links for 2009-09-20

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Joe

(from @johntedge) Minneapolis gets weirder – and drunker. Passed this pedal-powered bar on wheels, the Pedal Pub. http://yfrog.com/0l9dwvj
(from @andrefrancisco) I just bought a candy called Crunky Nude Ball. I don’t think any other punchline is needed.

links for 2009-09-19

Posted on September 19, 2009 by Joe

(from @bekamop) GPS Serendipitor-phone app randomly generates route u havent taken b4. prob in wired world isnt getting lost it’s that u never do #conflux

links for 2009-09-18

Posted on September 18, 2009 by Joe

GOP Surrenders to Beck’s Mob Rule

“It’s striking that Beck never actually quotes Sunstein. Beck instead relies instead on an argument from pure assertion: Sunstein opposes animal cruelty, the Princeton philosopher Peter Singer also opposes animal cruelty, therefore Sunstein must agree with everything Peter Singer has ever said or written.

“This is beyond sloppy, beyond ignorant, proceeding straight toward the deceptive.”

(tags: glenn_beck cass_sunstein gop)
On Politics – Expand the House? – NYTimes.com

“That 400,000-person disparity between top and bottom has generated a federal court challenge that is set to be filed Thursday in Mississippi, charging that the system effectively disenfranchises people in certain states. The lawsuit asks the courts to order the House to fix the problem by increasing its size from 435 seats to at least 932, or perhaps as many as 1,761. That way, the plaintiffs argue, every state can have districts that are close to parity.”

(tags: government democracy via:twitter=mkapor)

(sources: Twitter user @mkapor (Mitch Kapor))
iowahawk: Welcome Conventioneers

“Now imagine all those thousands of fun-loving insurance and tobacco and waste material and military-industrialist men in Chicago, away from the wives, looking for a good time. They had no further to look than Maury Kahn’s terrific “Night Life” Chicago entertainment guide, the April 3 edition of which occupies an honored nook in the Iowahawk museum. Now, through the magic of scanner technology, I am able to share this treasure with the general public.”

(tags: chicago history 1959 nightlife via:twitter=zeldes)

(sources: Twitter user @zeldes (Leah A. Zeldes))
(from @katzaj) RT @JoeGermuska RT @johnwonderlich It’s Time to Publish the Constitution Annotated Online in XML http://bit.ly/4HVLX
(from @jackomatik) RT[excerpted]: @JoeGermuska: I’m a tolerant guy … but I have trouble seeing bubblegum flavored vodka as anything but an abomination.
(from @mmorowitz) @JoeGermuska because, what “is” bubblegum flavor? Does bubblegum grow on trees? It
s flavor must be derived from somewhere. (in reply to this tweet)
I’m a tolerant guy, esp when it comes to matters of taste but I have trouble seeing bubblegum flavored vodka as anything but an abomination.
It’s Time to Publish the Constitution Annotated Online in XML http://bit.ly/4HVLX (via @johnwonderlich) (me: damn straight!)
(from @johnperrybarlow) In New York City, people seem like particles in a state of Brownian Motion. Collisions are had to come by.
(from @notoneword) @JoeGermuska thanks! im commuting vicariously through you! (in reply to this tweet)
Whee. 17 minutes later, actually on a train. Note to self: platforms at Loyola are divided. Pick the correct escalator.
Literally one block in ten minutes. Switching to red line. CTA needs to consider reroutes. Oh look we’re going to block another intersection
OK, more than “kind of” My bus has blocked this intersection through three straight red lights.
The resurfacing of N. Sheridan started smoothly, but now that they’re down near Devon, it’s kind if a mess. “Choose alternate routes.”

links for 2009-09-17

Posted on September 17, 2009 by Joe

Ze Frank Wants Some Respect – Video – TIME.com

“The thing that has me muddled is that when we say Congress should respect the President, what do we mean and do we really mean it?”

(tags: zefrank video respect congress via:twitter=ellnmllr)

(sources: Twitter user @ellnmllr (Ellen Miller))
YouTube – 5 Things Cities Can Learn from Burning Man

abandon cars; encourage self reliance; rethink commerce; don’t be afraid to use shame to foster virtue; encourage art

(tags: burningman civics video youtube)
Prankster Introduces Ballot Initiative to Ban Divorce – Asylum.com

“Marcotte calls his voter initiative “the logical extension of Proposition 8,” the controversial measure which last year added “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” to the state’s constitution.”

