Stepping up:
Incoming Herald editor Kevin Convey admits that it was wrong to print the name of a 14 year-old in connection with a highly charged gang murder. Good for him.
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November 30, 2006
Too many cars, not enough spaces:
Mike Dukakis is acting locally. But since he's teaching these days at UCLA, local means the Westwood section of Los Angles.
Change in direction?
There's a potential post-election twist in the Massachusetts Open Documents saga. (Wikipedia reference)
Consumer uprising:
The retail industry should scrap those clear plastic clamshell packages. You know the ones; hard plastic, sealed seams, impossible to open.
This year, Consumer Reports magazine gave an award for the worst plastic clamshell packaging to a warehouse-store version of a Uniden cordless phone set: It took 9 minutes 22 seconds to unwrap completely and nearly caused injury to the person opening it. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries from plastic packaging resulted in 6,400 visits to emergency rooms in 2004.
No mas.
Spilled ink:
One story, two papers, two headlines.
Globe
Leaders vow gang cease-fire will stand
Herald
Hub bracing for bloodshed: Retaliation feared in gang leader’s slay
"Hub bracing for bloodshed." It's thrown out there like a weather forecast.
The Globe notes that the mother of the 14 year-old named yesterday by the Herald, says the kid is now in fear for his life. The Herald missed reporting that part and instead published the juvenile's name again today.
Isn't there a journalistic equivalent to 'First do no harm.'
November 29, 2006
Part of the problem:
It's never a good idea to post in anger, so I held back early this morning after reading this story. Now, fourteen hours later, I'll leave it to you to decide if it was irresponsible for the Herald to publish early and unsubstantiated information that could fan the flames of gang retaliation, going so far as to casually single out an individual. And shame on the so-called un-named "police sources", if in fact they exist, singly or in plural.
No one expects crime reporters to sugarcoat reality but it's too bad when the greed for a scoop overwhelms common sense and good old fashioned public interest.
November 28, 2006
Barely in the running:
Favorability ratings are only half the picture. There are a few people on this top twenty list that probably would be off if negatives were included. But it is interesting that Kerry did so bad in favorability, behind Bush, Pelosi and Hillary. That took some doing.
November 27, 2006
Getting in the game:
Rolling Stone called Microsoft's Zune a fiasco (No story link available) and the Chicago Sun Times reviewer called it a "complete, humiliating failure."
Be that as it may, some see it as a good sign for Microsoft.
Riff-raff:
At first, Beverly Hills residents didn't want the subway coming through, citing crime and, uh, terrorism. But they've changed their tune. They want the subway now.
High priced alley:
Is it possible to get a mortgage on a $250,000 parking spot? Come to think of it, whoever paid that, probably paid cash.
November 26, 2006
Hitching a ride:
Steve Nadis writes about a recent sighting of a guy hitching a ride in Cambridge and reminisces about the old days when hitchhiking was pretty common, although no less dangerous. (via UH)
I used to hitchhike regularly in the sixties, as did most of the people I knew. It was an easy way to get to the Cape in those days. Never a problem, although you never knew who was going to pick you up. I even got a short ride once on Nantucket by, I think, Walter Cronkite and his wife. Then again, all memories from the sixties are suspect.
Home town sentiment:
In anticipation of a national candidacy, David Broder examines Mitt Romney's tenure in Massachusetts.
UPDATE: I've had trouble getting online today and I've been meaning to post an update to this entry with a link to Joan Vennochi's column on Romney's evolution from a moderate, gay rights-friendly candidate for Mass governor to the present Christian Coalition-friendly presidential primary candidate. Jay also questions Romney's conservative credentials, noting:
Mitt's political positions have always depended heavily on what day, state and election it is at a given moment.
If he wins the primary in 08 and swings back to the center for the general, he can always recycle those positions that got him elected governor here.
UPDATE II: Andrew Sullivan weighs in on Romney, past, present and future.
XOXO:
Yours truly, All the best... which closing works best in a professional email? Apparently not; "Don't let the bedbugs bite."
November 25, 2006
An hour in Times Square:
Here are a few high-grain, contrasty images taken a couple of years ago in one of my favorite photography places in the world.
There's a few more after the jump...
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The young, the restless and the ad revenue:
There's a story in today's Times about how cities are fighting to keep and attract young professionals.
