By Sheila
Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros
Fair and balanced, too!
April 28, 2005, 5:58 p.m. --
Last week's weblog
i
am 8-bit video game art show. Fort
90 blogs the opening of a show in Los Angeles (at Gallery 1988 and
its next-door neighbor, Acme Game Store) based on the art of pre-1995,
8-bit video games (think Pac Man, Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong,
Salad Shooter and Fairy Godmother) with lots of fun photos.
The images at right are the work of Michael
Slack and Gary
Baseman, respectively. Duck hunter Hunter Thompson, a cartoon now,
is by Tim Tomkinson.
I miss the jump-run-and-shoot side scrollers, and it's good to see them
as inspirations.
IGN
Game Cube reviews
the opening and offers a gallery
of images -- more professional but without quite the energy of Fort 90's
single packed page.
i am 8-bit has a website, and the
Gallery, while not complete, has the best quality photos.
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The
Most Expensive Zip Codes 2005, according to Fortune. Sorting by
zip code puts New York (10XXX) and southern New England (02XXX) on top,
and makes clear that no Rhode Island areas are in the top 150. Only six
Massachusetts zips are there, including one each on Martha's Vineyard
and Nantucket. (The others are Dover, Waban, Weston and Wellesley Hills.)
Tops is Atherton, Calif., near Stanford, where the median home-sale price
in 2004 was $2,496,553.
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13 reasons "why
Kelly Clarkson is not only the New Dylan, but the only Dylan most will
ever need":
American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson is playing at PPAC tonight. When
she played in Detroit April 6, so did Bob Dylan (but not in the same venue).
Faced with this cosmic coincidence, Serene Dominic of the alt-weekly Metro
Times begins,
I know you haters expect another hatchet piece on America’s Sweetheart
of Song Gone Electric, and as much as every bilious globule left in me
hates American Idol for awarding record contracts to singers that couldn’t
get the emotional gist of a milk commercial right, I’ve got to fess
up that Kelly Clarkson could conquer the world and it wouldn’t raise
a hackle on me. I like her, not only for her head-pinching vocal range
but her potential to obliterate the whole Joe Simpson franchise — she’s
both Jessica and Ashlee rolled into one....
But if you're not going to go there, here how it ends: "Reasons No.
8 through 13: She aches, takes, bakes, makes and fakes just like a woman."
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Backyard
bonanza: The Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle Tribune reports that men
planting trees in a friend's backyard in Methuen dug up a wooden chest
containing cookie tins stuffed with old money:
...Some of the older money have quirks such as a $1 bill from 1899 that
reads "One Silver Dollar," or the $5 bill with a Roman V in the
corner rather than a 5. They also had some rare "replacement money" that
have red serial numbers and a red star.
Using the Internet, a couple of currency books and the preliminary estimate
from the shop in Plaistow, the men estimate the haul could be worth $40,000
to $60,000. Dozens of bills with local banks printed in the center of the
bill are not listed in any currency book or on the Internet.
During the period from 1863 to 1929 the federal government permitted thousands
of banks to issue their own paper currency. These were called National
Bank Notes. In 1914 the Federal Reserve banks began issuing notes, the
only currency still being manufactured today by the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing.
(Pictured
at right are two bills from the find: A five dollar bill dated 1905 with
the city of Lawrence printed on it (top) and a five dated 1925 marked Methuen.
)
Methuen historian Dan Gagnon said the money was probably buried by immigrants
who built shacks and planted gardens in the area around the area in the
early 1900s. The families lived in tenements near the mills in Lawrence
and Methuen where they worked, but traveled to the area, which was mainly
countryside, on the weekend, Gagnon said....
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Nokia's
N91 targets iPod: PC Magazine reports,
(Yesterday) at an event in Amsterdam Nokia unveiled the "N-series," its
new line of music and photo phones. With the announcement of the N91—the
company's first 4-GB, Wi-Fi, Microsoft Media Player phone—Nokia jumped
on the hard-drive-phone bandwagon. In addition, two other multimedia handsets
were announced. And these devices just might be coming to a store near
you by the end of the year.
Without a doubt, the star of the show was the N91 music phone, which has
a 4-GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, and Microsoft Media Player 10, making it the
first fruit of the Nokia-Microsoft alliance. You can download songs onto
the phone via Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, or EDGE cellular networks; the N91 appears
on your desktop as a hard drive and also syncs to your desktop Windows
Media Player.
