath, is now squeezed out of the meat completely. Congratulations, your turkey is overcooked.
Thanks to all those who pointed out that I should include temperature conversions in the future
Although the government will have you believe that 165°F is the minimum temperature to cook your turkey to, clearly you need your turkey to be within the 140 to 150°F range to ensure juiciness.
Below this range, and the moisture is still locked within the muscle cells. This is why raw meat tastes slippery instead of juicy—your teeth aren't sharp enough to liberate the moisture from inside the cells. Above this range, and the liquid has already gone and found a new home. But even with an accurate thermometer, you run into a problem. It may seem obvious to say it, but roasting cooks meats from the outside in. So at normal roasting temperatures—say 300°F—by the time the center of the bird is at 145°F, the exterior layers of your bird will be much higher, closer to 180 or 190°F. the result is slices that are perfectly moist and tender in the center, but overcooked and dry around the edges.
Enter brining, the process in which a lean cut of meat (like turkey, chicken breast, or pork) is soaked in a salt water solution to help it retain moisture during cooking. Sure, sure—this is nothing new. The Scandinavians and Chinese have been extolling the virtues of brining for millennia, and Cook's Illustrated has for at least a decade. But the thing that is odd to me is that people can't seem to agree on how it works—even the experts.
Brining Basics
Let's start with what it actually accomplishes.
Spoiler Alert: One of these breasts is not like that other. In a few moments, I'm going to throw all three into a 300°F oven, roast them until they are 145°F in the very center, then quickly sear them in a hot skillet until their skin is a beautifully crisp, burnished golden brown. Only one of them will emerge fully tender and moist. The other two will end up dry and stringy around the edges.
For this experiment, I started with three nearly identical fresh, non-kosher (kosher breasts come pre-salted), non-enhanced (turkeys that come injected with a saline solution, I.E. Butterball's and Jenny-O's) turkey breasts (I admit, two were right breasts, and one was left).
One of them I left totally untreated before roasting. The second, I soaked overnight in a 6% solution of salt water (about 1/2 a cup of kosher salt, or 1/4 cup of table salt per quart of water). The third breast was a control that was soaked in pure water, just to ensure that it's actually the salt in the solution that is affecting the quality of the meat.
In order to gauge moisture loss, I weighed each breast at all stages of the process—straight from the butcher, just before roasting, just after emerging from the oven, and just before slicing, making sure to subtract the weight of the fat deposited in the roasting pan from each breast to compensate for any differences in fat loss.
Here's what happened:
The blue line represents the untreated turkey breast, which ends up losing around 24% of its weight in moisture-loss during cooking. The brined turkey, on the other hand, lost only about 15% of its weight, while the water-soaked turkey lost around 20%. Clearly, brining works, and it's specifically the salt in the soak that helps the turkey retain moisture while its cooking.
And the best part? Since a brine works from the outside in, it affects precisely those areas of the turkey breast that are most prone to drying out—the exterior layers.
Let me demonstrate:
This is a macro shot of two slices taken off of the roasted, unbrined turkey breast. Now, don't get me wrong—if someone served this to me at a Thanksgiving meal, I'd be more than happy to eat it. In fact, the very center of the slice is absolutely perfect. But as you can clearly see, it's the last half-centimeter around the edge that starts to dry out.
Now, take a look at this:
These are two slices taken from the brined turkey breast. Even the outermost layers, which rose to temperatures well in excess of 150°F, are still moist and juicy, forming perfectly smooth, even slices.*
*I apologize for the slight blurriness of the focus on the front of the slices—this is a photographer error, and not a poorly executed airbrushing job.
How it Works
So the salt solution is somehow helping the turkey retain more moisture as it cooks. But how?
One common explanation is that it is pure osmosis, the movement of water across a semi-permeable membrane. Cell walls are designed to allow water and small molecules to move in and out of them freely, while preventing larger molecules from entering or leaving—this is how it gets the raw materials it needs to live without losing any of its "guts."
This movement of water and small soluble compounds is controlled by osmotic pressure. Essentially, whenever there is an imbalance of the concentration of solutes across two sides of a permeable membrane, water will pass through the membrane until the concentration is equalized.
So how does this explain brining? Well, unfortunately, it doesn't, and we can prove this without even knowing the concentration of solutes inside the cells to begin with. Let's look at three possible scenarios.
- Scenario 1: There is a higher concentration of solutes within the cells.
In this case, in order to equalize the concentration, water should flow from the brine into the cells. Seems to make sense—except that as we've already seen, soaking in pure water is less effective than soaking in salt water (see graph above). If osmotic pressure was the only thing bringing water into the meat, then a soak in pure water (which creates a higher differential in solute concentration between the interior and exterior of the cells) should force more water into the cells than a soak in salt water.
- Scenario 2: There is an equal concentration of solutes within the cells.
In this case, osmosis does not even enter into it. There may be an exchange of solutes as sodium ions change places with small molecules inside the cells through diffusion, but this should have no effect on the amount of water taken up by the meat
- Scenario 3: There is a lower concentration of solutes within the cells.
In this case, the laws of osmosis state that water would migrate from within the cells to the outside. Your turkey meat should actually dry-out even more if your salt solution is too concentrated.
In a bid to demonstrate that osmosis is not the key factor in brining, I conducted an experiment based on scenario three: I brined a turkey breast in a fully saturated salt water solution (for example, a solution with as much salt as I could possibly dissolve in it)—around 35% salt by weight—and compared it to a turkey breast in a 6% brine solution.
While the fully-saturated-brined turkey on the left had outer layers that were inedibly salty (remember—diffusion), both turkeys lost about the same amount of weight during cooking, indicating that rather than effecting osmosis, the salt must be doing something entirely different.*
The Answer
Turns out that the real answer has to do with the shape of proteins. In their natural state, the muscle cells are tightly bound within their protein sheaths—this doesn't leave much room for excess water to collect in the meat.
But as anyone who has ever made sausages or cured meats knows, salt has a powerful effect on muscles. A 6% solution of salt will effectively denature (read: unravel) the proteins that make up the sheath around the muscle bundles. In this loosened, denatured state, you can now fit more water into those muscles than in their natural state. Even better, the denatured proteins in the sheaths contract far less as they cook, therefore squeezing out much less moisture.
Now, given that most of you food nerds have probably been brining for years, is knowing all this really going to make your turkey taste better this Thanksgiving?
Nope. But at least it gives you something to talk to your relatives about besides gluten formation in laminate pastry pie crusts.
*Disclaimer: I know I'm going to eventually get beat up in the comments section for not mentioning this, so I will say now that yes, osmosis does actually enter into the equation in a minor way: as salt diffuses into the actual muscle cells, they break down some of the cells internal structure, releasing solutes into it. Provided your brine concentration is low enough, this can create a difference in osmotic pressure that will cause some water to actually migrate into the cells themselves instead of just into the protein sheaths surrounding them.
That said, once the turkey is cooked and the liquid is squeezed out from within the cells, it is the moisture trapped in the protein sheaths that gives the sensation of juiciness—not the liquid that was inside the cells before it was even cooked, as is clearly demonstrated by the last experiment using a fully-saturated brine solution.
About the author: After graduating from MIT, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt spent many years as a chef, recipe developer, writer, and editor in Boston. He now lives in New York with his wife, where he runs a private chef business, KA Cuisine, and co-writes the blog GoodEater.org.
But, Basically, Everyone Still Thinks The Guy Is A Dick
“An article in some editions on Wednesday about Michael R. Bloomberg’s narrow victory in the New York mayoral race referred incorrectly to a voter who said Mr. Bloomberg ‘ran a smear campaign against a nonexistent opponent.’ The voter, Stav Brinbaum, is a woman. The article also misstated, in some copies, the age of a second voter, Gerni Oster, who called Mr. Bloomberg ‘egotistical and arrogant,’ and misspelled, in some copies, the given name of a professor who said she voted for Mr. Bloomberg’s Democratic rival. Ms. Oster is 32, not 34; the professor is Kathryn Krase, not Katherine.”
The loot from the recent MacHeist
Filed under: Software, Freeware, Deals
As Kevin pointed out on Wednesday, MacHeist has a new bundle for us at the moment -- but this one is what they consider a "nanoBundle" and it's free. I can't speak for everyone here at TUAW, but when I see the word "free" next to software, I horde it.
They've decided to just give away this bundle of apps in what appears to be a move to encourage their users to come back for more. 6 great mac apps for zero dollars. That's my kind of deal. There are only 6 more days to download this bundle, so go grab it after checking out the loot:
While I was writing this, the download total went up 5,000 downloads but it'll take 500,000 for all of us to get the full benefit. MacHeist says that Mariner Write is the unlockable application, so I'm hoping to get a serial and really try it out. Head over to Macheist, and download your nanoBundle. For the first time, I'll be using all of the apps in it -- and it's free!
- Shove Box -- An awesome reminder, organization, gotta-get-it-done application that sits in your menu bar. You can then drag things like text, URLs, images... possibly anything to the menu bar app and it'll save it for later. When you get some free time, you can go back through and see what you have. There's an iPhone companion app as well.
- WriteRoom -- A simple writing application that removes all of the typical distractions from your writing sessions. It makes the text window full screen, completely cutting off the rest of the world from your mind -- if you so choose. It still has simple tools like word count, background/text color adjustments... but definitely keeps you focused. We've covered it quite a bit.
- Twitterrific -- One of my favorite apps on my iPhone as of late. The desktop version is similarly simple. Set up your Twitter account and tweet away with the easiest solution imaginable.
- TinyGrab -- Is a screen capture maniac's dream. It allows you to use the standard command-shift-4 and select part of your screen or hit spacebar to capture a specific window. The kicker: it uploads it directly to your own FTP server and puts the URL in your clipboard so you can paste it in Facebook, Twitter, email, IM... whatever your pleasure.
- Hordes of Orcs -- I'll admit, this is the real reason I'm downloading the bundle. I've heard nothing but great reviews about this game even from our own Mike Schramm. It's one of the most innovative desktop tower defense games I've seen. Everything is in 3D, there are 6 different game variations and let's not forget tower defense.
- Mariner Write -- This is a word processor with features you need but none of the "bloat" found in other applications *cough* Microsoft *cough.* Of course, it will open and save Word documents, as well as other formats.
TUAWThe loot from the recent MacHeist originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Nation Loses Just 190,000 Jobs in One Month!
Well, we beat the forecast for October: we were only supposed to lose 175,000 jobs last month, and we did 190,000! Which really isn’t very much. 190,000 people is the entire population of Little Rock, Arkansas (which is the 118th largest city in the United States!), or Mobile, Alabama. 190,000 is just slightly more than the entire population of Salt Lake City. Hmm. If every person that was laid off in October were a penny, it would be a stack of pennies almost a thousand feet high—as high as the tallest building in California, the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles. If everyone laid off in October were a page in the King James Bible, that’d be a stack of 624 Bibles, a stack standing 90 feet high. If they were all following you on Twitter, you’d be the 382nd most popular person, right between Richard Branson and John Hodgman. If they—well, you get the point.
Regretsy? I've had a few.
Robin sent this link from Regretsy -- you must click through and read all the comments. I try to stay off Regretsy as there are not enough hours in the day as it is, but if you see anything as miraculously demented as this, please feel free to send me a link.
Of course, when I was looking at it, I thought, "Wow, if they had just hoiked it up a bit so that the flappy eyebrows were the top of the dress, this might actually work." Then I thought "Man, it would be horrible to try to get crumbs out of that skirt." Then I decided I needed more caffeine, and went and got some.
What does this dress make you think you need? Other than a strong drink and a hug from a *live* Muppet? And has anyone cross-referenced this dress with the Muppet Wikia to see what beloved character was trapped and skinned to make this7?
Roger Ebert's Review of The Box
This one begins as traditional science fiction and branches out into radio signals from Mars, nosebleeds, Sartre's theories about free will, amputated toes, NASA, the National Security Agency, wind tunnels, murders, black Town Cars, obnoxious waiters, and a mysterious stranger.If "The Box" featured police corruption or a cameo by Mos Def, it would be a no-brainer. But this still sounds good. Later, Ebert offers: "I'm beginning to wonder whether, in some situations, absurdity might not be a strength." All the time! See: G.I. Joe, Transporter 3, &c.
Hunch blogger widget
If you look at the right sidebar on this blog you’ll see a new Hunch widget. It’s meant to be both fun and informative for the blogger and also the readers.
1. For the blogger, you can learn a lot of interesting things about your readership (for example, here are stats on cdixon.org readers). Soon, we’ll be adding more features for the blogger, such as inferred stats about your readers, derived by cross referencing their answers against our data set of 40M answers.
2. Blog readers get to learn about how they compare to other readers of the blog, and how readers of the blog compare to the larger population. They can also play what we call the “prediction game” where Hunch tries to guess how you’d answer new questions you haven’t answered. In our tests Hunch does a really good job. It’s meant to be fun and also, frankly, a way for us to show off the power of Hunch’s predictive abilities. If you want to try it, first answer 25 questions in the widget and then you’ll be be given the option to play the game or look at how you compare to other cdixon.org readers and Hunch users overall.
If you want to embed this widget on your own blog, go to http://www.hunch.com/blogger/ (you’ll need to have a Hunch account and be logged in).
Any and all feedback welcome!
Bobby Abreu’s RBI streak
Bobby Abreu re-signed with the Angels for 2 years yesterday,which surprised me. He had a nice year for a 35-year-old guy and I thought would have wanted to test the open market. Of course, he did that last year after having a good year and had to wait until just before spring training to get signed. Maybe he was happy to jump at a 2-year contract offer.
Anyway, most people know that he's got a long active streak of 100-RBI seasons. Here are the guys with the most 100-RBI seasons in the last 7 years:
From To Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons +-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+ Alex Rodriguez 2003 2009 27-33 7 Ind. Seasons Albert Pujols 2003 2009 23-29 7 Ind. Seasons Bobby Abreu 2003 2009 29-35 7 Ind. Seasons Mark Teixeira 2004 2009 24-29 6 Ind. Seasons Miguel Cabrera 2004 2009 21-26 6 Ind. Seasons Carlos Lee 2003 2009 27-33 6 Ind. SeasonsOnly Abreu, A-rod, and Phat Albert have 100-RBI seasons each year, although in fairness to Teixeira and Cabrera, they were not active in 2003.
The PI doesn't yet enable us to search for seasonal streaks, although I am hoping that this is coming down the pike. (I can tell you for sure that many significant additions are in fact coming down the pike, as I have seen the beta of the new version...) I don't know how many players have had 7-season 100-RBI streaks, but it's probably been done a fair amount.
Anyway, the last time Abreu didn't have 100 RBI in a season was 2002, but check out his stats that year. He played in 157 games, had 685 plate appearances, batted .308, slugged .521, and had an OPS+ of 151 (a career best.) And yet, he totaled only 85 RBI. Isn't that crazy? If he got 100 RBI that year, he'd have a streak of 9 such seasons going into next year.
Check out the guys over the last 20 seasons to have at least 600 PAs and an OPS+ of 150 or better but not reach 100 RBI:
Cnt Player Year OPS+ RBI PA Age Tm Lg G AB R H 2B 3B HR BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+----+----+---+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Joe Mauer 2009 177 96 606 26 MIN AL 138 523 94 191 30 1 28 76 14 63 2 0 5 13 4 1 .365 .444 .587 1.031 *2D 2 Adrian Gonzalez 2009 163 99 681 27 SDP NL 160 552 90 153 27 2 40 119 22 109 5 1 4 23 1 1 .277 .407 .551 .958 *3/D 3 Todd Helton 2004 165 96 683 30 COL NL 154 547 115 190 49 2 32 127 19 72 3 0 6 12 3 0 .347 .469 .620 1.089 *3 4 J.D. Drew 2004 157 93 645 28 ATL NL 145 518 118 158 28 8 31 118 2 116 5 1 3 7 12 3 .305 .436 .569 1.005 *9/8D 5 Bobby Abreu 2002 151 85 685 28 PHI NL 157 572 102 176 50 6 20 104 9 117 3 0 6 11 31 12 .308 .413 .521 .934 *98 6 Ryan Klesko 2002 152 95 625 31 SDP NL 146 540 90 162 39 1 29 76 11 86 4 1 4 7 6 2 .300 .388 .537 .925 *39/D 7 Brian Giles 2001 150 95 674 30 PIT NL 160 576 116 178 37 7 37 90 14 67 4 0 4 10 13 6 .309 .404 .590 .994 *78 8 Edgar Martinez 1999 152 86 608 36 SEA AL 142 502 86 169 35 1 24 97 6 99 6 0 3 12 7 2 .337 .447 .554 1.001 *D/3 9 John Olerud 1998 163 93 665 29 NYM NL 160 557 91 197 36 4 22 96 11 73 4 1 7 15 2 2 .354 .447 .551 .998 *3 10 Mo Vaughn 1997 152 96 628 29 BOS AL 141 527 91 166 24 0 35 86 17 154 12 0 3 10 2 2 .315 .420 .560 .980 *3/D 11 Barry Larkin 1996 154 89 627 32 CIN NL 152 517 117 154 32 4 33 96 3 52 7 0 7 20 36 10 .298 .410 .567 .977 *6 12 Bobby Bonilla 1995 151 99 614 32 TOT ML 141 554 96 182 37 8 28 54 10 79 2 0 4 22 0 5 .329 .388 .576 .964 5973 13 Andy Van Slyke 1992 151 89 685 31 PIT NL 154 614 103 199 45 12 14 58 4 99 4 0 9 9 12 3 .324 .381 .505 .886 *8 14 John Kruk 1992 150 70 607 31 PHI NL 144 507 86 164 30 4 10 92 8 88 1 0 7 11 3 5 .323 .423 .458 .881 *39/7 15 Will Clark 1992 150 73 601 28 SFG NL 144 513 69 154 40 1 16 73 23 82 4 0 11 5 12 7 .300 .384 .476 .860 *3 16 Rafael Palmeiro 1991 155 88 714 26 TEX AL 159 631 115 203 49 3 26 68 10 72 6 2 7 17 4 3 .322 .389 .532 .921 *3/D 17 George Brett 1990 153 87 607 37 KCR AL 142 544 82 179 45 7 14 56 14 63 0 0 7 18 9 2 .329 .387 .515 .902 *3D/975 18 Fred McGriff 1990 153 88 658 26 TOR AL 153 557 91 167 21 1 35 94 12 108 2 1 4 7 5 3 .300 .400 .530 .930 *3/D 19 Eddie Murray 1990 158 95 645 34 LAD NL 155 558 96 184 22 3 26 82 21 64 1 0 4 19 8 5 .330 .414 .520 .934 *3Most of these guys either had fewer PAs than Abreu's 685 or got a lot closer to 100 RBI.