Charlotte, with its fancy Frisbee golf courses, is doing very well. So is Atlanta.
In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Tex. The biggest losers included Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.
What about Boston? There's no mention of Boston in the Times story. But in a syndicated version of the same story published in the Gainsville Sun, Boston is mentioned as a loser.
In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Texas. The biggest losers were Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. [Emphasis mine]
It seems odd that one city was edited out of the Times story. (It doesn't seem to have been an inadvertent omission: note the change to "included.") I may be reaching, but do you suppose that it has anything to do with demographics and ad rates at the struggling Times-owned Boston Globe?
So much for the Chinese wall.
Take down:
Sure, there are stories in the Globe and Herald, but Charles has the best photo coverage of the de-steepleization of a Dorchester landmark. Let him know if you'd like to help with raising money for a replacement.
Universal lampoon:
Ever wanted to write for the Onion? Check out Uncyclopedia, a humor wiki with a user voting hierarchy (and a familiar look.)
One way out:
The people who say that Iraq hasn't yet erupted into civil war may be right. It looks to me like they skipped the civil part altogether and jumped right into senseless reciprocal slaughter.
Then there's northern Iraq, a peaceful counterpoint to the madness in the south. One morning we'll read in the New York Times that, overnight, all of our troops were pulled out -- and put into the north.
And that will be it.
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan links to Anthony Shadid who describes the situation as "More chaotic than civil war." (Unfortunately, that link goes somewhere else.)
November 24, 2006
Ghost dog:
Remember Vivi, the show dog that ran away from handlers last year at JFK airport?
She's still missing but definitely not forgotten. The dog has become an urban legend around New York with more than 45 reported sightings since she made her escape. Pet detectives are on the case.
Where have the criminals gone?
Crime is way down in NYC. Incarceration rates are down too. So if the criminals aren't out committing crimes, and they're not in jail, where are they and what are they doing? It's an interesting mystery.
November 23, 2006
Splish splash:
I admit I didn't follow the weather forecasts all that closely this week, but I do remember hearing something like: 'Thursday, chance of rain'. What I don't remember hearing was anything about unrelenting day-long wind-swept torrents of drenching, flooding rain.
But it wasn't snow. That's something to be thankful for.
Redecorating:
Like the Watergate reformers and the Pact with America gang before them, the freshman Democrats are hoping to disrupt the status quo. It'll be pragmatism over party loyalty according to interviews conducted for this CSM story.
At the same time, the lobbyist landscape is changing. More than a few K Street firms are repainting the office walls blue to match the new mood in the capital.
Cranberry economy:
Southeastern Massachusetts cranberry growers have had their ups and downs in recent years. A story in today's Washington Post reports that, due to an increase in exports, demand and prices are back up.
Macy's parade day:
Spectators are already lined up on Broadway but the weather doesn't look good for Garfield and company.
Random photo:
A snow fence weaves through the dunes at Rexham beach on a foggy afternoon.
November 22, 2006
Above and below the fold:
Universal Hub is the front page for citizen news reporting on the Danvers Expolsion and fire.
All over the map (in a good way):
Three of the movies in my (and many others') top ten were directed by Robert Altman. A few more are in the top twenty. Just as impressive, three in my worse movie list were also directed by him. He wasn't afraid of taking multi-million dollar artistic risks and he apparently didn't use focus groups, which of course real artists don't.
From my top ten: Short Cuts, The Player and Mash. From the worst: Prêt-à-Porter, Popeye, and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.
Packing them in:
Driving home last night, I listened to Tom Ashbrook describe the state of air travel -and it wasn't good. Lost luggage, poor service, random bag checks, long delays, shortened leg-room. And, his experts warned, things will get much worse in the next decade.
Then, this morning, this caught my eye.
JetBlue Airways is offering a bonus to fliers on Thanksgiving Day -- a free beer to accompany football games on its seat-back satellite TVs. The National Football League's Miami Dolphins-Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Dallas Cowboys games will be among the programming on 36 channels of DirecTV that JetBlue offers for free.
That almost makes you want to fly on Thanksgiving Day.
Friendly iconic turkeys:
(Here's the obligitory day-before-Thanksgiving turkey craft post.)
