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This is the permanent home of all the posts I wrote in April 2005. This archive is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog.

Why don't you read some other posts? You can view them by month also.
Here are March 2005's posts and May 2005's posts.
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April 30, 2005

April 29, 2005

• Designline - A Design Timeline

• Construction photos of Norman Foster's Hearst Building

• Roundup of Headlines describing the President's Press Conference

  for the lazy: President to cut Social Security

• Roundup of Headlines describing the President's Press Conference

• Bill Richardson's Role in the Bolton NSA Transcripts Story

I'm With Stupid

google search: stupid

This is really, really juvenile. Google for "stupid" and the result you get is shown above. Doesn't add anything of value to our political debate, but it is funny. And that's OK for a Friday afternoon.

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Republican Values

Last night, if you weren't watching the Boy in the Bubble, then you should have been watching CSPAN and the final vote on the consolidated Budget conference bill in the House and the Senate. The conference bill passed both bodies along a wholly party line: no Democrat voted for this budget. Let me say that again: the GOP could not get a single Democrat to vote for their budget resolution, and in fact three Senators defected - . Senators Voinovich and DeWine from Ohio, and Sen.Chafee of Rhode Island. This is a wholly Republican owned budget - which is nice because it will be a good weapon in 2006 and 2008. This is why, illustrated by this NY Times article, Congress Passes Budget With Cuts in Medicaid and in Taxes:

The House and Senate broke a lengthy impasse over federal spending Thursday night, narrowly adopting a $2.56 trillion federal budget for 2006 that aims to trim the growth of Medicaid by $10 billion over five years, add $106 billion in tax cuts and clear the way for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.

From now on when anyone of the conservative flavor talks up "moral values" or "values" I'm going to use this as an example negating the GOP. Republicans cut $50 billion from the literally sick and poor and added $106 billion in tax cuts for the rich. Reverse Robin Hood does not begin to explain this act of taking money from the poor by cutting Medicare and then letting Paris Hilton run free by eliminating the Estate Tax and cutting more taxes.

Funny, I thought last time the President cut taxes we were going to be propelled into some sort of Free Trade/Efficient Market paradise. From the descriptions of our future lives such luminaries as Alan Greenspan to the President gave, each citizen would save so much money and the economy would rebound so quickly, that the Scrooge McDuck Money Bin builder-business seemed like a good career move. I always kicked myself for never sending away for my Duck Tales volume-set in order to study the Money Bin, in all of its' cartoon glory, which would have been in such high demand. The future was ours for the taking, just pass some more tax cuts.

But, of course this headline says it all: Economy's pace slowest in 2 years. The economy is, to put it nicely, "soft," and those tax cuts really worked out well, Mr. President. I want my Money Bin which was promised to me, but all I got was higher State Taxes and less services from the government. Funny how that is.

But dreams of swimming through piles of yellow coins in my unrealized Money Bin isn't what I'm concerned about. Last time I checked, Jesus was concerned about the sick and marginalized, not about drilling for oil in Alaska or cutting taxes for the rich. But who am I to judge such "Christian" men as Tom Delay?

So thank you GOP for showing us what your real values are.

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April 28, 2005

• Why do new democracies overwhelmingly choose the parliamentary form of government instead of American-style democracy?

  interesting question, some additional research is needed

• Five simple steps to better typography

• House GOP members, channelling Junior High School, rewrote every DNC amendment to the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act

  Instead of "Amendment does X," Sensenbrenner rewrote it to be, "Amendment allows sexual predators to to X." INSANE & childish.

• If this review is accurate, I somewhat agree with Randy Barnett

  Shocking I know... some flavours of Constitutional Originalism are not repugnant

• Live webcam footage of Princeton students continuing their Filibuster outside Frist Campus Center

  They have been at it for over 48 hours reading the Constitution, phone book, judicial nominee bios, and whatever reading material they have at hand.

• Jeff is Famous - he has a quote in the Daily News

  there are some advantages of having a roommate work at a paper

• Video: Laughing Yoga - Losing weight by laughing... creepily
  

Boy in the Bubble

Watching the Presidential press conference tonight (transcript)
it became apparent that the President is stuck in "Boy in the Bubble" syndrome. It is no secret that he does not read any newspapers, has all information filtered by few close confidants, and is uniquely stubborn once his mind is made up. So many instances which the cognative dissonance became apparent, it was hard to watch - watching the House floor vote on the consolidated Budget conference bill was less excruciating.

Here are my favorite parts, in no certain order:

• Insisting that his nominee for the U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton, was a friend of the UN. Asking Bolton if he felt that the UN had any value, and Bolton answering in the affirmative; which means that either the President is lying or John Bolton lied to the President.


• Blaming Clinton for the high energy prices. I believe the President said (roughly), "If we had an energy plan 10 years ago, we wouldn't be in this mess." Please. Newt's Contract with America called for the elimination of the Department of Energy. Nice try, big boy. See more at Left Coaster.


• Saying that No Child Left Behind was fully funded, when all data points to the contrary; claiming it worked, only because we were testing people.


• Claiming that he had a plan to "save" Social Security, while Democrats did not. Note to the President: our plan is Social Security; its' worked for 75 years or so.


• Claiming, in his double-speak code, that Social Security is just full of IOU's, and that each year that we wait $200 billion is added to the deficit. Sorry, wrong. What happened to "full faith and credit" printed on those Treasury Bonds (which your fortune is tied up in, by the way)? I guess the stock market will be crashing tomorrow since much of other world government's funds are tied up in US Treasury Bonds.


• Faith: claiming that he has never used his faith for political gain. Please. Read more about this little gem.


• Faith: I let my actions speak for themselves. Fine, what are you doing with the Bugman?

Oh, and the "plan" which the President has "chosen" is the Pozen Plan, which would cut benefits for the middle class. Not to mention fundamentally change Social Security, and actually changing it to a new type of Welfare.

Senator Biden in a pushback on ABC afterward went full bore on the President calling him on the IOU's bamboozlement, and the fact that those IOU's ARE Treasury Bills! Also, Sen. Biden's response to bobblehead's question about a Democrat plan was classic: (roughly)

We have plenty of plans! But look, the President has to be a leader on this. Nothing he said tonight dealt anything with solvency.

Quite right: the President actually has to come up with a plan, not just blow smoke inside his bubble. Not to repeat myself, but this is important: Democrats have a plan, and it's called Social Security. The President wants to get rid of Social Security and replace the guaranteed benefits with something else. But we don't quite know what that is. Even if he talks about the Pozen Plan.

The Boy in the Bubble never quite mastered the art of the press conference; tonight was no different.

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Students Filibuster Frist

From Josh Marshall comes this heartening story: students at Princeton have started a Filibuster outside the Frist Campus Center - yes, that Frist - and have been going strong since 11 a.m. on Tuesday. Speaking continuously for over 48 hours, through heavy rain, reading the Constitution, phone books, judicial nominee bios, and whatever reading material they have at hand. The students are protesting the Nuclear Crybaby Option which Senator Frist is set to detonate anytime soon.

The students have also jury-rigged a live webcam of the Filibuster - which is cool in its' own right. Here are photos from the Filibuster - the night shots are amazing, showing citizens exercising their rights even if no one shows up.

The Princeton Filibuster is the closest anyone will get to the triumphal scene in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, where James Stewart filibusters a vote to expel his character. The real Filibuster will never match Capra's scene.

Of course, some have poo-poo'd their protest:

"It is almost, if not completely, unprecedented for judicial nominees to be filibustered," said Dylan Hogarty '06, president of the College Republicans. "I don't think [the Princeton students] are going to make much of a difference."

Which is a dirty, dirty lie - this chart (pdf) created by People For the American Way from data provided by the Congressional Research Service, lists the judicial and executive branch nominees filibustered prior to the current administration. Nearly two-thirds of the them were staged by Republicans in the Senate. Two things Mr. Hogarty: lying makes the Baby Jesus cry and do you like apples?

For more information, check out Frist protest continues for third day and The Official Frist Filibuster Webcam @ Princeton University.

Update 29 Apr 2005
And the students are still at it, going 70 hours strong! I tuned into the live webcam last night, and they were still going strong, albeit with a flood light so that everyone could see the Filibuster continue. The story has hit the AP Wire, no doubt helped by their Press Release (quite savvy). There are some new photos showing their jury-rigged webcam. Josh Marshall is asking technical people to help out with the webcam situation, in order to get the live feed back.

