Monday, 25 February 2008
learning from louisville
Learning from Louisville
Promise and Betrayal, by John Gilderbloom and Ron Mullins Promise and
Betrayal, by John Gilderbloom and Ron Mullins.
Last year's National Trust for Historic Preservation conference was
held in Louisville, Kentucky. I went out a couple days before the
conference and was graciously taken around a number of interesting
housing projects by Professor John Gilderbloom of the University of
Louisville. Some were projects initiated by the Sustainable Urban
Neighborhoods program of the University of Louisville (a program which
Dr. Gilderbloom started) in some of the more economically challenged
parts of the city, and others were stops on the AIA house tour, which
happened to occur the day before the conference started.
I've mentioned in the past that one of my major gleanings from poking
around Louisville for a week was that the city-county merger that
occured there, merging the City of Louisville and the County of
Jefferson into one governmental entity, is great for balancing tax
revenues and perhaps services, but has nothing to do with putting the
brakes on sprawl. Other steps are needed. (Rebalancing tax revenues
between the suburbs and the center city is a big part of the argument
by Myron Orfield's work on regional planning.)
Louisville has plenty of currently empty land in the core, yet large
subdivisions (inlcuding the new urbanist development Norton Commons)
are being built 10-20 miles from the city center.
Dr. Gilderbloom has just published a book about his experience linking
the University of Louisville to housing production and neighborhood
stabilization activities in the Russell neighborhood. It's discussed
in this article, "Book tells of U of L ties with inner city:
Co-authors analyze Russell redevelopment." When the SUN program
started, they built and sold houses for less than $70,000. Ten years
later, these houses have doubled in price, and today houses are being
built at market rates.
According to the article: "Promise and Betrayal" mainly recaps the
10-year initiative to revitalize Russell. But it is dense with
academic facts and not light reading -- 215 pages, six of them
scholarly references, in addition to name and subject indexes.
But Gilderbloom and Mullins make the case that few institutions of
higher learning apply their knowledge and resources directly to the
problems of poverty and housing in their midst. Thus, the reference to
"Betrayal" in the title. They write, "Traditionally, universities
avoid substantive involvement in inner cities because success is
difficult. Yet if universities are so knowledgeable, then one wonders
why many surrounding neighborhoods of those institutions are filled
with hopelessness and despair. In ten years of community building in
Louisville and elsewhere, we found that most academics fail to
address, much less solve, inner-city problems."
It sounds like an important book that I need to add to my reading
list.
On Dr. Gilderbloom's tour (coincidentally held in conjunction with his
graduate level planning course on housing and community development)
while we were going around the Russell neighborhood, which is typical
of urban neighborhoods in weak real estate markets--many many empty
lots (but I will say, for a "bad" neighborhood it was a lot cleaner
than the streets in a lot of neighborhoods in DC), the result of
putative attempts at urban clearance and renewal that never really got
going (Alas, I did not then have a digital camera, so I don't have any
photos)--we ran into Argie Dale, a local radio entrepreneur who took
up development, in part spurred on by the SUN efforts. He talked to us
about his development efforts, which have also spurred others. (I will
say that his very large house has some suburban elements, including a
prominent driveway and a fence. Plus the area wasn't fully
"sidewalked.")
Developer Argie Dale, Louisville, Kentucky Developer Argie Dale built
a 5,200-square-foot home in the Russell neighborhood for his family,
prompting similar requests. (Photo by David. C. Burton, Special to the
Louisville Courier-Journal)
The historic Trolley Barn Complex in the heart of the Russell
neighborhood--named for Harvey Clarence Russell, a distinguished Black
educator who lived in Louisville in the 1920's--is being converted
into the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage. The under
construction site was the location of the African-American Heritage
Preservation reception during the conference.
This article also from the Courier-Journal, "Urban living guides
city's housing plan. Report shows needs changing; home developers to
be courted," discusses new plans for housing development in the core
of the city.
From the article:
Mayor Jerry Abramson is launching a major initiative to rebuild older
neighborhoods and steer home developers toward more condominiums,
townhouses and row houses. The reason is simple, Abramson said:
Louisville, like the rest of the nation, is undergoing a major
demographic shift. Baby boomers are retiring and no longer need large
suburban homes. Younger people -- especially those marrying later and
forgoing children -- are choosing to live in urban areas. "It's a new
day and a new way," said Bruce Traughber, secretary of the metro
government's Cabinet for Community Development. Some of the changes,
such as the city working with homebuilders to encourage them to build
in urban neighborhoods, will begin immediately.
This is the first of a series of articles in the Courier-Journal about
the city-county government's new strategy for revitalizing core city
neighborhoods. I'll have to go back and dig up these articles.
There's a lot more going on in Louisville than you may imagine.
There's quite an arts and culture scene, and amazing buildings,
although the preservation community has suffered some defeats. It's
also close to Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky, which has
a great historic preservation program, and the state capital,
Frankfort. Kentucky's State Historic Preservation program and the Main
Streets program are best practices examples.
1.velocitycover_2004.09.29 Old Louisville is an amazing neighborhood,
Sunday, 24 February 2008
2006_08_01_archive
The final session at the 2007 AAG meeting I am co-organising is on
Software and Space. This is being put together with Matt Zook and Rob
Kitchin and has already received a good amount of interest. The CFP is
available as a pdf.
----
Call for papers - 2007 Association of American Geographers Annual
Conference.
17-21 April 2007, San Francisco, California, USA.
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/
Software and Space
Session organisers
Martin Dodge, Geography, University of Manchester
Rob Kitchin, NIRSA, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Matthew Zook, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky
Unpacking the automatic production of spaces
Over the past thirty years, the practices of everyday life have become
increasingly infused with and mediated by software. Whatever the task
- domestic living, working, consuming, travelling or communicating -
software increasingly makes a difference to how everyday life takes
place. Software is embedded into objects and systems as a means to
enhance and manage usage and is pivotal in linking together disparate
and distributed infrastructures. It also enables new and refined
processes through the generation, storage, profiling, screening and
communication of data about individuals, objects, and transactions.
Importantly, software has profound spatial effects, both through the
automatic production of space that generates new spatialities (Thrift
and French, 2002; Dodge and Kitchin, 2005a) and the creation of
software-sorted (Graham, 2005) or machine readable (Dodge and Kitchin,
2005b) geographies that alter the nature of access and
governmentality.
Given that the AAG meeting in 2007 will take place in the San
Francisco Bay the central node in the design and promulgation of
software it seems an apposite place to initiate a wider ranging
discussion on the role of software in the production of space.
Building on previous research concerned primarily with the
disciplinary effects of software-enabled technologies in the
govermentality of spaces of transportation, communication and
consumption, these sessions aim to move beyond seeing code solely as a
force of control. Consequently, we seek papers examining the
productive capability of software to reformulate collective life and
enhance individual's spatiality in creative, playful, empowering ways.
We seek papers that report empirically-informed analysis that unpack
the `automatic production of space' (Thrift and French, 2002) in terms
of people's daily experience living within (and increasing living
though) coded environments. It is hoped that the sessions will draw
together researchers from Geography, Sociology, Anthropology,
Communications, Media Studies and allied disciplines.
The goal of the sessions is, therefore, to conceptualize software
through its effects on space and social life at an individual level
rather than technical papers on particular software applications
(e.g., work in applied GIS) or economic geography analysis of the
software industry.
Some possible themes:
We seek theoretically informed papers that can report empirical
research within the following broad themes:
# Code and Creativity: Software's ability to manipulate digital media
is crucial to the emergence of `mash-ups' (ad-hoc combination and
hybrid re-use), `modding' (informal user modifications to improve
performance) and `remixability' (Manovich, 2005) that some herald as a
new wave of popular entertainment and decentred knowledge production.
How and in what ways does software enable new forms of individual
creativity? How is software making new spaces of play possible, new
means of human expression and facilitating new places for artistic and
craft practices?
# Code and Memories: People are generally only vaguely aware of the
extent to which coded objects, systems and environments are becoming
aware of them, and increasingly capturing routine interactions and
activity. What might the folding together of biological memory, shared
social memories and externalised digital memories mean for day to day
life? What benefits might such augmented memory bring, would never
forgetting events and details be a welcome improvement to individual's
lives?