You can make ornamental turkeys with everything from candy corn to popcorn balls? And there's more, here.
November 21, 2006
Missed match:
DNA is revolutionizing prosecutions but not all matches make it to court. USA Today found dozens of cases that fell through the cracks, not because of technology but because of, what appears to be, sloppiness.
Iterating the Beatles:
I can't say how much money I've spent over the years on Beatles albums, singles, cassettes, CDs, import versions, collector's editions, reissued re-mastered deluxe editions, compilations, re-mastered reengineered out-take compilations, reengineered 'naked' versions... I only know it's a lot. (If I keep this up, you might say I'll be ...Beatles Baroque.)
But I'm actually looking forward to this new Beatles mash-up, which (or that) comes out today. Here's a review by Joan Anderman.
Clean money:
The clean-energy market is being pumped up by hard-nosed VCs who are funding the hippies and true believers. That's probably not a bad thing as long as the bubble doesn't burst before we make some headway.
Channel X:
I'm glad WBZ is re-branding itself as --WBZ.
Now that that's settled we learn that Channel 7 has been cleared to absorb Channel 56, which should add up to Channel 63. But I don't think that's how it works.
November 20, 2006
The hooker demographic:
I know it's only Monday, but this piece gets the unnecessary-to-begin-with-gonzo-investigative-news-story-of-the-week prize.
Off to grandmother's house:
People are ready for some serious driving this week. With Boston/Masscrazydriving gone from the scene, UH is the place to go for what's happening on Boston area roadways. And Carpundit will tell you how to get where you're going in style.
There's a website in the DC area that allows folks to post the license plates of motorists that they think were driving like maniacs (via the WP, which includes a link, by the way.) An example:
I was walking my dog when out of nowhere this silver Toyota Corolla came flying down the road and jumped halfway onto the sidewalk. Luckily my dog and I were able to get out of the way as this maniac driver sped down the sidewalk hitting trashcans and parked cars. I got really worried when the car stopped and turned around. As I looked up, I could see this crazy, white-haired lady staring at me and my dog from over her steering wheel. But here's the weird part - she was really small. I mean, she looked like she was only 1 foot tall. This white haired lady then gunned her engine and aimed right for me and my dog. I once again grabbed my dog and jumped out of the way. As she sped past us, she was barking loudly at us! I couldn't understand what she was saying or why she was so mad. I wanted to call the cops, but couldn't find my cell phone. If you see this Toyota Corolla with MD tag "SASHA" do yourself a favor and get out of teh way! She doesn't mess around!
And I thought driving in Boston was surreal.
But I like the idea of the site. Imagine something like that around here. Bandwidth costs aside, I think it would be a smash.
Old school:
Alex Beam may be infuriatingly smug, condescending and mired in the past. But sometimes, as in this column, the last line still makes you laugh.
Truth in advertising:
Do buffalo wings contain buffalo meat? Is there lobster in lobster sauce? For some people this might be an issue.
Down to business:
Barney Frank, on a proposal to work with business for the general good:
"I'm a capitalist, and that means I'm for inequality," Frank told Boston business leaders on the morning after Election Day, in a speech about his grand bargain. "But you reach a point where you get more inequality than is healthy, and I believe we're at that point.
I think he's right and it's an interesting approach. So, are working-class, business-friendly Democrats ready to make a comeback?
November 19, 2006
Knowledge for knowledge's sake:
Scientists have cracked the code for who is funny looking. I only hope that this information will be used for good, and not evil.
Get smart:
There are lots of video lectures available now on the Internet from Harvard, Cornell, MIT, Oxford and others on everything from quantum physics to how to write a memo.
What better way to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon (after the football game of course) than with a lecture on The quandary of the quark.
November 18, 2006
More photos:
Outside the Zoo on International Children's Day, Chonching, China 2005
Brant Point lighthouse on Nantucket, February 2006
Book store window, Barcelona Spain, 2003
Laughing last:
I missed the story about how Italians are having a few laughs at the expense of the Pope and his secretary --but Jay didn't.
Of course the best response to being made fun of is to get in on the joke. So, will we see Benedict hosting Saturday Night Live?
Maybe he could rip up a picture of Sinead O'Connor.