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Housekeeping

So, yes... well, that was fun. Grubbykid was linked to twice (twice) by Curbed in the last week for writing about the Union Square Clock Change and the impending doom of the PRR Powerhouse in LIC. That was pretty cool - it looks like our check to Lockhart cleared. But with micro-fame comes, not a E! True Hollywood Story, but rather angst. It seems that my prose struck a chord with the Long Island City Queens West crowd. So it goes.

If you haven't noticed, Tags are all the rage, and being geeky Tags have landed on Grubbykid with much help from bshort and Ben Hammersley. How they fit into the site is still up in the air, comments from our meager audience are appreciate.

Onto other business, I have been doing some fancy journam-a-lism to try to figure out what caused the Union Square Clock Change. Boy is this hard - no wonder people get paid to be real, life, journam-a-lists. A story will be posted once confirmation is, well, confirmed.

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April 27, 2005

• Question: What's the dumbest thing you've ever seen on the internet?

• Rosie O'Donnell's photos on Flickr

• Professor Bainbridge’s Frivolous Disparate Impact Case

• The super-rich's income tripled over the last two decades, but tax rates decreased by 9 percentage points

  at the same time, middle-income taxpayer's rates went up & earnings stagnated

• Airbus A380 v Boeing 747

April 26, 2005

• Pope Benedict XVI obstructed sex abuse inquiry

• Microsoft paying Religious Right leader Ralph Reed $20,000 a month retainer

• Video: GOP Filibuster of Abe Fortus in 1968
  

  So much for the Judicial Filibuster being "unprecedented"

• Media adopts false claim that "nuclear option" is a Democratic term
  

Dolls

Dolls, originally uploaded by 7-how-7

Working for a production company sometimes means doing weird things. For example, 7-how-7 often has to set up blow-up dummies for supplies them to movies, commercials etc for use as extras. See the full set for full blow-up-doll madness.

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Free Star Charts

ChartC-1, originally uploaded by bernardroth

I love the interweb: here are Creative Commons licenced Star Charts in pdf format, which have been converted to jpg's and uploaded to Flickr for use on the PSP (but can be used on other apps).

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April 25, 2005

• Picture Set: The Case of the most consistently uncomfortable to look at picture face
  

• Energized, emergency pork: What was in the Iraq/Afghanistan emergency appropriation

• Flynn Effect: every succeeding generation is smarter than the previous one

• Video: Mars Explorer Spirit's first 343 Sols on Mars

• The Fight over the Bolton nomination is not partisan, but rather an Intra-Repbulican Fight

  we've been saying this, but Steve has a complete analysis

• The curious question of why Jeff Gannon made so many visits to the White House on days when there were no press briefings scheduled

• I don't know who's Geekier: The guy taking a photo of himself riding his bike and posting it on the web, or me who thinks that's pretty cool

  I vote for me

• Will 'The Simpsons' Ever Age?

Administration Purge

It has been a busy week for the Bush Administration Purge Department - I think it is about to become a Cabinet-level position. Here are two recent examples of the Bush Administration's zeal for subordinates to be in complete, 100 percent lock-step with the administration.

First up Cherif Bassiouni, UN investigator who exposed US army abuse forced out of his job:

The UN's top human rights investigator in Afghanistan has been forced out under American pressure just days after he presented a report criticising the US military for detaining suspects without trial and holding them in secret prisons.

And as Laura Rozen reminds us, Bassiouni was instrumental in Bosnia ferreting out the genocide which occurred. So we have a highly competent and experienced investigator getting bounced for no making the Boss look bad. Nice.

Next up, Kerry Supporters Bounced off of Telecommunications Commission:

The Inter-American Telecommunication Commission meets three times a year in various cities across the Americas to discuss such dry but important issues as telecommunications standards and spectrum regulations. But for this week's meeting in Guatemala City, politics has barged onto the agenda. At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign.

How petty: you give as little as $250 to a political opponent and you can't be involved in a conference about such fascinating issues as "Promotion of network infrastructure development" or "Public protection and disasters relief telecommunications." Nice.

I am so glad that the Executive is this vindictive and petty. Guess I shouldn't be so surprised due to the company they keep.

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How the Crybaby Option will work

With so much talk about the Nuclear Option and how Republicans are back using their Speech Police tactics, a very important concept is being ignored (or marginalized) by a large amount of media. What is being marginalized is that the Nuclear Option is an extra-legislative process in which one Man changes Senate Rules, where a supermajority (2/3rds) is actually required. Again: Senate Rules themselves will be broken using the Nuclear Option. Whatever your views on the Filibuster, breaking rules and precedent in order to win is wrong.

First, to understand how this will all play out, it is important to see how the Constitution and Senate operate. The Constitution calls for the Senate to give "advise and consent" to all judicial nominations from the Executive Branch. How the Senate accomplishes this is not prescribed by the Constitution; rather this is up to the Senate, in the form of Senate Rules, how to proceed. These rules are agreed upon at the beginning of each legislative session by a supermajority (2/3rds) vote. The filibuster itself is written into the Senate rules as Rule 22 and was adopted almost 100 years ago. This is commonly called Cloture, and is described as:

The only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

Senate References (emphasis added)

Republicans do not have the votes to change Senate Rules, if they did they would just vote for Cloture and be done with it. No Filibuster, no change to Senate Rules. Instead, Republicans have been searching for another way to skirt the Rules of the game in order to win. So how will Republicans and Senator Frist accomplish this? Well, there are many theories, Kagro X has a great rundown on many different theories, but it seems that the good Senator will raise a Point of Order, and then singlehandedly change the Senate Rules by fiat, bypassing the procedures and rules of the Senate.

Here is how it might go down:

1. Senator Frist brings a nomination to the Senate floor
2. Sen. Frist asks for a Cloture Vote to gauge initial support - this requires three-fifths of the Senate to pass
3. Cloture will fail
4. Senate Democrats will start discussing the nominee
5. At some point it will be obvious that Senate Democrats will filibuster (Sen. Frist might actually ask this)
6. A GOP Senator will raise a Point of Order that debate has continued long enough, that any further debate would be dilatory, and that a vote must be taken within a designated time frame
7. The Parliamentarian of the Senate will rule that a supermajority requirement to cut off debate is not in order would not be based on previous precedents of the Senate
8. The Presiding Officer (probably Vice President Cheney) ignores the Parliamentarian
9. The Presiding Officer sustains the point of order
10. A Democratic Senator will appeals the ruling of the chair (it only takes one)
11. A Republican senator makes a motion to table the appeal
12. Senate Democrats will attempt to debate the appeal
13. The Presiding Officer will rule that debate is not in order
14. The Senate votes on the motion to table the appeal, it takes a simple majority (51) to table appeal
15. Fifty senators vote to table the appeal, Vice President Cheney casts the tie-breaking vote, and the appeal is tabled
16. This sustains the ruling of the chair - debate on the nomination must end
17. Senate Rules are changed only by a majority vote not a supermajority which is needed

Note, that this chain of events will not be instantaneous - Republicans will try to highly stage-manage the affair, and Democrats will try to draw out the chain of events. It could all be done in an hour or take all day and suspend all of Senate business (and probably the House as well as they rubber-neck). Who knows, either way both sides are maneuvering to get the most positive (to their side) theatre out of this act.

As you can see, this method is nuclear because it breaks Senate Rules in multiple places: changing Senate Rules in the middle of a legislative session, overruling the Senate Parliamentarian, using a Point of Order instead of a Cloture vote to end debate, and most egregious, the Presiding Officer - most likly Cheney but Sen. Frist might preside - will himself decide this Constitutional Matter alone. Let me say this again: the Republicans will make the decision on what is right or wrong not through process or the rule of law or even the Consitution, but rather by theselves using extra-legislative powers. This is exactly like a Police Officer deciding your guilt on the street and locking you up. Or the home team deciding during the middle of a game each tuchdown counts doubl, but for them only.

This nonsense about calling this the "Constitutional Option," which Senator Frist and the GOP at large are beginning to use, is pure bull. The real Consitutinal Option is changing Senate Rules at the beginning of the legislative session with a supermajroity vote. Why, oh why, can't our media get that? Whatever your views on the Filibuster (and there has been much debate on the Left on this), the proper and Consitutional method to deal with this is through Senate Rules and proper debate. But that isn't what Frist et al are doing: they are using parliamentary tricks to weasel their way into the outcome they desire.

