July 2008 Archives

A hail storm damaged the junction box on the outside of our house, causing increasingly frequent intermittent internet outages... Making me cranky!!! The phone man comes tomorrow...

ON TMV TODAY:

• Even if Bush isn't impeached... there's the world to consider. It's a post to continue the comment thread from my Sunstein post (see below).
• Get Naked... DSL sans phone line -- while on the phone about that junction box, we switched!

ON TMV YESTERDAY:

• Why I'm still a great big fan of Cass Sunstein -- I wrote this the day before, then lost the whole thing when a lightning bolt took out the Internet for good. Fury erupted. At 1,998 words (a critical commenter counted) the rewrite isn't as tight as the original. But it attracted a decent comment thread.
• Child prostitution & prevention -- A NYTimes editorial. sad that Atlanta continues to rank so high on child prostitution stats. Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, has some good ideas.

ON TMV TUESDAY:

• Media bias? Tennessee church shooting missing from ABC's GMA -- And not given much attention on the Today Show. I'm not typically big on media bias stories, but that one struck me.

ON TMV MONDAY:

• IG Report: Bush DOJ engaged in illegal hiring practices -- basically just a link dump.
• Far, far easier to get a gun license than a driver's license in Georgia -- just show up with an ID and have no criminal history, you get a gun "license."
• WaPo looks at Obama hurdles in expanding black vote -- I do the math and still have hope that Georgia goes for Obama.

ON TMV SUNDAY:

• Brandon McInerney: No 14-year-old deserves the threat of life in prison -- He's arraigned one week from today. I'll be posting more...

ON TMV SATURDAY

• Imagining a more effective, and humane, prison system -- Another decent comment thread. I should have thrown Sunstein into the mix. Some of the commenters who like prisons in this thread, are Sunstein foes in that other.
• Remember, Sunstein believes the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

ON TMV 7/24 (how did I get this far behind???)

• Edwards' love child and the hetero/homo double standard divide -- I predicted it would be on the morning shows by now. I'm not liking this story.

ON TMV 7/23

• Drivers in the South hardest hit by gas prices -- And our cities are not good for walking either.
• Procrastination Nation: Hi-tech makes us time-wasters? -- evi-damn-dently I procrastinated on this here blog!!! I quote the study but think it's bunk!

ON TMV 7/22

• God's love, satellite delivered: Christian radio opposes local provisions -- love this! "...a movement more paranoid about than concerned for the communities to which it broadcasts."
• Sunstein's influence on Obama: the right kind of Nudge -- The Philadelphia Inquirer's Chris Satullo had a column...
  

Enough for now.

Don't piss off the NYPD. Mark Frauenfelder:

Although a judge ruled in 2006 that the monthly Critical Mass bicycle rides could proceed without a permit, the NYPD's stance remains somewhat adversarial. Though the city has not been enforcing the controversial parade permit law when it comes to Critical Mass, police have been ticketing cyclists during the ride for such infractions as not having the required lights.

A representative for TIMES UP! tells us that the cyclist in this video was arrested, held for 26 hours, and charged with attempted assault and resisting arrest.

AP is reporting that the police officer in the video has been stripped of his badge and gun and the NYPD has "placed the unidentified officer on desk duty pending the outcome of a department investigation."

I'll have much to say on this in a future post...

I've still got work to do on this site. Slowly but surely. In the meantime...

ON TMV TODAY:

• On South Dakota's unbelievable new abortion law -- the law makes doctors give information that is medically untrue and unjustified. The Right should keep on winning its victories. The middle is shifting left. They're helping.
• Surge in support for gays serving openly in the military -- evidence of what I just said above.

ON TMV YESTERDAY:

• On Barack Obama, ambition, & the greater good -- On Lizza's New Yorker piece. Obama's good. but I still wonder if history might prove Cory Booker better.
• On Obama & Cleland. And Georgia voting machine fraud -- Obama disinvites Cleland to a fundraiser.

ON TMV SATURDAY

• Jesse Helms' myths. The party was right before it was wrong. -- an excuse to link to The Michelangelo Signorile Show caller claiming in all seriousness that the late senator was a cross-dresser.
• Gas: All Eyes On the Price -- Dan Ariely had an OpEd in the NYTimes on our disproportionate concern w/gas prices. With a couple related links.

OTHER LINKS

• Kevin Kelly: The Three Tails -- VITALLY IMPORTANT!!! KEY CONCEPT!!! The Long Tail needs to be understood differently from the "head" and the "pocket". For the creator it's not about profits -- it's all about connectivity. To the extent that it IS about profits, it's about moving up the tail. I should find the time for a whole post...
• What happens after TV's Mainframe era ends next February? -- WOW! Another post I need to write. The digital switchover will end broadcasting as we know it.

No photos of the new dog yet... Puppy mills are awful! Wikipedia says: The neutrality of that article is disputed. I imagine puppy mill owners have found some way to morally justify what they do. I can't help thinking it has something to do with the Christian notion that humans are God's chosen creatures. (That's why Grandpa John wound up on the site.)

In the town next to me 182 disease-addled purebred dogs were confiscated. Our new dog, Pixel, spent his life in a crate. Not precisely abused -- more neglected -- the repercussions of that are he doesn't know how to interact like a regular dog; can't jump, stand up straight, has no real rear leg muscles, can't run -- and he's an Italian Greyhound!!!