# Code and Well-being: In what ways and to what degree might
software-enabled practices and spaces influence our well-being? Will
more continuous monitoring of health status via personalised software
systems be advantageous to well-being? Does the automation,
flexibility and the sense of a speeded-up world create new feelings of
empowerment or fears of powerlessness? How does software relate to the
mind, body and spirit of individuals in the so-called digital age?
# Code and Risks: The services and spaces of everyday living
increasingly depend on software to work. Most of the time software
`just works', yet this dependency is creating many new risks for
individuals, particularly in terms of complexity, and the impact of
unforeseen and hard to diagnose and fix problems with software. This
code complexity is also opening up new means for criminal activity and
malicious damage that can directly impact individuals (such as
computer viruses, phishing and identity theft). How do people manage
such risks, threats and fears?
# Code and Resistance: Much of the application of software by state
and corporate actors is about enhancing the effectiveness of existing
surveillance and automating the regulation of access. In what ways is
software enabling new capabilities for spatial governmentality? Also,
it is apparent that software intended to discipline also opens up many
novel types of resistance and new sites for subversive activities that
can disrupt the power relationships in quite surprising ways. We
invite contributions which explore the scope and spatiality of
alternative, subversive and underground hacking of code that
challenges established power relations and jump-scales to effect
political change.
# Code and Histories: Can our understanding of the contemporary
effects of the automation of spaces and activities by software be
improved by looking back into the past? Does an understanding of the
histories of code, by untangling how people have lived with
information processing technologies (including the pre-digital era of
analogue machinery), give useful insights into the future?
# Code Fieldwork: In terms of research methodologies, what ways can
software's effects be best studied, given that they are hidden in
arcane algorithms, and are often locked into privatised micro-spaces
and commercially-secret applications. In particular, how can software
be studied empirically as forms of individual practice that bring
spaces into being in contingent ways, rather than being analysed
through its representation form (written text - the source code - or
screen interfaces)?
----
Proposed papers in the form of a title and short abstract (250 words
maximum) should be submitted to Martin Dodge
(m.dodge@manchester.ac.uk) by 15th September 2006.
Further details on the paper requirements and registration for the AAG
meeting are at
http://www.aag.org/annualmeetings/SF2007/call4papers.cfm
We are also planning to organise a special issue in a leading human
geography journal on these themes and authors of full papers from the
session will be invited to participate.
posted by martin at 11:06 AM 0 comments
Posting a book chapter on Virtual Places to be published in the
2006_08_01_archive
Congratulations to STS-CXXI
Just a slightly belated congratulations to the crew of STS-CXXI, which
boldly sailed to ISS on July IV, MMVI, with a crew of VII on a mission
lasting XII days, XVIII hourss, XXXVII minutes, and LIV seconds.
Just another shining example of what western civilisation can do, and
why we are ultimately superior to those "other" people who have
adopted the concept of "0" and the arabic numbering system.
2007_04_01_archive
Spring
Spring in North Carolina:
It's almost obscene how much opulent springiness surrounds us here in
North Carolina at every turn these days. Not that I'm complaining...
posted by Kash @ 3:42 PM |
A Tax Cut Parable
I like the parable that has been discussed by Greg Mankiw, PGL, and
Mark Thoma in recent days. I think it's actually a great way to take a
look at the Bush tax cuts, and their effect on people of different
incomes.
Based on the actual distribution of federal income taxes in the US,
and the effects of the Bush tax cuts (estimated by the CBPP, available
here), I've redone the numbers in the parable that Greg first related
to reflect reality in the US. The problem, as PGL points out, is that
in actuality the Bush tax cuts didn't lower the bill that the people
in the bar must pay down to $80; it was effectively just an agreement
to pay $80 of the $100 tab now, and pay the rest later (read Greg's
post for the original parable in its entirety).
So here's how it really happens in the bar when the Bush
administration "cuts" taxes:
The first and second men (the poorest) used to pay $0.20. Now they
pay only $0.15 (a savings of $0.05, or 23%). They must then pay an
addtional $0.16 somewhere down the road.
The third and fourth men (the next poorest) used to pay $1.25. Now
they pay only $0.90 each (an immediate savings of $0.35, or 28%),
but must pay an additional $0.46 each later.
The fifth and sixth men used to pay $4.05 each. Now they pay only
$3.25 each (an immediate savings of $0.80, or 20%), but must pay an
additional $1.00 each later.
The seventh and eighth men used to pay $8.70 each. Now they pay
only $7.10 each (an immediate savings of $1.60, or 18%), but must
pay an additional $1.90 each later.
The ninth man (the second-richest) used to pay $15.60. Now he pays
only $12.45 (an immediate savings of $3.15, or 20%), but must pay
an additional $3.10 later.
Finally, the tenth man (the richest, who had an income about ten
times that of the fifth man, and five times that of the seventh
man) used to pay $56.00. Now he pays only $45.00 (an immediate
thanksgiving in florida
Thanksgiving in Florida
A couple of days ago Alli and I flew down to Florida, in order to
celebrate Thanksgiving with her family as we usually do. My family
doesn't really celebrate Thanksgiving, plus it's nice to come to
Florida just as Boston as getting cold.
The Thanksgiving dinner was great, as always. Most of the family was
there, and my friends Ilana and Dan also joined us, which was a cool
bonus.
We've already been to Siesta Beach, a gorgeous white sand spot,
although the water is a bit chilly for swimming. It's definitely
doable, and people were in there, but we were just hanging out.
Tomorrow it's back to Boston, where the smell of winter was in the air
before we left. I like winter, though, as it tends to boost my
productivity.
last nights sdm dinner
Last night's SDM dinner...
... went pretty well, I think. We had 8-10 people, and most of them
were "new faces" in that they were people outside my cohort and ones
who haven't showed up in the past. Given that it was a busy school
night for current SDM students, I think it was a pretty good turnout.
Maybe, just maybe, there's enough interest to rekindle this informal
monthly networking event.
I used Facebook Events to organize this dinner, and it worked well.
The interface is simple and easy to use. Invitations and reminders
were delivered reliably. The RSVP mechanism is simple. Unlike
eventbrite.com, Facebook allows people to change their mind and
respond differently over time.
I made the event public, so it showed up on the MIT network events
calendar within Facebook. This turned out to be a blessing, as at
least two people who were not in my original invitation list found the
event and joined us. Not coincidentally, these two were new SDM'08
students: welcome aboard, Rob and Jeremy!
Of course, some of the usual party animals also showed up ;) It was
nice to see Sorin is back in town, and I hadn't seen Rehan, Rajiv, or
Anand in many months.
So Facebook Events worked well enough to retain, and turnout was good
enough to keep me motivated to continue organizing these dinners. If
you're not on Facebook already, chances are you will miss out on these
dinners. Join Facebook, and then join the SDM Group on Facebook.
2007_07_01_archive
A Sunday afternoon ramble around the ramparts of authority
I hadn't taken much note of Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur.
From the reviews and blogs, I had assumed the book was just another
liberal apologia for turning back the tide of democracy. It's been on
the fast track to the top of review pages and radio shows like Nick
Cohen, Melanie Philips, Clive James and Christopher Hitchens in recent
months. Hence his appearance on Radio 3's Arts podcast last week,
which is where I heard his creepy, Clive Barkeresque mid-Atlantic
drawl. I had assumed right. But I don't wish to counter his arguments.
One need only read James Marcus' "tiny codicil" to his LA Times review
to realise the book contains more than lazy assumptions.
Marcus himself is an argument against Keen. Do readers afford
authority to his blog because he also writes for the LA Times; does
the blog diminish the authority of the LA Times? Keen's book is a
product of this two-way question of authority. He wants to raise it
for digital media only because he's content with the authority that
has already buried the question. The book's subtitle (which Marcus
calls "faintly hysterical") is revealing: "How the Democratization of
the Digital World Is Assaulting Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our
Values". It reminds me of those newspaper liberals putting on a
serious face and asking: "Should we bomb Iran?". As if the decision
had anything to do with us. The use of the word is there to corral
readers into a false community. As if "culture" was in our possession.
What would it mean for it not to be in our possession? Answer: the
kind of anxiety Keen is keen to feed and exploit.