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The Crybaby Option

Looks like the Republican Speech Police is at it again. First it was with Social Security Privatization, a term they themselves coined, became too politically radioactive. A concerted push by Republicans, Fox news and the GOP media noise machine to characterize the term Privatization as a Democratic term occurred. Along with this push, came the an ever changing term change initiated from up on high in the GOP.

With the sauces of changing the semiotics of the debate, due to the weak-willed Beltway journalists (not to mention outside the Beltway who should know better), Republicans are trying this again with the Nuclear Option - or ending the Judicial Filibuster. The Senator who coined this term is the bleeding-heart of the Senate:

Changing the Senate's rules on judicial filibustering was first addressed in 2003, during the successful Democratic filibuster against Miguel Estrada, whom Bush had nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Ted Stevens, a Republican Senate veteran from Alaska, was complaining in the cloakroom that the Democratic tactic should simply be declared out of order, and, soon enough, a group of Republican aides began to talk about changing the rules. It was understood at once that such a change would be explosive; Senator Trent Lott, the former Majority Leader, came up with "nuclear option," and the term stuck.

The New Yorker (emphasis added)

If you need more proof that is was the Republicans themselves who coined this term, here are other bleeding hearts who used the term: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Every other Senate Republican.

On the issue that this discussion by media of who said Nuclear Option first is pretty clear: it was the Republicans. Why this matters at all is beyond me: the Nuclear Option was coined by Senator Lott because the action itself was breaking the Senate rules. Why don't we hear anything about this is infuriating. More on this later.

Either way, if they wan't to change the term, I have one: The Crybaby Option. What, you're not happy that 95 percent of your nominations have been confirmed? Mr. President, are you taking your ball home now? Nothing like using the Filibuster in the 1990's and then when it is used against you, you go crying home to momma. Please.

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April 24, 2005

April 23, 2005

April 22, 2005

• Good article about the Long Island City Power House

  via twinkle twinkle

• Faith Based Science: omitting science for no good reason

• Interview with 'The Onion' writers

• Experimental Balloon Building

• Why Our Food is So Dependent on Oil

• Unborn Baby Ornament - US Troop Model

  early christmas present for everyone

• LazyWeb to the Rescue: Google Maps & NYC Subway combined

Bolton Update

The rats seem to be jumping off the John Bolton ship after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee failed to send his nomination to the whole Senate. IT has been an open secret that former Secretary of State Colin Powell has been doing the DC-two-step, letting aides say that he has been talking to Sen. Chaffe and Hegel about his disapproval of Bolton. Now it seems that he is coming forward publically against Bolton. This is not so surprising, since it has been reported that Bolton was one of the prime movers in cherry-picking intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, reports are coming in that Bolton created his own J. Edgar Hoover-like hidden intelligence department in order to ferret out detractors.

I must agree with Laura that this fracas a Bolton has more to do with intra-Republican waring than Conventional Wisdom (D vs. R) would want us to believe. Is the WSJ is threatning Sen Lugar for not being 100% in lock-step with the White House, then this isn't just about Dem vs. Rep squabbling: this is an internal Republican fight over the direction of forign policy which has spilled out in the the U.N. (and the public) because Bolton didn't get the Undersecretary job at State because the Condelizza Rice camp won out over the Cheney camp (who is activly campaigning for Bolton).

There's more after the jump concerning Bolton, Fainthearts, and American Taliban reaction to Voinovich.

Continue reading "Bolton Update"

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Powell Station

Powell Station, originally uploaded by heather

Oh, MUNI, how I haven't missed you - but this photo is quite nice. Photo by Heather.

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On Polish Food

In honor of the Passing of the Pope a few of us celebrated his life with some good Polish food. Even though only 1/4 of the group were actually Catholic, this was an excuse to sample so delicious, potato-based Polish food. In my neighborhood of Greenpoint, you can pretty much throw a stone in any direction and hit a Polish restaurant. The difficult part is finding a good one, and one where at least one server speaks some English.

Greenpoint is one of a handful neighborhoods in America where you can grow up not needing to learn English. It really is a self-contained neighborhood where even the Police Officers speak Polish. There is also a large Catholic church where Pope John Paul II preached at during one of his New York trips, which was mobbed by mourners and reporters alike during his time of mourning.

Now, that's not what I want to talk about. That's not what I want to talk about at all.

I want to talk about what is perhaps the greatest appetizer ever invented. To appreciate the greatest appetizer ever invented one must set the scene. After food orders are taken, out comes a plate full of bread and a large bowl. In that bowl is a gray-goo like substance, which looks much porridge, yet somehow impossibly thicker. This substance is a weird-science-like conjoining of porridge and molasses, which has fused into the ultimate grey-goo slowness.

But, this something is completely different than porridge; this is completely different than anything you have ever eaten. Made of bacon, bacon grease, pan droppings from roasted pork loin, and lard. My friend, you are eating Smolitz (smaltz?), a Polish delicacy.

The culinary experience around Smolitz is like nothing you have ever experienced. Smolitz being somewhere between lard and butter, spreading it on bread is a natural place for smolitz. But why stop there? Smolitz as we found out, goes well with fish, boiled pirogi, fried pirogi, chicken, beer, and vegetables; smolitz is a multipurpose spread for your food and perhaps your engine too. If you can get past the grey color speckled with tiny bacon bits, the smolitz will be your best friend.

I'm not joking - if you can get past the fact that what you are spreading on bread is lard with lard with lard with some bacon, then you too can enjoy smolitz on a Sunday morning.

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April 21, 2005

• Brown's Birth, and Death
  

  psst... it's a word-for-word parody of a David Brooks article

• Great Bathroom BW Development Tutorial

  I wish I had this when I started out

• Tag clouds are the new mullets

• Google Maps Hacking and Bookmarklets

• Reporter who interviewed Ann Coulter: "My job in this story was not to be a fact-checker"

  funny the both of you share similar traits

Research, Much?

Ahh, sweet lack of research (or clue). Dana Blankenhorn seems to be on a one-man-mission to get Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger, fired from Google. There's a problem though, but first read a snippit from his article entitled, Why Google Is Faltering on RSS:

Ever since Google bought Blogger, however, Evan Williams has remained at its head. That means he's the company's man on blogging, and he's the company's man on blogging-related technologies like RSS.

I have written before that he needs to move on, and Google needs to bring in someone with a Clue, and with the executive chops to get something done.

I'm asking again. I'm asking this of Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and anyone at the Googleplex who might listen. Why are your competitors racing ahead while you supposedly have the best piece on the board?

The only problem is, Ev left Google a while ago (quite publically and on good terms) and is (very publically) about to launch Odeo - a web-tool for Podcasting. Either this is a joke, or Dana Blankenhorn, a "business journalist for over 25 years" who seems to have forgot basic research methods, is an idiot.

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Papal Leaks

I thought that the Cardinals swore an oath to secrecy, apparently not since the Post has a long article on the electoral proceedings behind the election of Pope Benedict XVI. I guess it really does matter what the definition of "is" is.

The issue I wan't to draw readers to, is some remarks from the new Pope concerning culture and society. Specifically his remarks about "relativism:"

On Monday morning, the cardinals attended the traditional Mass for the election of a pope at St. Peter's, where Ratzinger gave a stinging homily against the West's creeping "dictatorship of relativism." Those who hold firmly to belief in God and moral absolutes, he said, are accused of fundamentalism, while the only socially acceptable attitude seems to be that everything is relative and nothing is clearly right or wrong.

Now, I agree with Big Media Matt that the Conventional Wisdom is that the Pope is quite a learned theologian. So it is somewhat distressing that he would continue the mindless line about relativism, when he really is saying (and should just come out and say it) that any other religion besides Catholicism is relativistic. Additionally, this trope about relativism is quite asinine since no one can positively point out where and how specifically we have become more relativistic.

Am I to believe that understanding and accepting different cultures, religions, and ways of life somehow is not what the Gospel of Jesus professed during his short life? Am I not to believe that God works in mysterious ways, revealing Himself to His servants in different forms from a burning bush to an Angel? If that is relativism, count me in - I have the faith that God uses different ways to care for his flock.

I have been slowly reading the Pope's writings (pdf) since his election, and all points seem to lead back to Catholicism as the one "true" religion. As neither a Catholic nor theologian, but rather a non-religious Christian (faith is different), I find this both offensive and non-congruent with the teachings of Christ. Additionally, the fact that Catholic Theologians can say with a straight face that they have the single conduit to redemption is appalling. Especially when it is apparent that Catholicism itself is a result of chance and good debating skills:

Why do you think the religion that Constantine chose, the current form of Christianity—which you call the proto-orthodox—won out?