He's adjusting. Photos will come.

Via PZMyers, "Your insides will smoke and sizzle, you'll glow, sparks will shoot out of you, and you'll become a cooked vegetable. At the end, he says, 'don't try to do this at home, because it can be very dangerous'. That's the honest part of his example."

We're getting a third dog today. TJ (the nephew who lives w/us) wants his own.

Do dogs resemble their owners?

I recently covered a study finding that couples come to resemble each other facially over time. So what about dogs and their owners? There are a few studies on this - well actually there's three academic articles and just one study.

a. Roy and Christenfeld (2004) find that, yes, dogs do resemble their owners, but only if they're purebreds - that's the dogs now, not the owners. So, the old chestnut is true. Hooray!

b. Levine (2005), reanalysing the data collected in the first study, say no - there's problems with Roy and Christenfeld's (2004) study. This means we can't yet be sure purebred dogs resemble their owners. A new study is required. Booo.

c. The authors of the original study say yes their original study was correct (Roy & Christenfeld, 2005). Hooray! (I think?)

The world still awaits the conclusion...

Cat lovers click here.

On TMV TODAY

• GOP sends CafePress cease and desist over logo on shirts & stickers -- control freaks!
• Bob Barr goes for the privacy vote -- in a long-shot bid for the geek vote. He's a spoiler!

ON TMV YESTERDAY

• Stossel, Staddon, & Strahilevitz: eliminate stop signs, speed limits, & road rage -- lots here. Good link to a piece in the Atlantic. Got it via Stossel so credit where credit is due. I wish Stoseel would do a piece on Strahilevitz's How's My Driving for Everyone (podcast here). The comments weren't as serious as I'd hoped.
• Apple's walled garden & the meaning of Open Source -- 3G criticisms and the changing meaning of Open Source in a Web 2.0 world.

ON TMV TUESDAY

• Douglas A. Blackmon on "Neoslavery" and the "Convict Labor System" -- interviewed excerpted from Newsweek.
• Viacom, YouTube, & You: agreement to mask user data -- the latest in the ongoing never ending lawsuit.

ON TMV MONDAY

• WaPo: 15 year-old gay teen speaks of his experiences -- If puberty happens in middle school, why shouldn't we expect lgbt awareness would begin then too?

OTHER LINKS

• Dispute Over the Economics of File Sharing Intensifies -- RIAA-supported economist taking it to the Web to protest file-sharing economic study
• Excellent HBR piece challenging the Long Tail -- lots is being said about this study. Here Chris Anderson responds. I'm with Chris all the way.
• Office Supply Fetish: Nerdy History of Tabs & Index Cards -- "The tab's story begins in the Middle Ages..."
• Remember the Atlanta airport concealed weapons ban disputed in Federal court? Our governor weighs in.... on the side of guns!!!
• Regarding that New Yorker cover.... -- I agree whole-heartedly.

Elton's playing Vermont next week. Rock On!

Via Towleroad.

I snapped this photo at a roadside stand just outside of Athens, GA. We stopped with the moving van on the way to our new home here in Milledgeville, 5 years ago today. It now hangs over the fireplace in our living room.

Because I've been busy building the site, I've not been blogging much!

ON TMV TODAY:

• Georgia: a very, very Christian state -- In the 10th district house race they are fighting over who is more Christian. In a very unholy way.

ON TMV FRIDAY:

• Predictably conventional: Dan Ariely refuted -- not very effectively, but I felt compelled. (Here's a refutation of the refutation.)

ON TMV WEDNESDAY:

• Obama proposes Bankruptcy law changes -- rare Unheard of for a presidential candidate. I like pretty much every move he's making.

ON TMV TUESDAY:

• Benjamin Barber on Islam, religion, and democracy -- six points, very interesting.

OTHER LINKS:

• What does the Bible really say about homosexuality -- nothing much!!! Short and concise (in honor of Georgia's 10th).
• Kevin Drum quotes Ryan Lizza on Barack Obama in this week's New Yorker. I have to read the article. And wonder if afterward I'll still stand by what I wrote above. (It's printing -- for bedside reading -- as I type.)
• Ya can't make it up -- About that cover art... "The New Yorker says it's satire. It certainly will be candy for cable news."

Now I see I've still got some bugs to work out on this new site...

It's official, I'm back here at JoeWinidsh.com! The site is almost ready... I've still got a few tweaks to do.

I'm conceiving this site as an index to my online life. The idea is that from here you will be able to easily link to everything I do online. In the sidebar is a live link to all of the feeds I read. I'd like to feed into there the headlines to my TMV posts, but have yet to figure that out.

I'm also still working on my TiVo Now Playing list (I've seen it done but am not real sure I want to Hack my TiVo!) aTypical Joe will remain as a live archive. And I plan to post a video link or photo or something every day. We'll see how it goes...

If you're reading this you are seeing me build this site and ready my move BACK to JoeWindish.com. I had hoped to launch here TODAY.

Alas, I'm late! July 16 will be my 5 year anniversary in Milledgeville. I'll be back here for good by that date. In the meantime, you are welcome to watch me shape this site into my new blog home...