Narrowing the focus to literary culture, most books corral without
raising their voice. A book gains authority through its mere bookness.
But all writing appropriates authority. The trick it allows is
generally overlooked, taken for granted. In everyday life, this is
necessary. We don't sit around discussing newspaper articles as
newspaper articles. We discuss the subject. We discuss the article's
relation to an issue of reality. We might even question its veracity.
But when a novel is celebrated, there is a curious vaccum. If we
celebrate it for its existence as a novel - by definition, a literary
book, existing solely as itself - what exactly are we celebrating? One
can leap for the subject matter - post-apocalyptic USA for example -
and praise it for insights into current social and political issues.
But this isn't why anyone reads a novel. It's always a sop to social
progress and education. Nabokov rightly called such readings
"childish". Then there's celebrating it for being "a thumping good
read", keeping the reader from enduring the real world for a few
precious and harmless hours. But so would sleeping, having a bath or
watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3. So why put a novel on a cultural
pedestal? Instead we might tell how we luxuriated in the precision and
beauty of the novel's prose. But is this anymore culturally-refined
than a fresh pillow, the fragrance of apricot creme or Keira
Knightley's bone structure? What is it that gives a novel a unique
cultural authority?
No wonder genre fans are perplexed at the way brilliantly-orchestrated
detective novels or horror tales or SF tetralogies fail to win the
attention and respect given to Man Booker or Pulitzer winners. Last
week, Matthew Cheney made a despairing attack on those who blame the
failure on cultural commissars. He argues that there is no "literary
establishment" keeping SF in its place; there is no "literary elite"
scheming to promote Cormac McCarthy without giving similar credit to
speculative fiction; there is no "literati" and it doesn't "dictate
what books are in and out of the literary canon". All true but, by the
same token, literature doesn't exist either. The paranoia behind the
claims of Cheney's essay writer is evidence of a faith in the literary
that is unable to appreciate its uncertain status. I'm sure the same
"literary establishment" shares that faith, otherwise it wouldn't
promote as "literary" deeply conservative writers. There really isn't
a great deal of difference between genre writers and those who write
sentences like "Between Edward and Florence, nothing happened
quickly". Supreme confidence in the form is present in both. Literary
fiction, the real thing, is full of doubt and ambivalence yet still
manages to find a way to move forward.
Ellis Sharp is right to guess that I was unaware of the interview with
the author of the sentence quoted above. In it he expresses gratitude
to various US authors like Roth, Mailer and Bellow for showing "formal
ambition, real sense of engagement, not cramped by modernism, really
democratic in outlook" [sic] as opposed to Europe which "was still
stifled by modernism, a rather detached form of elitist writing". It's
always wonderful to discover writers who set one free. It's odd then
that his own novels have remained so detached and stifling.
It's got to be a genuine freedom of course. One can't jettison doubt
like an emigrant on Ellis Island leaving Europe behind. It has to be
more like the freedom of Artur Sammler. Bellow is a great example of
finding a way between the crippling self-consciousness of the exile
and the promise of animal freedom, without denying either - a great
modernist in other words. McEwan's contrast is as deceptive as his
liberalism. Significantly, he doesn't name the detached elitists of
Europe. Could he mean the great modernists still writing when he was
studying at UEA: Nabokov, Bernhard and Beckett? One wonders if he was
talking to a European journalist he'd say something different; praise
the dazzling lucidity of Handke for example (see the rear cover of the
UK hardback of Absence). The triumph of European modernism was to find
a way to speak after the cataclysms of the 20th Century. The threat of
being stifled was very high. It's no surprise that some took refuge in
detachment. But you've got to do the filtering yourself, create your
own personal canon, become your own literary establishment, form your
own literary elite and then help others to do the same. It sets you
free. There isn't much sense of community though, unless you count the
internet.
at 6:38 PM 1 comments
August 2007 June 2007 Home
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Book buying
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2006_04_01_archive
ADAM on the eve
There is no true editorship when everything is prosperous. It is
the essence of a literary magazine's life to be always uncertain of
tomorrow... to run the gamut of monthly printers' bills and yet to
be determined never to give up the fight.
So said Miron Grindea, editor of ADAM International Review from 1936
to 1995.
I remember reading about this publication and its extraordinary
contents and contributors, and I once saw a crumbling collection of
half a dozen of them in a secondhand bookshop. In those days, I
subscribed to Granta which, even then, before it became completely
allergic to literature, was unsatisfying. I longed for a regular,
modern version of ADAM, at least in its indifference to marketing*.
That was before the internet. Only another 50-odd years to go then
Mark!
*In one of my earliest blogs for Splinters, I reacted against some of
Granta's junk mail.
at 10:46 PM 0 comments
May 2006 March 2006 Home
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
My Shelfari Bookshelf
Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog
email address
Please contact me, Stephen Mitchelmore, at steve dot mitchelmore at
gmail dot com
Literary links
* British Literary Blogs
* ReadySteadyBook blog
* Spurious
* Book Depository: Editor's Corner
* The Literary Saloon
* The Existence Machine
* The Reading Experience
* Scarecrow Comment
* Guardian Books Blog
* The Quarterly Conversation
* KCRW Bookworm
* BookForum
* wood s lot
* Mountain 7
* Todd Colby's Glee Farm
* Three Percent
* Tales from the Reading Room
* The Bibliophilic Blogger
* The Penguin Blog
* TLS: Peter Stothard
* Mary Beard
* Nomadics: Pierre Joris
* Lenin's Tomb
* Dispatches from Zembla
* Waggish
More literary blogs
* Golden Rule Jones
* Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella
* The Best of New Writing on the Web
* John Self's Asylum
* Anatomy of Melancholy
* The Truth About Lies
* Nigel Beale: Nota Bene
* Thomas McGonigle's ABC of Reading
* Vertigo: Collecting WG Sebald
* Un Arbre dans la Ville
* The Wooden Spoon
* The Joyful Knowing
* The Reader Onliine
* In Abstentia Out
* Jacob Russell's Barking Dog
* eNotes Book Blog
* Diderot's Diary
Book buying
* *Steve's Wishlist*
* The Book Depository - Cheap books and free delivery
* Booksprice - price comparisons
* Abebooks
Favoured author sites
* Maurice Blanchot
* Thomas Bernhard (German equivalent)
* Gabriel Josipovici
* Peter Handke (German equivalent)
* Princeton Dante Project
* Proust: Temps Perdu
* The Kafka Project
* Charlotte Mandell
* Noam Chomsky
* John Pilger
Blog Archive
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2007_01_01_archive
Expect less blogging
One of my resolutions for the new year is to spend a bit less time
online and more offline. Blogging will probably be a casualty, though
I don't blog that much anyways.
For the curious, my other resolutions are below.
Health:
- Continue to work out every working day (weekends stay free of the
gym),
- Continue eating decent food, not all junk
- Maybe resume my old habit of playing in an Ultimate Frisbee summer
league
Community:
- Donate more money and more time to charity and charitable causes
- Get more involved with my local police, take some neighborhood watch
classes, see where I can help out in a constructive manner
- Possibly finally get that gun license I've sort of wanted for a
while (I don't think I'm actually going to buy and own a gun, much
less keep one at home, but I've always wanted to learn how to fire the
things...)
Travel:
- Go to the NCAA Final Four again, this time in Atlanta, with my dad
- Visit my family in Israel at least once, probably in late spring /
early summer
- Make it to a friend's wedding in Turkey in July
- Visit at least one of the world's top 50 restaurants that I haven't
2006_05_01_archive
Reason to use XHTML 1.0 rather than 1.1
I never had a good reason until today, when I changed the doctype for
an XHTML 1.0-compliant page to 1.1, revalidated and got one error:
Error at Line X column Y: there is no attribute "target".
Hmm, curious. A quick search turns up the relevant W3C FAQ entry:
Why was the target attribute removed from XHTML 1.1?
It wasn't. XHTML 1.0 comes in three versions: strict, transitional,
and frameset. All three of these were deliberately kept as close as
possible to HTML 4.01 as XML would allow. XHTML 1.1 is an updated
version of XHTML 1.0 strict, and no version of HTML strict has ever
included the target attribute. The other two versions, transitional
and frameset, were not updated, because there was nothing to
update. If you want to use the target attribute, use XHTML 1.0
transitional.
