tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-380521342024-03-13T13:51:05.586-07:00Pour the ScienceSpiced out Garrett Hardin loungin with seven duelersGentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-36530136465037833972014-02-22T09:44:00.001-08:002014-02-22T10:21:16.347-08:00Tuuka Rask Thoughts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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As I was watching Finland's men's hockey team slowly strangle a sad and dejected United States team in the Olympic bronze medal game, I texted a Bruins fan I know saying "now you see how I feel, Tuuka Rask was put on earth to deny me my hopes and dreams." After a little bit of thought, I realized that Rask is probably more haunting to, say, Penguins (and team USA) head coach Dan Bylsma, who has found most of his aspirations in 2013-14 thwarted by said demonic Finnish Ray Liotta look-alike.<br />
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A quick rundown of other ways in which evil phantasm Tuuka Rask tortures Danny Bylsma:<br />
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-Bylsma opens fridge to make sandwich, Rask is inside the fridge, repeatedly poke checks the cheese away so that it seems perpetually within reach, but never actually close enough.<br />
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-Rask jumps out and slaps things out of Bylsma's hands, sometimes in the shower, sometimes in the grocery store. No hot drink is safe.<br />
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-Tuuka Rask walks into highway traffic, causing a pileup. Bylsma is stuck in a jam for two hours as the Parkway is shut down. He begins to suffer from unexpected instestinal distress.<br />
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-Rask repeatedly changes the password on Bylsma's iPad Air.<br />
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-Tuuka Rask constantly pulling the chair from under Danny Bylsma as coach tries to sit. Bylsma now stands up during all his waking hours, out of fear. Coach now has terrible corns.<br />
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-Two-hand slashes to Bylsma's friends and loved ones.<br />
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-Deleting all of Coach's music collection, replacing it with one, 10-hour mp3 of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJrVZCbKxsE">Sandstorm</a>.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-81932544580260567812013-10-15T11:39:00.000-07:002013-10-15T11:39:13.749-07:00The Flavor of the Rhythm I Wrote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here's a rundown of some of my recent writing on Vice Magazine's <i><a href="http://thump.vice.com/">Thump</a></i> sub-site. I started a cooking column, wherein DJs from across the globe tell me how to make their favorite recipes. Since DJs often cross into the restaurant and hospitality business as they get older - I've been able to recruit a number of restaurateurs and cook-book writers. The rest are just professional foodies. So far so good.<br />
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I have a few non-food related articles too, including an interview with the guy who did the legendary mixtape drop "Damn Son, Where'd You Find This?"<br />
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<a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/Rhek-Sharks-and-Hammers-nova-scotia-donair">Cooking With The DJ: Halifax Donair With Rhek</a><br />
<a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/cooking-with-the-hood-internet">Cooking With The DJ: The Hood Internet's Steve Reidell</a><br />
<a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/frankie-banks-linguine-and-slim-jims">Cooking With The DJ: Linguine and Slim Jims with Frankie Banks</a><br />
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<a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/with-new-immigration-fees-foreign-djs-arent-welcome-in-canada">With New Immigration Fees, Touring DJs Aren't Welcome in Canada </a><br />
<a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/i-found-the-guy-who-said-damn-son-whered-you-find-this">Meet The Voice of "Damn Son, Where'd You Find This?"</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-52211640027117075692013-07-11T10:40:00.001-07:002013-07-11T10:40:42.726-07:00Grid, Thump<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In accordance with my new vow to write only for publications with one-word names that describe either A) Noises or B) Elements of Cartesian Geometry, I have some stuff out for Grid (a Philadelphia-based sustainability magazine) and Thump (a dance-music focused sub-site of Vice Magazine).<br />
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Thump : <a href="http://thump.vice.com/words/steve-fabus-qa">We Met The Godfather Of SF's Gay Disco Underground</a><br />
Grid: <a href="http://www.gridphilly.com/grid-magazine/2013/5/7/philadelphia-to-host-to-civic-horticulture-conference.html">Philadelphia To Host Civic Horticulture Conference</a><br />
Grid: <a href="http://www.gridphilly.com/grid-magazine/2013/7/5/cook-wissahickon-school-wins-state-energy-efficient-schools.html">Cook-Wissahickon School Wins State Energy Efficient Schools Award</a><br />