The N91 has so many new features they're hard to count. For instance,
there's line-in, stereo recording—you can jack in a mike and use
it to record lectures or concerts. Play music through standard headphones
or a wireless stereo Bluetooth headset; generate playlists on your PC or
on the device. The N91 is also a Symbian Series 60 smartphone, so you can
hook up a keyboard and use Office applications. And somehow, with all these
features, it'll still get 7 days of standby battery life.
Could the N91 be an iPod-killer? We're skeptical; a phone with these specs
will likely cost well over $600, which would put it out of competition
with dedicated music players. But the N91 looks like an awesome multimedia
smartphone ...
There's also a N90, emphasizing photos rather than music, and the N70, a
basic smartphone.
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Colours
on the road: Truck Painting in Pakistan! Exhibition of photography
of Asia House Essen
These'll put your puny flames to shame.
Dyeing
with Kool-Aid. In the microwave, even, if it's small.
Both these links come via J-Walk
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Podcasting
Killed the Radio Star:Wired reports on a move by Infinity Broadcasting,
the radio division of Viacom, to convert San Francisco AM.radio station
KYCY to KYOUradio --
and to broadcast an all-podcast format of audio files created by... anyone..
(Podcasts are mp3s recorded by individuals and distributed by subscription
to their RSS feeds. Here's wikipedia's
explanation.) These won't be downloadable, though, because KYOU will
pick up the cost of music royalties for those who use popular songs in the
podcasts it accepts.
Old radio guy Doc Searls weighs
in:
It's a cool thing for broadcasting. I'm not sure it's a cool thing
for podcasting. Though I am sure it was inevitable. I didn't say
that yesterday because I wanted to think about it. And I'm not going to
say much more about it today, because I have to fly home from Boston, and
I want to walk a little more around Harvard Square first.
But I'll leave you with this in the meantime: KYOU may be about "you";
but it's not about
free speech, for the simple reason that speech on radio is highly
regulated.
Speech on podcasting isn't regulated. Yet
Multiple bonus linkage, as well as the longest post on the matter, from Jeff
Jarvis.
Jeff, typically, wants to change the pronoun:
This is still a big company handing over its time and using the second-person
plural: YOURadio.
We'll know we've arrived when the people take over that station for real
and change the name to OURadio....
Jeff is President of Advance.Net,
which owns a whole
lot of newspapers and Websites which have not yet been similarly taken
over.
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Camilla
in pizza: There are no limits to what can happen what artists
make pizza. From the English blog Shiny Shiny:
Pizza
Express is celebrating its 40th birthday and since it shares its
birthday with the Queen (21st April apparently, so I'm a bit late with
this one), the Pizza people have commissioned a series of portraits of
the doughy royals. Nice to see Camilla getting a pizza
via BoingBoing
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April 27, 2005, 5:50 p.m.
Got pix? I'm taking a pass on the usual linkage
tonight. If you're so inclined, upload a photo to one of our 18 new "Me
and my ride" slideshows.
There's at least one more category to come, of farm
vehicles. If you have a killer tractor, give me another day or so.
(This is a popup, because it looks better without all this framing. It's
not evil, though.)
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April 26, 2005, 7:59 p.m.
Smart
cars get U.S. approval: Here's WorldChanging's
take on the little, fuel-efficient buggy that's taken Europe by storm:
ZAP, a niche motor
vehicle company which made its mark building electric cars (hence its
name -- Zero Air Pollution), announced
this week that it had received final approval from the US Department
of Transportation to start selling an Americanized
version of the SMART "FourTwo" micro-coupe ("Americanized" means
adding structural supports to meet safety standards and confirming that
the emissions meet EPA regulations). ZAP claims to have pulled in over
$750 million in pre-orders for the FourTwo. Sales are now contingent
upon ZAP being able to set up a shipping and sales network to support
that kind of demand. If all goes well, Americans will soon start seeing
these two-seat cars zipping around their streets and highways....
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Americans
Pay Off Credit Card Debt! - This is not science fiction. It's really
happening. By Daniel Gross at Slate.
...all is not tulips and nectar over at MBNA,
the largest independent issuer of credit cards. Yesterday it reported a
poor quarter and ratcheted down earnings expectations for the year. Its
stock sank to a
two-year low. Credit card giant Capital
One Financial had a better quarter, but its stock has been slumping
lately, too. Bad news for the credit card companies may be better news
for us. There are signs at both companies that consumers may be responding
to higher rates by doing something almost completely unexpected and practically
un-American: paying down credit card debt.