To some extent they won because they were better debaters. Each of these groups was fighting all the other groups on various fronts, but the proto-orthodox seemed to have been better organized than the other groups and seemed to have been more intent on establishing a worldwide network of similar people. And so they ended up taking over the churches in the major areas where there were lots of Christians, such as Rome, and eventually in Alexandria, Egypt, and Jerusalem...

Perhaps it is my Lutheran background, as well as the cultural background from the Midwest, which forces me to just let people live their lives. I'm willing to give the Pope the benefit of a doubt, but I will be highly interested in seeing where he leads the Catholic Church.

Later... I just want to make it clear, I think there is a give-and-take when discussing theological issues and tenants of faith. But I have read too many over-the-top Catholic theologians write off every other flavor of Christianity (Matt mentions Edward Oakes) as not "true" to Christ. Rank-and-file Catholics I have no immediate problem with - everyone struggles and deals individually with their faith in highly personal manner. The schism of the Church which started during the Reformation has slowly healed, but still Catholics at the highest echelon's response is a non-starter. The solution Pope Benedict XIV in particular has advocated to heal the schism is for everyone to become Catholic.Not exactly a healthy outreach to the world.

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Readability Data

Via Kevin Drum, it seems that you can now feed a URL into Readability Tester. If anyone has used Microsoft Word, you can see your Flesch Reading Ease or Flesch-Kincaid grade level everytime you spell-check. Well, because I like doing this sort of thing, I ran each Monthly Archive Page through the parser, which resulted in this graph:

You can see the same graph as a cool xml-powered graph. A little explanation is in store: the x-axis is time (in months), the y-axis is the score, the orange line represents the Gunning Fog Index and the green line represents Flesch-Kincaid Grade level of the writing. In both cases a higher score is better.

As you can see, there were some months where I was so lazy I didn't even post once per month. At the highest peak I'm writing at an 8th grade level or about the level of Wall Street Journal - which I don't really know how that works out, but there you go.

As you can see when I first started out (right side) my writing was not so hot - about a 3rd grade level. In the beginning I wrote shorter posts which were not so pithy. I think what is dragging the overall scores down is all of the extraneous junk which accompanies each blog post (comment & trackback anchors and dates). I have always said that my writing has improved the longer this website has been up - but this was based on anecdotal evidence. Now I have some sort of baseline to measure this.

I plan on updating this graph monthly, so check back.

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April 20, 2005

• Oops I did it again, by Louis Armstrong

  be warned

• Justice Scalia , Activist Judge

  quote: (Conservatives) do not want to get rid of judicial activists, a standard that would bring down even Justice Scalia. They want to rid the courts of judges who disagree with them.

• Benedict's Edicts: If you think the Catholic Church is socially dictatorial now, wait until Cardinal Ratzinger is in charge

• James Dobson: American Pharisee

• Inside The New High Line Plans

• How to make a Coin Ring

• On Sex and the Catholic Church

• Cincinnati's La Maisonette moving to the Suburbs

  Maisonette is America's longest continuously operating 5-star restaurant

• Thoughts on Benedict XVI

  Benedict XVI was one of the Cardinals who advocated denying communion to John Kerry

Ayer's Rock

Ayer's Rock, originally uploaded by Ypsoon

Very nice photo of Ayer's Rock.

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April 19, 2005

• Avian Flu Blog

  a clearinghouse of information and articles dealing with Avian Flu

Bolton Nomination

Anyone interested in machinations of the Senate, listen to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee debate John Bolton's nomination and the GOP's push to ramrod his nomination through the Senate. More info on the machinations from The Washington Note, specifically, here and here. What was crazy was that Senator Richard G. Lugar bypassing Rules of the Committee not listening to Senator Boxer's Point of Order.

Later... So that was fun. The Democrats, lead by Ranking Member Joseph R. Biden successfully delayed a vote in the Committee on Foreign Relations on the matter of sending to the full Senate the President's nominee to the United Nations, John Bolton. The turning point came not from the fainthearted centrists Chuck Hagel (R NB) or Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), but from George V. Voinovich (R-OH) who spoke out against Bolton due, in part to recent allegations - specifically, his abrasive demeanour. Additional allegations concern Bolton's attempt to fire analysts who disagreed with him, attempting to ascertain the identity of American personnel in NSA intercepts (a no-no), and possible perjury.

The end result of the day's Parliamentary maneuvering, is that the Committee will reconvene in three weeks for a vote, and possibly new hearings with Bolton himself or new witnesses.

Even Later Update... An extended play-by-play and some analysis is included after the jump.

Continue reading "Bolton Nomination"

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Habemus papam

Wow, I leave work for an few hours and come back to find that the Catholic Church has a new Pope - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who will take the name Pope Benedict XVI (BENEDICTVM XVI). Wow, was that fast. I am sure his age (78) and his similar views to Pope John Paul II were deciding factors in his nomination.

Wow, I'm just really stunned.

Later... I wonder if Pope Benedict's nickname Gloria Olivae - Renown/Great Olive - will drum up ferver in Saint Malachy's Prophecy of the Popes, which states that we have one more Pope to go until Jesus returns.

Ahh... I see Wikipedia has already jumped on this bandwagon.

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April 18, 2005

• Apollo 13, We Have a Solution

  in-depth recount of the skill behind saving the crippled Apollo 13 mission

• What's At Stake In the Bolton Nomination

  a review of the politics behind the Bolton Nomination

• Bush administration eliminating 19-year-old international terrorism report because the report shows the Bush Administration is ineffectual combating Terrorism

  there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered

• Soldier DIY: hacking off the shelf hardware to protect against IED's

• Bush perspective appointment to the UN John Bolton Often Blocked Information

  I think I have outrage fatigue right now

• Stork may have visited Pale Male, Lola

  the famed Red Tailed Hawks might have a hatchling on the way

Union Square Clock

Union Square Clock

Does anyone know what has happened to the Union Square Clock on the Virgin Megastore building (1 Union Square South)? For those who don't know about the clock, it is an art installation by Kristin Jones & Andrew Ginzel entitled Metronome, which normally consists of 15 large LED's which count time both ascending and descending fashion. But it has changed: now instead of the ascending and descending time, it is counting down to some event in approximately 78 Days 22 Hours 02 Minutes 45 Seconds 23 Thousands (as of this morning). So what's up? What is happening in 78 days- the public want's to know!

UPDATE 19 Apr 2005
Grubbsketeer Jared pointed out it could be for nyc2012 Olympic Bid, which led us to more information via google. Basically, the announcement of the host city is made on July 6th, 2005 - about 78 days from now, so co-option of public art by Deputy Mayor Doctoroff isn't besides the pale.

Update 27 Apr 2005
I can confirm that the numbers counting down are to the unveiling of the host city for the 2012 Olympics on July 6th, 2005. I'm just waiting on some quotes from participants so I can write it up. Here's to journami-sm.

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Categories vs Keywords in Movable Type

Since I seem to have Tags on the brain after releasing MT-Tagger 0.1 and developing future versions, I want to talk Tags.

After some correspondence with Some Smart People ^TM and an excellent comment by Frankie Roberto pointing me to his Tag Zeitgeist, I wanted to pause for a minute and discuss workflow vis a vis Movable Type and Categories, Keywords, and Tags and how they create Folksonomies.

After publishing MT-Tagger 0.1, a lot of feedback came in the form of, "That's cool, look how I do the same thing with Categories." Which, is pretty cool - look at Frankie's Weighted List. Yet, using Categories for Tags just seems wrong to me. Yeah, you could use Categories too, since this is just another means to get similar ends. However, let me plead the case that Categories and Keywords/Tags are actually quite different, but useful, descriptions of Entries.

What I'm doing, is using the Categories as more canonical containers, ie - Camera type. These are broad containers describing generally the Entry. Each Entry gets one Category, but can get an infinate amount of Keywords/Tags. Keywords/Tags can be more free-form, be of an indeterminate length and number, and are easily changed. MT categories function as hierarchical categorization (think Dewey Decimal System) while the Keywords/Tags can be highly mutable. Plus, the input load for the user (me) is quite low to add Keywords/Tags when posting. While adding categories or even multiple categories to a post, the actions involve multiple windows and multiple clicking. If your category isn't there you have to add it; which involves another window and more clicking! That, to me, is a whole bunch of work compared to merely adding some words (a la del.icio.us) to the Keywords section of the post.

