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This is the permanent home of all the posts I wrote in September 2006. 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 August 2006's posts and October 2006's posts.
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September 29, 2006

• Peter Eisenman likes "watching pornography or reading erotic literature"

  presented with no commentary, whatsoever

September 28, 2006

• Google Maps reveal world's largest earwig (via)
  

• International Border Volleyball

  playing volleyball over the 20 foot high fence between Mexico & the US

September 27, 2006

• Video: What the President, did and did not do prior to September 11th

  history will be very clear on this matter...

• We are losing much of the history of the twentieth century because the copyright industries are more litigious than ever

• NY Pol Pirro Wanted Kerik to Spy on Hubby

  Not so good to have an AG candidate illegally spying on her husband - happy birthday...

• Joe Lieberman: Terrorists were in Iraq before the U.S. invaded, and "that's a reason we went in."

  this is so factually wrong, I can't understand

September 26, 2006

• I've linked to this before: Trailer: The Bridge; opens October, 2007????

• On New York State "Justice Courts:" In Tiny Courts of N.Y., Abuses of Law and Power

  foolish anachronism...

September 25, 2006

• If you yell, "Fore!" for a wayward golf ball, what do you yell for an incoming javelin (this photo is magnitudes more cringe inducing)

• Pack a starter pistol (or other weapon) with Expensive Cameras in Checked Luggage to ensure it doesn't get stolen

  strange days we live in...

• Ask a Track Bike

The Decemberists: The Crane Wife

Decemberists!, originally uploaded by raygan

What you should be listening to, now: The Decemberists - Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) off of their major-label debut album, The Crane Wife (mini-review - pre-order). An allegorical concept-album revolving around the Japanese tale of the The Crane Wife, this album might not sit well with all their cadre of hipster fans, I can't stop playing this album.

The track which sealed the deal is Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then), a dialogue between a (presumed) Confederate Civil War soldier and his love miles away. From first love to death on the Battlefields of Manassas (photo, the interplay between Colin and Laura Veirs is amazing. Just listen to the lyrics:

When I was a girl how the hills of Oconee
Made a seam to hem me in
There at the fair when our eyes caught, careless
Got my heart right pierced by a pin

But oh, did you see all the dead of Manassas
All the bellies and the bones and the bile
Though I lingered here with the blankets barren
And my own belly big with child

Go and listen to the song (via Parking Lot Cities, and go and buy the album.

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September 24, 2006

• Annie Leibovitz: "A Photographer's Life: 1990-2005" & synopsis

• Video: So You Wanna See TOUGH?

  made-for-viral-distribution video, but funny

• Video: Ben Folds covers "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service with found objects (via)

September 21, 2006

• Requiem for a Dead Powerbook g4 (via)

• Weird Al - White and Nerdy - orginal song by chamillionaire (who has Weird Al's song on his MySpace) (via)
  

Pro Torture Republicans

I cannot believe I'm writing this; I am beyond words.

Your Republican Congress and your Republican President just agreed that torturing and allowing the indefinite imprisonment of nearly anyone without habeas corpus review should become the law of the land. This language would effectively end the Geneva Conventions effect on US law and conduct.

Torture!

I can't fucking believe it - TORTURE!

Democrats have to make a stand, and make a stand now. Who wants to vote for torture? Who wants to vote to end over 200+ years of law and order?

Democrats have to filibuster this bill; it is wrong, it is evil; it is exactly what America is not about.

We fought the Nazi's and the Communist's without trashing our laws; our forefathers fought a heroic battle against the strongest military and superpower in the world over habeas corpus and basic human rights.

Now in another time of need, those who most cynically abuse power are on the precipice of altering the bedrock of our values and laws.

Call your Senator, and ask them if they are pro-torture.

Later: Here's a rundown in laymens terms of what the "compromise" entailed:

And so it all fits together nicely for someone who wanted to, say, authorize torture (though not “torture” of course, which is very different). The CIA can devise interrogation methods by working around the language in the compromise bill. If there are any doubts, the President can say that he determines that these practices are consistent with the language of the Geneva Conventions. And just to be safe, the Geneva Convention may be completely banned as a source of rights in court. And just to be super-safe about that new pesky McCain language, the penalties for “cruel or degrading” punishment are to be enforced by, yes, the President.

McCain folded like a deck of cards. So much for independence.

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September 20, 2006

September 19, 2006

• Tales of the City: Dog on the Track

  when a dog runs on the rails, the train slows down

Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

The Scurvy Pirates, originally uploaded by International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Arrh, me maties! Let's have three cheers for International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ye shall see many a picture from many a Flickr group on this fine day.

So when you se' yer mate, say "Arrh!"