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I know, the Grid stuff is decidedly less exciting.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-59031844703031268282013-03-21T10:03:00.001-07:002013-03-21T10:09:56.457-07:00Drop Down and Get Your Eagle On<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of my favorite 21st Century harbingers of spring renewal is the yearly revival of live-streaming feeds from raptor nests across the world. When I was still doing ecology stuff, I was always fascinated by what are called "charismatic mega-fauna" - our peers in the animal kingdom. I'm a terribly unknowledgeable bird watcher, but I can easily identify all of the birds of prey native to the American Northeast.<br /><br />So, as I sit down to work on some music in my studio today, I have a few raptor cams running on my second monitor screen. Here's what I'm watching today:<br /><br />For me, the National Aviary in Pittsburgh is the OG of raptor cams. They have two - one in the Gulf Oil Building and one at University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. Both are peregrine falcon nests - falcons have adapted to urban environments because they like to best in tall buildings that provide the same benefits as the tall trees and cliffsides they use in the wild. Since they often hunt small birds and catch them on the wing, this provides them with a good vantage point.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.html">Cathedral of Learning Falcon Cam</a> & <a href="http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_gt.html">Gulf Tower Falcon Cam</a><br />Two pairs Pittsburgh Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) and their incubating eggs<br /><br /><a href="http://www.alcoa.com/locations/usa_davenport/en/info_page/eaglecam.asp">Alcoa Eagle Cam</a><br />Two Iowan Bald Eagles* (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and their chicks. For my friends in Philly - there is a mating pair of Bald Eagles that hunts at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge near the airport if you ever want to go check them out with me!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm.html">Friends of Blackwater Osprey Cam</a><br />This is a good one - a nest box set up for fish-hunting Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) in Maryland seems to have attracted a mating pair, who are collecting nest material and then may have some chicks. This one doesn't refresh as often, but there's a little more going on, story-wise. Also, Ospreys are my favorite birds of prey, because they have their own genus all to themselves, and because they<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nA3LtXnNIto"> are fucking badasses</a>.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-81641614355410428772013-03-04T12:55:00.001-08:002013-03-04T13:43:56.946-08:00Caught, Can We Get a Witness?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Astrophysicist... or Black astrophysicist? Philadelphia Magazine lets you know white peoples' thoughts.</i><br />
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The City is all atwitter about Philadelphia Magazine's sensationalistic cover story "<a href="http://www.phillymag.com/articles/white-philly/">Being White In Philly</a>." Reactions to the story<a href="http://www.philebrity.com/2013/03/04/anatomy-of-an-epic-fail-how-phillymags-race-baiting-cover-story-went-over-like-a-fart-in-church-this-weekend/"> are pointedly negative</a>, and for good reason. At worst, the story is described as a central casting conservative indictment of political correctness as the protective veil of the welfare state. That gives the author, Robert Huber, and the suburban cow-tows at Philly Mag a bit too much credit. The story is not a polemic, it's a disjointed mess. More accurately, it's a purely lazy, disconnected series of interviews with white people lamenting their inability to talk about race while proving terribly bad at it whenever they try. The author editorially acquiesces to their feelings with such unconscious ham-handedness I was surprised nobody mentioned that "they have a lot of black friends."<br />
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In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and said "<i>I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.</i>" The speech is so famous, and King so hagiograph-ied that invoking it may seem simplistic. Worse, maybe it's hyperbolic, especially in a comments-section-driven era of extreme discourse.<br />
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Fast forward 50 years, and Philadelphia Magazine made it known that Huber (and by proxy, the editors), the vast majority of his interview subjects and by inference, white people across Philadelphia, rue the day such a dream was voiced. They wish nothing more than to ramble inconclusively about whether or not we need to use skin color as a meaningful descriptor of their fellow citizens... in order to sell magazines.<br />
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That's pretty much all the article is - rambling. A bunch of people say "some black kid stole a chair from my porch this once" or "black neighborhoods have low graduation rates." There are man-on-the-street interviews where Huber meaningfully records that "black guys whistle at me, white guys don't." Interspersed is a bunch of meandering commentary by the author and his subjects about whether or not blackness is what's important here. "Not that it matters.... but maybe it does ... but if it did could I say anything... I don't know." On and on and on. <br />
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What's the message here? Not that "there's a problem talking about race." The message is that "people who believe race determines behavior are not sure why they run into problems talking about race, and a bunch of other people seem not to be sure why they are being probed for their opinions on blackness."<br />
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Huber's work is a lazily written reason to put some 100+ point font on the cover of Philly Mag, draw sales and provoke blog posts like this one. It's a sophomoric series of anecdotes about Philadelphia's descent into poverty, drugs, segregation, violence and every other social ill you can think of, and the main message is "do you think that maybe this is related to blackness... or something?" There's no attempt at explaining the correlations between race and class. If "show me, don't tell me" was the MO, the analysis would be a bit more trenchant than some ramblings about pangs of guilt and uncertainty about North Philly's ills on a drive to his son's apartment at Temple. Who knew white people were so lazy? I thought that was black people! Quick, what do seven randomly selected white people think?<br />
