infobong.com

devotion of many

I'm pleased to see that Tom Delay has been indicted on conspiracy charges here in Travis County. I do think that corporate money in politics is really detrimental to democracy. Vast amounts enter our political system legally, so when folks like the bugman bend the rules, they should be thrown against the wall. I'm sure a lot of folks in Texas think different.

My landlord has a sticker on his truck that reads, "I believe in God, President Bush, and Texas Longhorns," which I find a little frightening as a left-leaning Oklahoma Sooners fan. Do UT fans really believe that God is on the side of their football team? According to a post at Sivacracy, this might be a good thing for the Sooner-born; a new study suggests fervent belief in religion can actually have a negative affect on society. Maybe that explains why the folks in Sugar Land can elect a creep like Delay.

tightly controlled reference

In an earlier post I said, "It's a pity Wikipedia doesn't have a 'how to read Wikipedia' page." A recent discussion on the AOIR list revealed that the open-content encyclopedia does have a page giving students guidance on "Researching with Wikipedia." According to the page's history, this entry was around long before my post, but I don't think this page is featured prominently enough on the site. Students should run across this page without have to dig through FAQs or "About" pages.

provide substantial savings

Talking Points Memo has posted a portion of yesterday's White House press briefing that almost seems like self-parody. I suppose the average citizen doesn't read the news in this detail, but this makes it easy to see why polls says more people approve of the media than the Bush administration.

A reporter has asked a question about Bush's suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act which requires government construction contractors to pay workers the prevailing wages in the region. By suspending the law, contractors can pay desperate, displaced people rock-bottom wages, which would, in turn, drive down wages in private construction.

If it's not already obvious, I think the Gulf Coast wage cut is pretty loathsome behavior by the administration. The news coverage of Hurricane Katrina exposed the vast poverty in New Orleans to much of the country, yet the president insists on driving wages down, pushing more people toward poverty. Regardless of the president's ideological agenda, this seems politically tone-deaf, like much of the administration response to Katrina.

crossfire debate

Wikipedia has an amusing entry on a high school competition called "Public Forum Debate," which is sometimes known as "Ted Turner Debate." In the contest, teams of two role-play a TV debate show like the now-cancelled "Crossfire." Apparently the format is more informal than Cross-Examination debate contests. Between each round of speeches, there is a "Crossfire" round where debaters have three minutes to ask the opposing team questions. The article does not mention if judges interrupt to tell them, "You're hurting America."

At first I thought it was interesting how media has influenced a stodgy institution like high-school debate, but I remembered that another debate format, Lincoln-Douglas, was inspired by the famous debates published in newspapers. Although it might not be the first debate contest inspired by media, it's interesting that it is known through media referents and, presumably, it began while "Crossfire" was still on the air.

posted all the time

Reporters Without Borders just released a "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents," which looks like a wonderful primer for people interested in blog culture and starting a blog. I like the title; I'd rather be a "cyberdissident," than a "blogger." The pamphlet offers advice on starting a blog, strategies for issues like maintaining anonymity and avoiding censorship, and personal profiles of bloggers from around the world. Reporters Without Borders says the books is available in bookstores for €10, but you can download the whole thing as a .pdf.

Occasionally people ask me about starting a blog or general questions about blogging, and I might start pointing people to this publication. I think you need to understand the operational issues of blogging before you can understand how blogs function socially, so this will be useful for potential blog researchers and bloggers. A fellow grad student asked today if I could guest lecture on blogs in a media literacy class for non-majors, and I think I'll hand out the "Language of Blogging" on pages 8 and nine. It has a nice overview of blog jargon, which can sound repetitive and self-referential to people new to blogs.

tree plantings

Attending the Lost Film Festival presentation last night at Cinematexas made me a little nostalgic for my days in West Philly, so I started poking around the Spruce Hill Community Association website this morning. Lo and behold, I found a picture of myself on this page. It's about halfway down, and I'm standing in dirt, holding a shovel, and wearing a red-white-and-blue top. It's not the most flattering picture, but I wish it were in higher resolution. I do miss some of the folks on 45th street.

impossibly small design

Since I live on a limited income, I do my best to avoid lusting after gadgets, but the iPod Nano is so dang cool. I've thought earlier iPod were well designed, and thought an iPod Mini would be nice to have. But, apart from the iPod Shuffle, all of the iPods were based on small hard drives. My main interest in an mp3 player these days is to have music for running, and I'm afraid that I'd be too hard on a device with a spinning platter.

