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The idea of a Walk of Fame in the Theater District sounds fine. City Councillor Tobin calls it "historical tourism." But if history is our guide, think Combat Zone not Theater District.
In that case, Fanny Fox, Wilbur Mills (he made a local appearance with Ms. Fox) and Princess Cheyenne should be some of the first figures memorialized. And there should be a section for the legends of the Trailways Bus station and waitresses from the Hillbilly Lounge.
All 7000 applicants to UC Berkeley law school recieved an email telling them that they had been accepted even though only about 800 would actually be admitted. The email was sent out by mistake. In a follow-up email the school explained and apologized.
“I know that many law school applicants are particularly anxious while awaiting the arrival of decision letters, and I regret that this incident may have added to that tension.”
Do you think?
They said he couldn't map the human genome but he did it. Let's hope he can deliver as well on this promise.
I've noticed that the Herald has been using black and white photos on its website lately. Examples here and here, and yesterday the Melissa shot.
I kind of like the retro look.
According to the Sunday Globe and the Big Dig, I learned what my time is worth: $13.34 an hour.
Glen Weisbrod, ...an authority on time-value analysis, said $13.34 an hour is an accepted standard nationally for the value of a typical individual's time.
Next time I have to wait in line at the Genius Bar, I'll be demanding a discount.
There are definitely two schools of thought on the pervasive use of surveillance cameras. In some cities they've been credited with reducing crime and fear of crime and they played a crucial role in the London bombing investigation. But then there's the Big Brother thing. Some people think the negative impact on privacy outweighs the benefit. Others ask why any law-abiding person would be concerned about cameras in public.
If you're not doing anything wrong, what is there to be worried about?
That's exactly the question the Houston Police Chief asked when people in that town objected to his plan to place video cameras around town. To make their point, privacy advocates are turning the camera on Chief Hurtt, offering a reward to anyone who can capture an image of him committing a crime, "any crime."
Interesting. I don't think it will take long. Most people can break several laws just walking down the street, which of course is the point.
A Jay Fitzgerald post pointed me to Brian Maloney's blog which in its 'about' section, bills itself as a "Radio Equalizer" with a mission to "take a chainsaw to entertainment industry spin" (an interesting combination of metaphors.) Obvious there's some sort of branding overdose going on here.
For some reason he feels very strongly about Janeane Garofalo getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I don't know, see if you can figure it out.
Man begging at night on a Madrid street-corner.
Check this site - go to Portfolio and Before/After for some insight into how celebrities stay so young looking.
And here's how to do it for yourself.
Whether it turns out to be the case or not, I love a notion turned on its head. In this case it's the assumption that we're losing the battle with China and India to educate scientists and engineers. Robert Samuelson makes the argument that we're not.
Meet the new Web, same as the old Web. At least, according to Steve Rubel, when it comes to bookmarking services.
An email from the IRS? Could be bad news. Even worse, it could be phishers, pretending to be from the IRS, trying to steal your personal financial information.
She's set up trauma tents everywhere from Ground Zero to earthquake wracked Iran to Indonesia after the tsunami. Now MGH's Susan Briggs, Boston's greatest ambassador, is setting up her tent for Mardi Gras where apparently they're not taking any chances.
Another free tool from the company that's taking over the world, one bite at a time.
Academics should forget about Larry Summers and focus on the Internet, at least according to John Dvorak. He also has a great line about MySpace:
[V]isiting MySpace for the first time is somewhat reminiscent of visiting Tijuana for the first time.
I know just what he means. Scary.
It may be the most important Mardi Gras ever, but can New Orleans handle the visitors?
Everyone hates these people while wishing they could be them.
An article in USA Today looks at the desertion hearings for members the New Orleans police. I'm sure there are some tough calls but the chief is maintaining a hard line, properly in my opinion.
The iPod is not included with the shirt. And, it's not recommended for people with pacemakers. As if.
