April 2009
25 posts
“The whole point of civilization is as much moral advancement as it is physical...”
– Kevin Drum, Torture and Civilization
The Official White House Photostream on Flickr →
The Obama White House is now on Flickr just like the campaign and transition were, and there are many great photos to be viewed.
While it is nice to see that the photos have a Creative Commons-Attribution license, I believe they should have no license, since each photo is a work of the United States government. (NB: setting photos to have no license is not possible with normal Flickr accounts,...
Return of the Killer Mango →
Chowhound’s Outer Boroughs Digest: “India’s prized Alphonso mango, a legal import for only the past couple of years, is back” for a brief time.
Filibusted →
Tracking filibusters. “Some senators like to filibuster and keep the majority from having their way. You might think they’re heroes. Or jackasses. Either way, they’re worth keeping track of.” [via]
Second Ave. subway set back - again →
Pete Donohue in the Daily News: “The first segment of the Second Ave. subway may not be finished until 2016 - four years later than the original schedule, the Daily News has learned.” Sigh. [via]
Transparency is Bunk →
Aaron Swartz on why government transparency projects are far from great (“…all of Congress’s votes are on inane items like declaring holidays and naming post offices. The real action is buried in obscure subchapters of innocuous-sounding bills and voted on under emergency provisions that let everything happen without public disclosure”) and what we can turn to instead...
“Most companies stop when something works, not considering whether or how it will...”
– Bruce Perens, A Cyber-Attack on an American City
“It’s been a long time since there was a direct correlation with the number of...”
– David Heinemeier Hansson, in a post on Signal vs. Noise
U.S. Soldiers' New Weapon: an iPod →
Newsweek: “Software developers and the U.S. Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a ‘ballistics calculator’ called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight’s Armament for...
James: “When I took this picture, a dude came up to me and started asking questions, claiming to be a private investigator. He said that the family is very worried because they can’t get in touch with the owners, the kids haven’t been going to school, and nobody knows where they are.”
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“One of the changes that I would like to see — and I’m going to be talking about...”
– Barack Obama, US President, quoted in Career Advice from Obama and Bernanke [via]
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“For 50 years we have had no national vision for transportation. We are working...”
– Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner, NYC Department of Transportation, at the Regional Plan Association’s 2009 Regional Assembly as reported by Streetsblog. (She also suggested reframing federal “operating assistance” for local transit as “energy independence grants” to...
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“And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member...”
– Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, N.S.A.’s Intercepts Exceed Limits Set by Congress [via]
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“Dr. Aronne has concluded that refined carbohydrates and foods with high sugar...”
– Melinda Beck, Why a Big Meal Makes You Hungry
Investments Can Yield More on K Street, Study... →
“…a study released last week found that a single tax break in 2004 earned companies $220 for every dollar they spent [lobbying] on the issue — a 22,000 percent rate of return on their investment.” [via]
E-Z Pass Monitors Being Set Up to Observe City... →
“City officials announced that E-Z Pass transponders will be installed on the [Brooklyn B]ridge, as well as several other spots throughout the streets of lower Manhattan below Canal Street in order to monitor the flow of traffic and come up with potential ways to ease congestion in that part of town.” This is sure to ignite a privacy firestorm. We have already seen how...
Top ten reasons managers become great →
“6. Long term sense of reward. Many of the mistakes managers make involve reaping short term rewards at the expense of long term loyalty and morale. Any leader who inverts this philosophy, and makes short term sacrifices to provide long term gains, will generally be a much better manager.”
Red Hook Latin Food Vendors at Coney Island This... →
Gothamist: “A press release from Thor Equities confirms that some Red Hook Ball Field Vendors will be part of a large ‘Foodie Tent’ (cringe) at Dreamland [on Coney Island] this summer.”
Big Ball of Mud →
“While much attention has been focused on high-level software architectural patterns, what is, in effect, the de-facto standard software architecture is seldom discussed. This paper examines this most frequently deployed of software architectures: the BIG BALL OF MUD. A BIG BALL OF MUD is a casually, even haphazardly, structured system. Its organization, if one can call it that, is dictated...
Southwest to Have Flights Out of La Guardia →
“Southwest, which has been inching toward serving New York City for several years, plans to start low-fare service to Chicago Midway Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport on June 28…”
“Is it any wonder that most companies deliver such poor customer experiences?...”
– Peter Merholz, Is Your Company Designed for Humans?
“If you have 1000 new ideas a month, but 0 prototypes are ever made from them,...”
– Scott Berkun, Where do your ideas die? (With a bad illustration)
Complete List of 2008 Peabody Award Winners →
Includes This American Life’s “Giant Pool of Money” episode, Lost, and The Onion
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