Well, then, XHTML 1.0 transitional it is ;)
Picture by NOVA JIM:
pic
Picture by
Posted by Yoav at 16:57 2 comments Links to this post
United 93
Last Friday night Alli and I saw United 93, the new movie about the
4th hijacked flight on September 11th 2001.
We both thought the movie was very good: taut, emotional, touching.
Again, like Munich a few months ago, I tend to enjoy these movies as
action tales just as much as I do their historical aspects, even if
the latter are inaccurate to some extent. In the case of United 93, I
understand the production crew did its best to stay as close to the
story as possible, diverging only when it was impossible to know what
truly happened. So like Munich, I'd recommend United 93 to everyone.
I found three things to be fairly striking about the movie.
One was the amount of people acting as themselves, i.e. the real
people who were involved that day. For example, many of the air
traffic controllers fall into this category. You (or at least we)
didn't know this until you see the credits at the end.
Second was the lack of panic among most people involved. The civilian
air traffic controllers, military personnel, etc, all seemed to take
things in stride. They may have been confused at times, but never
panicked. Voices were fairly low and measured.
Third was the absolute routine-ness of the whole flight itself. It
looked like any of hundreds of flights I have taken in the past,
nothing special. Even with the camera focusing on them, the hijackers
didn't look suspicious to me. Maybe the youngest one, who was nervous,
did, but even then only a little bit. Or maybe it's because I'm from
the middle east myself...
space barnacle
Space Barnacle
Your spaceship has been shot down. Your father is dead. Your mission
is revenge. This is Space Barnacle, an ultra-violent pixellated game
modeled in the 8-bit style. It is free to download!
space talk from dimension eugene
Space Talk From Dimension Eugene (Updated Repost)
I have posted links to this before, but Superdeluxe now has a nifty
embed code that allows you to watch all of the Space Talk from
Dimension Eugene episodes from the comfort of the Deuce Project
2007_10_01_archive
Visiting Salem, Massachusetts
Last Saturday Alli, Will, Jocelyn and I drove over to Salem,
Massachusetts, home of various witch museums and related attractions.
Salem is fairly famous, around the northeast united states at least,
as the place where the witch trials took place in 1692, and where
serious Halloween partying takes place now.
However, I think Salem is too crowded on Halloween itself. I don't
mind crowds usually, but getting there and back is a serious
inconvenience. So we went on a beautiful Saturday, when the weather
was perfect for walking around, and tourists were not going to be too
plentiful.
We had a great time: the central part of the town, where most of the
attractions are located, is beautiful. It's clean and wide with many
brick paths and little pocket parks. The trolley tour was excellent,
both informative and amusing thanks to our funny driver. The Salem
Witch Museum was OK, not particularly captivating and pretty shallow,
but not bad. We missed out on the Peabody Essex Museum, which closes
at 5pm for some strange reason.
2004_11_01_archive
Thanks to these MBA bloggers...
... whose postings I found very useful when doing my application:
FutureMbaGirl, PowerYogi, and many of the rest of the folks at MBA
League.
I see no MIT/Sloan blogs (in English) at the league, so maybe I'll be
able to add something of value ;)
Posted by Yoav at 13:13 1 comments Links to this post
My first post!
Why am I starting this blog? For a few reasons... I have thoughts to
2007_12_01_archive
Restaurant review: Gaslight
Last night Alli and I went out to dinner at Gaslight, a brasserie on
the edge of the South End in Boston. We had a great time!
The place has been getting positive press recently, and even my mom
raved about it to us. She's pretty picky, so if she liked it we knew
we had to check it out.
We got there and it was packed, but thankfully we had a reservation so
we sat down pretty quickly. The ambiance was great: warm and welcome,
busy but not too loud.
The food was delicious: Alli's skate was the best she's ever had, and
my swordfish was very good.
The wines we chose were mediocre, unfortunately, but the wine menu and
options were good. I was pretty disappointed by my glass of Duo
Mythique. It was light and watery up front, with nothing much in the
middle, just some faint fruit. It did have a pleasing after-taste, but
that's about it.
Nonetheless, the food was great, ambiance great, service good, and we
had a great time.
Posted by Yoav at 17:27 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: food, reviews
Book Review: Building Scalable Web Site (the Flickr way)
Readers of this blog know I'm a big fan of flickr and use it for all
my photos. Some readers also know that a big part of my job(s) for the
past few years has involved system architecture and design for
scalability. It's only natural that this book, Building Scalable Web
Sites (the Flickr way), by Cal Henderson, landed in my reading queue.
I've been wanting to read this book since it came out, but never quite
made the time for it. Fortunately the other day my colleague Todd just
put the book in my hands. That's exactly the kind of impetus needed to
vault a book into #1 on my reading list ;)
And earlier today I finished reading the book. It's an excellent book,
as I expected. It's clear and easy to read, has a nice flow, contains
the right balance of examples and theory, and smacks of the
concreteness that only someone who's done it before can convey. It's a
very, very refreshing contrast from many of the highly-academic
research efforts in this area that I also read. Kudos to Cal
Henderson, the author and chief flickr architect, on that.
The first seven chapters of the book are fairly general, I skimmed
them in one evening. But chapters eight, nine, and ten are gold even
2005_03_01_archive
Medicare debt = 7x social security debt
This MSNBC article shows the magnitude of the problem, and reminds me
of Design Challenge II back in January, when we had to analyze the
healthcare system in the US and make recommendations. Tough cookie
that one. It will probably too late when we finally confront it.
But on the plus side, now that ERBA HW4 is finally finished, I can
turn my attention to more interesting, not to mention infinitely more
useful, items.
Posted by Yoav at 20:27 1 comments Links to this post
Ice Harvesting
Today's Disruptive Technologies class covered the history of the ice
harvesting industry from start to today's status. Professor Utterback
was marvelous as usual. It's fascinating to have a lecturer with such
breadth and depth of knowledge in so many industries. He keeps saying
he's not a historian, but his knowledge is truly impressive...
We're all still working on the ERBA homework question below -- it
sucks... Stay tuned ;)
Posted by Yoav at 16:04 0 comments Links to this post
ERBA Homework #4...
... is driving the class crazy. I've solved 3 out of the 4 problems
without much difficulty, but the fourth problem is annoying. Here it
is below, and if you have any advice, please do share... ;)
4) Suppose that the time to failure T (years) of a certain item is an
exponential random variable with density f(t/lambda) =
lambda*exp(-lambda*t), t>0.
From prior experience, we are led to believe that lambda is a value of
an exponential random variable with density pi(lambda) =
2*exp(-2*lambda).
a) What are the aleatory and epistemic models in this case?
b) If a sample of three observations is (1; 3; 5), plot the
(posterior) 5^th , 50^th, and 95^th percentile (aleatory) reliability
curves as functions of time. What is the range of values of the
reliability for a period of one year?
c) What are the prior and posterior mean values of
[C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CYoav%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_ima
d) Find the point estimate for
[C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CYoav%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_ima
2004_12_01_archive
Israel cell phone number changes
As numerous random people whom I called inadvertantly can testify, the
cell phone numbering changes plan in Israel went into its final phase
this month. The full description is available, but to summarize for
myself:
Pelephone:
050-234567 will become 050-5234567
051-234567 will become 050-7234567
056-234567 will become 050-6234567
068-234567 will become 050-8234567
Partner-Orange:
054-234567 will become 054-4234567
055-234567 will become 054-5234567
066-234567 will become 054-6234567
067-234567 will become 054-7234567
Cellcom:
052-234567 will become 052-2234567
053-234567 will become 052-3234567
058-234567 will become 052-8234567
064-234567 will become 052-4234567
065-234567 will become 052-5234567
Mirs:
057-234567 will become 057-7234567
Jawall:
059-234567 will become 059-9234567
Maybe now I can dial the right numbers...
Posted by Yoav at 14:45 1 comments Links to this post
Thanks to Millennium
As my time at Millennium is coming to an end, I want to say a public
thank you to the company in general and certain people specifically.
Thanks to Craig Tulig, for always being on top of things but never
micromanaging.