So why did Abreu fall short of 100 RBI in 2002? The Phillies were an average team that year with a record of 80-81. Abreu batted 3rd almost the entire season except for a stretch where he hit 4th. It would seem that he was in good position to drive in 100 runs.
It seems to me that the key is the guys who were hitting in front of him. Jimmy Rollins hit 1st or 2nd almost the entire year but managed only a .306 OBP, a pathetic value for a leadoff guy and Rollins' worst until this year's abysmal .296 OBP. The guy hitting second was often Doug Glanville, he of the .292 OBP that season.
Check out Abreu's splits for the last 9 seasons batting with runners on base:
I Year G PA AB H 2B 3B HR RBI BA OBP SLG OPS 2001 155 321 251 70 22 0 13 92 .279 .408 .522 .930 2002 145 313 251 81 22 2 7 72 .323 .438 .510 .948 2003 149 325 261 94 19 0 11 92 .360 .465 .559 1.024 2004 145 326 255 85 23 1 13 88 .333 .457 .584 1.041 2005 152 359 285 87 15 0 14 92 .305 .426 .505 .931 2006 145 343 265 94 23 1 13 105 .355 .472 .596 1.068 2007 148 363 313 86 21 4 6 91 .275 .355 .425 .780 2008 144 330 290 92 24 1 13 93 .317 .397 .541 .938 2009 139 332 269 91 19 0 5 93 .338 .437 .465 .901 Career Total 1782 3986 3232 1049 240 19 126 1057 .325 .433 .528 .960
Yeah, it looks like Rollins and Glanville not getting on base too much was the difference. In 2002 Abreu had an average number of games with runners on base (145) but the fewest total plate appearances (313). He also had a low total of homers with runners on base (7) despite having an average year in total number of homers (20, not visible in the chart above.) This was a contributing cause to his low RBI total.In the 8 years above other than 2002, Abreu averaged 93 RBI while hitting with runners on, getting the rest of his RBI each season on solo homers. In 2002, though, he got just 72 RBI with runners on despite having BA, OBP, and SLG just about smack dab on his averages for his entire career in that situation. Had he gotton just his average 93, he would have been over 100 RBI for the year.
November 5, 2009
Six Apart HQ
via www.flickr.com
Cool that Google Maps now displays the building names on their maps. It's kind of odd our HQ is on the street though :)
Notes from the Future: SSD instead of hard drives
I'm writing this on my Mac Pro that feels like a new computer thanks to the SSD (solid state drive) memory that replaced my existing hard drive. A friend of mine used to talk about this idea ten years ago -- that someday RAM and flash memory would get so cheap you'd be able to fit an entire operating system on it, making it magnitudes faster than current computers. Thanks to the past decade of ever cheaper and larger memory sticks, cards, and RAM, we're finally at that moment. SSD drives are now available in sizes big enough for boot drives (including your operating system and space for apps), are available for many laptops & desktops, and start at just a couple hundred bucks.
Today I finished putting a 128Gb Crucial SSD drive in my newer Mac Pro. It was simple and the results are amazing. The hardest part was dealing with a new 128Gb SSD drive compared to my current main 1Tb hard drive. Thankfully I had a spare 1Tb drive to move all the music, movies, downloads, and document files to in order to get the operating system and application files down well below 128Gb in size. Next, I took my new SSD drive out of the package, opened my Mac, slid out hard drives, plugged the drive into a spare optical drive connector, and put it all back. Then I used SuperDuper to clone my now smaller main hard drive to the new drive, set it as the new boot drive, and rebooted. I followed the basic approach outlined in this tutorial (ignore the use of apps describe there) and was done, start to finish in less than 40 minutes (attaching the drive took 5 minutes, data copying took 33 minutes).
Overall, booting up takes about 1/3 as long. Applications launch in a second or two (even the bloated ones). Everything feels amazingly snappy, in the way that replacing a 5+ year old computer with a new one feels. About the only tip I'd give is that 64Gb is probably enough for most people if you can get iPhoto, iTunes, and all your large file storage to a separate drive. My SSD is barely using 25Gb for the entire OS, about 10Gb of applications, and assorted other files sitting on my desktop. I bought a larger drive just to be safe but I'm not sure it was necessary.
Currently, I'd put preparing your computer and installing SSD at the fairly technical nerd level but given that laptops with SSD pre-installed have been available for the past couple years it's only a matter of time before desktop computers start shipping with them. To any of my friends considering this, it's totally worth doing.
UPDATE: Jon Deal wrote me an amazing email last night detailing how to move the home directory to a new location using some command-line mojo and a hidden advanced user account feature I didn't know existed. He put it online last night here. It worked perfectly for me and saves a lot of headaches. I actually could have done this before I installed the SSD and before I shrank down the files/directories on my main drive to fit onto a SSD.
Andrea Rosen vs the pinball machine. At Kettle of Fish, getting...
Andrea Rosen vs the pinball machine.
At Kettle of Fish, getting a quick game in before everyone else arrives.
Someone get Timmy a box of Goodwin, quick!
DAMMIT TIM - DO CARDS, NOT DRUGS
So, yeah. Tim Lincecum got totally busted smoking weed. Anyone surprised at all? Anyone not looking forward to the melodramatic hand wringing that will be on ESPN and every single sports talk station tomorrow? Here I was all geeked up about Hot Stove League and now I'm going to have to listen to a bunch of middle aged white men spluttering on about the children.
Legalize everything, regulate it, TAX it and kick all non-violent hippies on possession charges out of our tax funded prisons and make them get a job or live in momma's basement. Then there will be enough revenue generated to pay for two useless wars (and maybe start another one!), fully fund communist universal public option single payer socialized health care, and have enough left over to bail out another dozen banks who decided to play craps with the housing market. It's all about priorities folks. In this economy ya can't randomly bomb Afghani civilians, set up death panels to kill your Nana, ensure that crooked bank execs get their golden parachutes and throw stoners into PMITA prison all at the same time, something's gotta give.
Oh wait, I'm ranting, aren't I? Sorry 'bout that, I've been listening to Bill Hicks again. Someone seriously needs to straighten out Lincy though. Maybe a veteran on the Giants can take him under his wing. Timmy should stay at Barry Zito's place the rest of the offseason. That guy seems extemely stable and as solidly conservative as they come.
Timmy would've won the Cy Young Award... but he got hiiiiiigh...
(oh wait)
Seriously though, click on this link and read the comments. COMEDY GOLD.
Evolution of a grafitti wall
wow. I say again wow
Bookmark this on Delicious - Saved by stamen to graffiti mov - More about this bookmark
Simon Cozens | I finally get PSGI and Plack!
For the past few months I've been meaning to get around to understanding PSGI and Plack; for various reasons, I guess. First, because it's always good to keep abreast of what's going on in the programming world; second, because they're by Miyagawa, and really, anything by Miyagawa is worth looking into; third, because I've been writing a bunch of different web applications recently and wanted to know what the state of the art was.Great post about PSGI and Plack by Simon Cozens. Must read.
What Space Invaders Really Look Like (T-Shirt) [Fashion]
All these years, we pegged the Space Invaders for grotesque aliens. Really, they're men and women just like us, flying spaceships in a war they neither want nor understand. $18. [Threadless via FashionablyGeek]
Top Swap: Score! Takes 3rd Ward November 21st
By now you've excavated most of your winter wear from the back of your closet and realized that down coat isn't as flattering as you remember, and that reindeer sweater isn't as charming as it looked on the rack at Beacon's Closet. Round up your duds and any other neglected items currently collecting dust at home (you know you're never going to use that salad spinner) and bring them to Score!, New York's roving pop-up swap. Saturday, November 21, they're hosting Scored at Score! an all-day exchange at 3rd Ward with a fashion section curated by Nylon senior editor Nisha Gopalan, a music section curated by Showpaper, DVDs and media finds curated by the Desk Set, and housewares and miscellany curated by Natalie Kamei. Even better? All proceeds raised go to food rescue organization City Harvest. Drop your stuff off when you walk in, pay $3 for a good cause, and get swapping.
Scored at Score! Saturday, November 21. 3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave., 1 p.m. - 7 p.m., $3 entry with RSVP. Donations accepted until 5 p.m.
Five Notable Hitting Projections from the Bill James Handbook 2010
I hold in my hands the first of the big offseason publications: The Bill James Handbook 2010. “Carson,” you might be asking, “how are you holding the book in your hands, plural, and typing at the same time? Isn’t that difficult?” To which I reply: “Sure, it is. But it’s the sort of sacrifice I”m willing to make for the FanGraphs readership.”
I don’t presume to even guess how the reader attacks his baseball annuals. For me, the first thing I do, is I head straight to the projections. I don’t know why exactly, but it probably has to do with two reasons. First, the greatest joy in life is crushing one’s friends in fantasy baseball. I want all the information possible towards achieving this great and noble end. Second, I like finding those projections of a slightly daring nature, so’s to give me something to dream about as the next season gets closer and closer.
Of course, some of the projections aren’t real shockers. Like, James and Co. think Pujols will slash .333/.443/.642 next year with 44 HR in 579 AB. That’s about what you’d think.
Other of them are more surprising — particularly among players who’ve yet to cut their major league teeth.
Below are five such projections (with position, RC/27, and slash stats). I’m including only hitters here for now, and will either pick up the pitchers next week, or never ever.
Joshua Bell, 3B, 6.06, 288/370/455
According to his website, Bell has “enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty” for more than two decades. Apparently, he’s turned his attention to baseball as of late. Bell was acquired by Baltimore from Los Angeles (N) in the George Sherrill trade. He posted a wOBA of .397 in Double-A last year. He’s currently slashing .320/.404/.500 in the Arizona Fall League.Tyler Flowers, C, 6.01, 275/353/476
Flowers got the proverbial cup of coffee with the White Sox at the end of season, netting 20 unspectacular plate appearances. Before that, though, he put up a great year across two levels. In particular, his .302/.445/.548 at Double-A Birmingham was impressive. He remains the heir apparent to A.J. Pierzynski, who enters the final year of his contract in 2010. If James’s projections are accurate, Flowers could be a contributor even before that.Todd Frazier, 2B/3B, 5.51, 278/336/471
Marc Hulet thinks Frazier might ultimately be the Reds’ answer at third base — although probably not till 2011, as Scott Rolen will be there (until he gets injured, that is). In the meantime, Frazier probably has value as a Chone Figgins-y utility player. He hit .290/.350/.481 as a Mudcat in the Double-A Southern League, and his brief time at Triple-A resulted in similar numbers (.302/.362/.476 in 69 PA).Logan Morrison, 1B, 6.26, 269/401/434
Who’s more likely to get injured, Scott Rolen or Nick Johnson? The answer to that question might inform who we see first: Frazier or Florida’s Logan Morrison. The thing that jumps out — about James’s projection and also Morrison’s 2009 season — is the walk rates. Morrison batted .277/.411/.442 this past year at Double-A Jacksonville, posting 63 walks versus only 46 strikeouts in 343 plate appearances.Michael Taylor, COF, 5.89, 285/350/462
Physically speaking, Taylor’s almost the same size as former Pitt basketball standout DeJuan Blair. As such, you probably won’t be suprised to learn that, at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, Taylor has some natural power. But he’s got some other, more interesting features. According to John Sickels, he’s got basically all the baseball tools you want, plus developing plate discipline, plus the sort of intelligence you’d expect from a Stanford guy. (Unless you’re a Berkeley guy, that is, in which case you probably assume he’s a dope.)*** Bonus: Yankee Center Fielders
Question: Who should play center field for the Yankers next year: Melky Cabrera or Brett Gardner?Answer: According to James’s projections, neither. While Cabrera projects at .278/.341/.406 and Gardner at .277/.368/.375 (with an impressive 36-of-44 stolen base record), James has farmhand Austin Jackson at .294/.356/.411.
A Bit of Closure
So from time to time I’d wondered what all the brilliant DHTML hackers that Google had hired were up to. Obviously, building products. Sure. But I knew these guys. They do infrastructure, not just kludges and one-off’s. You don’t build a product like Gmail and have no significant UI infrastructure to show for it.
Today they flung the doors open on Closure and it’s supporting compiler. These tools evolved together, and it shows. Closure code eschews many of the space-saving shortcuts that Dojo code employs because the compiler is so sophisticated that it can shorten nearly all variables, eliminate dead code, and even do type inference (based on JSDoc comments and static analysis).
There’s a ton of great code in Closure, so go give the docs a look and, if you’re into that kind of thing, read the official blog post for a sense of what makes Closure so awesome.
It’s interesting to me how much it feels like a more advanced version of Dojo in many ways. There’s a familiar package system, the widgets are significantly more mature, and Julie and Ojan’s Editor component rocks. The APIs will feel familiar (if verbose) to Dojo users, the class hierarchies seem natural, and Closure even uses Acme, the Dojo CSS selector engine. It’s impressive work and congrats are in order for Arv, Dan, Emil, Atilla, Nick, Julie, Ojan, and everyone else who worked so hard to build such an impressive system and fight to get it Open Source’d.
Dumbo General Store: For years, Dumbo General Store outsourced...
For years, Dumbo General Store outsourced its dinner service to Hecho en Dumbo, a well loved Mexican pop up that is moving on to its own space on the Bowery. Now, the cafe has found a chef of its own, Nashville expat David Conn. He'll debut his soul food menu tomorrow night. [EaterWire]
Flashback: The Beginning of Philly and NYC Baseball
via gothamist.com Superbas inside!
Introducing Closure Tools
Millions of Google users worldwide use JavaScript-intensive applications such as Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Maps. Like developers everywhere, Googlers want great web apps to be easier to create, so we've built many tools to help us develop these (and many other) apps. We're happy to announce the open sourcing of these tools, and proud to make them available to the web development community.
Closure Compiler
Closure Compiler is a JavaScript optimizer that compiles web apps down into compact, high-performance JavaScript code. The compiler removes dead code, then rewrites and minimizes what's left so that it will run fast on browsers' JavaScript engines. The compiler also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about other common JavaScript pitfalls. These checks and optimizations help you write apps that are less buggy and easier to maintain. You can use the compiler with Closure Inspector, a Firebug extension that makes debugging the obfuscated code almost as easy as debugging the human-readable source.
Because JavaScript developers are a diverse bunch, we've set up a number of ways to run the Closure Compiler. We've open-sourced a command-line tool. We've created a web application that accepts your code for compilation through a text box or a RESTful API. We are also offering a Firefox extension that you can use with Page Speed to conveniently see the performance benefits for your web pages.
Closure Library
Closure Library is a broad, well-tested, modular, and cross-browser JavaScript library. Web developers can pull just what they need from a wide set of reusable UI widgets and controls, as well as lower-level utilities for the DOM, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, and much, much more. (Seriously. Check the docs.)
JavaScript lacks a standard class library like the STL or JDK. At Google, Closure Library serves as our "standard JavaScript library" for creating large, complex web applications. It's purposely server-agnostic and intended for use with the Closure Compiler. You can make your project big and complex (with namespacing and type checking), yet small and fast over the wire (with compilation). The Closure Library provides clean utilities for common tasks so that you spend your time writing your app rather than writing utilities and browser abstractions.
Closure Templates
Closure Templates grew out of a desire for web templates that are precompiled to efficient JavaScript. Closure Templates have a simple syntax that is natural for programmers. Unlike traditional templating systems, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface, instead of having to create one big template per page.
Closure Templates are implemented for both JavaScript and Java, so you can use the same templates both on the server and client side.
Closure Compiler, Closure Library, Closure Templates, and Closure Inspector all started as 20% projects and hundreds of Googlers have contributed thousands of patches. Today, each Closure Tool has grown to be a key part of the JavaScript infrastructure behind web apps at Google. That's why we're particularly excited (and humbled) to open source them to encourage and support web development outside Google. We want to hear what you think, but more importantly, we want to see what you make. So have at it and have fun!
By the Closure Tools team
WordPress and rssCloud
Joseph Scott has a post on the main WordPress site that explains that they are now supporting the two enhancements that were announced here on October 16.
What this means: Now any aggregator that wants instant updates of WordPress sites can have it. It was an issue for complex sites like Google Reader, that's why we enhanced our apps, so they could hook into rssCloud and provide instant updates to their users. If you use Google Reader or My Yahoo or Bloglines, tell them you want rssCloud support so you can get instant WordPress updates from sites like CNN, TechCrunch, GigaOm (and of course) Scripting News!
WordPress also fixed a problem that could prevent RSS feeds from reflecting the change immediately. That was a problem because sometimes we'd receive notification that a feed had changed, and then would go read the feed only to find that it hadn't!
Many thanks, once again, to the great people at Automattic.
Corrections
Liz Colville's "Corrections to Other People's Music Writing" series (first installment here) is brilliant.
Here's a snippet from the most recent installment:
Due to an unfamiliarity with HTML, our "Top 2000 Albums of the 2000s" (November 1, 2009) mistakenly listed the albums in alphabetical order by first letter of band name instead of in long-argued-over numerically-ranked order. The resulting flood of comments about the proximity of Jay Reatard's Blood Visions to Joanna Newsom's Ys caused our server to crash, which then erased every document and website containing information about what albums came out between 2000 and 2009 and how we felt about them. We were forced to collectively recall the albums from memory and came up with the following:
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Jay Reatard - Blood Visions
Air - Talkie Walkie
Mariah Carey - Butterfly Was that really 1997? Man, time flies.
Adam Lambert - Y'all Ready For This? (We are not sure of the title of this one but believe we are capturing the tone accurately.)
News: Jon Garland will be a Free Agent
Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times says the Dodgers have declined the option on Jon Garland, thus making him a free agent.
Last off season, Garland signed a one-year, $7.25 million deal with Arizona, who later traded him to the Dodgers.
He was 8–11 with a 4.29 ERA in 27 starts for the D’Backs, but was 3–2 with a 2.72 ERA for the Dodgers, who left him off their NLCS roster.
Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire Now Totally Automated
Regarding the rise of publicist culture, and the death of reporting jobs, comes the news this morning that some time ago the Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire became no longer administered by an actual live person on the phone or in person—but is instead delivered in print form to a celebrity’s representative. Most likely via the tawdry communication form called “email.” This news was revealed in an equally hard-hitting interview of Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter by Matt Lauer this morning, on the occasion of the arrival of a collection of the Questionnaires in book form.
Pollution in China
How bad is the pollution in China? James Fallows reports.