Game on:
I'm not much of a gamer but I did, of course, follow the Playstation 3 riots of 2006. Hot on the heels comes the new Nintendo Wii, which is being released at midnight tonight. I understand that there are plenty of units to go around so there shouldn't be the same kind of hysteria that we saw yesterday.
But at MIT, Nintendo fever did make it to the top of the dome.
Burning issues:
The war might have had something to do with the recent political changes in Washington, but could Net Neutrality also have been a factor?
Probably not, but I'll still score it as a victory.
Thumbnails:
For several months I've been playing around with Adobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture, both powerful Mac photo management applications. (I believe that free trials are available. Lightroom also does Windows.) Since the learning curve for each is steep, I had, at some point, to decide which way to go and then devote the time to learning one program.
Lightroom's strong point is it's outstanding image processing ability and it's weak point is its very confusing (but presumably capable) cataloging. Aperture on the other hand does cataloging and organizing simply and powerfully. Its image processing, although not as good as Lightroom, is still very good. With over 40,000 images spread across multiple computers, I need more than anything --organization. So Aperture is was.
The first step then was to soup up my system to handle the requirements with room to spare. That included an added 400 gigs of storage, another gig of RAM and a video card update to my old G5 dual 2.0.
Then I spent a week consolidating and importing images into Aperture. Even with the hardware upgrades, managing that many images and sorting/displaying thousands of thumbnails at a time strains the system. But now I can sort my original un-edited digital negatives from the many second, third and fourth generation edits. That's huge for me.
Image processing in Aperture is non-destructive. The original image remains untouched even if you crop, remove red-eye, or change the tone. The program records and stores a log of the steps you took, and at any time you can go back to the original or to any point in the process, picking and choosing which changes you want to keep. This is important in that you always have the digital negative to go back to and because you don't have to store multiple versions of the same photo on the hard drive for every change you make (which is how I came to have over 40,000 images.)
And if you need to do some destructive editing, the program is well integrated with Photoshop (strangely better than Lightroom from my experience) sending an image off for editing and then bringing it back in with the changes.
So, here are a few images I found this morning while browsing. I'll be learning more about the program as I go. I don't think it will make me a better photographer but at least I'll be an organized one.
Christian Science Center, Spring 06
Sari shop in Singapore, Spring 06
Antique Savannah GA police car, Spring 06
Shifting sands:
With a new DC mayor on the way in, the police chief may be on the way out.
Dead heat:
Glen Reynolds polls readers as to "who will blow it worse over the next two years?"
I would have said Democrats since they have more to lose now, but I would be wrong.
Lawyer envy:
Bloggers, who don't generally have the legal teams that MSM outlets have, are getting sued for libel among other things, on a pretty regular basis. Jeff Jarvis reports that CUNY's School of Journalism is putting together a grant-supported project to help bloggers avoid lawsuits.
Do as I say:
John Dvorak harps on a point that I've harped on in the past: Newspaper websites with stories about websites that mention -- but don't link to -- those websites.
...I can't tell you how many publications prevent linking because some marketing guy is afraid that once readers link off the site, then they will be lost forever. This is true only if your site really sucks. If your site is any good, people do come back, though some just pass through. How does trying to trap a reader endear anyone to your site?...
He's right. So I wonder why his column on links doesn't have any links.
November 17, 2006
Greenbush green:
The price has risen to almost $20m in extra costs on the Greenbush line. That's for everything from protecting non-endangered endangered species to appeasing petulant South Shore residents.
...[T]he project's conservator is requiring the MBTA to paint signal bungalows forest green, instead of their usual metallic silver, a request by locals to have the boxes better blend in with the suburban surroundings.
Apparently green paint is very expensive.
If there's any good news here, apart from the fact that despite all this the line is moving forward, it's that the T (just barely) stood up to demands that they pay the costs of providing Prozac for a very sensitive Hingham dog.
Recycling old news:
This story appeared in the Washington Post on November 2nd. Now, two weeks later, it's in today's Globe.
What was it that made the old news new again?
November 16, 2006
Lost in translation:
Apart from the curiosity factor, I don't see much of a market for Al-Jazeera English in these parts. But it's getting attention in other places.
Employing some of the biggest names in global broadcasting — such as Riz Khan, Sir David Frost, Rageh Omar, Veronica Pedrosa, Darren Jordan, Dave Marash, Josh Rushing and Ghida Fakhry — the channel hopes to reach a potential audience of 80 million viewers by cable and satellite, mostly in Asia, Africa and Europe.