Thanks for Richard Ferrante (who's also an artist!) for being a
technical and business mentor, and for providing creative of ways to
express oneself.
Thanks to Lee Herman, Dominic Ryan, Ben Knight, Pam Ward, Csilla
Csank, Vlado Dancik, and the rest of the folks whose knowledge science
far exceeds mine, but were always patient enough to explain things to
me ;)
Thanks for David Sedlock, for taking over a sinking ship, blowing out
the water, and righting its course.
And finally, thanks to Millennium as a whole for teaching me
incredible amounts of information on biotechnology, pharmaceuticals,
informatics, and how such businesses operate, while allowing me to
continue my open-source contributions and other independent work. It's
been an awesome four years in the truest sense of the word.
Posted by Yoav at 09:59 0 comments Links to this post
Going to jail?
The Pacers players from BasketBrawl will be charged. The debate is
whether atheletes' misdoings should be handled by their league or
sports governing body, or whether it should be handled by the same
legal authorities that apply to all other residents. I say the latter,
if the atheletes' transgressions go beyond the court/field of play and
impact non-athletes. Like in this case, when the basketball players
2005_10_01_archive
Sam's party and bostonites
Last night I went to a little party at Sam's place. It was fun, and
the SDM turnout was better than usual. The attendees included Alex and
his wife Irene, Matti, Marat, Deming, John H., Christian, and Alli
joined us later too. It was definitely nice to socialize with SDMers
without worrying too much about homework and other school issues.
Thanks for hosting us, Sam.
I've added a link to the bostonites ring to my blog, and added myself
to the ring. It's a collection of Boston-based bloggers.
Picture by Juan Job:
pic
Posted by Yoav at 19:31 2 comments Links to this post
Karim's defense and M$
Yesterday I went to Karim's dissertation defense, which he passed of
course. Congratulations! It seemed like an unusually high amount of
faculty attended, which I think indicates the level of interest in his
work (which is justified).
Then in The Software Business we discussed Microsoft and
standards/platforms battles. The team presenting (Biju from SDM, Tien,
and Dharmesh the founder of HubSpot) did a good job, and the class in
general had a lot of discussion. It was probably the liveliest and
most interesting class we've had yet. Professor Cusumano has a long
relationship with Microsoft including its top guys, and recounted some
of his funny stories about trying to get Bill Gates to laugh at his
jokes. Of course, he also has much valuable insight into the companies
2006_12_01_archive
The Weekly Congratulations Post
It seems like every week, a ton of good stuff is happening to my
friends. That, in turn, makes me happy in a "the world is good" sort
of way.
This week: congratulations to Ilana on getting engaged! D is a great
guy, I expect kids soon ;) Happy birthday to Gregor! I didn't spot any
white hairs, so you're still young ;) And finally, congratulations to
Kevin and Maja on buying a house! I know you've been looking for a
2005_04_01_archive
Gone for a few days
Later today I'm flying out to St. Louis, for a little sporting event
going on and some side business, and I won't be back until Tuesday
night. I'll either blog profusely about the events or not at all ;)
Have a good weekend everyone, don't work too much ;)
Posted by Yoav at 07:49 0 comments Links to this post
SDM "Business Trip" week...
... is practically over. Most of the out-of-town folks are leaving
today and tomorrow, not to be seen again until the summer "business
trip" (I still have difficulty with the term) during the first week of
July.
Last night SDM (and LFM) rented out the New England Aquarium, had food
and music, and it was cool. Both Allison and I are never excited about
going to the aquarium during our free time (what free time? ;)), but
whenever we're there already, the fish are so amazing.
There was a little corner display of flashlight fish. I had never seen
that one before, but maybe that was due to it's partially hidden
location. It was completely dark and every now and then you'd see
moving flashes. I thought it was pretty cool, although I really wanted
to see what the fish would do if you turn the light on in the tank.
The big octopus was also very entertaining. The aquarium staff keeps a
crab in a cage with the octopus, such that one can't hurt the other,
the crab can't move much, but the octopus is all excited and wraps
himself around it every few seconds. It makes for a lot of movement
how to determine available space on
Determine Available Space on a Filesystem
Lately our /var filesystem has been filling up and causing problems.
How did we know that particular filesystem was filling up? We executed
a UNIX command that provided a snapshot of all the filesystems.
Here's the command:
#df -k
shows the space status of all the filesystems on the system in
kilobytes
Or you can be specific about the filesystem
#cd /var
#df -k .
Posted by esofthub at 2/04/2007 02:51:00 AM
rules
The Rules
What's a public space without an extended guide in mandatory
self-correction and self-surveillance that reads like an IRS tax code?
For more, check out Ken McCown's modest but hopefully growing Flickr
photoset. In the meantime, is there a Flickr pool for these kinds of
signs?
In the Archives:
"How deeply am I going into the wilderness?"
By Alexander Trevi Email This
2 Comment(s)
Anonymous andr�s bustos said...
( November 20, 2006 9:17:00 PM CST )
hi, your post remember me, a picture i take few months ago, in
Santiago Chile.
There are some signs in a tree, in the main entrance to an
important park.
Maybe you want see the picture. Is posted here.
www.tallerlego.com/blog
Blogger BillSaysThis said...
( December 4, 2006 10:21:00 AM CST )
How can a park have a rule/law against loitering? What the frak
are people supposed to do in a park if not loiter?
Post a Comment
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1
1
inferior by peadar guiln marketed in
The Inferior by Peadar � Guil�n
Marketed in places as YA and others as science fiction, Peadar �
Guil�n's debut novel, The Inferior, defies easy categorization. By the
end of the novel we can firmly place it in the realm of science
fiction, but elements early on lend an equally `fantastic' feel.
Plot-wise and thematically, The Inferior reads like a YA that crosses
over well into an adult audience - though I'd suggest is should be a
mature YA audience with things like cannibalism and rape occurring.
Stopmouth exists in the shadow of his older brother - a brilliant
hunter and strategist with ambitions of one day becoming chief.
Handicapped by a stutter and the resulting lack of confidence,
Stopmouth simply strives to stay alive and useful to his tribe in the
bitter world they live in - a post-apocalyptic shell of a world with
only poisonous plants forces sentient species to hunt each other's
flesh for food. Times grow harder when two rival species inexplicably
learn how to communicate with each other, coordinating their efforts
to gain flesh. At the same time one of the mysterious `orbs' from the
roof (sky) crashes, and with it a human like none of the tribe has
ever seen.
This is a coming-of-age story - our young hero overcomes personal
limitations and excels. In this respect the story does little that
surprises, though the character growth of Stopmouth satisfies with in
the context of the story.
Thematic elements challenge the idea of inferiority (as the title
itself implies) throughout the book. Stopmouth continually faces those
that feel he is inferior, while harboring his thoughts of superiority
over others. Nearly every interaction between humans (and the other
sentient species) comes back to this concept. This YA thematic
approach is neither too simplistic nor obvious to alienate the more
mature reader.
� Guil�n excels with the presentation of his world - a Darwinian
nightmare where a variety of sentient species battle for survival and
dinner. The horrors of this harsh world truly come alive his
utilization of third-person perspective from the point of view of
Stopmouth. � Guil�n must have had a load of fun dreaming up different
species, their characteristics and various ways to eat each other.
The biggest failing of The Inferior is the lack of a coherent
direction. There is no single antagonist spanning the novel and only a
vague goal that abruptly changes focus. This might have been an
attempt at some amount of `realism' or a product of this being the
introductory book of a trilogy, but at times the plot seems to just
ramble on.
The Inferior kicks off The Bone World trilogy - annoyingly, there is
no mention anywhere on the book itself that I could find that
indicates this book is the first of a trilogy. That being said, I
think that this could be read as a satisfying stand-alone if you can
accept open-ended endings. A lot of questions remain, but in terms of
character development, the end is well placed (of course I do look
forward to seeing what happens later).
The Inferior is a solid debut that should appeal to both a mature YA
and an adult audience. I look forward to seeing where � Guil�n takes
us with The Deserter later this year. 7/10
Related Post: Peadar Answers Questions Five
bill watkins space love bw sandman of
Bill Watkins "Space Love" b/w "Sandman of Love" (Allied, 195?)