An advantages of using Keywords/Tags in Movable Type is that you can use this script across multiple weblogs, using a bit of if-then statements return entries in different formats; so thumbnails for photoblogs and links & excerpts for regular blogs. I'm not quite done with this yet, and the code isn't pretty, but I want to release this soon.

Additionally, by using Keywords/Tags you don't have to keep your categories synced up across multiple weblogs. For me, this is the killer-app; trudging through the category screen for three different MT Weblogs which make up this site is not going to happen. But as I go through the daily maintenance of the site and happen across posts without Keywords/Tags, I can Tag them. Or I can just install Richard's MT-Keywords which goes through the post, and automatically pull out relevant Keywords/Tags.

Besides the lazy factor given above, this method give users another way to view my images. I'm working on creating weighted lists (a la Flickr) from the Keywords/Tags & search capabilities which will make all of this much, much better. Also, I am working on splicing Category+Keyword/Tags to create Technorati Tags RDF - which would be cool.

Finally, at the end of a long ToDo list lies the idea of creating a framework where approved TypeKey users could add Keywords/Tags to a post. I'm not really ready to do this since it involves a huge (HUGE!!) risk to my data, and I'm really just hacking around the system. But I'm sure someone who's a better programmer could whip up this feature.

So there's some ideas for enterprising hackers and programmers to develop - because it would take me forever to figure it out. But hopefully I will get there soon.

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April 17, 2005

• Daily Show: Rob Corddry on “The New Journalism”
  

• 5000 Fans
  

If I Were an Englishmen

I love taking political distribution quizzes - those online questionnaires which try to place you into a nice box of left/right - partially because I am curious about charting my views and looking at what some of the underlying assumptions of the quiz. This time it is the special MP General Election edition via Tom Coates.

If I were an Englishmen and was able to get away with poor grammar, and was set to voting in the May 5th election, the above image would show where my political views lie with my alternate-universe brethren. See the results here & test yourself here. What is quite interesting is that due to my views, 89% of Britons are to the Right of me on the x-axis - which charts views on crime and punishment, Europe, and other transnational issues including immigration and international law. But I am right smack dab in the middle on the y-axis which charts the private involvement in the economy, international trade, redistributive taxation, and views on Iraq. Per my views I should be reading The Guardian - which I do. My economic views are, according to the quiz, "fairly internationalist and rehabilitationist." Which sounds about right due to my Midwestern upbringing, where small-C conservatism holds sway. While there isn't a 1:1 match of issues and problems re: America-United Kingdom, our shared problems and issues are similar. So without any due regard to the intricacies of intra- and inter-British politics, let me try to analyze these results.

These results are fairly astounding (to me) for two reasons: how far left I am of the British which the x-axis (crime & punishment) shows, and how centrist on the y-axis (economics) compared to the British people. The Conventional Wisdom I've held is that the views across the Pond are more left of my own. The more I think about this, the more I realize just how apart British sensibilities are from the Continent. I guess ideas sometimes can't make the Channel crossing either.

What is fascinating is that x-axis - why am I so far left of those in the UK? I think it comes down to different perceptions and history with immigration, international issues, and crime & punishment. I'm not privy to the huge undercurrent of immigration and demographic changes which is happening all over Europe. As an American, I guess I'm just more accustomed to the changing demographics that my Anglo-Saxon cousins. I think that immigration influxes/the melting pot is more ingrained in American (most of them, anyway) than Britons. The UK is quite a bit more homogenous than America, but that is changing as we speak and is causing quite a stir.

How the British deal with crime is quite different than in the US: I've heard London described as a short jump from a Police State due to the huge amounts of closed circuit cameras and police procedures. This is all pretty much hearsay, so I don't know the validity of it. I was in London for a few days four years ago, and it was smashing - but I have no baseline to evaluate the police state charge. Also what would push me farther to the left of many Britons is the inclusion of the UK in the European Union. I'm all for it really, I can understand the UK's fear of France and Germany using the EU to regain lost power, but it makes so much sense politically, socially, and economically I wonder if it will breach British Nationalistic tendencies. Finally, my views on crime and punishment are (apparently) way to the left of the UK: I don't think the Death Penalty works and I think punishment without rehabilitation is just wasting money.

So there you go. I hope not many people are offended by my armchair analysis of complex British politics and policies. The sad part is that there were about five or eight questions I had to not answer due to the fact that I didn't know what the question was asking. I mean, who knew there was a shortage of nurses in the NHS - which I assumed was the National Health System?

Just for fun, I retook the Political Compass Quiz. This year my results are:

Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.00

Which means I have moved slightly rightward and a bit more authoritarian - but not by much. All so interesting.

See previous Political compass results here on 06 Jan 2003 and 30 Jul 2004.

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April 16, 2005

Implementing Tags for Movable Type

MT-Tagger 0.1

Abstract
A method of producing tags & tag pages from keywords using Movable Type, PHP, MySQL, and Mod_Rewrite.
MT-Tagger-0.1.zip

Continue reading "Implementing Tags for Movable Type"

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April 15, 2005

• What is the best book for someone interested in the early Catholic church?

• Faith without Consequences: The New rising Republican PC

• The Curious Story of the two Flag Raising's at Iwo Jima

• Herzog & de Meuron's Walker Art Center opens

• Baterial Natural Nuclear Reactors in Oklo Africa

  apparently, billions of years ago bacteria started a low-level nuclear reactor

April 14, 2005

• Alternate Processing: Taking Blueprint Photos

• New Museum Opens on a Foundation of Modernism

  New Ukrainian Museum by George Y. Sawicki opens on East Sixth Street

• Amazing story on women's right to make their own decisions

  summary: due to ovarian cysts birth control is needed but asshole pharmacists could deny lifesaving meds

• BushCo: Democracy for some, Hostility for others

  How the President is ignoring Mexico's call for Democracy

Long Island City Powerhouse

Long Island City Powerhouse, originally uploaded by plemeljr

One of my favorite buildings in Long Island City is being torn apart. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) Power House is being picked apart to make way for condos. The iconic smokestacks are being dismantled, as is the wop floor window galleries. What's best worst about this are the yuppie gloating going on:

• The smoke stacks are coming down. No ifs ands or buts. 3 months give or take
• It will be condos, aprox 400 units averaging 1,000 sq ft
• There will be retail and community space (art gallery, most likely)
• There is and will be no landmark of those buildings
• It was NOT designed by Mckim, Meade and White (if you have proof it was, email me, otherwise, lets drop it) (ed: he is so wrong)
• It will retain the majority of the plant
• There WILL be a section on QueensWest.com for the building once I get confirmation on the name of the building.
• It will, in my opinion, be a great edition to the area

Besides being highly illiterate, using the worst commenting software known to man, and being generally assy, they are dead wrong about the building not being built by McKim Mead & White. Apparently my quick analysis of the development of the property wasn't far off. The developer, Cheskel Schwimmer - vice president of Brooklyn-based CGS Builders, has pegged the cost to be around $100 million. I estimated around $60-70 million and the profit to be not substantial - but I could be wrong - they are using much more of the building then I assumed (four times more).

The New York Times also had a story about the smokestacks:

Despite the hubbub over the apparent demise of the smokestacks, the developer of the project said on Friday that he had no such plans. "We have no intention to take down the smokestacks," said Cheskel Schwimmer, vice president of CGS Builders, a Brooklyn firm. "We want to try to preserve the smokestacks as much as possible."

The intention behind applying for the permit, he said, was to get permission to remove small pieces of the smokestacks and incorporate them into the design.

To that end, Mr. Schwimmer and the architect he hired, Karl Fischer, have produced a rendering that includes a cube of glass resting on top of the existing building and attached to the smokestacks, which would actually become part of the new building and be equipped with windows. "We will both reinforce the smokestacks and create good living space within the building," Mr. Schwimmer said.

For the time being, he and Mr. Fischer, who was the architect for the renovated Gretsch Building in Williamsburg, are working with the city's departments of buildings and city planning to get the cube design approved. In the meantime, it seems that the smokestacks, beacons of Queens past, will continue to point their brown spires into the sky.

Yes, is is that Karl Fischer, the architect who is overseeing the conversion of the Gretsch Building in Williamsburg. So I'm not really hoping for the best. So I guess it is still inconclusive whether or not the stacks stay, I guess we will see in the next 3-6 months.