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Robert Huber, and sympathizers city-wide, here's my message for you - if you wonder aloud whether or not it's OK to discuss race in Philadelphia, you are contributing productively to a discussion. If place race* first in any discussion about human issues, like poverty, violence, education, you are doing it wrong. Doing so is dehumanizing. Plain and simple. My message won't sell your magazine, but it would have saved you the trouble of having to account for your half-baked article.<br />
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*-"race" being a distinct concept from "racism"Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-86688010899570560772013-02-05T09:06:00.002-08:002013-02-05T09:21:18.967-08:00Balls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wrote a few articles about football in December and January, none of it Superb Owl related, but interesting nonetheless. I'm a Steelers fan, so I'd really prefer not to acknowledge Sunday's result anyway.</div>
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-First, a piece <a href="http://www.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/index.php?i=133780&m=&l=&p=15&pre=&ver=flex">for the Haverford Alumni magazine</a> about the early 20th Century controversies about violence in football. I did some historical research (I'm talking digging up dusty, unpublished manuscripts) and the result is an interesting story about political maneuvering by a football-enthused medical doctor that led to the implementation of modern football rules like the forward pass and the ten-yard first down.</div>
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-A few weeks ago I made a brief return to my old column space at Philebrity <a href="http://www.philebrity.com/2013/01/17/this-week-in-balls-let-the-chip-kelly-era-begin/">to talk about the Eagles' hire of Oregon's Chip Kelly</a>. I make the argument that he is in the vanguard of college coaches with enough stature to bring a more experimental brand of football to the pros, but Philly fans need to give him enough leash to do so.</div>
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Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-6376701845866713632012-10-22T18:04:00.000-07:002012-10-22T18:06:04.953-07:00Bond AtomicallyThere's something going on akin to the 1960 "Missile Gap" issue - Kennedy said that the Soviets had more missiles than the US, and Nixon, being the Vice-President, knew this was untrue but knew that he couldn't say so because the information on missile numbers was classified.<br><br>
Similarly, Obama can't acknowledge the very successful cyberworm attack on Iranian nuclear facilities (which the administration denies but there are books, articles etc about it), nor can he mention whatever number of covert operations are in progress. Consider, for example, if this election had occured in April, 2011, when Obama knew Bin Laden's location and was planning to execute an operation against him - Romney could have hammered him for not having caught Bin Laden, and Obama would have had to keep quiet.<br><br>
Beyond the Iranian worm attack, I can't really begin to speculate what kind of stuff Obama's hands are tied on, but it's an interesting angle to consider.<br><br>
That said, Obama looks strong on foreign policy. It's unlikely that any of the real "third rail" issues will come up, just like they didn't in debates one and two - surveillance, drone attacks and shadow wars. If they do, expect them to be dealt with superficially.<br><br>
By the way, anybody who has not read Bob Woodward's book about the Afghan strategy review, Obama's Wars, is doing themselves a disservice.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-29663403517995716072012-10-05T11:58:00.002-07:002012-10-05T11:58:29.166-07:00What Color Is Your Lambo, 2012 Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Again we reach the time where month-to-month economic data, ignored for years at a time, data only tangentially related to the power of executive office, becomes the basis upon which we make long-term political decisions. Some <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/jobs-news-makes-obamas-case-easier/?hp">new unemployment numbers came out today</a>, they look good for the President, especially in light of his punch-pulling, wonky performance in the first presidential debate.<br />
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I think that people vastly overestimate the control the President has over many elements of the economy, especially the stock market. However, people tend to use some of these indicators as measurements of the President's success, especially right around election time.<br />
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"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_the_economy,_stupid">It's the economy, stupid</a>," as James Carville memorably said. Obama got a boost in 2008 from bad numbers rolling out in the early fall. Reagan destroyed Carter in 1980's stagflating economy.<br />
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This year, if Romney is to charge back, it will be on the strength of bad economic news as he follows the standard challenger's game-plan - assail the incumbent as the cause of any and all things bad in the country. Write some checks with your mouth that your ass may or may not be able to cash once you get elected. Obama did the same to the GOP in 2008, and found out that steering the economy isn't quite the same as ordering an admiral where to take his aircraft carrier. Perhaps this is because the President is really just the people's elected zeitgeist, one who is expected to set the tone for the country through his or her leadership.<br />