The credit card industry presumes, based on happy experience, that Americans
will borrow more money each quarter to support their spending habits,
regardless of the direction of interest rates, and that enough consumers
will be happy simply to pay off just enough debt to allow them to borrow
more. But last quarter MBNA, to its apparent shock, found that "results
were further impacted by unexpectedly high payment volumes from U.S.
credit card customers," and that "the payment volumes were particularly
higher on accounts with higher interest rates."...
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Make
a 12-sided calendar: The project of Ole
Arnzten, at the Norwegian Institute of Informatik:
Hints for calendar on a pentagon dodecahedron
* Regular printer paper (80 g/m²) will be fine, but heavier paper
(100-120 g/m²) will be make the calendar more robust. Do not use
even heavier paper (160 g/m²).
* Do all folding after cutting
* Glue the tabs matching the untabbed face last (November).
Related: Make
a fire from a can of coke and a chocolate bar! at Tracker
Trail
Why not? After all, It's
TV turnoff week. More here.
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Readers respond to Washington Post "mask" column: Scroll
down to the original item, or use the permalink.
Rick Gregoire writes,
The possibility someone other than the 'masked man' killing Jim Allen
is pretty remote.
There are times when a sociopath walks among us. Had he been 'chained like
a slave'during his questioning Jim Allen would be alive today.
This is not a tirade. Sociopaths have the distinct advantage over those
of us who want to believe there are no such people in our world because
regular people don't stand on guard against them.
Brian Ross:
I believe the author of this article is so far removed from the whole
incident, that she actually tries to make the reader feel bad for the
killer of an officer, much like those who protect her everyday. Let's
not forget that he jumped out of a window with a 30 foot fall, if the
writer saw pics. of the window one can see the outline of the killers
body. The shield is there for protection, in this age of aids and hepititis,
one does not even question the validity of the use of the mask, let alone
referrence it to the likes of slaves, which were iron masks, not at all
used for the same purposes. If the killer were white would she use the
same referrence? I have no sympathy or empathy for the killer. He knew
exactly what he was doing and planned and calculated as he sat there
being questioned. He not only killed an outstanding police officer, he
also stabbed an 84 year old women, has a history of violence as well.
Before the writer wrote this article, she should have researched his
history, as well as read the story of what actually happaned. This is
not the story of an accused cop killer being in the wrong place at the
wrong time, there are no questions or other possibilities of who did
it. Well the author didn't make me feel bad, no matter what the color
of the skin of the man behind the shield, she just made me think of the
loss of a fine police officer doing his job--who was a loved son, husband,
father, brother to many, and innocent elderly women who was stabbed.
Bill McCormick:
Wow! It never fails to amaze me how people in this country react to
various aspects of the news. Here we have a guy who's whole life has
been spent in court. He's the suspect in the stabbing of an 80 year old
woman and the cold blooded murderer of a veteran cop, and all that seems
to be focused on is "look how terrible he looks with the mask on
and his face all beaten up". First of all, he looks a heck of a
lot better than the poor cop in the casket. Secondly, the fact that he
is still operating under his own power is a miracle in it self. Lets
think for a minute, this loser shots a cop, blasts his way out of the
police building and then violently resists arrest... its a tribute to
the restraint of the arresting officers that he is still alive. The sorry
part of this whole story is that there is no way that this guy will ever
get the punishment that he deserves in our overly liberal justice system
where it always seems that the rights of the criminal are far more important
than the rights of the victims.
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April 25, 2005, 7:30 p.m.
In
('spit shield') mask, an echo from the dark ages: Lonnae O'Neal
Parker of The Washington Post wrote Saturday about the "spit shield" affixed
to the face of 26-year-old Esteban Carpio before his arraignment last
Monday for the murder of Detective Sgt. James Allen with Allen's own
gun. Carpio was being questioned about the stabbing of 84-year-old Madeline
Gatta of Swift Street in front of her home.
Sometimes an image arrests us.
It halts us mid-word, mid-chew, mid-just-about-to-do-something-else, and
presents a fixed psychic requirement: This is a picture of a man in a mask,
and you recognize right away that you have to go deeper, know more.