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April 13, 2005

• In Contempt of Courts

  The stripping of the Courts by the GOP

• Taking Culture Seriously

  Big Media Matt has a good discussion of Culture relating to Liberal views and political theory

• MeetUp is now charging $19 per month for groups

  Understandable, but $228 per year for a poorly designed web app? Please.

• Yet another reason not to visit Indiana: Business Told to Hide Nude Statues of Venus de Milo & Michelangelo's David

  The whole state of Indian needs to watch a certain Simpson's episode

• Former WWF superstar The Ultimate Warrior is a Racist Wanker

  either the Warrior or his "communications director" is threatening the Something Awful admins

• Man gets fired for airing public domain material over radio

  copyright hysteria + uninformed employers = bad decision

Upcoming.org the new MeetUp?

It occurs to me that with MeetUp now charging users, that many of the more casual groups will be leaving MeetUp. I'm sure the exodus of the Long Tail is fine with MeetUp, but the exodus will be its' downfall. MeetUp was great because you could see all of the little groups which pop up in your location, now those smaller non-profit/hobby groups will be gone; no longer will you be able to see if Hindu Rope Knotting (or some such niche made-up activity) is available in your area. Pitty - the value of MeetUp was in both the insanely large groups (Dean MeetUps) and the tiny, tiny groups. Both group types were equally accessibly and just as easy to join, leveling the playing field. Personally, I can't really see paying $19 a month ($228 a year) for a not-great web application, who are using my data in a non-transparent way.

It also occurs to me that Andy Baio's most-excellent Upcoming.org is directly situated to catch many of the smaller groups, and take advantage of the Long Tail to the betterment of the users. Frankly, I never felt that MeetUp really took the time to learn from its' users, and I think Andy is squarely situated at the converse of web culture and technology to listen to user's ideas. Andy has pledged that Upcoming.org will stay free, and Upcoming has recently gotten all sorts of cool improvements. What would make this transition easier (Whedonesque just switched) is for Andy to set up an easy reoccurring event mechanism, or for some enterprising hacker to do so using the Developer's API's. Already some influential developers, in the form of Robot Co-op's 43things.com, which will broaden the adoption rate substantially.

What will be even cooler in the future, is the development of an extensible Event Post widget that any group could integrate with their CMS of choice, be that Movable Type, WordPress, etc. Luckily, the way of the web is the opening of API's for others to use in manners the original developers couldn't see. Thus proving the Million Monkeys Theorem.

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April 12, 2005

• How to build a Scanner Camera

• Juggling & Dance Dance Revolution (mpeg)

• Crazy Rube Goldberg-esque Lightbulb Loader

  competition winner to build most complex machine for simple actions, More info

• Famed Photographer Robert Clark is traveling America with a cameraphone

• Buzztracker: Mapping news events to location

Aerial Salt Pond

Aerial Salt Pond, originally uploaded by plemeljr

Compare the above aerial photo from San Francisco with this low altitude aerial photo taken by another Flickerite:

Salt Ponds, originally uploaded by Ron's Log

For more information about what these ponds are, Mathowie drops some knowledge and thinks they are mine tailings or salt evaporative ponds:

A bunch of folks familiar with the area have emailed me saying there's a nearby mine and they are most likely ponds to capture tailings. That seems more likely the more I drag the map around, since there do seem to be mines nearby but no agriculture. So in this case, the runoff from processes in the mines would produce wastewater filled with all sorts of nasty heavy metals in solution. The tailings would get moved to the ponds to evaporate until the metals precipitate and fall out of solution, and then they probably have to pay an arm and a leg to dispose of it. This way makes it easier to keep their mining waste contained, if they were to simply send the water to the nearby river the metals getting into the ecosystem would have toxic effects to river flora and fauna. A little copper or lead that gets out can cause a lot of harm.

Who knew that waste/poison would look so beautiful.

Update 13 Apr 2005
The power of the LazyWeb is astounding! Thanks to Rampage, who informs us that those salt ponds are the Cargill Salts' evaporation ponds in Newark, CA. A quick google search, and I found this informative website about South Bay Restoration Project which is, according to their FAQ:

...the largest tidal wetland restoration project on the West Coast. When complete, the restoration will convert 15,100 acres of commercial salt ponds at the South end of San Francisco Bay to a mix of tidal marsh, mudflat and other wetland habitats. The property was purchased by the State of California and the Federal government from Cargill Salt as part of a larger land transaction that includes 1,400 acres of salt crystallizer ponds on the east side of the Napa River. The acquisition of the South Bay salt ponds provides an opportunity for landscape-level wetlands restoration, improving the physical, chemical, and biological health of the San Francisco Bay.

There are also an assortment of nice maps and a roundup of the science involved with the cleanup.

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April 11, 2005

• Insane Flash Animation featuring singing Harddrives & bits

  you have to see it to believe it, via kottke

• Hong Kong studies high rise mausoleum

  Dear Hong Kong: I have a friend who already designed one, look her up please

Soldiers' Photos on Flickr

bullets, originally uploaded by ob1left

Photo sharing isn't just for civilians, soldiers in combat have a history of taking photos in combat areas. With the advent of cheap digital cameras and decent photo sharing sites, snapshots of soldiers lives from the mundane to the humorous, to the technical are available for all to see.

Some Flickr Soldiers (in no particular order): At Ease, cliftonfhicks, Doc Torres, Elias25158665, ob1left, and nukeit1.

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Aerial View Of Vatican City

Aerial View Of Vatican City, originally uploaded by plemeljr

Via Q.Queso I found a really nice Aerial view of Vatican City by Digital Globe. I uploaded it to Flickr and annotated the locations of the buildings in Vatican City. Luckily this falls under Fair Use (education) and Digital Globe has a really nice use policy for their sample photos. As a side note, this is exactly why Flickr's "Add Note" function is (by itself) a killer app.

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April 10, 2005

• Cameraphones as digital reliquaries

• Fear and Violence Accompany a Deadly Virus Across Angola
  

• Lickr: Flickr, without the Flash
  

  Greasemonkey framework employs dhtml, ajax, and other acronyms

Tax Lemmings

With tax time coming up shortly for all Americans, I just can't wait (wait!) for the talking heads of the new variety to bring on all sorts of Tax Lemmings (crazies) extolling the virtues of a Flat Tax or National Sales Tax or Value Added Tax (VAT) or even Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Even though the Flat Tax would unjustly tax those at the bottom of the income spectrum and create a highly regressive tax base; the National Sales tax and the VAT would tax consumption, thus letting the wealthy go freed with their stocks, bonds, and annuities - not to mention making gas, bread, and milk way more expensive (think 30%-50% more expensive); and the AMT which needs some reform (so that it actually taxes the wealthy), the AMT is a fool's errand as a universal tax. If the Tax Lemmings who come on television in the middle of April actually discussed their plans with some level of honesty, then we should listen to them. But they actually deserve the first of April time slot, not the 15th.

But they don't argue their case with genuine logic and data. While all of the Tax Lemmings might hem and haw about the virtues of their tax baby, the one point each and every one of them will bring up to defend their tax proposal is the most idiotic and foolish argument possible. The argument will go like this:

Tax Lemming: American's are tired of the Byzantine forms to fill out and the outrageous amount of time it takes them to file. If we implemented [Insert stupid tax idea here] then Americans wouldn't have to waste so much time doing their taxes.

After that, the Tax Lemmings will trot out some phony statistic about productivity lost due to the amount of hours doing taxes and a similar bunk statistic amount the average amount of time Americans take to fill out their taxes.

In a word: Bull.

It took me exactly 1 hour and 35 minutes to fill out and e-file my taxes today. This didn't count the few hours before I spent researching different ways to increase my deductions - but the time spent was well worth my piece of mind. What makes the Tax Lemming's primary argument foolish is that the IRS has made filing pretty easy. The "Waste of Time" excuse is their primary argument because they don't want to get into how their pet tax would defund the government, overburden small businesses (Sales Tax, VAT) and be a giant check to the wealthy. What gets complicated is trying to figure out how to receive more deductions - and a majority of my friends (and I) see this more as a game. And I suspect many Americans do too.

If the Tax Lemmings want to have an honest conversation about why Farms get huge tax breaks, when the Farmers themselves actually receive a fraction of that savings compared to huge AgraBusiness, then we can have that conversation. Or why did the Republican Congress pass huge tax breaks to the wealthy while us Groundling's have to pour through the books to find tax breaks.