Tags: China James FallowsThe Chinese government does not report, and may not even measure, what other countries consider the most dangerous form of air pollution: PM2.5, the smallest particulate matter, tiny enough to work its way deep into the alveoli. Instead, Chinese reports cover only the grosser PM10 particulates, which are less dangerous but more unsightly, because they make the air dark and turn your handkerchief black if you blow your nose. (Spitting on the street: routine in China. Blowing your nose into a handkerchief: something no cultured person would do.) These unauthorized PM2.5 readings, sent out on a Twitter stream (BeijingAir), show the pollution in Beijing routinely to be in the "Very Unhealthy" or "Hazardous" range, not seen in U.S. cities in decades. I've heard from friends about persistent coughs and blood tests that show traces of heavy metals. "I encourage people with children not to consider extended tours in China," a Western-trained doctor said. "Those little lungs."
Stats: Bill James on David Wright & Jose Reyes in 2010
David Wright hit .307 with just 10 home runs, 72 RBI and a .390 OBP in 144 games for the Mets in 2009.
In the most recent edition of the Bill James Handbook 2010, using an intricate system of statistical analysis, Bill James projects Wright will hit 22 home runs next season, while batting .302, with 99 RBI.
In last year’s book, James projected Wright would hit .311 with 33 HR, while continuing to be one of the top five young players in MLB.
…i still believe wright’s problems in 2009 were deeper than anything we can totally understand… first, to start the season, it seemed Citi Field got in his head a bit, and, despite how it turned out, the ball was going no place in that building during April… then, everyone on his team got hurt, and he wasn’t getting much to hit, he started pressing, changing his swing and it compounded matters for him… then, for the first time in his career, the season got totally out of hand in mid-summer, the team was losing, he got beaned in the head, mocked for his kazoo-like helmet, and before we could blink, it was over…
…next season will be different, because i have five other years to lean on, and so does he… in June of last year, roughly 300 or so at bats in to the season, he was on pace to hit roughly 50 doubles and drive in 100 runs, while hitting over .350 and contending for a batting title… then reyes got hurt, Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran disappeared, and, in what can’t possibly be a coincidence, wright’s power numbers disappeared as well…
…he is the least of my concerns for 2010… he’s too gifted and too smart to let such a bizarre season carry over and get them best of him…
Additionally, James also projects Jose Reyes will return from injury to hit .285 with 57 stolen bases, 14 home runs, 67 RBI and 113 runs created.
…man, i hope so… it looks to me like james essentially took jose’s brief 36 games in 2009 and extended them out over 162 games, which is totally fine by me… i’d take that line from jose… give me those lines from jose and wright, and a full season from Carlos Beltran, pop that in to last year, and i don’t think we’re having many of the conversations we’ve been having…
Lastly, James projects Jeff Francoeur will hit .276 with 18 home runs, 87 RBI and 75 runs created in 588 at bats.
To see 2010 projections from James for Beltran, John Maine, Johan Santana, and other Mets, go to Adam Rubin’s blog for the Daily News.
How Little People Eat Breakfast
In his photograph Builders Breakfast, Dan Jackson shows how really, really, really tiny people might eat a fried egg on toast. This photograph is part of a series called "Little Folk," available as prints in Jackon's Etsy shop. (If the concept looks familiar, you have probably seen Minimiam by Akiko Ida and Pierre Javelle.)
The long drought begins
Only 101 days until pitchers and catchers report.
November 4, 2009
moleskine detour at MoMA store tokyo
inside the MoMA design store in omotesando, a glass tunnel with 50 moleskine notebooks
showcased the imaginations of architects, designers, writers, directors and artists.
visitors were invited to use a pair of white cotton gloves (which were distributed at the entrance)
for closer inspection, of the painting, drawing and doodling of famous architects and designers,
on the empty white pages of a new notebook.
among the notebooks of japanese protagonists were those of architect kengo kuma,
product designer naoto fukasawa, textile designer junichi arai and reiko sudo,
muji creative kenya hara to architect toyo ito, anime director mamoru oshii and film director
naomi kawase.
launched in 2006 in london, the event has since expanded to notebook exhibitions among
native creatives in cities including new york and paris, with tokyo opening last week and berlin
scheduled to launch next month.
moleskine notebooks are made by the iconic italian stationery company famous for its sleek
black hardback creations, inspired by the role of the notebook among legends ranging from
pablo picasso to ernest hemingway.
visitors were wearing gloves , which enabled them to touch the pages of the notebooks showcased in clear boxes
in the center of the MoMA store was a white mesh and perspex rectangular tunnel designed by zetalab
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
image © designboom
the structure blends in with the setting while creating an intimate quiet space inside
image © designboom
for raffaella guidobono, the curator of the 'detour' exhibition, the notebook is the starting
point of something surprising and different in every city where she has staged the show.
'the idea is to present a selection of ingenious uses of moleskine notebooks as well as
the antithesis of what visitors may have thought a notebooks could be.'
for more information visit moleskine
Clif Quench - I Still Don't Like It, But Some Do
A few months ago I gave a rather (to be delicate) negative review of the Clif Quench line of sports drink. I am not the only person to have done so, and it seems I’m not alone in my initial thoughts that “the beverage begins with a fake-fruity taste with a top note of salt and a lingering mouth feel of Elmer’s glue.”
I reprise this prose not to further lambast Clif for their (to me) mind numbingly bad beverage, but because the gold folks at Clif sent me—unreqeusted—the rest of the flavors and asked me to try them again, especially when the beverages were cold and I was hot. Since my first test of Quench came not at the end of a hyper-athletic ride but during a stop to pick up something unnecessary for my bike I thought I’d oblige. If I’m going to say your beverage tastes like glue and you’re going to send me more of it, I shall put on my dedicated journalist hat and give it another go.
My second go was not good. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the only beverage I remember liking less was a salted-yougurt drink I got at a kabob place once, and I’m pretty sure they were trying to teach me a lesson there.
However, because I don’t care a whit for my wife’s health or safety, I offered her a swig. Oddly, she liked it. Now I must point out that she’d spent more than four weeks congested with a cold/flu/plague but she said it wasn’t as sweet or annoying as something like Gatorade.
When recounting this story to the PR folks I was told “there’s no arguing that taste is king and, much like a $100 [cabernet], you either like it or you don’t.”
I suppose that’s true in theory, but I’ve never had a $100 bottle of wine that I wanted to spit out of my mouth.
What’s the moral of the story? Some people like the Quench. I suppose that’s why it’s still on the market. I would however mention again that many people don’t and I’d hope that Clif goes back and tries to find a happy medium where a sports drink isn’t a polarizing affair. With bars I can see someone disliking a particular flavor—some folks just don’t like blueberry or toffee or apple spice—but that’s not the level of judgement I think you should go for with a beverage.
After all, if your choices are dehydration or Quench, and a portion of the population would pick dehydration, a reformulation might be in order.
NY Yankees Win World Series, Raekwon, Joe Budden, LL Cool J & More React
The New York Yankees have won the Major League Baseball World Series and sparked a grouping of Twitter reactions from Raekwon, Joe Budden, LL Cool J and more.
[Visit SOHH.com for more information]
Details on the new(spaper) issue of McSweeney's
The press release for the upcoming newspaper issue of McSweeney's is chock full of images from the paper...it looks great. Pre-order here.
Tags: journalism McSweeneys
‘V’ Is That New TV Crack
There are two types of people in this world, those who cower in the door frames of their homes when the aliens come and those who reach under the floorboard for their trusty Heckler & Koch, grab their Go bags (kept by the front door expressly for this purpose), put on action pants and sprint towards the massive looming spaceship to watch shit get retarded.
Last night ABC aired the premiere episode of the highly-anticipated reboot of the 1983 sci-fi series V and let me tell you, it was AWESOME.
People will likely draw parallels to shows like BSG since the aliens take on human form and can seemingly reincarnate but have that whole “continually habitable zone” agenda where they laugh their asses off at the inelegance of the Drake Equation and cancer but maybe still can’t get around needing water for carbon-based life. Anyway, they look more ID4 inside because when you crack open their bastard foreigner skulls they look like giant squid covered in mucous.
People will stir the drama pot about how they feel about the terrorism angle and the show using 9/11 as an interest nugget but let’s ignore all of the noise and talk about the casting! First of all that one shrewy blonde lady doctor from Lost is in it and Scott Wolf who we’ve missed SO MUCH since Party of Five and who we like to picture hugging Matthew Fox for putting in a good word for him in Working Actor Land.
But we really should talk about the Big Show, the new head alien lady Anna, who is the BEST CASTING EVER because she is SUCH a Monet-with-a-twist in that she’s so pretty from far away but up close she’s not as cute and in fact totally scary. She rapes your face with her face and she does it while SMILING WITH HER EYES and it’s so confusing because she has the perfect pixie haircut of a passionate inner-city grade school teacher and is maybe wearing Armani Collezioni. She looks like a Latina who would speak in a Castillian thexthy accthent and it’s all delicious-creepy and modern in that way that the super obvious appeal of cylon Number Six got tired after a while which then got us looking at Edward James Olmos’s skin in a critical light and how short and whingey Dr. Gaius Baltar was.
Anyway, it’s worth watching because it’s so much fun and, really, what else are you going to do until Friday Night Lights comes back for real?
The Exit Strategy NYC subway app just got a massive upgrade, turning it from a fun novelty to a...
The Exit Strategy NYC subway app just got a massive upgrade, turning it from a fun novelty to a full-fledged subway map. The street maps are amazing — it’s now an entire offline street-level map of Manhattan and some parts of the other boroughs, including address ranges on each block.
It would have finally dethroned iTrans NYC as my frequently recommended subway app of choice, but it still lacks some iTrans features that I love and use frequently: train schedules, service advisories, GPS location detection, and directions.
I wish one of these apps would integrate the features of the other so I could keep my app count down. Until then, they’re both so good that I’ll gladly keep them both installed.
Cooking the Books
The first episode of Cooking the Books is now up on The Awl. Famous authors who would like to star on future episodes should contact us at emilymagazine at gmail. Many thanks to Bennett and Val for making this first episode so all-things-considered good, and to everyone who heroically ate cinnabons.
Behind the Code: Times APIs
NYTimes.com developer Nick Thuesen recently chatted with the Yahoo Developer Network about his work with Times APIs, TimesPeople and more.
i am not a food blogger
But I'm a blogger who likes food. And this week I had three dishes at three restaurants in New York that are worth mentioning.
The filetti pizza at Motorino Pizza in the East Village. People in SF's East Bay (including me!) love to talk about how great the pizza is there (and it is!) but the filetti at Motorino's on Monday night was delicious. (Of course the food geeks at the table told me that the guy that used to be there (Anthony Mangieri -- who appears to be more than a little obsessive about pizza) is coming to San Francisco. Which is good.)
The breakfast potatoes at Markt in the Flatiron district. I had these on my last trip, and had forgotten about them. But when my eggs, potatoes and toast arrived this morning, I remembered. Delicious, with the right amount of peppers and onions layered on top.
The tagliatelle with meat sauce at Il Bastardo, again in the flatiron district. Il Bastardo is one of those places you'd probably walk right by, especially if you're a real food blogger. And the place itself is one of those cavernous places that probably had its back room rented out more often than not in the go go days, and is open until 4 am for the clubbers, but their taglietelle was great. The pasta was perfectly cooked, with a generous helping of just-sweet-enough meat sauce. Paired with an unknown sangiovese, it hit the spot.
There you go! Now I'm a food blogger.
Bald Bears Make Me Uneasy
Shared by Eve
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS MONKEY
Behold Delores, one of the many female bears at a zoo in Leipzig suffering from a baffling and sudden loss of hair. I have nothing to say other than, wow, this photo is extremely disturbing. I feel like I’m seeing something that I shouldn’t. And now, so are you.
Complexity of our times
Seeing this today at XKCD reminded me of Steve Johnson book ‘Everything Bad is Good for You‘ and how we’re coping with more and more intricate narratives, involving multiple characters and distinct timelines… and the reason why that implies a change in the way our brains have been changing and the resulting effects upon society as whole..
(click to enlarge)
Announcing O'Reilly Answers - Clever Hacks. Creative Ideas. Innovative Solutions.
We're launching the beta of O'Reilly Answers, and I'm inviting you to be part of it. In brief, O'Reilly Answers is a community site for sharing knowledge, asking questions, and providing answers that brings together our customers, authors, editors, conference speakers, and Foo (Friends of O'Reilly). O'Reilly is at the center of an amazing exchange of knowledge sharing and idea generation, and we want you to join us in changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.
Texas Tribune launch looks well thought out
Nieman has a really nice post up about the new Texas Tribune site. They tour the features which look like a great combination of news you need now and informational utitliy areas.
Phys Ed: Why Doesn’t Exercise Lead to Weight Loss? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
“If you work out at an easy intensity, you will burn a higher percentage of fat calories” than if you work out a higher intensity, Carey says, so you should draw down some of the padding you’ve accumulated on the hips or elsewhere — if you don’t replace all of the calories afterward. To help those hoping to reduce their body fat, he published formulas in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research last month that detailed the heart rates at which a person could maximize fat burning. “Heart rates of between 105 and 134” beats per minute, Carey said, represent the fat-burning zone. “It’s probably best to work out near the top of that zone,” he says, “so that you burn more calories over all” than at the extremely leisurely lower end.
Perhaps just as important, bear in mind that exercise has benefits beyond weight reduction. In the study of obese people who took up exercise, most became notably healthier, increasing their aerobic capacity, decreasing their blood pressure and resting heart rates, and, the authors write, achieving “an acute exercise-induced increase in positive mood,” leading the authors to conclude that, “significant and meaningful health benefits can be achieved even in the presence of lower than expected exercise-induced weight loss.”
Read: Daniel Murphy, the Team, Fans & Patience
In a post to Ted Quarters, SNY’s Ted Berg offers up thoughts on Daniel Murphy, and how the team and fans need to proceed when thinking of the future.
According to Berg, it’s about patience, and, “The Mets need to take their time assessing Murphy, Murphy needs to take more pitches at the plate, and Mets fans need to stop taking for granted that the team can piece together a winner without making efforts toward sustainability.”
…i know, ted, but it’s just so damn difficult… i see this conundrum in my e-mail every day: on one hand, Mets fans love home-grown talent, and love the idea of murphy, Fernando Martinez, etc., but, on the other hand, they wan to win, and they demand results and success right now, and so it makes everyone restless when trying to be patient… i have to think the team and Omar Minaya feel this same restlessness everyday…
…on one hand, the team knows that to have a sustainable product it needs to groom a guy like murphy, and live through growing pains in pitchers like Mike Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell and others, which will eventually help them reach a balance in performance for the future… but, at the same time, there are seats to fill, ads to sell, there’s a hype-machine that must be energized in an effort to sell season-ticket plans, right now, and everyday, and patience and living through growing pains is not necessarily the best way to meet these short-term goals…
Video: Where Do Whisks Come From?
Have you ever wondered how those wire loops get on a whisk? Or never thought you did but now you do? In this video, the web show CUPS (Cooking Up a Story) goes inside the only U.S. manufacturer of whisks.
"Next to a knife, fork, and spoon, I think it's probably one of the most common tools in a home kitchen," said John Merrifield, who runs the factory with his brother. (I'd like to see him debate that with a spatula manufacturer.) Watch the video, after the jump.
Where Do Whisks Come From?
Related
The History of the Whisk
Spatula Taxonomy
'Spoon,' a Children's Book About a Self-Conscious Spoon
An In-Depth Tribute to Sporks
Quote Of The Day - Jesse Ventura
"You can't put a civil rights issue on the ballot and let the people decide. You have to have elected officials to who have courage to make the right decision. If you left it up to the people, we'd have slavery, depending on how you worded it." - Former Minnesota governor and pro wrestler Jesse Ventura, responding to Maine's vote on CNN last night.
Subscribe to Joe.My.God.
What do kids call Lego pieces?
Giles Turnbull convened a kiddie focus group and asked them what they call all the different Lego pieces.
Every family, it seems, has its own set of words for describing particular Lego pieces. No one uses the official names. "Dad, please could you pass me that Brick 2x2?" No. In our house, it'll always be: "Dad, please could you pass me that four-er?"
Don't miss the chart at the end and the more extensive PDF.
Tags: gilesturnbull language Legos
Keynote Tweet
When I first glanced at this, I thought it took text from Twitter and added it to your presentation slides, which is somehow more interesting. "Enter Keynote Tweet, a simple open-source script that provides the capacity to participate in the backchannel by combining Twitter with Apple Keynote. All you have to do is add text wrapped in [twitter] and [/twitter] tags in the presenter notes section of a slide. When that slide comes up in the presentation the script grabs that text and sends it to Twitter on your behalf."
buy me the old mobile station on berry, please
buy me the old mobile station on berry, please
Introducing the YUI 3 Gallery
Last week at YUICONF 2009, we introduced the YUI 3 Gallery, a new way to contribute to YUI 3. Within a few hours, Greg Hinch had posted the first community contribution to the Gallery. Today, less than a week later, there are 18 modules in the gallery — all of them available for you to use from your
YUI().use()statement.How YUI 3 Gallery Works
When you have a module you’d like to contribute to the YUI 3 community, you can show it off on the gallery at YUILibrary.com. Whether your contribution is open-source or commercial, as long as it’s based on YUI 3, the gallery is open to you. All gallery items have a dedicated discussion forum on YUILibrary.com, all are searchable and discoverable, and all can be voted up or down by the community.
If you’d like to go a step further and have the code for your module hosted on the Yahoo! CDN and fully integrated into the YUI 3 framework, be sure to return a signed Contributor’s License Agreement (CLA) in order to contribute your work to YUI 3 on a formal basis under YUI’s BSD license. Then you can fork the YUI 3 Gallery project on GitHub and issue a pull request directly from your gallery module on YUILibrary.com. That will initiate a review process. Once approved, your module will be rolled up in the next push of the Gallery to the Yahoo! CDN. (On average, this will take place once every two weeks.) After that, your work will be available to any implementer’s
YUI().use()statement without the need to explicitly load the code on each page and without you having to host the files.
When you’re ready to make a contribution, check out Dav’s detailed developer documentation for YUI 3 Gallery. You may also want to check out Dav’s YUICONF 2009 talk, “Contributing to YUI”:
src="http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/ypp/default/player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
flashvars="vid=16429144&autoPlay=0">YUI 3 vs. YUI 3 Gallery
How does the gallery differ from non-gallery YUI 3 code?
- The gallery is more open — YUI’s core team reviews submissions, but the goal is to accept as much as possible.
- Gallery code formally contributed to YUI is pushed on a rolling basis — it’s not tied to the release cycle of the YUI 3 core.
- Gallery modules are the responsibility of the developers who create and contribute them. The YUI core team neither tests nor supports Gallery modules.
Gallery Modules
The following modules have been contributed — some by YUI developers, and many from outside the team:
- Accordion by Iliyan Peychev: Accordion widget for YUI3.