Consider the photograph of 26-year-old Esteban Carpio, an alleged cop
killer, at his arraignment hearing Monday in a Providence, R.I., courtroom.
Look past his eyes, dark circles in a slit of cut and swollen tissue, injuries
the Rhode Island Department of Corrections says he sustained after falling
during an escape attempt and resisting arrest. Do not dwell on the attendant
drama: his mother, Yvonne Carpio, overwrought, crying police brutality
and being led from the courtroom. Do not dwell on whom you believe, or
even if you care.
The iron mask used to restrict slaves, circa 1807, bears similarites to
one worn by a murder suspect this week in Rhode Island. (Library Of Congress)
Instead wrap your mind around the polyurethane mask with air holes at
the nose, chin and mouth, secured around his ears with adjustable elastic
-- the "spit shield," "biter mask," or "protection
mask." It can have several names.
But consider the device.
It takes a few moments for your mind to self-Google it, bypassing more
benign markers for darker frames of reference: Hannibal Lecter, "The
Man in the Iron Mask," faceless things, monsters from the id.
"It does look kind of Jason-y," says Loretta Ahrens, an office
manager for Ripp Restraints, the mask's Orange City, Fla., manufacturer,
in a reference to the serial killer from the "Friday the 13th" horror
films. The mask -- which Ripp officially calls a protection mask -- is
a stand-in, because what is behind the mask can be far worse....
Parker asks an interesting question:
But aren't some spit shields clear? Can they protect officers but still
show an accused criminal, full face?
In a disembodied way, the mask itself becomes an object for a meditation
that is only possible because the author is so far away from the tragedies
that played out here last week.
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Teaching Indy: Download Indy and
it plays songs for you. Gong them if you like, and it will try other tunes
till it learns what you like.
Predictably, hard fast testosterone rock came at me in the first tune, but
then Thelonious Monk doing Round Midnight played. Okay! Yes, 5 stars, I would
go to a concert by this band.
I know there are a lot of unsigned artists putting their tunes out there
in all genres. I'm hoping Indy will feed me a broad range, eventually.
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Soros
says be patient: Last Thursday, in The Hill,
George Soros told a carefully vetted gathering of 70 likeminded millionaires
and billionaires last weekend that they must be patient if they want to
realize long-term political and ideological yields from an expected massive
investment in “startup” progressive think tanks.
The Scottsdale, Ariz., meeting, called to start the process of building
an ideas production line for liberal politicians, began what organizers
hope will be a long dialogue with the “partners,” many from
the high-tech industry. Participants have begun to refer to themselves
as the Phoenix Group....
Interesting.
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The
Omnivore - Learning to eat everything. Lawyer Jeffrey Steingarten
became food critic of Vogue magazine in 1989, and had to face his food
prejudices.
...Step One was to list my food phobias, which ranged from mild to psychotic.
They included dill, kimchi (the national pickle of Korea), swordfish, miso,
mocha, chutney, raw sea urchins, cinnamon, California chardonnay, falafel
(those hard, dry, fried little balls of chickpea flour unaccountably enjoyed
in Middle Eastern countries), chickpeas generally, cranberries, kidneys,
okra, millet, coffee ice cream, refried beans, and most forms of yogurt.
I was also convinced that Greek cuisine was an oxymoron....
A nice read.
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How
to make mozzarella: Annotated, illustrated, and something you
might want to do...once.
Ricki's 30 MinuteMozzarella Magic lives on the website of the New
England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
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Moore's
Law original issue found: BBC reports on one packrat's reaping
the reward all string savers hope for:
A copy of the original Electronics magazine in which Moore's Law was first
published has turned up under the floorboards of a Surrey engineer.
David Clark had kept copies of the magazine for years, despite pleas from
his wife to throw them away.
Now the couple are celebrating after collecting the $10,000 (£5,281)
reward which was offered by chip maker Intel.
Moore's Law, the principle that has driven the computer chip industry,
celebrated 40 years this week....
...The "law" was adopted after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore
wrote in the 1965 Electronics magazine article that the number of transistors
on a chip would double every 24 months....
The publication is now defunct, but neither Dr Moore, who is now retired,
nor Intel had a mint condition original of the magazine.
Intel posted the reward on online auction site eBay in the run-up to the
40-year anniversary of the article on 19 April, in the hope that someone
would have a copy for posterity...
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