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September 18, 2006

• Good write-up & photos of the American Sign Museum

Panoramic Map of New York

Panoramic Map of New York uploaded by Eightface

Check out this cool World's Fair NYC Panoramic map which Dave Kellam found.

Two points:

1. Look over to where the Lower East Side is, see anything funny?
2. Look to where Greenpoint, Brooklyn is; see anything wrong, or mislabeled?

I love old maps! (via curbed)

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September 17, 2006

• Avi Rubin: My day at the polls - Maryland primary '06

  using fully electronic voting machines without any paper trail is asking for elections to be stolen

September 15, 2006

• Congress Rejects Aid For Sick 9/11 Responders

  for shame - what heppened to, "We're all New Yorkers, now?"

• Fund-Raising Teamwork Saves a New York Football Rivalry

• A sruvey of War Effort posters through history

• Media ownership study ordered destroyed

  your Republican Congress and President at work

September 14, 2006

• Interesting back and forth (see Frank Rich column) concerning a photo taken during 9/11 of five "relaxed" New Yorkers (see photo) "sunbathing" while the towers burn; read one of the photo's subject's response and the photographer Thomas Hoepker's response

• The MisShapes are cooler, and hotter, than you (well, until they got written up in the New York Times)

  Comparing them to Warhol is annoying, but if you've never heard of them well, you aren't as cool as they are - check out their Myspace Page, website, and Gawker coverage (Princess Coldstare, heh)

• Turn this up: "Janice, I've Fallen! I'm Stuck! Help me! This hurts! This Hurts! This Hurts!"
  

Stormtrooper v Redshirt

Don't point that at me, originally uploaded by tyler999

Please answer this question, in the time alotted:

What would happen if an Imperial Stormtrooper and a Redshirt got in a firefight?

Knowing that:

1. it is a redshirt's destiny to die quickly at the hands of the enemy
2. Stormtroopers simply wouldn't be able to kill them due to their poor combat skills and the Stormtrooper effect

You have five days to come up with an answer.

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September 13, 2006

• How Not to Act on J-Date

  listen to the audio - somewhat Internet-time dated, but funny nonetheless

• Military Challenge Coins are representations of affiliation, support or patronage to the unit minted on the coin

Uchronia: Big Pile of Sticks

untitled by herby_fr

Uchronia was a giant sculpture composed of 2"x4" dimensional lumber during Burning Man which was 200'-0" wide and 50'-0" tall and assembled on site.

Then burned.

Check out more photos of Uchronia, Uchronia on fire, Video, and thousands of Burning Man photos (tag: Burning Man).

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September 12, 2006

September 11, 2006

• Photo Essay: this Bolivian prison is more small town than jail, with no guards and a range of cells to rent

September 10, 2006

• "What happens if you take a guy who's never been to New York and make him a cab driver?"

  too bad this is a VW Rabbit promo

• Chad Vader - Night Shift Manager (Episode 3), also see Episode 1 and Episode 2.
  

• Google Calculator allows length conversion from other units of measurement into Smoots - what's a Smoot? (via)

• President Bush, One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror - oops: Senate Intelligence Committee has found no evidence of links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.

  read the Senate Intel Committee Report (pdf) for more information

• President Bush lets the Bin Laden Trail turn to 'Stone Cold'

  Over 2 years since a credible tip! Miserable Failure.

Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain

Check out this YouTube video, shamelessly ripped off from Wisconsin Medical Society concerning Stephen Wiltshire:

As a child, Stephen was mute and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London, a school for children with special needs, where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line and reveal a natural innate artistry.

Aged eight, Stephen started drawing cityscapes after the effects of an earthquake (all imaginary) as a result of being shown photographs of earthquakes in a book at school. He also became obsessed with cars and illustrations of cars at this time (his knowledge of them is encyclopaedic) and he drew most of the major London landmarks.

I believe I posted about him before, but check out this video to see his amazing abilities:

You can buy his drawings and books on his website.

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September 8, 2006

• Sex Baiting Prank on Craigslist Affects Hundreds

  I always wondered why this doesn't happen so often

• Social interaction on the web links smorgasbord! Rewarding Users for Contributing Data, Privacy and transparency, and Face-off: The blank faces at Flickr and 43Things.

September 7, 2006

• On the question of 'Black or White,' the answer is clear

• ZeFrank Speaks at TED

• 12 Rules for Marriage

• Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory

On Unity

Zefrank

I agree with Ze:

So in the last week, President Bush has called on Americans to use the five-year anniversary of September 11th as a chance to recall the unity that we felt in its aftermath.

It was a pretty amazing unity. We were certainly bonded together by fear but also by a kind of hopefulness.