Now those are some big names. I wonder if they'll have a weather babe?
The Undersecretary for Love and Happiness:
I'm as peace loving and idealistic as the next guy but I did a double-take at the op-ed suggestion that we establish a US Department of Peace. Is it April 1st, already?
So what would a Department of Peace do exactly?
Domestically, the department would develop policies and allocate resources to reduce the levels of domestic and gang violence, child abuse, and various other forms of societal discord. The secretary of peace would work with the secretary of education to develop curriculums to teach students alternative conflict resolution techniques and strategies.
We already have a Justice Department, maybe we should just use it more. You know what they say, No justice, no peace.
Food for thought:
Judging by the website design budget, I'd say this was a hoax. But you never know.
November 14, 2006
No cash, no problem:
I think this is a great ad. Not everyone agrees.
...In this ad, the guy paying cash blows up the orderly system of the deli (i.e., society), bringing the scorn of his peers. The look on the checkout clerk's face is one of embarrassment. The money even looks a little dirty.
Yes. Exactly. That's why the ad is so good!
The road to City Hall:
Kevin White and Ray Flynn seem like ancient history. These days there doesn't seem the possibility of a time in the future when Tom Menino won't be the mayor. But of course that time will come, and a new generation of politicians is beginning to lay the groundwork.
Garden canopy:
The 75 story building proposed for the financial district would be the tallest in the region. It's slated to have a tropical roof garden just like the skyscrapers down south. I assume it will be enclosed. It can get pretty chilly 75 stories-up in February.
After a walk in the garden-in-the-sky, you could pick up some groceries at the ground-floor supermarket. But no wine. That would be too good to be true.
November 13, 2006
Unintended consequences:
China had such good luck with it's one-child policy (stagnant population growth is expected to lead to an economic downturn) that it has decided to adopt a one-dog policy. Apparently all those single children wanted multiple dogs.
Get ready for the Year of the Cat.
Lingua franca:
Maybe it's an east-coast/west-coast thing, but to my ears the police 10-code sounds a little childish. We in the northeast prefer to speak plainly. Following a trend, the Virginia State Police have abandoned the 10-code and will now speak English on the radio.
Fell off a truck:
The deal that sounded too good to be true, was.
Rolling downhill:
I was surprised to read that the FDNY is 91% white. The Daily News interviewed a black firefighter to find what it's like to be that far in the minority. Of course, he takes a shot at women firefighters.
November 12, 2006
Resistance is futile:
I was just getting used to the idea of Web 2.0 but here comes Web 3.0.
Picking up the pieces:
Still confused about the election? Today's Globe won't be much help.
Some have said that folks in the middle -- and even some on the right -- turned away from the Republican agenda because it was tracking too much to the right. Others, including Jeff Jacoby, think that it was because the GOP wasn't conservative enough. Or maybe it was simply better Democratic tactics.
One hint comes, locally, from the South Shore, where Republicans did well but an anti-war amendment passed resoundingly. For my part I think it's less about ideology and more about the perception that those in power, Republicans for the most part, have been dishonest about the war and things like the Big Dig.
Up in New Hampshire, as far as the election goes, things are clearer: It's those Massachusetts liberals moving north.
"This state has gone liberal, no doubt," said Robert Bianchi, 43, a firefighter from Nashua and a registered Republican. "It's tilted because of all the people coming up here from Massachusetts. You see it in this election -- and you see it in how they drive and how they raise their kids."
How they drive? When did they start driving on the left side of the road up there?
November 11, 2006
My Baby, She's Alright:
Charles links to a video of Scruffy the Cat and includes an update on what the lead singer is doing these days.
Invested in success:
Jay, who's over his one-party funk, points to this post on Blue Mass Group and I agree it's a good one. Taken with the comments, the point that stands out for me is that even though the election is over and the favored candidate has been elected, the people who worked for that end are not yet declaring victory.
That's important. I hope that the BMG community continues to define success, not just in defeating Republicans, but in making state government works under the Democrats. To do so will involve a willingness to scrutinize and take-on fellow Democrats since the usual Republican suspects have packed (or are packing) their bags.