The iPod Nano models use solid-state flash memory, and offer a lot of space for a surprisingly low cost. $249 for a 4GB player is crazy cheap, even if it is way out of my budget. The things are so damn pretty, and most mp3 player interfaces are so hideously bad that paying a premium price for an Apple product seems worth it.

Still, the iPod Nano seems a little delicate. Sooner or later, I would drop it running or getting off the bus, so I was apt to write the player off until I saw Ars Technica's stress-test of the Nano. They took the player through its paces, and the thing survives. The LCD screen didn't crack until they started tossing it out of a moving car. Despite the broken display, it kept playing music, even after running it over with a Volkswagen. If I ever have the dough to buy one of these suckers, I'll feel pretty confident it will last.

strange and wonderful animals

The New York Times has a story today about the reception of the nature documentary March of the Penquins among the Christian Right. Some conservatives point to the penguins' commitment to child-rearing as exemplary of American "family values." One commentator even provides viewers with a worksheet to take to the theater.Of course, many commentators are deploying the movie in the effort to promote the Intelligent Design hoax as an alternative to evolution, suggesting penguin mating habits are too complex to have arisen through adaptation. The article notes that conservative columnist George Will asked, "If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins?"

It's interesting to contrast this with the reception the ANWR photography show at the Smithsonian a few years back. Conservatives pressured the curators to remove all the captions since some advocated preserving the refuge. In this case, conservatives have appropriated a text that could easily be used to advance a green position, but using it as a platform for doubting science.

unique grocery shopping experience

I was just at my neighborhood Fiesta Mart, picking up some produce and whatnot. Fiesta rents stalls inside and outside their store to third parties. Most of the stalls sell cheap textile goods, but there's a jeweler, a bank branch, a few lunch counters.

Today, a stall was set up at the front of the store, right by the soy milk. Two guys were standing in front of undersaturated digital prints, selling family portrait services. I made eye contact with one of the guys, and the store was nearly empty, making it difficult for me to politely ignore him. He was about to say something when I said, "What are you selling? Family portraits?"

"Yeah!" He sucked in a deep breath.

I chuckled and "Oh, I'm way to single for that."

He put a pen in my hand and said, "Just put your name down here for a free portrait, and you won't be single for five minutes." I guess his studio does kind of Glamor Shots kind of thing, but judging from the samples, their main specialty is soft focus and low contrasts. Was he suggesting that I put a flattering portrait on Internet dating sites?

I put his pen down, gave him a stupid grin, and laughed at him as I walked away. I don't feel bad about being snide to salespeople. I did find it interesting that he just assumed that I was unhappy with being single. I'm not particularly attractive, but I think a lack of interest in dating, not my looks, keep me single. I'm pretty comfortable as a loner, which must seem abnormal to the sales guy.

When I was checking out the teenage Latina cashier, held up a packet of miso and asked, "What's this?"

"Oh, that's miso, it's a soybean paste you use for making soups and other things. It's supposed to have enzymes that are good for you, but I just like the taste."

She looked at me like she didn't understand what I was saying.

I thought saying "You use it for making a broth," would help clarify."

"What's a broth?" she asked.

At that point, I knew I was in a hole, but I didn't realize how deep. I was sort of surprised she didn't know what a broth was. How do you say "broth" in Spanish and does it mean the same thing? "What's a broth?" I said, "It's like in soup, the liquid part."

She smiled and said, "You're all into it, trying to say it."

"Oh, yeah, I'm a teacher, so..."

"You feel like you have to explain it."

"Yeah."

auto update: connected

I'm over at Showdown Saloon watching OU struggle against Texas Christian. Wireless in Austin is so pervasive that a dive bar with what looks like bullet holes in the men's room has wireless Internet. I see that for this season espn.com has Ajaxamacated their scores page. This is nice since it obviates the need for a reloading script. From the user perspective, it's a bit of an adjustment since I don't known when the scores have been updated, but, on the whole, this seems to be a better way to deliver live data on the Web.