The National Trial Lawyer of the Year couldn't pass the California Bar. A former Harvard law professor and Stanford Law School Dean couldn't cut the mustard. The mayor of Los Angles gave up trying.
It's a tough exam but about five thousand are expected to take the it today. More than half are expected to fail.
"An unpopular and divisive foreign war, rapidly rising energy costs, political corruption in Washington, D.C., and economic dislocations that resulted in jobs being shipped overseas?"
That's right, it's the 1970s. It was quite a decade and now it's getting the serious attention that it deserves.
The police report from last weekend's vice presidential shooting is up on, where else, The Smoking Gun.
Being unattractive may lead to a life of crime, according to a study.
Forget the powdered donut defense, make way for the ugly baby defense.
Most people know that everything that is on the net is googleable, but many don't realize just how far down the search engine reaches.
I think government has a role to play in social issues, but isn't this taking things a little too far?
This Washington Post article highlights the complexity of the issues raised by the cartoon protest movement and the response to it in the West.
The only thing it skips over it the irony of using the phrase "cartoon protest" in newspaper headlines, which at least for me, conjures up images of Popeye, Dilbert and Homer Simpson walking a picket line.
Blute to challenge Ted Kennedy? Interesting match-up maybe, but it shouldn't even be close.
On just about every count, including skeletons in the closet, Ted has Blute bested.
Ms. Abdala sounds like a dreadful young person. I'm sure she'll go far.
For curiosity's sake I searched around but I couldn't find the email exchange anywhere on the net. If you have it, post it or send it to me and I'll post it.
I was searching around YouTube.com last night and found the famous Elvis Costello SNL appearance.
Thank God for TV news. How else would we be entertained?
Adam has a great post on the investigations done by our local TV news outlets. Maybe he could host a contest for the best imaginary local TV news expose headline.
Revolving Doors: Easy exit or spiral of death?!?
Paperclips: How they can kill!
The Internet: Gateway to insanity!
A winter storm gathering at Rexham beach.
325,000 terror suspects in the database. And it's growing.
I'd suggest starting a database of non-terror suspects. Sounds like it would be easier to manage.
I'll buy the possibility that if we never had the Big Dig, overall traffic would be much worse today. But the Turnpike Authority is really pushing their luck in asserting that travel times have actually improved.
Maybe there's a way to recoup the money spent on the Big Dig. The Turnpike Authority might consider selling surveillance camera videos of tunnel accidents set to music.
Growing up in the sixties, we all thought we'd be driving flying cars by now. Instead we got Segways and the Big Dig. But maybe there's reason for hope.
(And what's this? They already have flying cars in Australia?)
Today, red is the new black. But it can make you look fat and it isn't, in fact, the most romantic color.
Here's a Valentine's Day look at the psychology of color.
In Washington yesterday, everyone was a comedian.
It's wise to watch your competitor and someone at the Globe website had a link to the Herald set up. A glitch somewhere made the link public and people at the Herald, who were also watching the competition, found that clicking on a picture at the Globe site brought up the Herald site.
The best part of this story is the Herald's clever spin: "As so many print readers have learned, even if you start with the Globe you’ll often wind up with the Herald."
Classic.
Two juxtaposed headlines in today's Globe: City seeks safeguards on the sale of bullets and Cheney accidentally shoots hunting partner. You can't make it up.
The good news is that meth hasn't really caught on in the Boston area. The bad news is it's a growth market.
Here's what we can expect if it does catch on.
A couple of guys in the Villa Victoria in the South End, and a smoke break in an ally off of Harrison Ave. Both from the mid 1980s.
If you tend to download more than one album at a time from the iTunes Music Store, you might want to think about spacing them out.
Apple is approaching the one billion songs downloaded mark and if you're the one who puts them over the edge there's lots of prizes coming your way. There are also giveaways at each 100,000 mark after nine hundred fifty million.
I don't think Opus Dei members are going to riot, but they are upset at how the group is being portrayed in an upcoming film. (Here's more on the group from an MSNBC article.)
