McMansions:
In some neighborhoods there's a debate over how big a house should be. The fact is that those giant homes are just plain ugly.
« February 2005 | Main | April 2005 »
March 31, 2005
Schiavo ticker:
I know this is supposed to be a sick joke (check out the Abe Vigoda version) but the unfunny part is that it isn't very far from what the news networks are actually doing straight faced.
Past his prime:
It doesn't seem fair that Mick Jagger is playing Fenway when fellow sexagenarian Carl Yastrzemski had to hang it up twenty years ago.
In their element:
Whatever the outcome, there's something about the state Senate handling subtle and technical scientific questions that should give pause.
Hook, line and sinker:
Norman Porter, admitted criminal and convicted killer, changed his name and, he says, his nature. Donovan Slack buys the whole redemption thing.
It would have rung more true (and poetic) if Porter had turned himself in to face his crimes rather than having to be tracked down to Chicago by fingerprint and dragged back to answer for his past.
Walk in the park:
We're reminded over and over again in this AP story that Laura Bush had very heavy security on her trip to Afghanistan. Now that's some hard-hitting journalism. Duh.
March 28, 2005
Link logic:
This story by Hiawatha Bray is about internet radio, and he uses a local bagpipe music broadcaster as an example: Celticradio.net.
But the web page for the story doesn't link to Celtic radio nor to the broadcast carrier, Live 365. It does link to Abriton, Apple, Ford and JC Penney. What's that about?
Game:
Easter is over. Now, what to do with all those bunnies.
March 27, 2005
Decommissioned:
The IRA is loosing its base of support both in the US and in Belfast. Its only claim to legitimacy is in protecting Catholics from Protestant violence.
Now if the Protestants really wanted to hurt the IRA, they'd cancel the upcoming parade season. There's nothing like peace to make an army irrelevant.
Summer job shift:
Teenagers in New York have dropped out of the work force. One reason may be that they face such high competition from older, recently arrived immigrants willing to take on service work.
Oops:
After prosecuting a guy for mishandling classified material, the FBI mishandled that same classified material by giving it back to the guy they sent to jail for having it in the first place. Now that is a world class screw-up.
March 26, 2005
I Robot:
This video is a little unnerving, but it gives a clue as to what the future of customer service might look like. Here's another video (larger file size, and without sound, but just as creepy.)
It's part of a project by scientist/artist David Hanson. Asimov would be proud.
DMZ:
Hublog and Universal Hub have struck a tentative truce. I'm not taking my helmet off yet, since missiles could be flying at any minute. If the peace holds, we'll be sending Marilora to Stockholm.
Meta morals:
A very quick note on the Schiavo case, a topic that I've steered away from. But here's my take, for what it's worth.
There are two things going on and people seem conflicted and confused about the proper role for each: the legal process and the larger moral issues.
In the case of the former, laws in place and standing legal precedents based on those laws will, and should, determine the fate of Schiavo. And those decisions are pretty much resolved at this point. The moral imperatives will and should inform public policy and lawmaking for future cases.
That's little consolation for Schiavo's supporters, I'm sure, but that's our system. You may want to throw the whole thing out the window, but that's an argument for another day.
UPDATE: To illustrate how out of control this is getting, the Miama Herald is reporting that Florida State agents were en-route to forcibly restore Schiavo's feeding tube in violation of a judge's order but were held off by local police who insisted on enforcing the order. If true, it's not a good thing that the agents were that confused about their legal role and duties.
UPDATE: And as far as moral confusion goes, a man hoping to save the life of Terri Schiavo apparently put up a bounty to have Michael Schiavo murdered.
Miles to go:
Miles Conner is back in jail with just three months to go on his probation. And just when he was turning his life around.
Fenway on ice:
This is an idea whose time has come. It'll make money for the park, neighborhood groups are in favor of it, the city will probably sign off. The only guy that has to be convinced is the groundskeeper.
Magically delicious:
You know it's a slow news day when a story about soggy cereal makes it to the front page.
March 25, 2005
Exuberance:
Real estate speculation for the masses? When lots of people start buying several properties each, it’s only a matter of time before it all implodes.
Back to the future:
It's not as cool looking as the one in the movie. It's unclear if it even works. But it's a start.
Gavel to gavel:
Reality TV comes to the courtroom. Soon, Massachusetts trial court judges will be videotaped in action. Most judges don’t mind the accountability. A few do, probably among those deficients.
Office politics:
I don’t get to watch much prime time TV, but did happen to tune into The Office last night –the NBC version. I’m a big fan (flan) of the British version, but… I don’t know. It’s very different from the sit-coms that American viewers are used to. I just can’t see it catching on here. As to how the US version stacks up to the original? Here’s a UK perspective.
Hubbub:
A Central American gang has started a Boton blog skirmish. It’s Hublog vs. Universal Hub. (The subtext, of course, is a Globe / Herald (Herald / Globe?) friendly newspaper rivalry.)
March 24, 2005
Nuke this page:
There are a variety of ways to attack, from dropping bombs to spilling coffee.
Melting pot:
Joan Vennochi writes about a topic that isn't often discussed openly: ethnic tribalism in local politics.
March 23, 2005
Profiling:
Here's a list of the world's top city skylines. Hong Kong is first, New York second. We're number 43. Interestingly, many in the top fifty are Chinese cities.
Side door:
Blocked at work? I know I shouldn't be promoting this, but there are times when a proxy server would come in handy. Use responsibly.
Dot's top cop:
Frank Armstrong is featured in a Herald story on his new post as the Dorchester police commander. He's a good man for the job.