It was a hopefulness from the experience of the amazing strength that we have when we decide to help each other.

That unity was not about the government.

It was a shared determination among us to make things better.

The President seems to think that "unity" implies supporting him and his policies.

In my personal opinion, the President has no right to attach himself to that part of our experience.

He already had his shot.

While every other aspect of 9/11 is defiled this Monday, let us at least keep intact the memory of what that unity meant to us.

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Maps as Avatars of the City

Interesting story from the New York Times on The Great Subway Map Wars:

One day not long ago, in a sunlit apartment on the Upper West Side, John Tauranac could be found examining a large, taped-together draft of a subway map.
[...]
The map also did something that present-day New Yorkers take for granted. It picked out parks and islands, labeled airports, and identified neighborhoods in blue type. In other words, it showed many features of aboveground New York - just as the M.T.A. map does, with its faint street grid, its bridges, train tracks and cemeteries.

Mr. Tauranac's latest effort is also a potent reminder that one of the stormiest battles involving New York's self-image involved neither development nor political leadership, but what would seem the most mundane of issues: the look of the city’s subway map.

This is a story about the overreach of Modernism (as in Corbusier) and how a movement became an aesthetic. The above graphic shows three phases of the New York City Subway map, from top to bottom: Unified 1939 map, Vignelli's 1972 map, and the present-day map (pdf). I ask a simple question: which one would you like to use each and every day?

Vignelli's 1972 map is, contrary to prevailing thought, an atrocity. The city is not a machine. Some have commented upon the design as ...a marvelous conceptual map, and it was easy to read. It was a tool for navigating the subways, although not one for navigating the city streets. I take exception to the first point, and agree with the second. Vignelli's map is a put-on of Harry Beck's London Tube Map which disregards London's geography for a "rational" map. Vignelli's map completely disregards New York's strange historical accident of a subway system in addition to New York City's unique geography.

Case in point: who thinks it is a good idea to have both local and express stations - the third most important piece of information after line number/letter and direction - designated by the same symbol?

This flaw is a wholly separate problem than Vignelli's strange contortion of the landscape to fit his machine. Besides Chicago, New York City is distinctly defined by the gridiron; besides the effect on Manhattan by the Commissioner's Plan of 1811, the grid is a huge component of Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, albeit in multiple overlays and intersections. One's conception of New York City is hard to disengage from the geography. Michael Beirut makes exactly this point: ...a lot of Manhattanites could tell you authoritatively how long it would take to walk from Fifth and 28th to Seventh and 44th. So the geographic discrepancies in the Vignelli map, which are no more than those you find in lots of subway maps around the world — they’re just glaring.

While the Unified 1939 map showing both subway and the extensive elevated lines is a charming but confusing failure at information presentation, it is more successful at its' job than Vignelli's map. And the current map (pdf) will not win design awards, it is a clear and concise diagram of the subway which lives inside the context of the city.

Clearly, today's subway map is easier to use than previous maps. While not the spartan tabla rasa of Vignelli's 1972 map, today's map reflects reality and the city. Vignelli's map is the repudiation of the messy life of urban living. However, life is not a geometrically pure existence, New York City even less so. By distilling and warping away the actual geography of the city and its' connected vitality, Vignelli isolated the city from the people, much like Corbusier's Ville Contemporaine (1922) which envisioned three million people living in high rise filing cabinets.

It is interesting that Vignelli's turning away from the city is during the exact period when the city was dying and was told to Drop Dead. Urbanism was thought to be dead, and what purported to be Modernism was springing up all around New York: World Trade was going up on Radio Row, Lincoln Center invaded the middle class Upper West Side, and the Bronx was burning (read the excellent book).

While parts of the city have become Disney, and it is increasingly hard to survive in a city already a playground for the rich, I for one, am quite happy to not be living in Vignelli's cubic wasteland.

For more information, check out NYC Subway's historical map collection, a history of NYC Government Issued Maps, and compare New Jersey Transit's map.

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September 5, 2006

September 4, 2006

• Hijacking 9/11 History

  how the ABC movie distorts the truth

• Katrina: guy who saved 200 with stolen boat sued by boat's owner

• Take the D Train to Cannoli Heaven

• Crocodile Hunter killed by a stingray barb through the heart

September 3, 2006

• Question: Electric Eel powerplant, why not?

• Andre Agassi, a class act to the end, finishes his carreer at the US Open

  losing gracefully, Agassi gave one of the more heartfelt goodbyes in sport

• Multiplayer Game Of The Year

  hint: you sweat a lot

Doll: Off Target

This Franklin Roosevelt doll seems to be a bit off... wonder what is wrong... (via)

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September 1, 2006

• Michael Gondry’s three-minute drive across America

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