- beforeunload by Adam Moore: Adds
beforeunloadevent support to YUI for A-Grade browsers other than Opera.- chromahash by Jeff Craig: Chromahash is a non-reversable password visualization module
- Form by Greg Hinch: A module for managing form interaction in a page, including client-side validation, server side error processing, and asynchronous form submission.
- History Lite by Ryan Grove: History Lite is similar in purpose to the YUI Browser History module, but with a more flexible API, no initialization or markup requirements, limited IE6/7 support, and a much smaller footprint.
- Idle Timer by Nicholas C. Zakas: The idle timer aims to determine when the user is idle (not interacting with the page) so that you can respond appropriately.
- IO Poller by Eric Ferraiuolo: An extension to the
Y.ioutility to add support for polling a server resource- JSONP by Luke Smith: Adds a
Y.JSONPRequestclass and aY.jsonp(url, callback)method.- Konami event by Luke Smith: Adds a DOM event "konami" that is triggered when the targeted element receives keydown strokes in the Konami code sequence.
- Node Accordion by Caridy Patino: Node Accordion Plugin is a light-weight solution (~3k) for expandable and collapsible elements.
- Node drag events by Luke Smith: node.on(’drag:end’, fn, config, ctx, arg1, …argN)Adds new DOM events for "drag", "drag:start", "drag:end" and all other DD.Drag events. Full list in the docs. config obj takes Drag attributes for configuration plus supports ‘proxy’, ‘constrained’, or any other
Y.Plugin.DDxxx.- Number by Matt Snider: Supplies number manipulation utilities and exposes some of the powerful Math functions directly on the
Y.Numbernamespace. This adds additional functionality to what is provided in Base, and the methods are applied directly to the YUI instance.- Port Base by Dav Glass: This module will aid a developer in porting from a newer YUI2 module to a YUI3 module. It mimics the
YAHOO.util.Elementclass from 2.x.- Simple Editor Port by Dav Glass: This is a non-supported port of SimpleEditor from YUI2.x.
- Textarea Tab Control by Dav Glass: This little module adds the ability to use the tab key inside of a textarea. Currently it doesn’t support Opera and it doesn’t support text-selection tabbing.
- Timepicker by Stephen Woods: This is based on the very slick time picker by Maxime Haineault.
- toRelativeTime by Luke Smith: Adds
Y.toRelativeTime(date)to turn a past Date instance into a relative time string, e.g. "about an hour ago".- Twitter Status display by Luke Smith: Adds Y.Twitter.Status widget for Twitter status updates. Configure how many to display, from what twitter user (public only), and how frequent to poll for updates.
- YQL Module by Dav Glass: This module adds a little sugar to YUI3 to make simple easy YQL queries.
Your Code Here
This is something we’ve wanted to do for awhile. The tightly controlled quality of the YUI core library has been a strength — we expect that strength to continue going forward. But whereas it was difficult to contribute first-class modules to YUI in the past, today it’s simple. Code you write today can be a part of YUI 3, accessed via any implementer’s
usestatement, within a week or two.
Mike Bloomberg’s Crushing Loss
There are many reasons to appreciate Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is now, with just 51% of yesterday’s vote, the fourth mayor to be elected to a third term in New York City since Manhattan sucked up the surrounding cities into boroughs in 1898. He is wonderful source of entertainment, because he is so snippy. He is a terrible dresser, particularly for a billionaire, and therefore is fun to watch. At City Hall, he eats cereal in meetings and when he is done he slurps milk from the bowl. As for the matter of his insane overspending on his most recent campaign to the tune of $100 million or so, it must be noted that in 2007 alone, between his foundation, his company’s charitable giving and his own pocket, he gave $205 million to charity.
And the previous year, he announced commitments, with the Gates Foundation, to distribute $125 million internationally to assist global anti-smoking initiatives. Nearer to home, the streets, plastered as they are with “for rent” and “for sale” signs, are clean-ish; homeless encampments are generally invisible, though homelessness is at an all-time high and 120,000 people entered the shelter system over the last year; and the City pays out far less in settlements for abuse of citizens than they did under the previous administration.
He has made the government both more accountable and more transparent; for just one instance, he has doubled the budget of the City press office since 2002, allowing it to be responsive to inquiry.
It has all been mediocre—largely and mildly—good news. And good news in a very traditional sense of who makes up the City. In the end, Bloomberg was reelected yesterday thanks to rich voters, Catholic voters, white voters, and the right-leaning residents of Staten Island and Queens. He was elected by, in short, yesterday’s City, not tomorrow’s.
And yesterday’s stunning vote by yesterday’s people was not about term limits. Fewer than half of voters polled yesterday said that his reversal on term limits was a factor in their decision to not vote for him. So: more than half said that Bloomberg’s term limits reversal was not a factor in their decision. This speaks of a voting population that objects to Bloomberg on other grounds.
New York City’s official unemployment rate hit a 16-year high in August. Nearly half a million working-age people in the City are officially without work. The majority of the relief for those people has come from federal or state sources. (And even those small emergency state-run initiatives, such as job retraining programs, have only affected the lives of mere hundreds.)
What people were voting against, in one way or another, was about being left behind. It was about financial inequity. What every New Yorker knows is that the City ran amok with the cost of housing, while home prices increased 77% between 2002 and 2007, and while, in 2007, the median household income in New York City was still only $48,631. The skew of the top 1% of earners very nearly did the City in—before the top 1% did itself in.
Bloomberg’s biggest problem with voters, and the reason that he actually very nearly lost yesterday, to a man who could barely run a campaign, is that people believe that the rich side with the rich—and yes, even when the rich also sponsor massive charitable giving. The Bloomberg bad bargaining policies of million-dollar real estate kickbacks for corporate real estate, and the administration’s failure to reach its goals in affordable housing, rankle with the middle class for a reason: these policies create larger inequity each year.
And now, we believe that the goals of the Bloomberg third term are to restore the City to the planned outcome of his first term, before the crash—a place of ever-growing division between rich and poor. His outrageous $100-million-plus campaign only served to reinforce the impression regarding who he really represents.
Today's Pattern Story (and Sale)
"Random Bride," America's favorite faux-relationship reality show, shook the dice once again in its stunning season finale, marrying ALL the contestants to men plucked from a random casting call held earlier this year in the Silver Lake Starbucks.
Contestants had earlier been told that they would be competing for a dream wedding package, including a "mystery groom."
"This way we're ALL winners," declared Claire Deloon, the fan favorite and season-long front runner. "Except for the girls not getting endorsement deals, of course."
"All the brides were so radiant, so toned, so downright obsessive about the details, that we thought it would be a shame not to marry them all off," said Executive Producer Larry Lumpen.
After the multiple-couple ceremony, the newly-married couples celebrated in a reception on the soundstage. Their honeymoons are also being taken jointly, and will be filmed for a future "Random Bride: After the Cake" special. (Airdate TBD.)
Next season, the producers are planning to launch "Random Bride: Ball and Chain," where three lucky women will have the weddings of their dreams ... to men serving life sentences in maximum-security prisons.
[Writing this I can't believe how downright plausible it all sounds ... sanctity of marriage my foot. And yes, I'm looking at you, Maine!]
(Today's pattern is from Wendy at PatternStash -- you can get 15% off just by mentioning "dressaday" in the message to the seller. You can use this code for her patterns at ecrater, too.)
A la peanut butter sandwiches!
Google doodles celebrate events and anniversaries around the world, while reflecting the personality, interests and quirkiness of Google employees. Today, you likely noticed a pair of familiar feet on the Google homepage. Leading up to Sesame Street's 40th anniversary on November 10th, we're excited to be featuring some of our favorite characters over the next seven days. Today: Big Bird!Many Googlers grew up on Sesame Street, watching the colorful, seamless blend of education and entertainment. We're delighted to have partnered with Sesame Street to create this special series of doodles, particularly since we share the same values of education, diversity and accessibility. And here's a fun find from the crew at Sesame; they found a little known video clip of Cookie Monster singing about Google (rhyming it with bugle) way back in 1982 — 16 years before our company even existed.
So, happy 40th anniversary, Sesame Street. For those Sesame lovers out there, be sure to check back as we'll feature a different character each day.
Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience
Tea Leaves (Read'em Here)
Lot of tea leaves to read this morning and we're going to be looking at all of them. The toplines we know. Big GOP wins in VA and NJ. A nice pick up for the Dems in the NY-23 special election and a rebuke to the Tea Party wing of the GOP, though not one they'll necessarily recognize as such. In both gubernatorial contests, but especially in New Jersey, Republicans went to some lengths not to make their race about Obama. A key take-away from last night's result is that the one race where the Republicans consciously sought to nationalize the race was the one they lost. Finally, a very disappointing loss for marriage equality forces in Maine, but an apparent win for a civil unions law in Washington state.
Almost without any notice, Maine and Washington state both had so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiatives on the ballot. And both went down to defeat. That's an important barometer of right-wing, anti-spending, anti-government sentiment that should not be ignored.
But what's your take. I want to hear your take on what happened last night, especially those of you who were watching races that weren't the media-focused high-profile contests in New York, New Jersey, Maine and Virginia.
STUDY: 30% of you are genetically predisposed to drive poorly
Well, this explains everything. Scientists scientifically studied the brains of 29 people. Of those, 22 had normal brains while the other seven had a genetic variant that stops their brain from secreting something called a neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Without the BDNF, new memories aren't formed properly. And people with this gene variant also can't drive.
Those 29 people were placed in cars on a closed-circuit course with lots of difficult turns. Then they repeated the test four days later. Results? Not only did the gene variant-brained people do worse on the first day of testing, they did worse on the second day, too.
And now the kicker - 30% of Americans have this genetic variant. Said the scientist in charge, "I'd be curious to know the genetics of people who get into car crashes. I wonder if the accident rate is higher for drivers with the variant." As it stands now, there is no commercially available test to check for this variant. In other words, be careful out there.
[Source: CNN | Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images]STUDY: 30% of you are genetically predisposed to drive poorly originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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November 3, 2009
A Closer Look at the PS 110 Owls
A few weeks ago, I wrote about PS 110, an elementary school located just south of the Williamsburg Bridge…
…whose roof is lined with a number of really great stone owls (a parliament of owls, to use the correct phrasing!).
I notice the owls every time I cross the Williamsburg Bridge, and I mentioned in the post that I’d love to take a look at them up close. As it happens, the principal of the school saw my post and generously invited me to visit the roof. I took a ton of pictures – the following are my favorites. For anyone who’s ever wondered about the PS 110 owls…Enjoy!
PS 110 also has some great views of the Williamsburg Bridge, and for any production or shoot interested, I’m sure the principal would consider proposals.
Finally, looking back at the three usual vantage points I have of the owls (driving, biking, subway):
-SCOUT
You Could Eat Off the Floors
This Volkswagen factory in Dresden is beautiful. The outside is almost completely glass, the floors are made of hardwood and the parts are transferred by robots that move along thousands of magnets embedded in the ground.
When the production process is a work of art, it makes the end result feel more impressive. Some companies, like Apple, focus on beautiful packaging, but it doesn't say much about the craftsmanship. Unlike the iPod, the Phaeton — the luxury car built at the Transparent Factory — is not an impulse purchase.
Seeing the care put into its creation makes dropping $75,000 (minimum) on a car an easier pill to swallow. More importantly, it makes you believe, or at least hope, that they put the same effort into producing their more affordable cars.
New York’s other big November holiday
During the final week of this month, buck tradition and celebrate Evacuation Day, November 25—a huge holiday in old New York marking the day the last British troops sailed out of the city in 1783.
For most of the Revolutionary War, New York was under British control. Hours after the Red Coats left, a Union flag was yanked down from a flagpole at Battery Park and replaced with the Stars and Stripes. George Washington returned to Manhattan, leading the Continental Army triumphantly down Broadway.
General George W., post-Colonial New York’s first celebrity
Evacuation Day used to be celebrated every November 25 with the raising of the U.S. flag at Battery Park. But once relations with England warmed up during World War I—and a certain other late-November holiday grew in popularity—Evacuation Day slipped into the dustbin of holiday history.
Sword of the Stranger
How long has it been since we’ve seen a really good animated samurai epic? Not a series, but a feature film? Apart from Ninja Scroll (which wasn’t to my taste), the animated Musashi (not yet seen by me) the middling Blade of the Phantom Master and a couple of other things that don’t even come immediately to mind, this is the first such production in ages. I had little doubt from the trailers and stills that it looked good, but it’s heartening to know the creators also gave us a story worth seeing through to the end. It’s not just a demo reel.
Stranger is set in a windy coastal stretch of feudal Japan, where peasants eke out hardscrabble existences by the seaside and wind-blown mountains. If you were a samurai, the best way to advance in the ranks as was to either a) kill as many of the other guys as possible or b) kill your own lord and declare yourself his replacement. It’s no country for old men—or young ones, for that matter. Small wonder the urchin Kotaro and his dog Tobimaru have turned to theft to survive, after the monastery where they were sheltered burned down. One day they find a visitor of sorts in the abandoned temple where they’ve been squatting: a handsome fellow, sporting both a sword—tied shut in its scabbard—and a rather diffident attitude. He’s not interested in robbing the kid; he just wants a roof over his head for a night so he isn’t sleeping in the rain.
The warrior's quarry: a boy who seems to pose no threat at all...Then swordsmen come to kill the boy, and suddenly the Stranger (or “No-Name”, as he’s called in the credits) is jolted into action. He’s a skilled fighter—skilled enough to kill several men without so much as drawing his sword. When Tobimaru is poisoned, Kotaro “hires” him to get the two of them to the next town and find a healer, and the two of them evolve something like grudging respect. The kid’s tenacious and smart, Stranger admits, but he’s reluctant to be more than just his guardian for the length of their trip. That and he has to ask himself: why are hordes of armed men coming after a boy who can’t even so much as pick up a sword?
The answer comes soon enough, in a parallel plotline involving a local samurai daimyo, Akaike, playing host to a whole cadre of mysterious warriors from Ming-dynasty China. The Chinese, along with their ancient warlord leader, Byakuran, have come to Japan to fulfill a prophecy that might well provide immortality, and the Japanese lords are obviously interested in getting a piece of that if they can. No one banks on one of the warriors—the towering, blond-haired and blue-eyed Luo-Lang, who’s never been bested in battle—realizing the prospect of dueling the Stranger is far more interesting than anything else his masters have to offer. Eternal life means little to men who live every day in the shadow of a spectacular death.
... until the “Stranger” gets involved, and finds himself also the target
of a foreign warrior with an even greater battle lust than he once had.Also interesting is a parallel story involving Itadori, the head of Akaike’s army, whose ambitions parallel Luo-Lang’s. He turns out to be even more bloodthirsty than Byakuran expected, which they find out the hard way when Itadori uses a time-honored trick to deprive his enemies of a useful hostage. He kills him, and wastes no time rallying the dead man’s troops right to him. They are only too happy to follow a live man over a dead one. Touches like this—and the intelligent relationship between No-Name and Kotaru, too—round out the film and give it the full-bodied feeling of one of the golden-era samurai epics from the Fifties and Sixties.
I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t admit the swordfighting was the other crucial ingredient in such movies. I’ve noticed that as of late the high-end live-action samurai films have actually become more reserved and realistic in their battle scenes. It’s a reflection of growing awareness of the realism of such battles in general: those fights either ended very quickly or dragged on while one or the other party bled to death from any number of small wounds.
No samurai epic is complete without its battle scenes,
which Stranger has along with a compelling story.Animated productions, by contrast—like Stranger—are now all the more exuberant and unrestrained. There’s several elaborate and spectacular battle sequences scattered through the film, but the final third is all one giant mass combat—Itadori’s men versus Byakuran’s assassins, and Luo-Lang versus No-Name as well as everyone else in sight to boot. Every minute detail is placed with loving attention, even if they only last a split second—from the way the fighters slide across floorboards in the snow to the point-of-view shot we get when No-Name is temporarily blinded by a spray of someone else’s blood. Such brutal moments come often—as when a man’s forearm is almost hacked off but instead of falling away just hangs there, by the thinnest string of flesh, for several nerve-chewing moments.
Stranger comes to us courtesy of the animation house Bones, they of Fullmetal Alchemist, Darker than Black and the Cowboy Bebop feature film. This is the first original animated feature they’ve created that was not based on an existing property—a TV show, a manga. Based on what they came up with, I’d very much like to see them come back to this well again and drink even more deeply. cd.amazon.com=B000ULV3K0 amazon.com=B001W79MB8
Movable Type 5 Documentation
Hey just a quick note that we’ve been updating documentation for MT5. Here’s a list of places to find new documentation:
- MT5 Documentation Index - an index listing all pages which are tagged Updated for MT5, New in MT5, or Bug in MT5
- Recently Updated Documentation
One highlight: Creating themes for MT5 - this was requested by many users. This should get you started. I hope to create a few sample themes and place them in a GitHub repo soon.
The documentation for MT5 is being initially created by the Japanese Movable Type team as they are leading development of MT5. I’m working with a translator to convert to English and then I’m going through each document to clean it up, reformat it, test it, and add more examples. I’ve been notifying the Japanese team whenever I think they should translate documentation back from my version if I’ve changed it significantly.
I’m beginning the process of converting the documentation site to a more topic-based structure rather than the current organization by user-type.
I’m converting many of the pages that list tags from pages in MT to index templates with loops to output pages by folder, tag, etc. This will ensure that these listings are always up-to-date.
As I make little adjustment and improvements to the templates, pages and styles… please let me know if I’ve broke anything or if you have any requests or suggestions.
Next topic to tackle: Installation Guides
What's Your Favorite Sandwich?
In song: "These are a few of my favorite sandwiches." [Photo: Carey Jones]
We've shown you a few of our favorite sandwiches. We've walked you down the best sandwich block in New York. But we haven't heard from you. There's nothing more lovable than a good sandwich, and we're betting you have a few especially close to your heart.
So tell us: what's your very favorite sandwich?
Media Workers Guild Launches Freelancer Unit
Shared by Eve
We can only hope that this unit is as powerful as the unit that protected the interests of full timers! OH WAIT.
The California Media Workers Guild has launched a new Freelance Unit, focused on independent journalists. The unit, which plans to accredit freelancers, advocate for them on legislative issues, and explore the possibility of group medical coverage, is the first freelancers group in the country associated with a local office of The Newspaper Guild.
The move is spurred in large part by deep newsroom cuts which have sent many previously staffers out on their own. "The Guild is working with community groups and other partners to strengthen the safety net and equip writers, photographers, web content providers and graphic artists the supports they need to work independently without sacrificing security," the Guild said in its announcement.