(tags: prop8 prank california via:twitter=pzriddle)

(sources: Twitter user @pzriddle (Prentiss Riddle))
(from @chriscyvas) @JoeGermuska LOL yeah, I’m not that efficient in my reading choices :)
@chriscyvas Sounds like you could have just read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and gotten it in one book. (in reply to this tweet)
Kudos to Sen. McCaskill for soliciting input from #opengov community regarding tracking of contracts http://bit.ly/13WqrB
(from @chriscyvas) @JoeGermuska good idea :) Maybe I turn it into some sort of thang
@blogsupreme Oh, nice to see Herculaneum get some props. They’re low profile even here in Chicago. (in reply to this tweet)
@chriscyvas That is actually really awesome. Maybe you should do a world tour of dashCommerce installations? (in reply to this tweet)
(from @katchicago) @JoeGermuska Did you hear the way to remember the help desk extension is to dial A-DUD? (in reply to this tweet)
I’m quite amused at the festive tropical hold music on the Trib’s internal help desk phone line. Steel drums! Where’s my umbrella drink!?
(from @thichnhathanh) The here and now is the address of life.
FB paraphrase: @vielmetti you model public curiosity, & I’m not pessimistic. cf. @judell @timoreilly many more But I’d love *more* evidence
Book “The Race Beat” uses phrase “feed the public curiosity.” I’d feel better with more evidence such a thing still existed.

links for 2009-09-16

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Joe

@greatwightsnark “amici briefs or amici boxers?” (in reply to this tweet)
(from @greatwightsnark) @JoeGermuska actually it had to do with amici briefs. But close. (in reply to this tweet)
@greatwightsnark “Are you going to eat that pickle?” “Do these pants make me look fat?” (in reply to this tweet)
(from @appliedrhetoric) @JoeGermuska Nutty indeed. Best part about it is that it made me learn how to swim. (in reply to this tweet)
(from @jlroyalty) @JoeGermuska thanks sir, I’ll pass it along. (in reply to this tweet)
@appliedrhetoric a triathlon! nutty! but good for you! (in reply to this tweet)
@jlroyalty We’re hiring, but maybe not for exactly that skill set (and th job’s in CHI not NYC). Still, pass the word! http://bit.ly/3rAvz0 (in reply to this tweet)
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: In Case My New Young-Adult Novel Doesn’t Sell, Here Are My Backup Ideas.

“Potter In the Rye
“Harry has an adventure in New York City after getting expelled from Hogwarts, which is fine anyway because who wants to go to wizard school with a bunch of wizard phonies anyway? However, not even magic can save you from getting beaten up by a pimp.”

(tags: humor literature via:twitter=me3dia)

(sources: Twitter user @me3dia (Andrew Huff))
Digging in Chicago on Vimeo

“This is a movie about my short trip to Chicago. I was there for a few days to dig for vinyl and I had a great time and found some nice black gold nuggets. Anyway I filmed a lot and asked some of the record store owners about vinyl and now I have a short movie.”

(tags: chicago music collecting video via:twitter=kumar303)

(sources: Twitter user @kumar303)
YouTube – Video Dating – Found Footage Festival

“A short excerpt from a 1987 dating service video given to us by David Cross.”

(tags: video funny found via:twitter=stellakestell)

(sources: Twitter user @stellakestell)
FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Size Matters; So Do Lies

“This was not a small rally. It was also not, in comparison with something like the 2006 pro-immigration protests, a particularly large rally. It was a business-as-usual sort of rally. Mock the protesters at your peril: business as usual suddenly isn’t so good for Democrats these days, and the sentiments of the 70,000 people who marched on Washington surely mirror those of millions more sitting at home.”

(tags: demonstration politics journalism)
Dying to be the next Gisele | Salon Life

And still, it was not enough. Dangerously underweight at 98 pounds, Renn took a test photo for her agency in which her collarbone juts out like a shelf and her arms look about as strong as pussy willows. Her agent’s opinion: “You’re too heavy here.” It only got worse when, despite her continued starvation and obsessive exercise, she began gaining back the weight. After she hit Size 4, the then 18-year-old was hauled into her agency for a come-to-Jesus talk. Staring at a Polaroid of Renn in which she still looks utterly waifish to a layperson’s eye, the agent declared, “The thighs need to come down.”