But we won't; the Tax Lemmings will continue to talk about wasted time and then jump off the cliff until tax time next year.

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April 9, 2005

• How can I get some serious sustain out of a ukulele?
  

April 8, 2005

The Cellist

The Cellist, originally uploaded by bdmckeown

Fantastic portrait and poignant story.

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oooooo... a PSP...

oooooo.... a PSP...., originally uploaded by popkidwdw

Awesome composition with multiple Sony (I think) products.

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April 7, 2005

• Man arrested for paying Best Buy bill with $2 bills

• The story of Disney's shell city in Florida: The Reedy Creek Improvement District

  I wish *I* had nice friends in government so *I* could start my own private city

• The final scene from Seven performed by stuffed animals

  "A" for idea, C+ for execution

• Mathowie uses his MS in soil chemistry to review cool Google Maps photos

• Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm
  

  ahhh... the power of an inside joke (must find bonnet website)

April 6, 2005

• Image: Pi Pie
  

  ahhh... geekery at its' finest

• The Mall Goes Undercover - It now looks like a city street
  

• Pretty in Pink 2 is in production

• The Thumb-sized Heart of TK the Cat

  great writing about a sad event

• Star Wars fans won't move line in protest

  eventhough the theatre isn't showing Episode III (and the one down th block is) the Star War nerds won't move

• myGmaps - a Google Maps customizer

  create, save and host custom data files and display them with Google Maps

• Newest (non)controversy from the "Outrage Industry" on Conservative Blogs

• Boldly Live Where Others Won't, or, Your One Stop Gentrification Manual

• Americ-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  warning: heart-felt song turned hilarious video

• On Gentrification and the city: Is it all Bad?

• DIY Player Piano Roll Scanner

  the output is in MIDI, so you can have 100 year old songs as your cell ring

Sky Ride

Sky Ride, originally uploaded by thejacksons

Wait... I've seen this photo before... hmmmmm.

Oh, yeah.

More good Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Photos.

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Artist Trading Cards

ATC 26, originally uploaded by ART NAHPRO

Check out the tag, Collage Kids atc to find all sorts of cool "Artists Trading Cards" which are collaged pieces of art in the size of playing cards. Apparently, this sub-group is trading their physical cards to each other. If this is the case, a whole economy has sprung up inside of Flickr using the tools and constraints at hand.

Here is the Administrative Body/House of Exchange (the group) - think New York Stock Exchange. This exchange is apparently invite only, curiously creating a limited market. It also appears there is a compeating House of Exchange, but the intereaction between the two I can't speak of. (see update for more info) Here are the Rules of Trade, and the "market" is found distributed across Flickr users who have photo sets with the title "ATCs for Collage Kids" and can be found with the tag CollageKidsATC.

Luckily, Snapatorium has graciously responded to some of my (probably inane) questions about the group. She has answered some of my questions, and was generally informative about the Collage Market:

The Grubbykid: How long has this group been trading?

Snapatorium: I posted the rules for the ATCs on March 31.

The Grubbykid: How many cards have switched hands?

Snapatorium: I set it up by using Flickr folders for individual artists and also tags that would show all available and traded cards at one time. ie: CollageKidsATC and CollageKidsATCTraded. I see 70 cards have been traded. I alone have traded 26 or so already so there might be more if members have forgotten to change their tags.

The Grubbykid: Is there any valuation mechanism besides personal taste?

Snapatorium: No value is given to the cards. It is a free exchange, much in the spirit of mail art. You see something you like, you ask for a trade. There is no obligation to trade.

The Grubbykid: How have the 'rules' evolved?

Snapatorium: I just thought it out and made the rules. I like organizing things and knew that there would have to be set rules for it to work correctly. The most important rule is that you must have work to exchange work.

The Grubbykid: Did I exaggerate anything?

Snapatorium: I would not call your article an exaggeration. However, there are 2 small things I'd like to comment on. The Collage Kids group was started by wastedpapiers and myself. Anyone can join and anyone can trade collage ATCs. The other ATC group deals more with drawings and possibly photocopies of their work, but that's beside the point. It was important for me to keep our ATCs strictly limited to collage and to make them original pieces of art. I also wanted to keep the exchange limited to our group so it would not get out of control. I am very much into swapping things - check out my blog. I used to hold small swaps, but have not had time so these cards are filling the void nicely.

So there you go. It is interesting that in such a small group, there is high level of differentiation between collage and line art which seemingly necessitated two different market economies. I am sure that there are some "bridge" members trading in both, but I wonder how many of those "bridge members" there really are.

There is an amazing level of self-organization found inside a group of 100-or so members. I wonder what the long-term survival of this market will be, being a (semi) closed system, with a limited amount of resources (time & cards). But the size of the system probably is big enough to be self-sustaining.

This group is similar the the Squared Circle group, except in Squared Circle members do not trade, but gift their work to the economy. This proto-gift economy then is used as the grist for other notable projects such as the Squared Circle Poster Project and the Squared Circle Buttons. It is quite fascinating to watch the different economies and interactions happening within a fixed framework. I wonder if we could draw some parallels to evolution from this - parallels to economic theories are numerous, but I wonder if there are deeper themes to trawl from Flickr. Being an armchair commentator, I wonder what sort of themes a real economist and sociologists could pull from these groups, and others on Flickr.

This is all so interesting and I wish them luck, and continued artistic excellence.

I would like to again thank Snapatorium for responding to my questions.
Edited on 07 Apr 2005 for clarity.

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Distributed Citizen Journalism

For MP Tom, the doublethink of Backing Blair becomes too much..., originally uploaded by blairwatchproject

With the continued advancement of technology and information distribution, many have heralded citizen-journalists as the next step in the democratization of media. The only problem was how to harness and collect the large amount of data coming from bloggers, photobloggers, and amateur photographers. It is not surprising that American Mainstream media has been slow to grasp the technological change - CNN has a daily 30 minute "Blogger" session where two hosts are seated at a computer and read blogs! That's right, they just surf and read out loud what others are saying - I guess you could call this a distributed TelePrompter. As you could expect, the show is the very definition of inanity wrapped in dullness.

So it is not surprising that European news agencies have been quicker on the uptake than the American Media. Take for example the Guardian Blog's new project, the Blair Watch Project. Users can email photos of Tony Blair or any other Member of Parliament (MP) engaged in campaigning for the May 4th election. The Blair Watch Project uses the online photo-sharing service Flickr to aggregate the stalking photos of politicians. This is an excellent use of Flickr, RSS, and the web joining together small pieces, loosely together in order to create a rich web environment. And to top it off, I posted the above image and this post itself from inside Flickr to my Movable Type-powered website.

See all the photos on Blair Watch Project.

Update 06 Apr 2005
Looks like DCist has implemented a similar strategy for sharing photos by using a central email address like Guardian Blogs. You can see the output here, and while I have a few quibbles with the design, I find this all quite exciting (and the design will imporve with time). I am sure that Jake will be implementing similar features for the rest of the -ist websites soon.

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April 5, 2005

• A Pirate on Campus

• Crazy real-life BattleMech

• Notes on the Nuclear Option: Using Lies to Bolster your Case

• Google Maps: Two Boats

  agreed: google maps is insane

• Examination of the iPod Shuffle innards

Senator Cornyn says violence against judges is understandable

United States Senator John Cornyn (R) of Texas, said the following on the senate floor yesterday:

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN: "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence."
[Senate Floor, 4/4/05]

Here is some commentary and the full transcript, and be sure to watch the video.

So the former District Court judge, former member of the Supreme Court of Texas, and a former Texas Attorney General (full bio) thinks that it is alright to incite violence against judges? Or that the violence of Brian Nichols is understandable? Or the violence which took Chicago Judge Lefkow's mother and husband is alright? What world does the dear Senator live in? When did this happen that it was acceptable to incite violence against the judiciary?

I thought that the Constitution was pretty firm about setting up three distinct branches of government who require, nay, demand equal protection and power. In my constitution it doesn't say anything about killing judges who don't rule in your favor. The writings of the founders our Constitution itself, there is a pretty clear precedent that all three branches share power. This is so that the tyranny of the few (or one) and of the many do not rule the day. Why oh why do we seem to need to send most of the Republican caucus back to remedial U.S. Government? Between this and the Terry Schiavo extra-constitutional mess, it is apparent that the nation's 12th graders hold a better understanding of Constitutional Law than the Mayberry Machiavelli's do.