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This all reminds me of a recent Freakonomics podcast (which was in fact an updated reprise of a 2010 podcast). If you want to know what people as diverse as Don Rumsfeld, Joe Maddon, John Ashcroft and a whole crapload of economists think about the actual power (or lack thereof) of the presidency, check out <a href="http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/03/29/the-power-of-the-president-and-the-thumb-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/">this March, 2012 episode of Freakonomics Radio</a>. Rumsfeld's opinions are perhaps the most interesting. As much as I dislike the guy's personality and politics, he has been either an advisor to or cabinet member for every GOP president since Nixon.<br />
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<a href="http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/03/29/the-power-of-the-president-and-the-thumb-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/">Freakonomics Radio, March 29, 2012 - The Power of the President</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-47844944151293126152012-09-19T10:06:00.002-07:002012-09-19T10:21:37.853-07:00Potholes In My Lawn<br />
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There's a Philly story <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/philadelphia-officials-disapprove-man-paid-20000-clean-vacant/story?id=17254329#.UFnwg41lRvQ">getting around and on the national news</a>. The gist is this - a coffee shop owner and developer named Ori Feibush kept bugging the city to take better care of an adjacent abandoned lot and eventually built what looks like a patio behind his shop. He's maintaining the lot, he put a lot of money into it. The City said something to the effect of "you can't do that, we're suing you for trespassing etc.," City looks bad.<br />
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Here's my take on it, having worked for a while in affordable housing development in Philly - much of the time dealing with vacant land.<br />
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It's easy to say "This guy is trying to make things better and the city is preventing him from doing so." It's not so simple. The City is not just wantonly punishing do-gooders - they actually have a pretty good plan when it comes to vacant land, and under very difficult circumstances.<br />
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What the city is <i>trying</i> to do is take this vacant land which they probably inherited from a private citizen or company because somebody abandoned it or stopped paying taxes on it) and try to redevelop it in a way that's best for the economic vitality of the neighborhood and at a profit to the city and its stakeholders. It doesn't always work out that way, but fact of the matter is that it's not Feibush's call. He is right to demand better maintenance on it, but he can't put physical improvements on something that doesn't belong to him.<br />
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I looked up the properties in question on the <a href="http://opa.phila.gov/default.aspx">Bureau of Revision and Taxes</a> website. The lot appears to be three properties at 20th and Annin Streets, addressed 2002-2006. One is owned by the city (since 1976), one by a developer and one by a private indivudial. The private entities bought them in the 2000s, likely as investments for future development.<br />
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So the City has had this land for almost 40 years. The neighborhood is finally a desirable place to do development. Most likely, the City and various neighborhood associations will wait for some development plans to come from the private developers and weigh in with planning commission and neighborhood association concerns during the permitting and zoning processes. Then, the City will try to sell the land and consolidate it with whatever project might be going on. As you can tell, they aren't in the business of rushing this sort of thing.<br />
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Fortunately, over the last decade or so, the City has started to treat vacant land as more of an "asset." They maintain it much better than before, mainly to keep from draining value from adjacent properties. They have a partnership with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society that allows them to do so. Anybody who has seen a mowed lot or split rail fencing along a vacant property knows of the effect of the program. There are still big problems with land consolidation, undervaluation and red tape, but there have been vast improvements and they are considered relatively innovative nationally.<br />
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Whether the City was maintaining the 20th and Annin lot to appropriate standards, I don't know. But what I do know is that you can't just build on stuff you don't own and then throw a fit when the owner has a problem with it. This is the "you can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, you can't pick your friend's nose" thing. Just because the City doesn't clean a lot to your specifications or coffee-shop-launch timetables doesn't mean you can call yourself a martyr when you pour a new sidewalk on public property and get yelled at for it.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-72789658499424249972012-09-07T11:30:00.000-07:002012-09-07T11:30:01.548-07:00Cover Story in Philadelphia Weekly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After a several year hiatus, <a href="http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Ad-Buster-168552256.html">I made my return this week to the Philadelphia Weekly</a>. Did it in style too, with a cover story about a Philadelphia activist software developer and his Shazam-like app for deciphering political advertisement provenance.<br />