The Guild says the unit is open to any working freelancer. "Our goal is not to exclude anyone based on the type of journalism they practice or the platform they use to publish or broadcast their work," the Guild announcement said. But they added that they will apply rigor to the credentialing process. "We need to separate the dabbler, the dilettante and the publicist from the ranks of freelance working journalists," the announcement said. Longtime freelancer and religion writer Don Lattin will oversee the credentialing process.
For more, see the new Guild Freelancers Web site.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Speciali Competition Winners Announced
After thousands of entries, here at Umbro we can unveil the finalists in our competition to customise the sole on a pair of Specialis. The response we had was amazing, with a fantastic range of designs from different ages and different countries around the world. These are the final 14, chosen from the thousands of different designs by a team of judges which included Umbro designers Stuart Semple and Stewart Scott-Curran, and Esquire’s art director David McKendrick. Initially we planned to have 11 winners, but the points system used by the judges to pick their favourites meant that we ended up with four designs tied in 11th place! via blog.umbro.com
Dressing like a grownup
The first episode of a new web series "about dressing like a grownup" called Put This On is about denim. Denim like a jean. Put This On is hosted by Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America and Adam Lisagor, the web's loneliest sandwich.
Tags: Adam Lisagor fashion jessethorn video
The Annotated White House Flickr Feed, with Ana Marie Cox and Jason Linkins: Barack Obama’s Top-Secret Message To Fox News
Did you know that our President does lots of things each day? The White House staff photographers knew! And here are Air America’s Ana Marie Cox and the Huffington Post’s Eat the Press editor Jason Linkins to explain it to us common people.
ANA MARIE: Let’s start with this basketball picture.
JASON: I encourage Awl readers to enlarge this image, for truly it contains multitudes.
ANA MARIE: In the first place, please note the lack of powerful women at this basketball game.
JASON: Yes. This basketball game is sexist. Party unity my ass.
ANA MARIE: Because at blacktops and basketball courts across the country, what do you see? Men and women playing pick-up basketball with each other.
JASON: A good day of roundball leads so naturally into some light fornication, at the top of the key.
ANA MARIE: Now, direct your attention all the way to the back of the picture. Next to Obama, that’s poor Ken Salazar, without his cowboy hat, made to run the fast break.
JASON: I feel for him.
ANA MARIE: I think his shirt says “Dad!”
JASON: Even still, I feel for him. How can Obama credibly claim to have dismantled the Bush torture regime if he’s making Ken Salazar do this?
ANA MARIE: Tim Geithner, there at midcourt.
JASON: He sort of looks useless.
ANA MARIE: And yet he looks like he could be useful! That’s his curse.
JASON: Also back there is Arne Duncan, who I thought was a baller? He played in Australia though, where there’s trapezoids on the court and they wear hot pants and you have to account for the Coriolis Effect when you run your backdoor cuts.
ANA MARIE: But the star of this picture is, of course, Reggie Love.
JASON: This is what a real athlete looks like. Look at his face! Calm like a bomb. That vertical leap is what scares Glenn Beck the most about the Obama administration.
ANA MARIE: If I could make a related point about Reggie Love?
JASON: Please do.
ANA MARIE: Basically? YUM.
JASON: Ha! Who is that underneath Reggie Love, looking on in terror?
ANA MARIE: That’s Pennsylvania Representative and Iraq War vet Patrick Murphy, who’s spearheading the Congressional effort to end the ban on gays in the military.
JASON: Well, don’t ask and don’t tell anyone about that time he got cold postered by Reggie Love!
ANA MARIE: Obama of course, is just hanging out in the back. Like with health care reform.
JASON: Indeed. Well, Choire, this would probably be a good time to insert your page break.
ANA MARIE: All of you using RSS readers will want to click out now!
“Mon Dieu! Monsieur President, would you mind running your hand back through the dishwasher, this time on ‘pots and pans,’ s’il vous plait.
Pete Souza manages to find the one occasion where the White House Press Corps casts a long shadow.
This is where they make Fox News sit, now.
ANA MARIE: If you enlarge you’ll see the chairs are clearly marked, so no one confuses the black President with the guy from Denmark, named Lars.JASON: “All you world leaders look alike.”
ANA MARIE: Well, they used to! It’s a fair point.
Obama sends his secret message to Fox News.
Our main man Pete Souza has the whole framing gimmick, as we’ve endeavored to explain. But fellow White House photog Chuck Kennedy is working on discovering the most potent and majestic blend of cloud-to-marble architecture ratio possible.
ANA MARIE: America, let’s just be honest. Obama’s just not that into astronomy. Your big clue: he can’t really see through the telescope when the huge floodlight is on. He’s just going through the motions, to satisfy you.
JASON: I think you’re just supposed to be impressed with the fact that he can snap his fingers and get people to scatter these bad-ass telescopes all over the lawn and shit.
Chuck Kennedy captures Deputy Director of Oval Operations Brian Mosteller doing his best imitation of an Obama cardboard cut-out. Years later the memory of this moment would form the basis of his rather intense mid-life crisis.
Okay, Mr. President, why don’t you man up and play some goddamned MURDERBALL!
The President recognizes that he’d come off more impressive if he just played horse.
White House personal secretary Katie Johnson is scandalized after Robert Gibbs tells her the “peanut butter and jam” joke in front of the President.
We both approve of Katie Johnson’s very cool, non-skankboot boot.
Argh. Here’s Pete Souza, framing Obama in the bend of somebody’s elbow. When this White House Flickr shit finally comes to an end, he really has a bright future in the field of porn cinematography.
Oh, crap. Chuck Kennedy is infringing upon both the framing and stalking-Obama-on-the-White-House-grounds trademarks of Pete Souza.
Most people who win the Nobel Prize respond by saying, “Wow, I won a million dollars! Peace out, denizens of the third world!” Ok, not really. But only Barack Obama was ever made to fret about having won.
And only Obama was required to bring in a fleet of speechwriters, computers, and whatever was delivered in that giant FedEx package to help him say, “Thanks for the trinket, Norway,” in a way that wouldn’t seem ungrateful or embarrassing.
“See, this goddamned fucking draft is just not going to cut it! UGH. FUCK A NOBEL COMMITTEE, WITH DYNAMITE!”
New METRIC Social Networking Community: FrontRow!
Shared by sippey
Very excited to have Metric using TypePad Motion!Hello! We have been working on a new METRIC social networking community called FRONTROW which we quietly launched a few weeks ago in the Community section on our website. FRONTROW is taking the place of the old METRIC Forum (which will nevertheless remain active) and is a place where you can...
*join and/or sign in with existing online profile credentials from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo or TypePad
*Quickly post notes, photos, audio clips, videos or links
*Follow what the community is doing
*Follow what METRIC is doing -- including all of their Twitter, YouTube and various blog activity -- all in one place
*Find and friend other METRIC fansThis is all new to us, so your feedback would be very much appreciated. So far FRONTROW has mainly been used by the METRIC form members, but we've been working out some of the kinks and we think it's just about ready for you to give it a try and let us know what you think.
Feel free to ask any questions and we'll answer them as best and as fast as we can. It's THE place where you will receive direct communication from the band, so make it your source for the latest information!
xLanabelle
Type chess set
Linda and John Meyers built this beautiful chess set using typography, a scroll saw and boxes (in the form of a old type-holding tray). It's from Wary Meyers' Tossed & Found, their new book about re-purposing found objects. [via dudecraft]
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zadi: My friend Tricia. wolfing around with 2 chihuahuas (via...
wolfing around with 2 chihuahuas (via Tricia Wang 王圣捷)
photo: adriene hughes
Executive Directive 09-06: Open Data
"This Directive will enhance open government, transparency, and accountability by improving access to City data that adheres to privacy and security policies. Data which often resides in technology systems is unique from information like documents, emails and calendars in that it is structured and can be used by other computer applications for analysis or new uses such as mapping. This Directive establishes a one-stop destination for all approved City data that will help constituents make better use of information."
Harvard to Teach Class on The Wire and Poverty
I never really had a desire to go to Harvard but news that they are now offering a class solely on David Simon’s The Wire means that might have to change. The class, according to African American studies chair Professor Evelyn B. Higginbotham, will use the show to illustrate poverty in America.
From the Harvard Crimson:
“‘The Wire’ has done more to enhance our understanding of the systemic urban inequality that constrains the lives of the poor than any published study” Sociology Professor William J. Wilson said.”
I couldn’t agree more. The Wire was more than smart, entertaining television, it shed light on a world too often kept in the dark, too often ignored by most people. Watching, in detail, the inner workings of city life in Baltimore, from the dealers on the street to the Mayoral candidates, it isn’t hard to see that we have of work to do on all levels to stop violence, support education and make sure we have politicians that are working for us and not for money and lobbyists.
The Wire made sure everyone knew that everything was connected, that everyone is responsible for the world we live in. It also never let you escape from the reality of its characters. One of the most telling moments of the show [SPOILER ALERT] came in Season 5.
For all 4 seasons leading up to the last Omar Little was the guy to root for, a gun toting criminal who only stole from people on the street and only used violence when he had to, he was the ultimate anti-hero and also a role model of sorts for homosexuals in the inner city. Where The Wire really succeeded with Omar was in how he died. Normally on television and in the movies, the characters we love get big endings when they die. With Omar nothing could have been farther from the truth. Omar met his end buying cigarettes. He was shot and then never heard from again on the show becuase the reality is that Omar, while important to you and me, was not important to the larger scheme of Baltimore.
I can’t wait to see what comes out of the Harvard class, it seems like a great opportunity to really delve into poverty and a show that was and remains extremely important. Also, give a watch below to my favorite scene from the show, it of course features Omar.
acnestis
The part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch.
Buzz: Rays close to Trading Iwamura
Mark Topkin of the St. Petersburgh Times believes the Rays are on the verge of trading 2B-3B Akinori Iwamura.
According to Topkin, “The source indicated the deal wasn’t with the Cubs or the Dodgers, as has been speculated on, but to an unexpected team.”
The 30–year-old Iwamura hit .290 with a .355 OBP, one home run, 16 doubles and nine stolen bases in 69 games for the Rays in 2009, while playing second base.
He played in 130 games at third base during 2007.
…i had him on my fantasy team, and watched him a lot… he’s an interesting player… but, he seems best fit for a bench role… a utility-infielder type, since he’s a good all-around hitter, he is very good on defense… he has a big swing, though… you know, that looping, golf-swing on off-speed pitches thrown inside…
Everyday Enterprise 2.0 blog written by human being
This new NewsGator weblog, written by Christy Schoon, may not be of interest to the average ranchero.com reader — it’s about enterprise software, and if you’re reading this you’re probably a Mac or iPhone user or developer. (Not that enterprise software and Macs and iPhones are mutually exclusive.)
But what I like about it is that, even though it’s a company weblog, and it’s about enterprise software, it’s clearly written in a human voice by a human. One post is called Pimp My Site. “My second blog post and I’ve already used the word Pimp. My Mom would be so proud.”
The current most recent post starts out, “Can I act a little dweeby and tell you I’m excited...”
I love this stuff. I’m incredibly proud of my company.
(I only hope the several authors of the TapLynx blog — including me — can do as well.)
With Trick-or-Treating Over, Candy Invades Office Cubicles
Shared by Jake DobkinAbout 600 million pounds of candy are sold during the Halloween season; some of that is now flowing into cubicles around New York City.
sign that your metro section might be overstaffed: reporters forced to write stories about Halloween candy-- AFTER HALLOWEEN
Books have stalled
This is a curious exchange between "book mechanic" Michael Turner and interviewer Brian Joseph Davis. Turner says:
We are living at a time when, for the writer, the book is too little.
And then Davis replies, in part:
[The book] is stalled out, in terms of technology, at 1500 AD, and sociologically at around 1930.
The sociological stalling of the book around 1930...I have no idea what that means. Could someone more steeped in book culture explain what that might mean? (via ettagirl)
Tags: books Brian Joseph Davis interviews Michael Turner
Nightlife: Amy Sacco Still Holding On
The New York Post checks in with Team Amy Sacco as she puts the finishing touches on the pilot for her long awaited reality show. But like most other things in her universe, the fate of the project is completely up in the air. According to the Post, the show tracks Amy as a female entrepreneur seeking success in the male dominated nightlife industry, but Bravo has not picked up the pilot and there is no guarantee that it will ever make it to air. Also, despite her claims that Bungalow 8 is simply closed for renovations, the former Queen of Nightlife has filed zero work permit applications with the Department of Buildings for the space, thus giving the impression that any work is simply cosmetic. Or there is no work at all. Hmmm...No problem according to producer Charlie Corwin, the genius behind shows like the Rachel Zoe project, who is convinced that America will fall in love with the Fallen Queen. Corwin says, "She's definitely a star. I think people will love to watch Amy, and they'll love her for all the same reasons that everybody else does." Right. The show apparently tracks Amy as she tries to open a new venture on 17th Street, which is news to most insiders, none of whom had heard of the project before this morning. Could it just be a fake project meant to impress the Bravo suits? Bananas!
· Queen of Clubs [NYP]
· Amy Sacco: "I Am Not Closing" [~ENY~]
· Bungalow 8 Coverage [~ENY~]
Back to Yankee Stadium for Game 6
The Yankees have the chance to win the World Series at home, which is where I'll be too. I hear Mr. Utley being compared to Mr. Reggie Jackson, which is not what I am doing. What I am doing, besides preparing the pajamas I will wear to watch Game 6, is reminding You good people about all my Yankee Stadium food coverage, which more or less ends (begins) here.
Japanese Beef Fest
Kobe beef. Wagyu. Washugyu. What's the difference? They're all variations on the same theme, that is, Japanese cattle bred for their intensely marbled, delicate beef. Wagyu are cattle raised in Japan, which are named after the regions they hail from, with Kobe beef being the most famous here (but there are other great breeds from Saga, Iwate and elsewhere). Washugyu is the name of Wagyu crossbred with Black Angus to make it hardier and raised here in America (Oregon and Texas, I believe). All these varieties yield meat that is enjoyed fresh and tender rather than dry aged and cured, like with American-style beef.
Now that we understand a little bit about this meat, what do you do with it? That's where Chef Abe of En Japanese Brasserie comes in. He recently cooked a special six-course dinner with Washugyu meat supplied by Japanese Premium Beef (another story here, too). I was working in the kitchen that night, so I snapped some shots of Abe-san and the team in action. What I love about Japanese-style beef is that you treat it like you would sashimi. Rather than wolfing down a huge Washugyu steak, you taste thin slices or cubes of this beef, so you can savor that melting, beautiful marbled richness without being overwhelmed by it. For instance, Abe-san created a tartare, shabu-shabu salad and fantastic short rib sushi, with the delicate meat raw or barely cooked. But he also braised the beef with savory Hatcho miso -- a prefect match -- and lightly deep fried it, katsu-style, Panko breaded and crispy, which added a delightful texture. Delicious. Check out these photos:
What If....?
No not The Watcher on Spiderman and the Fantastic Four, DoubleX is wondering what the world would be like if Hillary Clinton had won. Here's Hanna Rosin:I had a twinge of regret, when I was reading that White House as frat house piece last week. It's not that I think Obama needs to play co-ed basketball, God forbid, or have more people who look like me in his inner circle, as Dee Dee Meyers boringly suggested. Obama seems perfectly familiar and postfeminist just like me and all my friends. It's just that there are laws of nature no amount of bean counting or feminist revival can change. And those include the fact that a pack of boys in the workplace will blithely interrupt their work day to play basketball, or watch soccer, and a pack of girls will routinely watch out for how each one is feeling every day, and that's just how it is. I know that now, because for the first time I work at a women's magazine. It's neither good nor bad, although I like it better, and it would have been surprising and cool to see it play out in the White House.Not a bad impersonation of Uatu.
The "throw more women at the problem" idea struck me as unimaginative, also. There seemed to be something deeper at work. Anyway, that's kind of what I like about this comment. While eschewing, as Hanna says, a kind of "bean-counting" diversity, it points out that putting a women in charge would, almost necessarily, make some things different culturally. I think that's true of Obama--I just don't think you have poetry slams at the White House if Hillary wins.
Natural nuclear reactors
Several naturally occurring nuclear reactors have been discovered in Gabon, Africa. Groundwater flooding deposits of uranium ore made the reaction possible.
The natural nuclear reactor formed when a uranium-rich mineral deposit became inundated with groundwater that acted as a neutron moderator, and a nuclear chain reaction took place. The heat generated from the nuclear fission caused the groundwater to boil away, which slowed or stopped the reaction. After cooling of the mineral deposit, short-lived fission product poisons decayed, the water returned and the reaction started again. These fission reactions were sustained for hundreds of thousands of years, until a chain reaction could no longer be supported. Fission of uranium normally produces five known isotopes of the fission-product gas xenon; all five have been found trapped in the remnants of the natural reactor, in varying concentrations. The concentrations of xenon isotopes, found trapped in mineral formations 2 billion years later, make it possible to calculate the specific time intervals of reactor operation: approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes
Nice try Fermi, but Mother Nature got there first.
BTW, despite reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb (twice!), I can't recall hearing this pair of anecdotes before:
Due to a mistranslation, Soviet reports on Enrico Fermi claimed that his work was performed in a converted "pumpkin field" instead of a "squash court", squash being an offshoot of hard racquets.
When the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was achieved, a coded phone call was made by one of the physicists, Arthur Compton, to James Conant, chairman of the National Defense Research Committee. The conversation was in impromptu code:
Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World.
Conant: How were the natives?
Compton: Very friendly.Pumpkin field, tube alloy, the Italian navigator, the Manhattan Project...the building of the atomic bomb had no shortage of fanciful language.
Update: BLDGBLOG did a post on fossil reactors recently, which is probably where I got the link above in the first place.
Tags: physics science
Video: Mr. Bean Makes a Sandwich
When Mr. Bean wants to eat a sandwich in the park, he doesn't half-ass it; he brings all the ingredients with him and constructs it on the spot (even if that involves washing or killing his ingredients), to the befuddlement of the guy he's sitting next to. Watch the video after the jump.
Mr. Bean Makes a Sandwich
Related
Video: The Butterfield Diet Plan on 'The Peter Serafinowicz Show'
Video: An Ode to the Sandwich
In Videos: Extreme PBJ Sandwich-Making
‘The Ones That Win Are the Ones That Ship’
Mark Pilgrim asks (and answers): Why do we have an IMG element in HTML? So good.
Meat Lite: Black Beans and Rice, My Way
Editor's note: Philadelphia food writers Joy Manning and Tara Mataraza Desmond drop by each week with Meat Lite, which celebrates meat in moderation. Meat Lite was inspired by their book, Almost Meatless.