I await the coming apologists from the conservative side, because I can't wait to see their twisted logic. Matt is right:

Does Senator Cornyn want more people to go about murdering judges? One doubts it. But it seems that he's happy to try and use such incidents to advance his own agenda. Happy to use them, one notes, even though the recent high-profile cases don't seem to actually have a political agenda. His hope -- along, it seems, though less clearly -- with Tom DeLay's is that judges will begin to operate under a cloud of intimidation. They may not like the idea of buckling under to whatever it is Cornyn wants them to do, but Cornyn is making it clear that he's the judges' friends. He doesn't want to see them killed, or maimed, or assaulted. He's trying to save them. Trying to warn them. Warning them that unless they change their ways someone -- someone who has nothing to do with John Cornyn or the Texas cabal running the country, mind you -- just might decide to do something crazy.

This is so much, I don't really want to kill you (judges), but if you keep doing what I don't like, my friends over here might just off 'ya. Which would be a shame, but I'm not going to stop them.

I would also like to remind people that the good Senator is (as Josh puts it) a wholly owned subsidiary of the White House.

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Google Satellite Maps

Google Satellite Maps, originally uploaded by plemeljr

Has anyone seen the new Google Maps? They now have satellite views in addition to maps, which now means that I don't have to use Terra Server if I want to casually see a satellite image.

Just riffing on Mathowie, it is pretty amazing to be able to link to satellite images of places where I have lived: Boston, San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Brooklyn. Cincinnati apparently hasn't been imaged yet, but they are 10 years behind anyway, so no one will notice.

And continuing the massive dork-out, here are some really cool images:

• Moab Desert, Utah
• The Pentagon (which is curiously not pixelated out)
• Fenway Park
• Airplanes on Boston's Logan Airport's runways
• A parade in San Francisco
• Disney World (look at the massive parking lots)
• entry to NORAD
• Black Rock, Utah - you can clearly see the Burning Man encampment
• Grand Canyon
• Cape Canaveral, FL
• Wright Patterson AFB
• Arlington National Cemetary
• Fermilab Colliders
• B-52's taxiing for take-off
• Aircraft Carriers
• Trinity, MN - First test of the Atomic bomb
• Giant Compass Rose @ Edwards AFB
• Hoover Dam
• Airplane Graveyard
• Air Force One's Hanger (At Andrews AFB)
• CIA Headquarters

What would be really amazing if some enterprising hacker combined Google's Satellite view with Amazon.com's Block View so that you can view both the block and the satellite without all of the extra crap that Amazon.com wraps their content with. I took five minutes and did a quick mock-up, showing what this Frankenstein would look like:

Google/Amazon.com Block View combination

Not the prettiest composition, but you get the idea. I actually wish Google would just do what Amazon.com did and buy some SUV's and shoot each block. That way Google can assemble a page which doesn't make your eyes bleed.

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April 4, 2005

• Incubators of theocracy?
  

• Workin' in a Salt Mine, Goin' Down, Down, Down

  Below Detroit, lives a giant salt mine

• On Celebrating Pope John Paul II

• Talking Loudly to the TV Set, and Maybe Getting a Response

  I totally need this (thanks chuck)

• A Critique of the iTunes Interface

• Nice (and humorous) overview of the British Parliamentary system

• Can You Hear Me Now: Ride along with a Verizon Wireless test man

• A Review - Shadow Cities: the untold lives of squatters

April 3, 2005

• Nice roundup of royalty-free (and free) images online
  

• The Nuclear Option is Coming. Are you ready?
  

  a primer on ending the Filibuster

Cherry Trees

Cherry Trees, originally uploaded by muckster

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Cherries are coming. More information pending.

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April 2, 2005

On the Pontiff's Passing

IMG_0132, originally uploaded by mcsixth

Today Pope John Paul II went back to God. May the Catholic Church take this opportunity to celebrate a servant's life - but also choose a new direction for the Church. Check out the surprisingly good Pope Blog. Also check out some remembrances and on the scene photos from a citizen journalist.

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April 1, 2005

• 21 year old Homeless geek sleeps in 42nd Street Starbucks and Kinkos
  

  hauls around desktop computer and 15" monitor around in a shopping cart

• Man recreates the montage from Rocky
  

  a must see, as they say

• A list of most awesomely bad montage (training) songs

• Jake Bronstein (of Road Rules non-fame) plays "Free Willy" with a large fish

• World Exclusive First Look at iTunes Mobile Phone

As Pontiff Turns

I'm not Catholic, I'm close enough (Lutheran), so I can't help but feel sadness for the deteriorating health of Pope John Paul II. CNN states that:

Pope John Paul II's breathing is becoming shallow and several of his major organs -- including his kidneys and heart -- are growing weaker, the Vatican said Friday.

I fundamentally agree with Matt that many of the core beliefs which the Pontiff espoused are not my own, nor a majority of Americans. I was going to compare and contrast the current state of the Pontiff with that of Terri Schiavo, but frankly for the last two or three weeks America has been so focused on death that there is really nothing more to add.

If I can step out of the emotion of the moment and talk about Papal Succession, I find it a very interesting topic. Once the Pope has passed, there will be nine days of mourning. In that time the world's Cardinals will have 14 days to gather in the Vatican in order to convene the Collage of Cardinals in order to choose a new Pope. This involves locking up the 123-or so Cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel where it takes 2/3rds of those assembled to anoint a new Pope. Oh, and there are smoke screens too: after each vote the paper ballots are burned and chemicals are added to change the color of the smoke depending on the outcome of the vote. Black smoke means that the Church still does not have a Pope, and white smoke means that a Pope has been chosen. What always fascinates me about this process, is that I always though that each Pope had to be a direct decedent of St. Peter (or was it St. Paul?). I could be wrong. For a full flavor of the process, check out this Time Magazine article.

Now, besides the machinations which will go on behind closed doors (anyone been to your Church's Council Meeting?), whomever is anointed Pope will obviously alter a good bit of the political world. The difference between Cardinal Walter Kasper or Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re or Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos is immense and will have an immediate affect on US politics due (in part) because American Catholics have become a constituency of swing voters. For more discussion, see this MetaFilter thread.

I also hope the Prophecy of the Popes doesn't occur, but that is pretty selfish.

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McDonald's Can't Take A Joke

Improv Everywhere mission: "McDonald's Bathroom Attendant"

UPDATE - Jack Ass Day strikes again (see update).

We have linked to Improv Everywhere before (especially their great Look Up More improv at Union Square), so it saddens me that McDonald's is suing Improv Everywhere for Defamation of Character. This doesn't appear to be an April Fool's Joke, but who knows. It seems a pretty elaborate amont of effort for an April Fool's joke. UPDATE: Here is a news item which raises the April Fools's slant, and it seems this is legit. As an aside, this is exactly why I have April Fool's Day: the whole day I have to double check everything that is said online and I only have so much time in the day (and I'm lazy).

Here is an email I received about the situation:

Improv Everywhere is currently being sued for defamation of character by the McDonald's Corporation. At this time, our lawyers have advised us to remove all content related to "McDonald's Bathroom Attendant" from our site to prevent the possibility of further litigation.

I remembered reading on their website about the "McDonald's Bathroom Attendant" mission, and I couldn't understand how what transpired was could entail "defamation of character" to McDonald's. I don't know if this helps their cause, but Yahoo has a cached copy of the mission, and Improv Everywhere in fact improved the condition of the McDonald's bathroom. I don't know of any laws about impersonating a McDonald's employee, and I'm not a lawyer, but anyone can sue for anything. Hopefully a judge can throw this out with prejudice (so that it can't be refiled) and Improv Everywhere can get back to great public improvisation.

If you want to help with the legal costs, here is additional information:

We are organizing a live concert benefit to take place on Friday, May 20. This event will help us raise funds to pay the hefty legal fees we are incurring. If you have any connections with any musical acts or comedy acts that would be willing to perform (without pay) at this event, please let us know via the contact page on our site.

UPDATE 01 APR 2005
OK, so I was right to be skeptical. According to the MeFi geek squad, it was an April Fools Joke:

McDonald's has dropped their lawsuit against Improv Everywhere on the grounds that today is the first of April.

Sincere thanks to those who so kindly offered to help us out by performing, donating time, or contacting McDonald's. We don't deserve friends like you.

We're sorry. We can't help being April Foolers."

What a lame April Fools joke - for people who do such great Improvs to do such a crappy "joke" is just infuriating.

Just proving my point that 1 April is Jackass Day on the internet.

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