(tags: fashion weight booktagged book:isbn=9781439101230)

(references: Hungry by Crystal Renn with Marjorie Ingall.)

WNUR Conference of the Birds, 2009-09-15

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Joe

“Conference of the Birds” is my weekly radio program on WNUR-FM. It airs on Tuesdays from 5-7:30 am Chicago time (UTC-6). And, of course, when technology cooperates, you can just come here for the archives.

No big stories about this week’s show. I played a lot of stuff I brought in from home, but also really liked the Steve Swell Trio tune, which hadn’t really registered with me on the first listen. Also cool was the ROVA track from their 1983 tour behind the Iron Curtain. Apparently there was a documentary made–does anyone know if it’s reasonably available now?

complete program (144 MB, 2 hrs 37 min)

Artist: “Track” – Album (Label)
Joseph Spence: “Brownskin Gal” – The Complete Folkways Recordings (1958) (Smithsonian Folkways)
The Golden Gate Quartet: “Dipsy Doodle” – Travelin’ Shoes (RCA/Bluebird)
Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six: “Red Boa” – Heretic Blues (Delmark)
Mark Feldman/Erik Friedlander/Greg Cohen: “Rokhev” – Bar Kokhba (Tzadik)
Os Mutantes: “Panis et circensis” – Os Mutantes (Polygram)
Roy C: “Shotgun Wedding” – Island 40, Vol. 2: 1964-1969 — Rhythm and Blues Beat (Island)
Johnny Dyani Quartet: “Angolian Cry” – Angolian Cry (Steeplechase)
Corey Wilkes & Abstrakt Pulse: “Levitation” – Cries from Tha Ghetto (Pi)
The Respect Sextet: “Angels and Demons at Play” – Sirius Respect: The Respect Sextet play the music of Sun Ra and Stockhausen (Mode/Avant)
Archie Shepp: “Solitude/Steam” – Steam (Inner City)
Atomic School Days: “Fort Funston” – Distil (Okkadisk)
Roosevelt Graves and Brother: “Woke Up This Morning” – How Can I Keep From Singing, vol 1 (Yazoo)
Blind Arvella Gray: “John Henry” – The Singing Drifter (Conjur)
HAR-YOU Percussion Group: “Barretts Bag” – Sounds of the Ghetto Youth (ESP-Disk)
Kalle-Roger/Rochereau/Orchestre Africa Jazz: “Afrika Mokili Mobimba” – Africa Dances (Original Music)
Detroit Emeralds: “Rosetta Stone” – The Westbound Sound of Detroit: Sensational Motor City Groups 1969-1975 (Westbound)
Northwoods Improvisers: “Two Worlds” – Northwoods Improvisers (Lightning Darkness)
Steve Swell/Rob Brown/Daniel Levin: “Airtight” – Planet Dream (Clean Feed)
Julius Hemphill Sextet: “Three-step” – Fat Man and the Hard Blues (Black Saint)
ROVA: “The Throes” – Saxophone Diplomacy (Hat Art)
Igbal Jogi and Party: “Lorau (A Folk Tune Popular in the Desert Regions)” – Authentic Music of the Snake Charmers of India (Legacy International)
Gato Barbieri: “Obsession No. 2″ – In Search of the Mystery (ESP Disk)