I love beans, but the perfectly cooked legume has long eluded me. Finally, after years of trial and error, I have struck upon a system that produces the creamy, tender beans my heart desires every time. (Don't you hate it when a chef on a reality show has run out of time and calls his or her undercooked beans "al dente"? Nobody likes them that way!)
I am sharing my bean-cooking tips with you here in my recipe for Black Beans and Rice, My Way, so titled because the dish adheres to no special culinary tradition—it's just heavy on the ingredients I like. But whatever your recipe, here are the cornerstones of the bean-cooking method that works for me:
- Don't soak them; all soaking has ever gotten me is beans that fall apart before they ever get truly tender.
- Cook them with a little meat for major depth of flavor. Ham hocks with their bone and sausages with their fat work especially well.
- When the beans taste pretty much done ("al dente" shall we say—you think to yourself, "these seem cooked. I think they're done."), stir in some salt, put the pot back in the oven, and kill the heat. Let the beans cool completely in the oven before refrigerating them, freezing them, or cooking with them.
This method takes some planning, yes, but less than the soak-overnight method, and the results are nothing short of fantastic. And when you consider the fact that beans are a culinary triple threat—extremely cheap, extremely healthy, and extremely delicious—it's clearly worth the investment of time. Actually, you should cook three times as many beans and store the extra (covered with some cooking liquid) in the freezer for future meals.
Black Beans & Rice, My Way
- serves 4-
Ingredients
1 cup dried black beans (3 cups cooked)
1 two-ounce link chorizo, diced
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 large jalapeños, coarsely chopped
1 poblano chile, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1 tablespoon cumin
1 cup white rice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 lime, juiced
Chopped red onion, for garnish, if desiredProcedure
1. Preheat the oven to 250°F. Place the beans and the chorizo in a Dutch oven over high heat, bring to a rolling boil, cover, and transfer to the oven. How long the beans will take depends a lot upon their age. Taste them after an hour, and every 20 minutes after that. (Yesterday, my beans took about an hour.) When they taste done, put the pot back in the oven, kill the heat, and let them cool.
2. Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquid. Pulse the onion, jalapenos, poblanos, and garlic in a food processor until finely minced. Heat the oil over medium-high in a large sauce pan, and add the minced vegetables, salt, and cumin. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables soften somewhat, about 5 minutes. Add the cooked beans, cilantro, and 2 cups of the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally while you cook the rice.
3. Bring 1 1/2 cups water and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil; add the rice, reduce heat to low, and cook, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes more. Fluff with a fork and then spoon some rice into each bowl.
4. Remove the beans from the heat and stir in the lime juice. Spoon over the rice and top with the chopped red onion and serve.
About the author: Joy Manning is the restaurant critic at Philadelphia Magazine. She blogs at whatiweightoday.com.
Street Food Profiles: Wy'east Pizza, Portland, Oregon
Another installment from my recent pizza tour of parts of the western U.S. Here, a pizza report and a Street Food Profile all in one—from perhaps the best city for street-fooding in the U.S.
Wy'east Pizza
3131 SE 50th Avenue, Portland OR 97206 (SE Tibbets/Kelly, parking lot of Ruthie's Weaving Studio; map); wyeastpizza.com
Pizza Style: Thin-crust, almost New York–Neapolitan
Oven Type: Small propane-fired brick oven
The Skinny: Great pizza FROM A TRAILER. Yes. A trailer. Could use a little more flavor to the crust, but the simple and excellent toppings make up for that a bit. Good crisp-chewy crust. Caveat: Get there early. They run out of dough fast. And, because the oven can only do one pizza at a time, there may be a wait
Hours: Tues.–Sat., 4 to 8 p.m.
Price: $12 to $14 a pie, $1 discount for those arriving by bike or footAfter finishing dinner at Ken's Artisan Pizza, my friends Guddy and Belle pointed us toward a pizza joint that made me lose my s**t. Almost as much for the pizza—which was good but could have used a little more flavor in the crust—as for the digs in which it's made.
Check out that camper above and tell me that that is not one of the coolest street-food vehicles you've seen in a long time. As far as I'm concerned, the New York hipsters rockin' converted mail trucks and quilted-tin carts or the Seattle folks doing it in Airstreams ain't got nothin' on the street-vendin' people of Portland, who seem to have gravitated toward some sort of aesthetic that's more reminiscent of 1970s clandestine weed growers shacking up on federal land than of edibles. Though this might have been one of the nicest corrugated-side Brady Bunch–era campers I saw in Portland, it wasn't the only one. It seems to be the mobile kitchen of choice among the young DIY street-food set in the City of Roses.
But, yeah, anyway, back to the story. We ended up getting to Wy'east Pizza at 7 p.m. on Saturday, an hour before it officially closes. But even with an hour to go, Wy'east was on its last ball of dough. See, husband-and-wife owners Squish and Red only make 22 balls of dough a night, so you have to get there early. We were lucky to have snagged that last dough of the night, but our luck didn't last: Red told us that Squish had had some problems with the propane that fires the oven and on top of that he had been slammed with numerous dinnertime orders.
It would be at least an hour and 15 minutes, Red said. Fine with us, we had to digest our Ken's food, anyway, and Guddy lives a few blocks from Wy'east, so we just went there to hang after putting in an order for a half-Margherita, half-pepperoni pie.
When we finally got our pizza, I was surprised to find it was more a larger, sort of thin-crust New York–style rather than a small Neapolitan-style pie. That surprise was mostly for the fact that the oven in the trailer is REALLY small. In fact, it can only do one pie at a time, which is a factor in some of the hold-up you might experience if you've got people in line in front of you.
Wy'east gets the "pizza upskirt" treatment.
But the crust was crisp-chewy, nicely browned, and the toppings and sauce were top-notch. If the crust would have had just a bit more flavor, I would have been completely blown away by the quality of the pie as opposed to very much impressed. Because, yeah, this is some good pizza coming from a really crazy outlet.
Red and Squish, making the most of a very small working space.
But anyway, I had talked to Squish and Red a bit while we were waiting for our pie, and then I did a follow-up with Squish via email. I'm just going to let the questions do the rest of the work here ...
When did you start selling pizza? And what were you doing before?
We opened the cart on July 1, 2009, so four months now. I worked in a handmade tile factory, and my wife, Red, worked for a nonprofit organization.
Where did you learn to make pizza?
Experiments in dough and pizza-making happened in our home kitchen for 1 1/2 years, during this time I was reading Raymond Calvel and anything by Peter Reinhart. I also got a chance to fill in at Apizza Scholls for a little while and work with the owner, Brian Spangler.
Did you have any pizza role models or style of pizza you were/are shooting for?
I'm interested in affordable, healthy, thin-crust, minimal-topping/maximum-flavor pizza.
I think you said you make the dough by hand? In the trailer? Do you make the dough same day or is there a slow rise?
All dough is made by hand in the Wy'east camper. The preferment starts the night before and goes 12 hours, then the final dough is mixed and ferments for another six, for a total of 18 hours.
The "hole structure" or "crumb" of a Wy'east crust.
Didn't you say you kept it in a Coleman cooler? Is that your proofing box?
We are longtime campers. You gotta have a Coleman cooler! Strict temperature controls happen in the cooler—either ice packs in the summer or hot water bottles in the winter.
You get the pepperoni from Otto's, I know, but what about the cheese and tomatoes?
The cheese comes from Wisconsin (our home state!) and Italy. The tomatoes are hand-selected in California.
Besides your own pizza, of course, what's your favorite pizza in Portland? What about favorite pizza EVER?
Like most things, "the best" is contextual. I like places that feel comfortable and welcoming and play good music. It's hard for me to separate the "pizza" from the environment. We are lucky people and are passionately preserving the time-honored traditions of pizza-baking here in Portland.
Now, the trailer. It's really cool. Did you have a hard time finding it? I noticed a lot of PDX vendors are using those old-school camping trailers. Are they still easy to find? Why use that instead of, say, a dedicated food truck?
Campers like ours are not difficult to find. Converting them to a working kitchen takes time and meticulous planning. The average dedicated food truck costs around $20,000. We got ours for $650. Many of our decisions were based on the fact we were working with a very limited budget. We had to do a lot of research about what the trailer needed to pass health codes, zoning codes, and fire codes. It's important to note that in a food cart situation you can not be hooked up to the sewer. You must aquire your fresh water and dispose of your waste water. We have no heat, (except for an 800 degree oven) or no air-conditioning. This can make dough production quite challenging.
You recently ramped up to 22 doughs a day from 13. First: Why the odd numbers? Why not, say, 14 or 15 doughs or 25 doughs? Second: Do you plan on making more daily doughballs or are you limited by your production method?
The numbers are just what the recipe turns out, and we are slightly odd people. Being open for four hours a night allows us to make 22 pizzas. We think we may have reached our max already without compromising the quality. Our goal is to make it through the dark, rainy season and then brainstorm how we might be able to tweek the business hours a bit in the spring to increase production.
OK. That's all the pizza-specific questions I have for now. Here are ... THE USUAL QUESTIONS ...
Are you on Twitter? If so, how has it affected business?
No Twitter. We have a Facebook page one can access through our website.
Why a mobile business over brick-and-mortar?
Money. We want to see how this works without a huge financial commitment. We believe in "micro-economics."
Who are your typical customers? Any special regulars?
Bicyclists and bipedals receive $1 off each pizza. We offer this discount to discourage automobile dependency and believe it is establishing the neighbors, bikers, walkers, and public transporters as our regulars.
Describe a typical day from start to finish.
My typical day looks like:
- 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.: bike to camper, make dough, prep all toppings, fill propane tanks (oven), fill fresh water tank, empty waste water tank
- 4 to 8pm: make pizza
- 8 to 9:30pm: clean up, inventory, bike home
How would you define "street food"?
Fast, cheap, fresh, unique.
The best street food city and why?
Portland! It's the only one I know.
Your comfort food after a long day?
Beer brewed in Oregon.
Advice for aspiring vendors?
It's a great affordable way of getting started in the food service business.
developing the ambient array
Do you love cities? And architecture? And computers? And vague phrases like "ambient arrays" and "biophysical mesh networks" and "knowable material"? Do you dress primarily in black? Then chances are you could probably use Molly Steenson's new Urban Informatics Speech Title Generator to help you brainstorm your next talk at that great conference where other lovers of biophysical mesh networks will gather.
Favorites of mine:
- Discussing the Playful Map
- Activating the Physical Thing
- Developing the Ambient Array
Buzz: Trading John Maine and Fernando Martinez
In a mailbag Q&A for MLB.com, Mets reporter Marty Noble believes the Mets would need to trade players like John Maine and Fernando Martinez, ‘in a deal to get a No. 2 pitcher or a power hitter.’
Maine was 2–2 with a 4.12 ERA in his final four starts after returning from the disabled list in 2009.
…there has been a lot of online talk about whether the Mets will tender maine a contract next season… i believe he’ll be back… and i hope he is… i don’t know how the contract will shake out, but, from what i can gather, the Mets have no interest in cutting him loose – and they have every intention of keeping him around through at least spring training… they still love his arm, and talk about his effortless delivery… if he can adjust his workouts and stay healthy, they still think he can be a major factor in the rotation… as do i… he’s eligible for arbitration, and will likely get around $2.5 million… he is not able to be a free agent until after the 2011 season… and so, he does make for an interesting trade candidate, so long as it means upgrading the rotation… the thing is, are those four starts in 2009 enough to entice another team…
In a separate response, Noble says, “The Mets have identified their primary need as power and run production, followed by starting pitching and a catcher.”
To read Noble’s take on Dan Warthen, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez, as well as the future of Josh Thole, silly trade requests and the vital need for better grammar in Internet mailbags, click here.
Mark Twain, illuminated
From a 1895 article called Tesla's Osillator and Other Inventions, a photo of Mark Twain with one of Tesla's marvelous contraptions.
Tags: marktwain nikolatesla this is a metaphor for something
How to select your angel investors
I’ve seen a number of situations recently that are something like the following. A VC firm signs a term sheet with an early stage company. Let’s say it’s a $2M round. The VC and entrepreneurs decide to set aside $500K for small investors (individual investors or micro-VCs). Because it’s a “hot” deal, there is way more small investor interest than there is capacity (the round is “oversubscribed”), and the entrepreneur needs to decide which investors are in and which are out.
The most common mistake entrepreneurs make is to base their choice solely on the investors’ “celebrity” value (by “celebrity” I generally mean in the TechCrunch sense, not the People magazine sense). Picking celebrity angels might help you get a little more buzz when you announce the financing and a few SUL tweets, but that’s about it. A startup is a long trip — what you should care about is whether, through the ups and downs and after the buzz dies down, the investors will actually roll up their sleeves and help you.
That isn’t to say that being a celebrity and being helpful are mutually exclusive. Ron Conway is a celebrity (in the startup world) and is one of the hardest working investors I know. But there are other celebrity investors who I’m a co-investor with in a few companies who literally don’t respond to the founder’s emails. And these are successful companies where the founder sends them only occasional emails about really important issues.
The second biggest mistake is picking angels that benefit the lead VC. A lot of times when VCs guide entrepreneurs to certain investors what they are really doing is “horse trading” – they want you to let in so and so, because so and so got them into another deal, or will help them get into future deals.
It’s also smart to pick a varied group of people. If you want a few celebrities to create some buzz, fine. You should also pick some people who are connectors – who can introduce you to key people when you need it (varying connectors by geography and industry can also be helpful). Also very important are active entrepreneurs who can (and will) give you practical advice about hiring, product development, financing etc.
Finally, don’t spend too much time agonizing over this. One particularly silly situation I was involved with was where the CTO had invited me to invest but then the CEO decided he wanted to put me through multiple interviews before he’d let me in. He probably spent a day of his time deciding whether to give me some tiny fraction of the round. Eventually he dinged me because I wasn’t famous, but at that point I was frankly kind of relieved since the CEO seemed to have such a bad sense of how to prioritize his time.
Disclosure: This post is entirely self serving, as I consider myself a non-celebrity but hard working small investor.
Shakira - Did It again (Official Music Video - English TV RIP HQ HD QUALITY)
I favorited a YouTube video: Here is the new video of Shakira - Did It again in very high quality ! first ion youtube !
One-Term President?
Garry Wills
Barack Obama paying his respects as the bodies of eighteen American soldiers killed in Afghanistan were returned to the United States, Dover Air Force Base, October 29, 2009 (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux)I am told by people I respect that Barack Obama cannot pull out of both Iraq and Afghanistan without becoming a one-term president. I think that may be true. The charges from various quarters would be toxic—that he was weak, unpatriotic, sacrificing the sacrifices that have been made, betraying our dead, throwing away all former investments in lives and treasure. All that would indeed be brought against him, and he could have little defense in the quarters where such charges would originate.
These are the arguments that have kept us in losing efforts before. They are the ones that made presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon pass on to their successors in the presidency the draining and self-lacerating Vietnam War. They are the arguments that made President George W. Bush pass on two wars to his successor.
One of the strongest arguments for continued firing up of these wars is that none of these presidents wanted to serve only one term (even Lyndon Johnson, who chose not to run for a second full term). But what justification is there for buying a second presidential term with the lives of hundreds or thousands of young American men and women in the military?
I have great hopes for the Obama presidency, even in his first term, and especially if he could have two terms to realize the exciting new things he aspires to do in the White House. But I would rather see him a one-term president than have him pass on another unwinnable war to the person who will follow him in office.
I know how difficult it will be to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. We go into these places, now, trailing baggage of a deadly sort. There are more hired American contractors in both nations than there are military personnel. What to do with these unaccountable and corrupt bands? We have farmed out so many of our national duties that the contractors, like our banks, have grown too big to be dealt with. Who is to guard our soldiers if not our mercenary bodyguards?
But we had a thousand soldiers wounded in the last three months—a quarter the number of wounded since 2001. These include many lives shattered forever. We sink deeper into blood, with no foreseeable end in sight. Qualified reporters and military officials foresee another ten years in Afghanistan—and their projections usually err on the short side.
The American people now oppose the war, and it is folly to keep up a war without support back home. We will hear predictions of dire consequences if we don’t carry out a commitment, and don’t yield to demands of the military to expand forces. We heard that for years about Vietnam. But when we did withdraw, the consequences were not as fatal as those we incurred during the years that saw the deaths of over 50,000 of our soldiers and many more Vietnamese. Some leader has to break the spell before costs mount further while our wars are passed from president to president. Among other things, this will give our military a needed chance to repair the wear and tear on men and equipment that the overstretched regular services and the National Guard have suffered, and to make them ready for other challenges.
It is unlikely that we will soon have another president with the moral and rhetorical force to talk us out of a foolish commitment that cannot be sustained without shame and defeat. If it costs him his presidency, what other achievement can match it?
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama said he would rather be a one-term president than give up on his goals. Here is a goal no other president we can imagine would have a possibility of reaching. Presidents who just kick the can down the road are easy to come by. Lost lives and limbs are not.
November 2, 2009
hackability
Adam Bosworth has some good advice for would-be standards developers in the form of a 7 item list. It is strangely reassuring to know that someone in the US Federal Government called someone like Adam for advice about standards…even if it was at some inhuman hour. Number 5 really resonated with me:
Always have real implementations that are actually being used as part of [the] design of any standard … And the real implementations should be supportable by a single engineer in a few weeks.
It is interesting because I think it could be argued that #1, #2, #4, #6 and #7 largely fall out from really doing #5.
- Keep the standard as simple and stupid as possible.
- The data being exchanged should be human readable and easy to understand.
- Standards should have precise encodings.
- Put in hysteresis for the unexpected.
- Make the spec itself free, public on the web, and include lots of simple examples on the web site.
That leaves #3 Standards work best when they are focused — which seems to be a really tricky one to get right. Maybe it comes down to being able to say No to the right things, to keep scope creep at bay. Or to be able to say:
Stop It. Just Stop.
to ward off complexity, like Joel Spolsky’s Duct Tape Programmer. But I think #3 is really about being able to say Yes to the right things. The right things are the things that bind together the most people involved in the effort. Maybe it’s the “rough consensus” in the Tao of the IETF:
We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code.
Whatever it is, it seems slippery and subtle — a zen-like appreciation for what is best in people, mixed with being in the right place at the right time.
The Omni Group - OmniDiskSweeper [del.icio.us]
I forgot the best disk space scanner/manager in the biz became totally free recently. Awesome.
'Colbert Report' will sponsor U.S. speedskating squad
The "Colbert Report" will be the primary sponsor for the U.S. speedskating team.
isthebaybridgeopen.com recap
Last Tuesday night, after Caltrans closed the Bay Bridge for repairs, I set up a single serving site: isthebaybridgeopen.com, and then proceeded to pimp it lightly here and on Twitter.