Zero:
Do we really need another variety of diet Coke? Yes we do. Especially since I'll need an alternative to all that free iTunes bottle-cap Pespi that I've been drinking lately.
Hot deal:
If you're in the market for a computer, you can't do better than this. A ten gig processor, 2 gigs of RAM and a thirty thousand gigabyte hard drive all for only twenty three hundred dollars. It runs DOS and it only weighs fourteen hundredths of a pound.
Time to hire a new translator, I think.
Time killer:
Try this game if you want to find how bad your mousing skills are. It's frustrating and the music is annoying, but it's also addicting.
More search:
Here's another post-Google search engine, Zniff. I wasn't impressed with the beta.
Coastal defense:
According to estimates, 75 % of the US Population and 80% of the country's economic wealth are within 200 miles of the coastline. How much danger do we face from ship-launched short range missile attacks? This is an interesting op-ed, obviously driven by Lockheed's self interest. But the questions remain.
Theory mutation:
One reason to be cheerful:
The meth epidemic that pretty much engulfs the rest of the country has been threatening southern New England for years. Why it hasn't caught on in these parts is a mystery, but so far, so good.
CommonNAME:
They're stodgy, responsible, public minded and boring. Why should they get to keep a good magazine name when a glossy, celebrity rag could do so much more with it.
Lack of no confidence:
The Harvard academic staff must think the lunatics are trying to take over the asylum. But the students, in this case, seem to have more sense than their elders. Here too.
March 22, 2005
Names and places:
Looking for business information on someone with a fairly distinctive name? Try Zoominfo. It was right on the money on the test queries I ran.
All good:
What's this? Good news on the local tech scene? And it's the beginning of Spring, to boot.
Monster solo:
With all due respect to Gene Krupa, this has to be one of the best drum solos of all time.
Dumbing up:
The more kids use computers, the worse they do in school. I'm not sure I buy that, but there was a study, so it must be true.
Off kilter:
If you have one of the new Powerbooks with motion detection you'll be interested in this. The motion detection was designed to sense sudden motion so the computer could lock the hard drive read heads to avoid damage and protect data. But there are other things that the detectors can do.
I've tried this little app and it works. Very cool.
The conservative conscience:
David Brooks doesn't pull any punches in his column on conservative corruption.
Just like the other one:
It's the worse school shooting in six years, the deadliest since Columbine. Maybe it's me, but there's something about ranking school shootings that just doesn't seem right. It's as if we've normalized them. Just another in a series of everyday categorizable things.
In a name:
The reporter of this story is named Madison Park, an interesting name. I wonder what the back story is.
March 21, 2005
Random:
A electronics company let leak news about something called the Super Shuffle, a virtual knockoff of Apple's shuffle, but with some additional desirable features. Let the controversy and lawsuits begin.
But there was only problem: It was all a very clever viral-marketing PR scam.
March 20, 2005
Firing line:
In today's Globe magazine, Kevin Cullen writes about the good work Bill Kennedy is doing at the BPD range.
March 19, 2005
Something completely different:
Who says data backup strategies can't be funny.
Scientific mysteries:
Here are a some things to dwell on this weekend.
Half posted:
I liked the Atlantic Monthly's previous practice of putting selected content up on the web, delaying the postings a month or so after original publication. As a subscriber I read the hard copy, but liked to link to interesting stories, even if I have to wait some time to do so. Now, only subscribers get online content, which seems strange to me. Why bother? You get the magazine and read the magazine. Then, what's the point of an online version if you can't share it?
All that being said, it's worth the price of subscription. In this month's issue: a (hypertext footnote heavy) profile of an apocalyptic west coast talk radio host written by David Foster Wallace, Cristopher Hitchens reviews Ian McEwan's Saturday (due this Tuesday,) and Marc Cooper offers strikingly harsh, but ultimately (I think) constructive criticism of the Democratic party.
Bad. Very, very bad:
Blogging itself has now jumped the shark.
One eighty:
The ACLU has traditionally ignored political fallout in it's effort to protect American's civil rights. But according to this op-ed, the group now has stopped worrying about American's civil rights and wholeheartedly embraced politics.
Slurry:
What a way to run a tunnel project! Just when you think it can't get more outragous, it does. Well at least we'll get a nice (Turnpike managed) park on top of the leaky tunnel. Watch out for the sinkholes!
One note:
An 18 year old was shot on a T bus yesterday. Police arrested another 18 year old shortly afterwards and recovered a gun.
Councilor Yancey is angry... at the police. If I were cynical I'd say it sounds like he's leveraging the death of a teenager to promote his agenda. At best he's simply confused.
March 17, 2005
Columbus and Mass Ave:
Faces on a mural at the Tubman House peer through holes in a wall at the double parked cars on Columbus Ave.
Money man:
Jeff Jarvis's take on Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank: At least now he "won't be armed."
Luck o' the Irish:
Of all the obligatory Irish stories and articles run today, this one wins out. It's starts out with a guy in Mexico that sells shamrocks all year round.
Hernandez has no connection to Ireland, though he does have reddish whiskers. Still, he sells thousands of four-leaf clovers, potted in little planters, to Mexicans hedging their bets on love, looking for jobs or just hoping for a little change of fortune.
"Everyone needs good luck," said Hernandez, who also refers to his merchandise as "the flower of St. Patrick."
They're a big business item and this is the Christmas week for shamrock sellers.
Opus Dei:
The Catholic Church doesn't want you to read The Da Vinci Code.
It's a brilliant damage-control strategy: Wait until millions have already read the book, then as it fades from the public consciousness, for the sake of those that missed it the first time around, put it back into the news with an enticing prohibition.