July 2008
45 posts
“We’re talking about banning the sale of food to adults. Treating French...”
– William Saletan, writing on what some call ‘food apartheid’, now in Los Angeles.
WatchA sport-utility bicycle? That makes smoothies?
“The scariest things about the death of Alice Swanson are that she was on a...”
– Moira E. McLaughlin, writing on bicycle awareness and safety in the city in the wake of the tragic bicyclist fatality near Dupont Circle.
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Obama Seeks Out-of-State Volunteers for Virginia →
Is the Obama campagin strategically concentrating a mid-Atlantic effort on Virginia? Doesn’t the Old Dominion’s neighbors need their volunteers for their own campaigns? As of today, it looks safe to siphon help from D.C., Tennesee, Kentucky, and Maryland, but North Carolina and West Virginia are almost still in play.
“That the Nirvana baby would long for the ’90s as a time of innocence and...”
– Chana Joffe-Walt, reporting on the now-teenage baby on the album cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991). I wonder how they’d feel about being karaoke material, too.
Portland Rides Bikes Around High Gas Prices →
Portland, Ore., is leading the bicycle pack in America and modeling itself on Europe, which means bicycle boulevards and bicycle boxes, not to mention safety and awareness. Kathleen Schlach reports [4-minute audio] for All Things Considered.
Bicycle Camping and Touring →
Ken Kifer writes on long-distance ‘touring’ by bicycle. The WaPo also chimes in with bicycle-friendly campsites for a car-free vacation.
“However, the advertised time of ten hours from New York is a farce, be prepared...”
– Wikitravel, on Amtrak’s Adirondack service between NYC and Montréal. But I want the romance (or at least to be drunk by Albany).
Bob Novak Cited After Hitting Pedestrian →
Novak said he was a block away from 18th and K streets Northwest, where the accident occurred, when a bicyclist stopped him and said, “You hit someone.”
Bicyclist David Bono is today’s hero, recounting on a mailing list his heroism, as recognized by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association:
I was not deserving of the honor, but got an award from WABA at tonight’s...
“Belgians? How bad is the economy when we’re being bought out by Big...”
– Jack Black, speaking on the buyout of Anheuser-Busch by Belgium-based InBev.
WatchAnt optimization algorythms and ‘distributed intelligence’ are basically the same as what’s discussed in the “Emergence” episode of Radio Lab (WNYC).
Is Google Making Us Stupid? →
Maybe ‘collective intelligence’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or maybe you have to take one for the team.
Anyway, you might want to read this article about reading to the page’s end or the proprietors win:
Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake in collecting the crumbs of data we leave behind as we flit from link to link—the...
Montréal in Two Minutes →
My Montréal friend is trying to entice me to visit next month with the opportunity to make fun of her bobo lifestyle in person, and according to a promotional video on the city’s tourism portal, there’s a lot to make fun of.
twistori →
This is what it must be like inside the Borg collective (“I, Borg” with Hugh). On the outside they are relentless methodical inhuman conquerors meshed of flesh and machine, but inside are love, hate, thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and wishes bouncing all over their interwebbed consciousness.
Green Affordable Housing →
Metro Connection reports [6-minute audio] on Galen Terrace in Southeast D.C., an affordable housing project in compliance with the city’s Green Building Act of 2006.
Photographer's Rights →
Download a printable flyer explaining a photographer’s rights (that can fold into your camera case), produced by attorney Bert Krages:
The right to take photographs in the United States is being challenged more than ever. People are being stopped, harassed, and even intimidated into handing over their personal property simply because they were taking photographs of subjects that made other...
Obama Will Open 20 Offices in Virginia →
Virginia Politics blogger Tim Craig reports on Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign announcement to open 20 regional headquarters across the Commonwealth, effectively doubling the 10 operated by the Virginia Democratic Party. Craig quotes state Sen. John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke) and state Del. Christopher B. Saxman (R-Staunton) whom essentially say “Go, Us” and “Boo,...