Just because I find this kind of stuff interesting, here's a quick summary of visitor traffic and activity. The data here is from Tuesday night through "now" (or whatever Google Analytics defines as "now"):
- 2,756 visits / 3,285 pageviews
- 45 comments, or 1 comment for every 73 pageviews
- 48 tweets, or 1 tweet for every 68 pageviews
- This was a local story, so the vast majority of the visits were from California
- 45% of visits were direct, 55% were clicks from referring sites
And the top ten referring sites were...
- SFist
- Planet.mozilla.org
- Baybridgeblog.org
- mobile.SFist.com
- oduinn.com
- sippey.com (hey, that's me!)
- bayarearidersforum.com
Obviously this wasn't a huge viral hit. But it was a fun little $15 / 15 minute project. And in case you hadn't heard, the Bay Bridge is now open.
The Famous BusinessWeek Cover Lives on...
If you're only going to do one magazine cover then jump to new media, why not make it a memorable one?
I saw this today on Twitter and it made me so happy. This is some guy dressed as Kevin Rose specifically from my BusinessWeek cover back in 2006-- one of the first national stories on a lot of Web 2.0 companies we now obsess about daily.
When the cover came out, we got a lot of semi-legit criticism over the cover language (which - love it or hate it- did its job and moved 50% more copies than any other issue that year) and a lot of dumb criticism for "inflating another bubble" by saying -- gasp!-- YouTube could be worth $500 million. (Never mind, it was purchased for more than three times that a month later.) We were also told loudly by haters that all these companies would be out of business in a year. Guess what? They're not, I got a book deal from that story that changed my life and now my the whole thing lives on in Halloween costume form. So there.
(From Sean Percival's Flickr stream)
Low Resolution
Add this one to clever makeup-based Halloween costumes.. "Low Resolution"...
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Kate Gets Glam
Jezebel has a couple shots of Kate Hudson from the latest issue of Elle UK, coming out later this week. First, let me just say I barely recognized her, but I don't mean that in an insulting way.
She looks amazing, but not really all that much like the girl spotted night after night watching A-Rod help lead his team to a World Series title (Go Yankees!) or even the way she does in most of her fashion spreads. It's much more model than actress which is rather nice.
For me it's all in the makeup. I love the way her skin is somehow matte, yet glowing, at the same time. And while I usually stick to the most basic of basic black eyeliner applications, I'm definitely going to start practicing this extremely exaggerated cat eye for my next big night out. It's a total face-changer.
What do you think? Do you like the makeup as much as I do?
Kate Hudson - World Series - Elle - Elle UK - Sport
Crucial Plywood: A Tour of Danny Meyer's Maialino, Opening Mid-November
Internet masses, this is Maialino. Maialino, meet the crowd. For the last six months, The Rockwell Group, Danny Meyer's elite power players at Union Square Hospitality Group, and their various minions have been quietly and furiously at work transforming the dark, gauzy Wakiya into the rustic Roman trattoria seen above. It's Sir Meyer's first upscale project since the opening of the Modern, and therefore, this puppy has to perform on all cylinders. Everyone will know more about how she does with the crowds after the public opening—next week or the week after—but first, let's take a sneak peek around.
Bar Maialino: The restaurant is divided into two main spaces, the casual bar room called Bar Maialino and the dining room called the Trattoria. The 55-seat front bar room will serve a separate menu of small plates, snacks, sandwiches, pastries, and the like. Food designed to be consumed with wine, which, by the way, is kept in a glass walk-in cellar right near the entrance. Served lunch and dinner: a porchetta sandwich that chef Nick Anderer is very excited about (it's either the sandwich or the prospect of breaking down a whole pig). Bar Maialino will eventually be open all day. Note that spectacular floor.
Trattoria: The 72-seat Trattoria is the more formal area, serving a full menu of rustic Roman classics and various specials inspired by the Union Square Greenmarket. Expect a great deal of pastas, freshly made for the delicate sauces and dry for the thick, hearty sauces, and desserts that are Roman-inspired but still influenced by New York's tastes and seasons. The menu is pretty much set, but Anderer says that until he sees every dish lined up on the pass and realizes where the holes are, he won't be fully ready.
Here, diners will find tablecloths, but short ones, in the hopes that they'll get the subtle hint that this is nice but not too formal.
"Cucina" & PDR: The spaces are separated by the Cucina (working name), a small walkway with a pastry, coffee, and bread station to the left and a salumi station to the right. It is one of the aspects the Rockwell designer onsite was most excited about and something that seems like it will look genuinely cool once they pull it all off. Finally, in the very back, a carpeted private dining room sits 22 around a ginormous banquet table.
Notes: The space is 90 percent done, but those empty walls will be covered in a slew of paintings, photographs, and collages, most of which were handpicked by Mr. Meyer himself. Almost all of the wood has been reclaimed from old barns in New Jersey. The beams on the ceiling come from a log cabin. Oh, and a vital detail note: the windows that were baffingly covered up by Wakiya will be fully utilized, with Gramercy Park views.
And the scene today? The USHG and Rockwell teams worked on the details, construction crews on the remaining plastering and sawing, while Anderer and his dozen chefs practiced dishes (a pollo diavola needed a sauce tweak, a pastry chef considered elongating her chewy almond cookies). The meat slicer got a trial run, and by 1 p.m. the dining room filled for family meal. If all goes smoothly, the general public will be in those seats next week.
· Sneak Peaking Maialino [~ENY~]
· All Maialino Coverage [~ENY~]
I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General
Sara is old schoolWell, folks, it's really November and there's really still baseball. You know what else I realized today? That I may have made my last trip to Yankee Stadium in 2009. Don't tell me I just jinxed it because if I had that kind of power I assure you I would not have been freezing my toes off surrounded by people wearing garbage bags as foul weather gear during the ALCS.
Anyway, back to the point of this loverly photo by Amanda: notebooks, pens, phones meant for calling people are still relevant! These are the things I brought to my first official Tweet-Up. That's right, I went to a social event organized on and because of Twitter. Who was there? Some entertaining and not dumb people you should be so lucky to have around you during the World Series. I'm talking about Larry Yankeeist Koestler, Ben RiverAveBlues Kabak, Rebecca PuristBleedsPinstripes Glass, Amanda ubersocialnetworker Rykoff, Stefanie whyareathletesblockingme, Mark wealmosthadaconversation Schwartz, and Emma that'swhyroundtablesarebetterforlargegroups Span.
Amanda has many other Tweeps too (yes I just used that word). She's popular and good at digital things. Me? I'm just happy to drink cheap beer, eat chicken sandwiches and greasy waffle fries, and wonder how peanuts grow. I'm simple. You know.
So, going forward, I'll refer you to one of these guys for straight up game talk, and you can come to me when you need to know where to get whatever it is you want to eat. That reminds me, ScoreboardGourmet is undergoing another upgrade. It's should be spectacular. Stay tuned.
My Ricky Gervais Problem
Although his personal prejudices and cultural bugaboos are occasionally too much to take—and, well, whose aren’t? God knows I tire of my own frequently enough—I am on the whole a big fan of Independent columnist Howard Jacobson, who happened to write what may be my favorite novel from the previous decade. Anyway, his column this weekend did an excellent job of expressing a discomfort with a popular figure that I had been thus far unable to put into words.
No great comedian is ever amused by himself. Billy Connolly could have been a great comedian had he not taken to collapsing hysterically during his own routines. The seal on David Brent’s prattishness was his laughing at his own jokes. Then it turned out that Ricky Gervais, who created him, laughs at his own jokes too. Self-satisfaction is an unpardonable crime in a comedian because his role is to remind us that nothing is satisfactory. Hence the necessity of keeping a straight face. It affirms the seriousness of his calling. Which is to make people laugh, not because life is funny but because it isn’t.
He also makes the excellent point that “Curb Your Enthusiasm has suddenly become unfunny because Larry David is trying too hard to be obnoxious.”
Joss Whedon Wants To Buy Terminator - Someone Make This Happen [Terminator]
The Terminator franchise is up for sale, as its current owners try to survive bankruptcy by selling off their most valuable asset, and guess who wants to buy it? Dollhouse's Joss Whedon. Well, kind of.
Whedon's open letter to Halcyon proves just why this man should be given the keys to the cyborg car:
An Open Letter to the Terminator Owners. From a Very Important Hollywood Mogul
Dear Sirs/Ma'ams,
I am Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind Titan A.E., Parenthood (not the movie) (or the new series) (or the one where 'hood' was capitalized 'cause it was a pun), and myriad other legendary tales. I have heard through the 'grapevine' that the Terminator franchise is for sale, and I am prepared to make a pre-emptive bid RIGHT NOW to wrap this dealio up. This is not a joke, this is not a scam, this is not available on TV. I will write a check TODAY for $10,000, and viola! Terminator off your hands.
No, you didn't miscount. That's four — FOUR! — zeroes after that one. That's to show you I mean business. And I mean show business. Nikki Finke says the Terminator concept is played. Well, here's what I have to say to Nikki Finke: you are a fine journalist and please don't ever notice me. The Terminator story is as formative and important in our culture — and my pretend play — as any I can think of. It's far from over. And before you Terminator-Owners (I have trouble remembering names) rush to cash that sweet cheque, let me give you a taste of what I could do with that franchise:
1) Terminator... of the Rings! Yeah, what if he time-travelled TOO far... back to when there was dragons and wizards? (I think it was the Dark Ages.) Hasta La Vista, Boramir! Cool, huh? "Now you gonna be Gandalf the Red!" RRRRIP! But then he totally helps, because he's a cyborg and he doesn't give a s#&% about the ring — it has no power over him! And he can carry it AND Frodo AND Sam AND f@%& up some orcs while he's doing it. This stuff just comes to me. I mean it. (I will also offer $10,000 for the Lord of the Rings franchise).
2) More Glau. Hey. There's a reason they're called "Summer" movies.
3) Can you say... musical? Well don't. Even I know that's an awful idea.
4) Christian Bale's John Connor will get a throat lozenge. This will also help his Batwork (ten grand for that franchise too, btw.)
5) More porn. John Connor never told Kyle Reese this, but his main objective in going to the past was to get some. What if there's a lot of future-babies that have to be made? Cue wah-wah pedal guitar — and dollar signs!
6) The movies will stop getting less cool.
Okay. There's more — this brain don't quit! (though it has occasionally been fired) — but I think you get my drift. I really believe the Terminator franchise has only begun to plumb the depths of questioning the human condition during awesome stunts, and I'd like to shepherd it through the next phase. The money is there, but more importantly, the heart is there. But more importantly, money. Think about it. End this bloody bidding war before it begins, and put the Terminator in the hands of someone who watched the first one more than any other movie in college, including "Song of Norway" (no current franchise offer).
Sincerely, Joss Whedon.
For this, Joss is forgiven all of Dollhouse.
(According to the Financial Times, real parties interested in Terminator include Sony, Twilight studio Summit Entertainment, and Media Rights Captial, the people behind Bruno. The rights will be auctioned later this month.)
An Open Letter to the Terminator Owners [Whedonesque] (Link updated, thanks all.)
Which @20x200 size is just right for you?
Shared by Jake Dobkin
i've always thought this was one of the best web infographics i've ever seen!Which @20x200 size is just right for you?
An Open Letter to the Terminator Owners.
http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/rights-to-terminator-franchise-for-sale/
From a Very Important Hollywood Mogul
Dear Sirs/Ma'ams,
I am Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind Titan A.E., Parenthood (not the movie) (or the new series) (or the one where 'hood' was capitalized 'cause it was a pun), and myriad other legendary tales. I have heard through the 'grapevine' that the Terminator franchise is for sale, and I am prepared to make a pre-emptive bid RIGHT NOW to wrap this dealio up. This is not a joke, this is not a scam, this is not available on TV. I will write a check TODAY for $10,000, and viola! Terminator off your hands.
No, you didn't miscount. That's four -- FOUR! -- zeroes after that one. That's to show you I mean business. And I mean show business. Nikki Finke says the Terminator concept is played. Well, here's what I have to say to Nikki Finke: you are a fine journalist and please don't ever notice me. The Terminator story is as formative and important in our culture -- and my pretend play -- as any I can think of. It's far from over. And before you Terminator-Owners (I have trouble remembering names) rush to cash that sweet cheque, let me give you a taste of what I could do with that franchise:
1) Terminator... of the Rings! Yeah, what if he time-travelled TOO far... back to when there was dragons and wizards? (I think it was the Dark Ages.) Hasta La Vista, Boramir! Cool, huh? "Now you gonna be Gandalf the Red!" RRRRIP! But then he totally helps, because he's a cyborg and he doesn't give a s#&% about the ring -- it has no power over him! And he can carry it AND Frodo AND Sam AND f@%& up some orcs while he's doing it. This stuff just comes to me. I mean it. (I will also offer $10,000 for the Lord of the Rings franchise).
2) More Glau. Hey. There's a reason they're called "Summer" movies.
3) Can you say... musical? Well don't. Even I know that's an awful idea.
4) Christian Bale's John Connor will get a throat lozenge. This will also help his Batwork (ten grand for that franchise too, btw.)
5) More porn. John Connor never told Kyle Reese this, but his main objective in going to the past was to get some. What if there's a lot of future-babies that have to be made? Cue wah-wah pedal guitar -- and dollar signs!
6) The movies will stop getting less cool.
Okay. There's more -- this brain don't quit! (though it has occasionally been fired) -- but I think you get my drift. I really believe the Terminator franchise has only begun to plumb the depths of questioning the human condition during awesome stunts, and I'd like to shepherd it through the next phase. The money is there, but more importantly, the heart is there. But more importantly, money. Think about it. End this bloody bidding war before it begins, and put the Terminator in the hands of someone who watched the first one more than any other movie in college, including "Song of Norway" (no current franchise offer). Sincerely, Joss Whedon.
What Your Beer Says About You
When you reach for a Heineken do you realize you're a self-assured poser who feels really exceptional but actually lacks self-esteem? Whereas those chugging back the Budweiser are sensible, grounded, and practical. According to Ad Age, beer choices can be like a Myers-Briggs test, providing insight about personality types.
Craft-beer drinkers are more likely to spend time thinking about beer rather than work. They are more open-minded than most people, seek out interesting and varied experiences and are intellectually curious. Craft-beer drinkers also skew as having a lower sense of responsibility—they don't stress about missed deadlines and tend to be happy-go-lucky about life.
Apparently craft beer nerds are also 52% more likely to be fans of The Office. Sure there are some vast generalizations here but the beer-as-window-to-the-soul study is pretty entertaining.
Related
Can Pumpkin Beer Be Serious Beer?
Serious Beer Tasting: Belgian Dubbels
Serious Beer Tasting: American Brown Ales
The Coolest Thing From the Edo Period You’ll Ever See
Remember how we so kindly informed you that you must go see the ‘Art of the Samurai’ exhibition at the Met, because it is the best show on earth, and because we are so helpful? Now I have proof!
The Met sent this image from the show over, and, YES, RIGHT? You see what I am saying. SOMEONE ONCE WORE THIS ON HIS HEAD and was like, “FEAR ME.” Our modern times should be so lucky.
Black-lacquered kabuto (helmet) with the arm of a guardian deity wielding a Vajra
Edo period, 17th century
Iron, lacquer, wood, and papier-mâché
H. of outer bowl, 43.5 cm (17⅛ in.)
Yasukuni-jinja Shrine, Tokyo
Poems About Onion Bagels
One guy has decided to write 365 poems about onion bagels in 365 days. Here's one example called "the day the vampires finally got me."
couldn't find my silver necklace (the one with garlic bagels on it)
so i wore the gold one with onion bagels instead
Hopefully he's also considering another site devoted to rhymes about chewing mint gum. [via The Presurfer]
Related
A Poem: Fast Food Smell
Spoof of 'The Raven,' About a Jug of Milk
Haiku Lunchbox
Mario Babies
Hallowe'en is a rich seam of cute kids and cute pumpkin carvings, and here's a gem. Ready to squee?
November 1, 2009
The Meaning of Information Technology
"Everything has become a giant fucking heap. The modern world is profoundly inhumane. Mankind is incapable of reasoning about the heaping constructs of mass culture using the technes of intimacy that are an hundred thousand years old. For example, we need to be constantly reassured that celebrities are just like us. They eat waffles and pick up dry cleaning. If we do not share this understanding of Ashton Kutcher, we become overwhelmed by existential anomie and commit suicide. ... I cannot help but be a technological optimist because technology is mankind’s only bulwark against the barbarism of heaps."
Cities and Objects
Jonathan Puckey: "In Februari 2008 Tarja Szaraniec approached Timo Hofmeijer and I to contribute a work to the exhibition 'Cities and Objects' at the Nieuwe Vide in Haarlem. I had just returned from 3 weeks of giving back to back workshops in Egypt and Switzerland, both of them focusing on tool based work processes, and was ready to put some theory into praxis. We approached the city theme of the exhibition from the context of city growth and expansion, which we related to the process of doodling with existing structures. We created 5 silkscreened posters featuring 3 doodle tools: Cloud Tool, Road Tool and Sign Tool."
Worst Card Ever: Mystery Solved!
Last month I wrote about the worst baseball card I have ever seen. It came from a no-name release and featured a very young Ken Griffey Jr. holding a jumbo version of his famous 1989 Upper Deck card.
You can see the ugly card here.
It took quite a while but finally the mystery has been solved. Check out a scan of the real card below. It was provided by fellow blogger, Ben of Cardboard Icons. As you can see, the original looks much better than the knock-off.
Now, check out the second worst-looking card ever.
Google Analytics API Interactive Treemap Visualization
Google Analytics API on App Engine Treemap Visualization [analytics.blogspot.com] is an alternative look at your Google Analytics data in the form of an interactive treemap visualization. One can even allow the application access to your own Google Analytics data, to create personalized versions of the treemap.The data that is displayed originates from the last 14 days of data in the selected Google Analytics profile. Each rectangle represents a unique landing page, with its size linked to the traffic to the page (i.e. entrances), and the color representing the bounce rate (i.e. green is Good: low bounce rate, red is bad: high bounce rate).
See also Google Chart API,Google Visualization API and Google Search Visualization Graphs.
Anyone fancying developing an interactive sparkline graph based on Analytics data, to be located on the top of infosthetics.com homepage, please let me know!
Katamari Baby Costume
She’s the Prince. And that costume too waaaaaay too long to make!
I think she looks pretty cute, even if you aren’t familiar with the Katamari games. Of course, if you’re confused you can visit the official Katamari website (fair warning: there is music), or consult the all-knowing Wikipedia. And then there’s always YouTube (na na na na na na na na na, Katamari Damacy).
Happy Halloween!
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Hooray for Halloween!