Someone at the Herald buried the lede in the story on how the white supremacy group in Zinc, Arkansas disavowed association with Jacob Robida.
“We don’t know him. We haven’t heard of him. None of our people up there in Boston have met him,” said Billy Roper, leader of the Russellville-based White Revolution. “I don’t know why he was in Arkansas.”
Our people up there in Boston? I know there are a handful of these whackos down in Connecticut or up in northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but if there's a chapter in Boston, that's a story right there.
If you double cross John McCain, as it appears Barack Obama did, watch out.
McCain wrote an open letter to express his displeasure over Obama's backtrack on a reform proposal. Click past the jump to read it.
...This is the letter that McCain purportedly wrote to Obama.
The Honorable Barack Obama
United States Senate
SH-713
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Obama:
I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again.
That's gotta hurt.
Google maps has greatly improved the resolution of it's satellite images over London. You can now clearly see the Abby Road crosswalk. (The Abby Road studio is the building in the upper left with the cars parked outside. (Old related post.))
And here's another London 60s album-cover site, the Battersea power station featured on the Pink Floyd album Animals.
Here's a bunch of the Super Bowl commercials.
Many hospitals are now restricting the videotaping of births. Their reason is to avoid malpractice suits, but whatever the reason I think this is a good thing.
One town's loss is another's gain.
Crime is up in Houston and Katrina relocations are seen as the reason.
It's always preferable to get a warrant to search, but the stand off at the Newton Library last month was more farce than Constitutional conflict. In an op-ed Richard Cravatts asks a few pointed questions, including:
...[W]hy are librarians, whose professional training concentrates on mastering the use of the Dewey Decimal System, making any decisions that affect law enforcement? By whose authority and with what knowledge are they defining and granting constitutional rights to their patrons? Where have they received training in emergency response, domestic security, and thwarting terrorist threats?
Librarians take their jobs seriously and that's a good thing. But I think sometimes they take themselves a little too seriously.
A few weeks after September 11th, I went down to the the World Trade Center area and took these shots. Others seemed drawn to the site as well.
Crowds looking down Church Street towards the rubble.
A Hallmark store on Broadway, closed down for the insurance adjuster after being damaged in the collapse a half block away.
Part of the complex scorched by fire.
People stood in silence, gazing at the scene.
The first signs of normality, vendors selling patriotic goods outside the WTC site fence.
A long shot across the rubble towards the West Side Highway.
A sidewalk shrine.
A remembrance wall outside St. John's.
Brant Point, Nantucket, taken sometime in the eighties.
I don't do many movie reviews, mostly because I don't get the time to see many movies these days. But I still love a good film, and I managed to squeeze in two this week.
I watched The Aristocrats on DVD the other night. It's not for everyone but if you're fascinated, as I am, with the inside world of comics, and can appreciate a good, albeit filthy joke, you'll love this movie. And who could resist a film that culminates with a legendary performance by Gilbert Gottfried, the hands-down funniest man in the world.
Last night I watched Crash. Many months ago I read the review in the New Yorker and put it on my list but I missed it in the theaters. It's out now on DVD and worth renting. I'm a great fan of the LA interwoven plot style movies like Grand Canyon, Short Cuts and Magnolia, and Crash fits right in with the best of them.
At it's core it's a study of race relations. Granted, the characters are a little overdrawn and the plot is a bit contrived, but overall it works as a compelling morality play.
And, as Steve Martin's movie producer character reminded us in Grand Canyon, "All of life's riddles are solved in the movies."
Congress want's to get into the foreign affairs business, especially Palestinian relations. Bad idea. It's scary enough that they control domestic affairs.
And speaking of Palestine, if anyone thinks that Hamas is moderating, check this, from an AP story on the cartoon controversy:
Mahmoud Zahar, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, told the Italian daily Il Giornale the cartoonists should be punished by death.
"We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully." he said.
Maybe it's just me, but 'kill the cartoonists' doesn't strike me as a moderate stance.