Tiff Over Espresso Protocol Spills Into... →
Hee, hee. Washington Post picked up the Murky story with a blow-by-blow account, and the language, as hinted in the headline, is punny and mildly deprecating to all.
Murky Explanation →
Murky Coffee posted a follow up on the Murky incident, which has appeared on a number of internet media outlets, the latest of which is a Marketplace blog (American Public Media). Murky owner Nick Cho writes a follow-up on the issues surrounding the now internet-infamous incident and includes an apology for his choice of wording the previous day. This detailed an explanation would have been much...
Five reasons to avoid iPhone 3G →
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is slamming the newest iPhone:
A snake oil salesman not satisfied with his business of pushing proprietary software and Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology into your home, [Apple CEO Steve] Jobs has set his sights on getting DRM and proprietary software into your pocket as well.
Them’s fightin’ words. Now we stand on our lunch table...
“Will [$6 gas] translate into a willingness by Virginia Republicans to pay for...”
– Marc Fisher, opining on the partisan quagmire in Richmond. As a Northern Virginian (and I’m biased enough to capitalize the N), local politics reminds me of economic theory arguments. Does the richest part of a society deserve special advantages (transit) in the hope or threat that the...
X-ed out →
Drake Bennett asks, what happened to the anti-porn feminists?
And on that note of pornogratified media: does anyone get nervous with those incessant American Aparrel swimsuit ads when web browsing in the office? Or is this what I get for not bothering with Adblock?
“It makes some people think of the railroads, which were owned by private...”
– On the Media host Bob Garfield, talking with Boston Globe reporter Drake Bennet about criticism towards Google over the internet search giant’s apparent monopoly.
The bicycle lobby and U.S. foreign policy →
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is already courting Big Pedal.
In Bacon We Trust? →
Peter Meehan is
reach[ing] out to the bacontelligentsia to try to pinpoint where we are in the bacon bonanza, to find out if bacon is going boom or bust in the near future, to see if there’s relief from or more fervent bacon mania on the horizon.
Green Beaters →
The Green Lantern figures that a new Prius might actually be better than a used car when all the energy is counted up in the end.
Preserving Your Pension in Tough Times →
Fresh Air talks (40-minute audio) with economist Teresa Ghilarduccihow about retirement funds, and of special interest is the history of the 401(k) plan, which “snuck under the radar” to become a business-friendly replacement for pensions. Much like in healthcare (a la health savings accounts), it’s the micro benefits for a few individuals versus the macro implications for the...
U.S. Finds It's Getting Crowded Out There:... →
I was a space-crazed kid.
Why public toilets should pay you →
William Saletan writes on the economics of public poo in America, compared with how some residents in an area without proper plumbing in India are paid to use a public potty as part of an eco-sanitation project. While that might work in some neighborhoods, readers of Slate might not be a good target demographic:
Why don’t you get subsidized the same way? Because you’re no threat. You...
“I have found myself [while traveling abroad] saying I am from New York instead...”
– amigarad, blogging from Vienna.
'.wow': ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix →
Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C. →
CommuterPageBlog: Settin' Out: Follow Up →
This is a trip I’m planning to make as soon as I have a free weekend, but in reverse. Up the C&O Canal towpath one day, cross the Potomac by ferry, and return down the W&OD railroad trail.
The Copydesk Strikes Back →
Bill Walsh, Washington Post copyeditor, speaks out on names of companies in the web era, and how we should spell them, despite whatever they insist they’re called now.
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Va. Couple Nearly Sidesteps State Ban on Gay... →
Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage two years ago, but according to a WaPo story, officials may want to nail down the language on their legal forms:
The marriage might have gone virtually unnoticed had McCain not returned to the Newport News clerk’s office in May to apply for an eye-catching name change: Penelopsky Aaryonna Goldberry.
“Just...