links for 2009-09-15

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Joe

(from @hoodinternet) RT @SouthCackNeezy: Patrick Swayze, I’m sad you’re gone. Gonna let you rest BUT MICHAEL JACKSON HAD ONE OF THE GREATEST DEATHS OF ALL TIME!
.@Chicago_Reader I’m here at Martyrs’ for the sound check and it sounds like it will indeed live up to “spectacular” (in reply to this tweet)
@kevindgrant Micropayments for news sites don’t need to be the norm for Google to make $$ from facilitating them! (in reply to this tweet)
@BrentDPayne Isn’t it more important to serve the audience than to beat ESPN in raw numbers? Do readers prefer one story or several? (in reply to this tweet)
Haven’t seen anyone mention that iTunes 9 now supports syncing to iTunes U. Anyone have recommendations?
(from @bycoffe) @JoeGermuska Nice. I forked and added support for other delimiters: http://gist.github.com/186819 (in reply to this tweet)
@bycoffe I like that. But then I added a little more. http://gist.github.com/186804 (@jduckles i’d feel cooler if I did it in sed, but…) (in reply to this tweet)
(from @bycoffe) @JoeGermuska Here’s one way to do it from the command line: http://gist.github.com/186772 (in reply to this tweet)
(from @numerogroup) Numero Needs Fall Interns
http://bit.ly/Q0Wwy
(from @jduckles) @JoeGermuska If all fields quoted then maybe sed ‘s/”,”/”#”/g’ | cut -d “#” -f 4(somewhat confusingly the “,” matches unqoted commas in CSV) (in reply to this tweet)
(from @jduckles) @JoeGermuska sed out the ” characters (if the data allows) and then use cut, or sed the unquoted commas to some other char to cut on. (in reply to this tweet)
@jduckles or ideally, as savvy as the regex someone else has already created which I can just nick. I can’t be the first one to need it. (in reply to this tweet)
(from @jduckles) @JoeGermuska awk can be as savy as the regex you create for it :) (in reply to this tweet)
(from @lazytweet) [from @joegermuska] advise me, o lazyweb: is there a UNIX CLI tool like ‘cut’ but which is savvy about CSV quoted .. http://bit.ly/OSfYn
advise me, o lazyweb: is there a UNIX CLI tool like ‘cut’ but which is savvy about CSV quoted columns? cut -d, isn’t… cutting it.
SCOUTING NY – www.scoutingny.com » The Underground City on Governors Island

“Since January, Belgian archaeologists have been working strenuously to excavate the ruins of a former Governors Island hamlet called Goverthing (a bastardization of a Dutch word). With a 400 year history dating back to Manhattan’s first settlements, the hamlet was the last civilian colony on Governors Island by the 1950’s. In 1954, the town was forcibly evacuated by the city of New York, who had deemed it a safety hazard for a variety of reasons, and effectively had it condemned. As demolition was not an option at the time, the hamlet was simply buried under tens of feet of soil and forgotten.”

(tags: newyork archaeology via:twitter=dansinker)

(sources: Twitter user @dansinker)

links for 2009-09-14

Posted on September 14, 2009 by Joe

(from @Mo_Brien) @JoeGermuska Now I know you are a heathen! Transubstantiation indeed… (in reply to this tweet)
COMBAT MilTerms: Phonetic Codes and Signal Flags

(tags: language alphabets communication)

links for 2009-09-13

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Joe

Preparing Lao “Meat from Heaven” for tomorrow’s LTH Forum picnic. I guess the 10-12 hour drying cycle is like ‘transubstantiation’?
Steve Chapman: Hawking the Olympics

“No one likes being aurally assaulted while part of a captive audience. In my decades of riding the CTA, it’s the first audio ad I can remember, and I think I speak for my fellow passengers when I say I fervently hope it’s the last.”

(tags: chicago olympics propaganda via:twitter=coloneltribune)

(sources: Twitter user @coloneltribune (ColonelTribune))
Al Franken draws map of United States at MN State Fair

very impressive.

(tags: video geography al_franken)
@Rick_Bayless I tried the chiles de arbol/garlic/peanuts recipe. My balance of ingred a little off, but still tasty. I’ll enjoy refining it! (in reply to this tweet)
I ♥ Claude Shannon » watch “Father of Information Age” on u-tube: http://bit.ly/36ZdDA Love his later life story. Juggling… tiny unicycles…
@greatwightsnark break a leg (in reply to this tweet)
(from @srobbin) Microsoft Surface is a lot like Fruit Stripes gum: good for the first 4 minutes, then you want to throw it away. http://yfrog.com/0mmbdjj
(from @kumar303) History of Nigerian hip hop: the first decade (1981 – 1991) http://bit.ly/ZP8qz (mp3)
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: the Ars Technica review – Ars Technica

John Siracusa’s series of in-depth reviews of Mac OS X releases are really amazing, and the entry for Snow Leopard continues the trend.

(tags: apple review macosx reviews mac osx)
Captured Photo Collection » Photographer Collection: Emilio Morenatti Photos

A brilliant set of recent photography of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

(tags: photography afghanistan pakistan photojournalism)
Would you still sign the 9/11 Truth petition? | Salon News

“Salon contacted nearly 30 of the petition’s signatories to see if they felt, as did Lerner, Zinn and Jones, that the document didn’t reflect their views on 9/11. We asked a simple question: If you had to do it all over again, would you still sign the statement?”