Found at a thrift store within a week of my 1992 move to Tucson, I
still know pretty much nothing about this record (except that it pops
up for sale on line from time to time). When I first played it I
thought that the flip ("Sandman of Love") was a listenable enough
example of early Doo-Wop and all, but good LORD the A-side ("Space
Love") just floored me. Otherwordly and somewhat out of tune, it moves
with a lumbering tempo that always manages to lure me into a haze each
time I play it. Where the hell are you now Bill Watkins? And who was
in "Rosco Porter's Orchestra"?
2007_02_01_archive
Become a Local Habitat Hero
From the People for Puget Sound . . .
Want to get involved in the restoration community? This FREE
three-class series will teach you how to be a local habitat hero.
Class topics will include an introduction to ecology, native vs.
invasive plant identification, weed control, and planting techniques.
In return for 12 hours of training, we ask Sound Stewards to commit to
40 volunteer hours over the next year on a People For Puget Sound
restoration site of their choice.
CLASS SCHEDULE (topics subject to change):
Participants must attend all three classes.
Thursday, February 22: 6pm to 9pm
Port of Seattle Headquarters, Pier 69: Room 2D East
2711 Alaskan Way - Directions
Class Topics: Sound Stewardship Program overview, Puget Sound Ecology
101, history of the Duwamish River, how to use plant guides, native vs
invasive plant identification
*Food and refreshments will be provided
Saturday, February 24: 9am to 3pm
Duwamish River: Directions will be provided
Class Topics: Tour of our Duwamish River restoration sites and
hands-on practicums for plant identification, planting, weeding, and
monitoring techniques
*Dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes and bring water and a sack
lunch
Thursday, March 1: 6pm to 9pm
Port of Seattle Headquarters, Pier 69: Room 2D East
2711 Alaskan Way - Directions
Class Topics: Protocols for monitoring, leading volunteers,
team-building exercises, additional plant identification skills
*Food and refreshments will be provided
To learn more about the Sound Stewardship Program, click here or call,
(206) 382-7007, ext 220.
SIGN UP NOW! SPACE IS LIMITED!
Contact
Eliza Ghitis
2007_06_01_archive
Cabbie Voices, Captured on Film.
Congratulations to filmmaker Shravan Vidyarthi, the young director who
created the short film Cabbie Voices as part of the Design Trust's
Taxi 07 Exhibit. His film is being featured as part of Channel
Thirteen's Reel New York Independent Film Festival this summer. The
8-week festival airs on Thursday nights at 10pm from July 5th - August
20, 2007, and showcases films about New York, made by New York
filmmakers.
Cabbie Voices is a snapshot of the fascinating people that literally
drive New York, and provides a unique perspective on this often under
appreciated profession.
You can catch the film at the Gotham Center's Reel New York Sneak Peek
Preview next Thursday, June 14th at 6:30 p.m. in the Segal Theatre at
the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street). The event
is Free, but seating is limited to a first come, first served basis.
space oddessy
Space Oddity
Now look... my skills at sneaking into good seats really only apply at
the Rogers Centre, so I'm not mentioning it so that you can all rush
down there and get better seats than me. But since 99.99% of people
aren't cool enough to give a fuck, I guess I'm not too worried about
announcing that former Expos pitcher and legendary baseball odd guy,
Bill "Spaceman" Lee, will be making an appearance on Friday night
(March 30th) at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto.
He will be promoting a documentary about himself, Spaceman: A Baseball
Odyssey.
If, like myself, you're too young to remember the Spaceman, this
should not affect your overwhelming bonerrfic desire to see this. Bill
Lee is the epitome of the useless white ballplayer who is better
remembered for his pranks than his pitching. The only difference
between him and all those other long forgotten victims of the San
Diego Chicken and... uh... victims of Morgana the Kissing Bandit, is
that he was decent enough to be remembered as both a pitcher and a
complete lunatic.
Bill Lee is what baseball was when baseball was baseball. And when
baseball was baseball, baseball was baseball. And Bill Lee was there.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Posted by stoeten at 3/28/2007
Wednesday, 20 February 2008
space final frontier
Space, the final frontier...
With a great title like"Chemical Space Travel" I just couldn't pass up
this early view article in ChemMedChem. Though I'm not sure that I
totally buy into this as a method for discovering new drugs, it is an
interesting concept nonetheless. Currently, it is estimated that there
are 10^20 to 10^200 "drugable" organic molecules. As it is impossible
sift through all of these structures when searching for new lead
compounds, knowing what region of chemical space to explore beforehand
might be beneficial. Thus, researchers in the Reymond group at the
University of Berne in Switzerland have developed a computer program
that serves as a "spaceship" for chemical space travel; a point
mutation generator serves as a "propulsion device," and a similarity
score serves as a "compass." In simpler terms, starting from any
molecular structure "A", this program first completes one of eight
possible mutations on each atom/bond in the molecule: atom exchange,
atom inversion, atom removal, atom addition, bond saturation, bond
unsaturation, bond rearrangement, or aromatic ring addition. Then, the
similarity between each mutant and the target compound "B" is
measured. The 10 mutants that are most similar to the target "B" and
20 random mutant molecules are carried on for another round of
mutation/selection. This continues on until one arrives at the target
molecule "B," and along the way thousands of unique structures are
generated.
One easy example is illustrated below: Starting from methane, 12
mutations produced cubane--but along the way 6638 unique compounds
were generated, taking the 10 most similar to the target (in this case
cubane) and 20 random compounds at each mutation step. All compounds
that were unstable or not synthetically feasible were eliminated. In
the same fashion, from cubane to methanol, there were only 7 steps
necessary, and during the process almost 1000 new molecules were
generated.
So how could this be used for drug discovery? Well, to do this, the
authors investigated the chemical space between AMPA and CNQX (shown
below); both are known to be agonists of the AMPA receptor, which is a
glutamate receptor in the central nervous system. Using these two
compounds, over 559,656 compounds were obtained after after 500 runs,
which created this cool looking graph. Colors for the graphs are as
follows: AMPA to CNQX, in green; CNQX to AMPA in blue, run-away
compounds in gray, AMPA to CNQX mutant series in orange, CNQX to AMPA
mutant series in pink, and in red are the best docking compounds--or
in other words compounds that actually are predicted to bind into the
active site of the AMPA receptor (this was determined through
computational docking studies). If you haven't noticed, the novel
inhibitor with the best predicted affinity for the AMPA receptor is a
combination of an amino acid group from AMPA and an aromatic group
originating from CNQX.
Image taken from ChemMedChem 2(5), 636.
choose
Choose
If you've been to my portfolio already, you've already seen this
drawing. Go to the gallery to see the other four in the series. wings
This is an old one... it's from my BFA thesis at ND, but it's still
one of my favorite pieces and it fit this week's Illustration Friday
too perfectly to pass up (plus I don't really have time to draw
anything else this weekend). Hoping to get back into normal blogging
and daily drawings next week.
cold space
cold space
Sunday Scribblings' prompt: Fridge space.
cold space
here we are in cold space
glass walls on a steel grid
low-heat lighting
plastic drawers built into walls
cold space
behind an energy-efficient door
stainfree fabrics
modular open-plan
movable shelving, relocatable floors
cold space
tired of living in cold space
when i die don't put me
2006_11_01_archive
Gardening Commandment #2?
I'm a neat and tidy sort of person. My Marines used to move my desktop
items around when I stepped out of the office just to giggle at me
readjusting them mere centimeters back to their proper places when I
returned. I initially applied my orderly attitude to gardening. I've
already discussed how unappealing planting in straight lines turned
out to be. I also took a rather anal approach to plant groupings. I
would plant them in a straight line, alternating varieties, creating
orderly patterns of two or three. The results were not categorically
ridiculous, but the patterns usually looked quite artificial.
initially planted six plants along the edge: two each of cardinal
lobelia, red daylilies, and goblin gaillardia. Let's forget for a
moment that the cardinal lobelia abhor a dry, northwestern exposure
and I had to move them and that the gaillardia fried to death in a few
short months. Had all the plants lived, the result would have been
much more appropriate to an amusement park planting than a cottage
garden. The pattern, rather than the overall effect, becomes the
focus. Planting in 3's is recommended, but that doesn't mean to plant
in patterns of three.
been better. Along the front walk, I've planted lamb's ear alternating
with East Friesland sage. Although the lamb's ear needs twice yearly,
savage pruning to keep it from consuming the sage, the result is
pleasing. The orderliness nicely balances the wild jungle of flowers
in the rest of the bed. I've also seen nice results with patterns of
two in other people's yards and at Friendship Park.