For his first Halloween, Louis went as Luigi (if you didn't know, Luigi is a character from the various "Mario Brothers" video games--Mario's brother, in fact). This was mostly inspired by the fact that we referred to him as Luigi when he was in utero.
Here are the requisite posed seasonal shots:
...and some nice family shots:
This Boelter Family
Luigi and Grandpa Boelter
Garth (Ryan), Mimi (Rachel), and Luigi
But the funniest part of the whole thing was the mustache! Louis didn't like the application (hence the irregularity) or removal thereof (it's hypoallergenic eyebrow pencil, not Sharpie, don't worry), but didn't mind it once it was on. So fun to watch him do mundane things like eat, take a bath, etc., with a silly mustache! We should draw one on every day!
Oh yeah, and we made jack-o-lanterns, but the squirrels ate pieces of their faces before we could light 'em up. Also, strangely, there were very few trick-or-treaters on our block. Oh well, more candy for This Boelter family!
sarahb: My friends Alicia, Megan and Stephen cheering on the...
My friends Alicia, Megan and Stephen cheering on the marathon today in New York, via Sarah’s Flickr
soupsoup: This wins.
ericmortensen: I’ve lived on the Boston and New York marathon routes. New Yorkers are way better marathon fans.
Brilliant!
Unique Food Trends: Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta Journal-Constitution dining writer John Kessler chimes in with a few food trends buzzing in Atlanta right now.
Pizza Wars
Margherita pie from Varasano's. [Flickr: The Blissful Glutton]
The opening of Varasano's Pizzeria has kicked off a new age of pizza one upmanship in Atlanta that online pundits have dubbed the "Pizza Wars." Varasano, as Slice readers should know, is the displaced New Yorker who spent years trying to reverse engineer the pies from Patsy's. He detailed his experiments, scientific conclusions and raucous pizza-tasting parties on a blog (that went viral once Slice picked it up). A first-time restaurateur, Varasano opened to consistency issues with his sourdough crust and mixed reviews from local critics. But he can make some phenomenal pies in his custom-designed electric oven from Sweden.
Not to be outdone, veteran restaurateur Riccardo Ullio brought in an ace Neopolitan pizzaiolo, Enrico Liberata, to goose his established spot, Fritti, which uses wood-fired ovens. The Concentrics Restaurant group joined the fray with Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria.
While these three were duking it out, Giovanni di Palma quietly opened Antico Pizzeria Napoletana with a plan to pre-bake pies for retail and a small on-site carryout operation with limited seating. As it turns out, the fresh Neapolitan pizzas are so good, people began lining up for them and then staging impromptu tailgates in the parking lot.
Three wood-fired ovens and Liberata (who jumped to this new venture) are the calling cards. But di Palma, who imports his own San Marzano tomatoes, bufala mozzarella and Tipo 00 flour is the real maestro at work. Seating seems to expand by the day, and a liquor license is in the works.
Chef-Farmers
Heirloom tomatoes. [Flickr: Sifu Renka]
A number of Atlanta chefs aren't content to simply buy produce from local farmers but rather, grow it themselves. Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison, who live on Summerland Farm, an hour north of the city, keep their fine restaurants (Bacchanalia, Quinones at Bacchanalia, Abattoir, Floataway Café) awash in farm eggs, watermelons and herbs.
Billy Allin (CQ's) farms a sunny half acre in his suburban backyard to supply his nearby restaurant, Cakes & Ale, with heirloom tomatoes throughout the summer. Nick Rutherford and Molly Gunn also grow tomatoes for their funky intown pub, The Porter Beer Bar, on a nearby lot where they've assumed squatters' rights. Hector Santiago (a contestant on Top Chef: Las Vegas) climbs a rickety ladder to the flat rooftop of his Pura Vida Tapas bar, where he maintains an ample chile garden.
Canoe Restaurant, sadly, had just planted a bounteous fall garden along the banks of the Chattahoochee River, but the recent Atlanta floods wiped it out before submerging the restaurant under six feet of water. The refurbished restaurant is aiming for a November reopening (and chef Grant Gould promises the garden will be back).
Next-Gen Korean
Suckling pig belly at Honey Pig. [Flickr: The Blissful Glutton]
The locus of Atlanta's Korean (and Vietnamese, Salvadoran and Mexican) dining scene has long been Buford Highway, the multi-lane turnpike that shoots northward from the city through miles upon miles of reclaimed strip shopping centers. Grungy décor and great charcoal-fired kalbi have long been the hallmarks of Buford Highway dining. But as the city's thriving Korean population has grown wealthier and more established, a vibrant new collection of restaurants has opened in and around the suburb of Duluth.
A young, stylish crowd goes to the swank, industrial-chic Honey Pig to cook fat tiles of pork belly and kimchee on heated metal domes to a Korean technopop soundtrack.
At Umaido, Korean-style ramen is made in house behind a glass wall and delivered to guests who wait at counters in a slender, colorful room. The toothsome noodles in porky broth could pass for Japanese ramen, save for the kimchee and garlic presses at each table. Bud Namu serves a crisp-skinned clay-roasted duck filled with sticky purple rice and red dates, while the Korean fried chicken, sweet-potato pizza and tofu soup shops are plentiful.
South in the Mouth
The Hil's menu. [Flickr: The Blissful Glutton]
One local restaurant publicist refuses to let her clients refer to their restaurants as "Southern farm-to-table," fearing the term has become a cliché. But such is the overriding focus of Atlanta dining today. The twin national obsessions with local provender and resuscitating comfort-food classics dovetail perfectly in this Southern capital, where many residents still recall meals on the grandparents' farms.
Chefs like Woodfire Grill's Kevin Gilllespie (another contestant on Top Chef: Las Vegas) vie to serve the best fried okra, chicken, and pickles and deconstruct everything from chicken and dumplings to pimento cheese.
Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best: in the height of the summer tomato frenzy, chef Hilary White at The Hil caused a sensation by executing a Platonic ideal of the Southern tomato sandwich with her own white yeast loaves, homemade mayonnaise and tomatoes from the garden outside her door.
In NY-23 Bombshell, Republican Scozzafava Endorses Democrat Owens
In a huge development in the NY-23 special election, moderate Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava -- who dropped out of the race yesterday, in the face of bad fundraising and polling numbers that had shown she'd lost GOP support to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman -- has now endorsed Democrat Bill Owens.
Scozzafava's campaign had been undermined by national right-wing activists who denounced her liberal social views -- she is pro-choice and pro-gay marriage -- and now she's doing what she can to prevent their own candidate Hoffman from winning:
You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it's about the people of this District.
It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.Scozzafava's name remains on the ballot as the Republican candidate, but she'll be voting for the Democrat Owens. Scozzafava's full statement is available after the jump.
Late Update: Scozzafava's former campaign spokesman Matt Burns gives us this comment, breaking with his former boss: "Dede is entitled to her own opinion, as is everyone, but I obviously disagree with her decision (to support Owens). I am supporting Doug Hoffman, because denying Nancy Pelosi another foot soldier is vital to restoring fiscal responsibility and common sense in Washington."
Late Late Update: We asked NRCC spokesman Ken Spain for comment, and he simply pointed us to this statement from earlier today, which was released in order to promise a seat on the House Armed Services Committee for Hoffman if he is elected: "There are only two candidates that remain in this race and voters are interested in two things. The candidate best positioned and suited to protect Fort Drum and continue the legacy of John McHugh is Doug Hoffman as the Republican leadership pledged to secure support for him on the House Armed Services Committee earlier today. Secondly, only Doug Hoffman is willing to stand up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and put the brakes on her agenda of massive government takeovers and less jobs."
Scozzafava released the following statement at 2 :06 p.m.:
I want to thank you for your support and friendship. Over the past 24 hours, I have had encouraging words sent to my family and me. Many of you have asked me whom you should support on Tuesday.
Since announcing the suspension of my campaign, I have thought long and hard about what is best for the people of this District, and how to answer your questions. This is not a decision that I have made lightly.
You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it's about the people of this District.
It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.
It's not in the cards for me to be your representative, but I strongly believe Bill is the only candidate who can build upon John McHugh's lasting legacy in the U.S. Congress. John and I worked together on the expansion of Fort Drum and I know how important that base is to the economy of this region. I am confident that Bill will be able to provide the leadership and continuity of support to Drum Country just as John did during his tenure in Congress.
In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He will be an independent voice devoted to doing what is right for New York. Bill understands this district and its people, and when he represents us in Congress he will put our interests first.
Please join me in voting for Bill Owens on Tuesday. To address the tough challenges ahead, we must rise above partisanship and politics and work together. There's too much at stake in this election to do otherwise.
Limiting 64-bit to 10.6
Cocoa Is My Girlfriend: “Here’s how to limit 32/64-bit Intel apps to only run 64-bit Intel on 10.6.0 and later.”
Jared: Working at Tumblr, I’m the only person in the office without an iPhone. I own a...
Working at Tumblr, I’m the only person in the office without an iPhone. I own a BlackBerry Curve 8300 and it’s a perfectly fine phone, but its features are incomparable to those of the iPhone. The only thing keeping me on it is Verizon. Unlike everyone else here, I get reception at work. I also get reception everywhere in NYC. Hell, I get reception virtually everywhere I go. They don’t, and they probably never will as long as they remain on AT&T (at least in the NYC region).
I was a loyal Verizon customer before moving to the iPhone in late 2007. I frequently travel to the fringes of cellular reception areas, including many areas with zero coverage from any carrier. I’ve found:
- AT&T isn’t as bad as many people think.
- Verizon isn’t as good as many people think.
Often, I’d be in the car with my iPhone and Tiff’s Verizon phone on a long trip. I found that, in various travels through extremely rural New York and Pennsylvania, neither Verizon nor AT&T had noticeably better coverage. Usually, either both or neither would work. Occasionally, the Verizon phone would work and the AT&T phone wouldn’t, but the opposite was true just as frequently.
New York City’s population density and abundance of huge metal buildings is challenging for any popular cellular network. It’s not a question of adding more towers — the problem is likely to be that there are so many towers to provide the necessary capacity that they overlap too much and interfere with each other. The bands are full. We’re saturated.
AT&T’s data network is definitely slow and congested here. So is Verizon’s voice network. I dropped plenty of voice calls on Verizon, and frequently had trouble placing or receiving calls even with full “bars” — the telltale sign of CDMA tower congestion. Tiff had the same problem, so I know it wasn’t just my phone. I also used two different Verizon phones in New York — one, the E815, known for having amazing reception — before switching to the iPhone. And I’m still a Verizon customer for my EVDO USB stick.
AT&T already expanded capacity onto the 850 MHz band in some big metro areas over the last few months. It helped, I think, but not enough to beat Verizon’s wide-open data speeds. But when Verizon finally gets some smartphones that normal people will actually want to use for mobile web browsing and music streaming, their network will buckle under the same pressure. In that way, it’s actually in Verizon’s customers’ best interests that the Droid doesn’t sell very well.
Due to the congestion, neither carrier is particularly good or reliable for voice. But today, Verizon is much better for data in Manhattan than AT&T.
The fastest and most reliable network in Manhattan for both voice and data is actually Sprint, because it has a very advanced EVDO deployment that’s used by almost nobody, relative to Verizon or AT&T, and therefore suffers none of the congestion problems. But Sprint has its own problems: in addition to mediocre device selection, the coverage isn’t as good as Verizon or AT&T. First-party tower preference kills most of the advantage of being able to roam onto Verizon’s network.
So it comes down to your needs. For me, my phone is a personal computer most of the time, and it’s occasionally used to make or receive phone calls. Most data is downloaded over WiFi, with occasional small transfers over the cellular network. Network flakiness hurts me less than device flakiness. For me, therefore, the device is much more important than the network, because I’m using the device much more than I’m using the network.
If you make a lot of phone calls, use a ton of cellular data, or frequently travel to Vermont, and will accept more shortcomings and limitations in your device to ensure the use of a better data network, you should consider Verizon. But if your phone is more of a pocket computer than a mobile telephone, the iPhone is the only way to go.
Up early for one of the best Ft Greene holiday of the year: the...
Up early for one of the best Ft Greene holiday of the year: the nycmarathon. Tere are house djs, high school marching bands, funk trios & gospel choirs and lots and lots of people cheering on runners they don’t necessarily even know. It’s one of my favorite feel good days of the year.
Freedom Dance Party
Freedom Dance Party
Fundraiser for the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign (SAFC)Saturday, Nov. 14th, 7pm to 11pm
MartinLuther King, Jr. Labor Center, 1199 SEIU
310 W. 43rd St., btw. 8th & 9th Aves
New York, NY 10036
$20 admission,food & beverages for purchaseFrom the announcement:
On Saturday, November 14th, we will dance and celebrate at Freedom Dance. This celebration is an opportunity for us as a community to acknowledge our victories and renew our efforts to continue this essential work. We celebrate the liberation and freedom of our sister Assata Shakur, who along with many other Political Prisoners (who still remain behind the walls) set the example of unselfish sacrifice for our beloved people. We also celebrate the sacrifice of those freedom fighters whose spirits were released due to their physical demise. This is a celebration for them all. We will especially honor Sundiata Acoli. Through music and the warm meaningful collective interaction of dance and laughter, we will reaffirm our commitment to their freedom.
Using Kuler to create color themes
Although scores of good books on color theory have been written — many even for non-designers — most working professionals just do not have the time to delve deeply into a study of the complexities of using color. The good news is that there are online resources that can help you create harmonious color themes without requiring advance knowledge in color theory. There are a few really good online resources such as ColorSchemer and Colourlovers, but my personal favorite is Kuler. Kuler is a web-based color tool from Adobe that has thousands of community-generated color themes from which you can search, but the best thing about Kuler is that you can easily make your own themes. Once you register with Kuler (it's very quick), you can begin to create your own color themes or palettes and store, view, and retrieve all your saved themes in your personal Mykuler space. There are two ways to create unique color themes: either by selecting a single color on the color wheel as your base color and building off of that, or by importing an image from Flickr or your hard disk and extracting harmonious combinations from the image.
Extract colors from an imageOne of the coolest ways to assemble a unique color theme for a presentation is to create a simple palette by extracting colors from a key image that you think represents the appropriate colors for your talk. You can do something similar to this within your slideware application, of course, but Kuler can do it automatically and give you some additional options for tweaking the colors. After you upload an image, Kuler automatically uses its color extraction tool to generate a theme of five colors from the image. You can then adjust the entire theme by changing what Kuler calls the "mood" of the theme. You can select from Colorful, Bright, Muted, Deep, and Dark moods which are based on the colors extracted from your image. After you decide which mood is the best fit, you can then save it to your account, share it with the community if you like, and even download it as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file. To get the theme into your slideware, you may have to take a screen shot of the theme and then use your slideware's color picker to save the colors into a new theme for your presentation.
Sample: Image from nature
In Wabi Sabi Style, James and Sandra Crowley say "Nature is a master colorist. Anything and everything one could possibly want to learn about creating color schemes, color contrasting, and coordination can be gleaned straight from nature itself." So why not try making a unique color theme from a photo of a nature scene.
Above: I used an image not from a photo but from a video clip taken during a trip to the beach last summer in the USA. The sandy, brownish-grays and blues of a (sunny) summer day in Cannon Beach, Oregon create a simple, refreshing palette.
Above: After I saved the original color theme, I chose the "make changes/view color values" option which presents you with many options for adjusting your theme. Here I select a new base color on the far right.
Above: Then I chose "Monochromatic" which adjusts the four other colors in terms of value and saturation — but the hue stays the same (as you can see in the color wheel). The base color of "gray" had a bit of yellow/brown from the rock.Create theme from a color
Above: The sample slides use colors from the two themes created in Kuler shown above (plus white for the labels). More black was added to the background color in the second slide to increase contrast with the foreground.Any introduction to color theory includes a discussion on the different rules for combining colors. For most people, however, the terms found in color theory are rather abstract; people just want a way to choose and mix colors that form a harmonious relationship. The Kuler website allows you to select a color of your choice and then apply harmony rules such as Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, Complementary, Compound, and Shades that are based on some of the basic tried-and-true principles from color theory. All you have to do, then, is select a base color and a color rule to quickly create harmonious themes, or use the Custom rule to select colors individually. You can use one of your own themes — or one of the public themes — to create a new theme starting from the selection of a single color. After you decide on a theme, you may want to adjust the relative value of some of the colors — that is, make them lighter or darker — to make sure you have good contrast.
Above: Using three colors from a theme called "organic" plus white to create this slide. Not crazy about it, but perhaps it could be used in a presentation on organic farming, etc.
Experiment and play with the tool
You can spend hours playing around with Kuler, but this is not wasted time if it helps you see how color harmonies can be created by adjusting hue, value, and saturation. For actual presentation themes, you'll want to keep the number of different hues to a minimum. The mantra is always to use color for a reason and with restraint, but for the purposes of teaching yourself more about how colors can work together, it's OK to go a little wild sometimes. I'm certain many of you already know about Kuler, but for those of you who do not, I hope you enjoy experimenting with it. Kuler has a great community and it's a wonderful online tool.
Colors were extracted from the photo of the salmon and rice to create the color theme.
What Everybody Knows
Last Friday, Jasmine and I saw Leonard Cohen play. That’s not a sentence I ever expected to type.
It was an amazing show. Everything conspired against it: lousy cavernous venue, weird crowd, show boating instrumentalists. But it was awesome.
And I was transported back to the first moment I ever heard Leonard Cohen. Those first minutes of Pump Up Volume when “Everybody Knows” comes rolling out of Christian Slater’s pirate radio station, and it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard. Later I wondered how many of us got involved with helping start Indymedia because of that movie.
But that’s not why it stuck with me. You see, when the sound track for Pump Up the Volume came out that song wasn’t on there. Or rather it was, but it wasn’t the right version. I just had a tape of a tape of a tape, sound wasn’t great, and certainly didn’t come with any liner notes explaining that the version included on the sound track was from Concrete Blonde, whoever they were. Disappointment. Really profound disappointment.
And I didn’t know what to do. I was stuck. Transported back to that moment in the early 90s as an adult I could probably find a solution, but honestly I’m not sure. It wasn’t until I got to college, met other people who had been touched by that song, that I ever heard the name Leonard Cohen, and even then it took us a while to obtain a copy of it. Instead we spent a lot of late nights watching “Pump Up the Volume”. Eventually, it was the first MP3 I ever downloaded.
The double barreled revelation really hit me hard. First just to see him play it. Second to remember what I spend most days forgetting, how profoundly the world has changed by the Net and particularly by the Web. It’s trite, and I lived through it, and I live with it everyday, but I rarely get the distance to see how much has changed. And that little distance gave me some hope.
Kind of like the first time I heard that song.
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