(tags: politics september11 conspiracy)
(from @chriscyvas) @JoeGermuska – gotta love Bill Moyers :D
Truly fair and balanced: Bill Moyers explores both sides of Citizens United v. FEC http://bit.ly/GTgmC reargued before SCOTUS this week.

links for 2009-09-12

Posted on September 12, 2009 by Joe

(from @orensr) A very fun collection of 10 tune playlists – http://bit.ly/47WbLR via: @JoeGermuska
@harrisj Yeah, I am working on porting Geo::StreetAddress::US to python. You could take on the Ruby port! (BTW @brianboyer flatters me) (in reply to this tweet)
(from @brianboyer) @harrisj Went great. @JoeGermuska captivated the audience w/ his on-air charm. Most interesting talk on porting perl->python, ever. (in reply to this tweet)
(from @amandaruzin) It ain’t right: RT @JoeGermuska Philadelphia threatening to close all libraries 10/02/09 http://bit.ly/Uz4rV (via @librarythingtim)
(from @Bombacharger) @JoeGermuska Now that’s some fierce hardball! (in reply to this tweet)
(from @orensr) Holy cow: Philadelphia threatening to close all libraries 10/02/09 http://bit.ly/Uz4rV (via @librarythingtim) (via @JoeGermuska)
(from @ryanmark) Holy cow: Philadelphia threatening to close all libraries 10/02/09 http://bit.ly/Uz4rV (via @librarythingtim) (via @JoeGermuska)
(from @elimalone) I don’t even know what to say to this. RT @JoeGermuska: Philadelphia threatening to close all libraries 10/02/09 http://bit.ly/Uz4rV
(from @srobbin) Sometimes I wish I could be as productive as @harper. He’s the Ben Franklin of our times, except with teal pants and a handlebar mustache.
Holy cow: Philadelphia threatening to close all libraries 10/02/09 http://bit.ly/Uz4rV (via @librarythingtim)
(from @kategardiner) @JoeGermuska portability + dog friendly… Went to wolfys… Katsu sounds yummy tho. (in reply to this tweet)
@kategardiner Did you drive right by Katsu? (in reply to this tweet)
@knightpulse Do you really have to ask? Irresponsible reporting, to be sure. CNN aren’t citizen journalists, any way you slice it. (in reply to this tweet)
@orensr Ay! Investigating. (in reply to this tweet)
(from @orensr) @JoeGermuska I grabbed the mix, but Corcovado cuts off at 1:17 and is only 2 MB after unzip. :( (in reply to this tweet)
(from @orensr) This is a nice playlist to download for a Friday morning! The 2nd Outof5 music mix http://bit.ly/Y1kcc (via @JoeGermuska)
Grant McCracken: Culture in real time: data visualization and the CCO

“This is Cambridge, Massachusetts, one rainy autumn afternoon in 2005. …It designed to show the color of clothing in motion in the many neighborhoods that make up Cambridge.…Arikan and Dalton rigged up cameras, capture color data and converted it to this astonishingly useful piece of data visualization.”

(tags: color fashion visualization cambridge_ma via:twitter=socialplastic)

(sources: Twitter user @socialplastic (activesocialplastic))
Unicode Chart – Ian-Albert.com

“The image only took about 10 minutes to generate, and its final size was 22,017×42,807 pixels. I actually had this poster printed and hung it on my wall for a while. I had to have it printed in 3-foot-wide strips since that was the maximum size of Kinko’s large-format printer. Also, since I didn’t have 12-foot ceilings in my apartment I decided to do it in two side-by-side 6′×6′ parts. It only cost a little over $20 to get it printed, which was surprising. Truthfully, I think they may have rung it up wrong, but I didn’t complain.”

(tags: unicode poster via:twitter=kumar303)

(sources: Twitter user @kumar303)
The 2nd Outof5 music mix I’m part of is up http://bit.ly/Y1kcc I ‘d picked a foxier picture of Elis Regina myself, but it’s the voice too.
@brianboyer Don’t be so sure of that. There’s a lot of precedent supporting copyright over packaging of data. (in reply to this tweet)
I’m not watching, but hearing talk around me about CNN’s coverage of Coast Guard training makes them sound utterly ridiculous.

Through the Wire

"Hey, I'm just happy to be here…"

Monthly Archives: September 2009