Man, Texas fans are awful, cheering when OU flubs a play. I generally root for Texas in non-OU games, especially in non-conference games, since it makes OU look better for beating Texas. Wouldn't Texas fans think the same way, or are they so single-mindedly elitist, they want the Sooners to lose in every context? OK, the burnt-orange table near my just clapped when an OU player was injured; that's just unsportsmanlike. I took a little revenge on them. When they were all bopping along to some bland R&B, so I just put Serge Gainsbourg's "Melody" on the juke box. I got a good "huh."

in heaven sitting down

Sneaking a peak at Pitchfork this morning, I learned that blues musician R.L. Burnside passed away Thursday at the age of 78. I saw Burnside perform at a bar in Oklahoma City back in 1997, and I had some of the most fun I've ever had at a show. Burnside sat onstage in a rocking chair singing and strumming his guitar, while his grandson pounded out motorik beats from the drumkit. It was the kind of scene that requires guzzling bourbon and hollering. I was a little afraid to talk to him, but I shook his hand and got his autograph after the show, and he was a really warm and friendly man. I remember pressuring my roommates to go to the show with me, saying it might be the last chance we got to see him. As far as I know, it was.

Blues music invites all kinds of discussion about authenticity, and Burnside's music raises some particular questions. He played a more primitive, rocking rural style of blues that contrasts with urban blues styles that privilege technical ability. His label Fat Possum specializes in garage-y blues styles from the rural American South, but is often criticized for dealing in blues that appeals to indie rockers (like me) rather than blues connoisseurs. I think debates over authenticity are stupid to begin, so I say, forget the connoisseurs, if Burnside was playing his stuff in the Mississippi hill country, it's authentic.

Pitchfork also reports that Alex Chilton, the leader of Big Star and The Boxtops, has gone missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I hope the lovable weirdo and rock icon is safe.

disgusting person

I'm not sure what to add to Siva's post criticizing Jonah Goldberg's mocking remarks about the flooding in New Orleans, except chime in and say that they're appalling.

I can understand wanting a little levity at this time, but Goldberg should have spent some time at catsinsinks.com rather than parody the Malthusian tragedy we're seeing right now. I agree with Siva that Goldberg certainly doesn't belong as a commentator on NPR, so I'm drafting a letter to the network right now. Although Fox News' business success has had some influence, the main reason the corporate media has drifted toward the right is the ability of organized letter-writing campaigns to get the attention of media producers. If liberals, leftists, and progressives want to counter this phenomenon, we need to start writing our own letters.

misguided urban project

Over at Slate.com, Ari Kelman has a short piece that provides historical background about New Orleans and its efforts to control the influx of water into the city. The main thing I take away from the story is the discrepancy between New Orleans' physical position that make it an ideal site for trade and the landscape that make it a difficult city to sustain. He says, "Geographers refer to this as the difference between a city's "situation"—the advantages its location offers relative to other cities—and its "site"—the actual real estate it occupies."

I took a class with Kelman when were both at OU. It was a summer American studies class emphasizing film, and the main thing I remember is his breathlessly positive comments on an essay I wrote about Buster Keaton's The General. It's still fun to see old prof's names pop up like this.

fun, interesting and cheap

Since my previous post deals with hauling with limited-power vehicles, I thought I would point to Michael Bluejay's account of moving across central Austin by bicycle. The hill on Martin Luther King Blvd he describes is pretty steep; hauling his stuff over that stretch is pretty impressive.

inner-city transportation and delivery

I'm sort of fascinated by these little trucks from India. I think their practicality in Austin would be minimal, but it's still fun to fantasize about driving a little scooter-truck. The Oklahoman in me asks, "What would a gal say if you picked her up for a date in one of those?"

The pickup has a 175 cc engine and boasts a "carrying capacity" of 1,052 pounds. I wonder how fast you can haul a half-ton in this micro machine. Shoot, my little 4-cylinder Ford Ranger gets pretty poky with a load of furniture. Judging from the size of the bed, it would be hard to fit a half-ton load unless you were hauling uranium. The Web site says the top speed for the Autorickshaw passenger vehicle is 40 miles per hour. I imagine a loaded pickup would go much slower.