Generally, though, I try to avoid patterns of even two, now. The
result is formal, even a bit military, and that's not my style (any
more). In fact, I try to steer other people away from it as well. I
think it is most tempting to create patterns when you are torn between
two or more different plants or varieties. You think, "Well, since I
can't decide, I'll just get an equal number of each and alternate
them!" Don't do it! If you're planting in a line (hedge or edging),
choose one variety only or choose many and don't plant them in a
discernible pattern (mixed hedges). If you aren't planting in a line,
go ahead and get both plants, but plant them each in their own little
blobs (drifts, if you will).
Straight lines and patterns look great in the gardens of Versailles,
but they just appear unimaginative and uptight in anything smaller. I
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
2006_06_01_archive
Eew
A taboo exists for darn good reasons. Violate them only at peril. Such
as pedophilia.
Dutch pedophiles to launch political party | Reuters.com
Dutch pedophiles are launching a political party to push for a cut
in the legal age for sexual relations to 12 from 16 and the
legalization of child pornography and sex with animals.
The party said it wanted to cut the legal age for sexual relations
to 12 and eventually scrap the limit altogether.
The party said private possession of child pornography should be
allowed although it favors banning the trade of such materials. The
broadcast of pornography should be allowed on daytime television,
with only violent pornography limited to the late evening,
according to the party.
Toddlers should be given sex education and youths aged 16 and up
should be allowed to appear in pornographic films and prostitute
themselves. Sex with animals should be allowed although abuse of
animals should remain illegal, the NVD said.
The party also said everybody should be allowed to go naked in
public.
The party's program also includes ideas for other areas of public
policy including legalizing all soft and hard drugs and free train
travel for all.
Words fail me. If this doesn't make your skin crawl then stay far, far
away from me.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 10:06 PM
|
FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE
Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/29/2006 | Greenpeace's fill-in-the-blank
public relations meltdown
Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to
promote his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group
Greenpeace was mobilizing.
"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the
country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying
the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.
But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped
while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.
We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and
all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's
worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST
AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."
No, that's not the best part.
The aghast Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith,
said a colleague was making a joke by inserting the language in a
draft that was then mistakenly released.
"Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think
it's funny," Smith said.
The best part is (at least as quoted) the Greenpeace spokesman not
seeing the humour in the situation.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 7:41 PM
|
Our ancestors - idiots
I'm watching this show on Discovery: The Rise of Man
The Rise of Man From Homo Erectus, the first species to demonstrate
signs of humanization, to Homo Sapien, follow the path of our
direct ancestors as they migrate across the planet. Through
socialization and technological advances, the Homo Sapien thrives.
It's an okay show. I'm sure they're grossly simplyfying for idiots
like me. Then I see a sequence that offends me.
A small plucky band of Sapiens wanders into Europe. Discovers .. ice -
a whole field of it. Then they find out it's cold and it burns their
bare tootsies. Much capering about and gibbering. One older fellow
plops down and cuts up a fur and binds it around his feet. One dude
hops to and fro stabbing with his spear, at the ground. Much excitment
and yelping.
Twenty feet from the edge of the ice. No doubt these fellows went on
to settle Ireland.
But no, I kid. These guys were no different than you or I - why go to
2007_08_01_archive
Darkness of "Little Mermaid"
Disney's "Little Mermaid" DVD has a great extra, a pencil test of the
scene where Ariel makes the deal with Ursula (this youtube link is for
the scene full color, still pretty good). Dark stuff. It's an evil
scene, the climax of which is downright violent(when she gets her
legs). This is what animation is capable of portraying, emotion on the
level of any live action movie, perhaps beyond. This may be the
greatest Disney Villain scene of all time. The problem is that nobody
ever explores that dark place, build characters around it and tell a
story from there. Why did they have to make the color and lighting all
bright and fuzzy? (thats why it's better to watch the pencil test
version). Imagine if Disney didn't have the whole kid thing attached
with it. I wish Scorsese directed that film.(btw supervising animator
for Ursula was Ruben Aquino)
Posted by Patrick Smith at 8:30 AM 6 comments
Labels: Influence
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Time Lapse of a Painting by Patrick Smith
Time Lapse of a Painting
Add to My Profile | More Videos | View on YouTube
Here's a time lapse I did of a recent canvas. I tried really hard to
do this painting in one sitting, but we had to break it up into four
days. (well, there's actually a pencil drawing under everything that
took an additional two days). This painting, as well as over 20 other
works, and an installation of animation, will be exhibited in my first
solo show this September, here in New York, more to come on that. In
the movie with me is my fab assistant Noelle Vaccese, check her stuff
out here. The painting measures 36" wide and 72" high, I'm using
pencil, acrylic and enamel. If you're interested in a proper photo of
this or any other of my paintings let me know.
Posted by Patrick Smith at 9:32 AM 17 comments
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Pinocchio, Puppet, and Disney
I threw together these drawings for comparison (fairly bold i think,
putting my drawings up there with Disney masters, but anyway). And
next to that, somewhat related, is a great photo of Disney animators
John Ripa, myself, and Randy Haycock during a visit last year.
This famous sequence from Pinocchio really helped me figure out the
"burst" of the hand puppet coming out of the kids chest in "Puppet"
click here for movie. Disney films are just the best reference for
animation, if you're trying to figure out something, they've already
done it, and better than you could ever possibly do (and almost 70
years ago to boot).
These drawings are grabbed from a pencil test sequence re-shot a while
back by Andreas Deja, given to me by a buddy of mine at Disney. I have
2007_01_01_archive
Bjorn Jonsson 3D Planetary Objects
If you have not seen the planets and satellites of Bjorn Jonsson, it
is time to look. Bjorn Jonsson has highly realistic 3D renderings of
planetary objects available at his website. Many of the renderings are
done with a specialized planetary renderer, which he wrote for the
specific purpose of creating these images. Other renderings are
created with POV-Ray or by combining renderings from his renderer and
POV-Ray. More information about the software and process can be found
at his web page. Below are a few examples of his work.
Bjorn Jonsson 3D Planetary Objects
Bjorn Jonsson 3D Planetary Objects
Bjorn Jonsson 3D Planetary Objects
2006_12_01_archive
Laser Blam
This looks pretty cool
It's the game that combines lasers with classic strategy. Players
alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces having two, one or no
mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces (pharaoh, obelisk,
pyramid and djed column) can either move one square forward, back,
left, right, or diagonal, or can stay in the same square and rotate
by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing one of the lasers
built into the board. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror;
if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, it is
immediately removed from play. The ultimate goal is to illuminate
your opponent's pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm!
They might have have lost me here, however
Yes, the game employs two class II lasers which are lower in power
than most laser pointers on the market, which are usually class
III. This means that although you still get the neat effect of
firing a laser to bombard your opponent's pieces, you will not get
the wow effect of seeing it melt or blow holes through the playing
field.
I wanted more blam.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 4:18 PM
|
None of your business
Via Russ Nelson, an article about unschooling - where you not only
check your kid out of public school but you don't have any structured
instruction
The United States Department of Education last did a survey on home
schooling in 2003. That study did not ask about unschooling. But it
found that the number of children who were educated at home had
soared, increasing by 29 percent, to 1.1 million, from 1999 to
2003.
Experts assume that the upward trend has continued, and some worry
that the general public is unaware of the movement's laissez-faire
approach to learning.
The horror - the public doesn't know! Someone, inform The Public!
"As school choice expands and home-schooling in general grows, this
is one of those models that I think the larger public sphere needs
to be aware of because the folks who are engaging in these radical
forms of school are doing so legally," said Professor Huerta of
Columbia. "If the public and policy makers don't feel that this is
a form of schooling that is producing productive citizens, then
people should vote to make changes accordingly."
Because 'The People' are much better at deciding how to run my life
blisspop dc fun 1 year anniversary bk
Blisspop DC, FUN 1 Year Anniversary BK, Space Cakes BK and more
I've been a big fan of Will Eastman and all of the good things he is
doing down in D.C. His Blisspop party is the big one, the monthly
rager that brings it all together at 9:30 Club (815 V Street NW) This
one looks like the biggest and best yet, so it's not surprising that
it's called Best Party Eva. 33HZ will play live, Dave Nada, DJ Meistro
and Mr. Eastman himself will spin all night and you should be psyched
for this one, District of Columbians! Sponsored by Scion and
brightestyoungthings.com, this should be a great night of indie dance,
hip-hop, disco, house, great band, great DJs. What the hell, best eva.
$12, all ages, doors at 10pm. Take a minute and check out the video
flier for this one, Pound for Pound goes viral:
-It's a big night in Williamsburg, nothing bigger than the one year
anniversary party for FUN at Studio B (259 Banker St) They've clearly
chosen their special guests for maximum Pound for Pound attention :
electro legends Egyptian Lover and Newcleus. I mean, seriously, this
is huge. It's not every day you get to take a trip back to the early
80s glory days, when machine music took over. Egg Foo Young of
Turntable Lab is special guest DJ with residents Rok One and Eamon
Harkin. There's also a NewYorkFuckinCity side room with DJ Elle and
IXL, all your musical needs you should be covered. Hosted by Roxy
Cottontail, presented 10 Deep, Re:Up Magazine and TTL, this is a
fitting celebration for one of the city's best weekly. Open bar from
10-11, $10 advanced ticket, $13 at the door, doors at 10pm, 21+.
Photobucket
-Great party at Hugs tonight that appears to be called Space Cakes,
not totally sure what the name means, but I do know that the DJs on
hand are some of my favorites from NYC. Nick Catchdubs, Star Eyes and
Rezound are joined by Seattle's Pretty Titty for this one. This one
should be a fun, laid back night, as all of these DJs will spin great
music from all genres. No cover, 21+.
-Still in Williamsburg, the Finger On The Pulse guys do their regular
thing at Royal Oak (592 Union Ave) Tonight's edition is a birthday
edition for Courtney featuring Heidy and Trebek of Montreal's Guilty
Pleasures and Weekends Never End and of course Never Forget and Terry
Diabolik. You know the deal, fun times, dancing, drinking, stop in
early or late or stay all night. No cover, 21+.
Photobucket
-If you have to be in the city, there's one top choice and that's the
Stop Progress party at APT (419 W. 13th St) where resident Max Pask is
joined by DFA's Mock and Toof in the basement. Those names should have
you already super psyched, so I won't hold you back. $10, 21+,
awesome.
-I'm amazed at how much LA loves to do it big. Each night seems to
have another massive party featuring some of the best of the local
DJs. Tonight, it's the Hype LA party at Robertos (686 N. Spring St)
with resident DJ Don't Believe The Hype being joined by guests DJ S!n
and Hyphy Crunk in the main room. The side room is held down by guests
Disk Jo Slim, Dmndays and Bul!m!atron. Expect big music all night, new
ravelectro, Bmore, indie in both rooms. RSVP at the going.com site for
$5 admission before 10:45, $10 otherwise. 18+, doors at 10pm, goes
until 2am.
-The Mute party at the Proof Bar (215 N. Broadway) in Santa Ana has
been a really consistent party, bringing in quality DJs week after
week. Tonight, they host My! Gay! Husband!, who we mentioned earlier
in the week. The Iheartcomix dude is definitely worth checking out, he
will help DJ Legit, DJ Ben N. and Rockberry take this to the next
level. Doors at 9, no cover, 21+.
-Let's end with one of the most consistent parties anywhere, the
Lights Down Low party in San Fran. Tonight at the 222 Club (222 Hyde @
Turk), things are going back on some War Games 80s computer nerd shit.
Laromlab brings along his Commodore 64, Atari, laptop and samplers to
create computer music, which fits well with the name of the guest DJ,
Commodore 69. Residents Sleazemore and Rchrd Oh will smash computers
and melt your faces with dirty dance music. Parker Day takes the
photos, you need to be a part of this party.
posted by Jack at 6:08 PM
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2007_05_01_archive
Hackety Hack
Speaking of kids, I set the older boy up with Hackety Hack. Why not -
I'm working my way through a 'grown up' Ruby tutorial at the same
time.
- What's that?
You said you wanted to learn HTML - try this.
- Ok.
Ten minutes later he's further ahead than I am and he's a) enjoying
himself* and b) he's learning. Oh and c) he may have found out that
computers do more than just toss content at you - you can create with
them.
Hacking trumps playing Neopets any day.
*How do I know? I hear clicking followed by sotto voice 'cool's and
'wow's.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 6:47 PM
|
Fight the tide
The local schools have a good reputation and, by all accounts, are not
so bad at the education biz. Why home school? Well ..
Inside the school, I felt the same cold grim feelings I had the
last time I'd come here - even empty, the place bristles, somehow.
A couple of students walked past, and I silently counted to see how
long it would be take before someone deployed the Effenheimer, or
the dreaded Mother Effenheimer. Three seconds. I'm not in favor of
having nuns patrol with nail-studded two-by-fours, but on the other
hand, I am. Or least some authority figure around which the Youts
would feel compelled to display a civil tongue. I was talking with
one of the neighbors at the bus stop; she'd been to the school last
week, and one of the stuecadents hit on her.
My child is not going there.
This is why: because a school that excels academically, where the
students are polite and well-mannered is becoming not, perhaps, a
rarity but certainly a cause to pause and say "Will you look at that".
The way it should be is becoming an exception. I can't fight the tide
but I can take my kids to high ground.
Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 6:33 PM
|
Constant Conflict
Constant Conflict
Ralph Peters
It is fashionable among world intellectual elites to decry
"American culture," with our domestic critics among the loudest in
complaint. But traditional intellectual elites are of shrinking
relevance, replaced by cognitive-practical elites--figures such as
Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Madonna, or our most successful
politicians--human beings who can recognize or create popular
appetites, recreating themselves as necessary. Contemporary
American culture is the most powerful in history, and the most
destructive of competitor cultures. While some other cultures, such
as those of East Asia, appear strong enough to survive the
onslaught by adaptive behaviors, most are not. The genius, the
secret weapon, of American culture is the essence that the elites
despise: ours is the first genuine people's culture. It stresses
comfort and convenience--ease--and it generates pleasure for the
masses. We are Karl Marx's dream, and his nightmare.
Secular and religious revolutionaries in our century have made the
identical mistake, imagining that the workers of the world or the
faithful just can't wait to go home at night to study Marx or the
Koran. Well, Joe Sixpack, Ivan Tipichni, and Ali Quat would rather
"Baywatch." America has figured it out, and we are brilliant at
operationalizing our knowledge, and our cultural power will hinder
even those cultures we do not undermine. There is no "peer
competitor" in the cultural (or military) department. Our cultural
empire has the addicted--men and women everywhere--clamoring for
more. And they pay for the privilege of their disillusionment.
American culture is criticized for its impermanence, its
"disposable" products. But therein lies its strength. All previous
cultures sought ideal achievement which, once reached, might endure
in static perfection. American culture is not about the end, but
the means, the dynamic process that creates, destroys, and creates
anew. If our works are transient, then so are life's greatest
even life itself. American culture is alive.
Cross Posted to The Daily Brief.
# posted by Brian Dunbar : 5:42 PM
|
Early morning ramble
Ilkka is taking Disney movies way too seriously.
After the flashy start, the underbelly of this society of cars
slowly revealed itself as the cars, apparently with no free will or
choice of their own, obsessively kept simulating many aspects of
human society that simply make no sense for sentient automobiles.
Their physically very mobile society is very rigid with no real
social mobility, since everyone is pretty much born (how?) to his
place in society and cannot really aspire to become anything else.
As the young hotshot racecar is stranded to the small town that was
bypassed by the Interstate highway and therefore no longer gets to
extract monopoly prices and quality of service from the
cross-country travellers, we kept making hypotheses and asking
questions such as "Why did the train like bubblegum so much?"
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