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Check it out: <a href="http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Ad-Buster-168552256.html">Fact Attack (Philadelphia Weekly)</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-34197249344930488612012-09-07T11:09:00.001-07:002012-09-07T11:30:53.476-07:00Oh Shit, There's A Horse In The Hospital<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today I read <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/09/07/rock_industrial_policy_canada_and_sweden_promote_popular_music_exports_.html">a piece by Matthew Yglesias on Slate.com</a>, in which Yglesias asserts that countries that prioritize the export of their music and artistic culture are gaining on the US. Admittedly, it's kind of off-the-cuff and jokey, but nonetheless, an interesting topic to discuss (though, admittedly, it's difficult to argue with somebody who makes half his points in jest and half in seriousness). He specifically cites Sweden and Canada, and mentions their active efforts to promote their music internally and abroad through subsidy, support, and health care. He makes no real analysis of changes in international market share over time, so I can't really treat it as a comparative argument per se.<br />
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Here's an excerpt:<br />
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I assume things like true single-payer universal health care systems are good for the music sector. Here in the US, if you decide to work part-time at a proper job in order to have more time to devote to artistic pursuits then not only do you have to get by on a low income (which happens everywhere) you're going to find it extremely difficult to get proper health insurance. That's simply a huge risk to be taking for your life, since if you happen to develop a serious illness you'll then be unable to get coverage for it in the future even if you abandon your aspirations in favor of a more traditional career. A band in Canada or Sweden doesn't have that problem.</blockquote>
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My problem is not with a suggestion that there is value in subsidizing potential cultural ambassadorship as a sort of economic vanguard into international markets, I just don't really see anything beyond a conjecture of its value. It doesn't really speak to the larger idea of protectionism either. However, the broader issue of healthcare-as-competitive-advantage is always worth examining.<br />
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As a professional musician/artist, I sure wish I could get affordable healthcare. Before I was married and invited into the arbitrary club of entitled persons (by the sexually transmitted hetero method), my healthcare was basically a bankruptcy protection plan. I used it way less than I should have because I had to come out of pocket - I got some cavities, I overpaid for basic care because I did not have group-negotiated rates. My equivalents in Canada probably didn't have these problems.<br />
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Europe has been subsidizing musicans and artists for years but my gut tells me that the overall balance of cultural export from the US remains the same. That is to say, there is still a huge trade imbalance in our favor. Look at the film industry - just because we have thousands of actors working in LA as waiters doesn't mean we aren't making the vast majority of the world's blockbuster hits.<br />
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I don't think people were chalking up the 1960s British invasion to the NHS. You can argue that the broad class of under and uninsured people in the US are an economic drain on our healthcare system. You can argue that there is a disincentive to behave entrepreneurially if healthcare is prohibitively expensive as an individual. You can frame it in humanistic terms, e.g. "it's not nice to let artists and other unconventionally employed people suffer because they works solo." But you can't frame in terms of international macro-economics unless you have data. That said, I'm kind of interested to hear somebody opine on whether Drake put Cappadonna out of work.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-63510772291369326832012-04-11T09:58:00.004-07:002012-04-11T10:21:24.410-07:00Shoutout to Crazy Pills<a href="http://gifs.gifbin.com/florida.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://gifs.gifbin.com/florida.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />HuffPo: "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-democrats-communist-party_n_1417279.html?ref=fb&src=sp&http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcomm_ref=false#sb=1244669,b=facebook">Allen West: I've 80 House Democrats Are Communist Party Members</a>"<br /><br />Not really sure who this Allen West character thinks he is, but he seems just like the kind of guy we could use on the campaign trail against Truman this fall. Although it's possible he was just in Florida lobbying <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/miami-marlins-manager-ozzie-guillen-apologizes-love-castro-170553870--abc-news-topstories.html">to be manager of the Marlins</a>.<br /><br />Another day in Florida I suppose.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-8759821288891655222012-03-23T10:40:00.004-07:002012-03-23T10:52:15.022-07:00Ties That Bind<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJrfQv57hUTASMGdHErg41RPt6fxZDzBabPAscIpPZnQdlvMZj2neIFrMyGzsROEMFVA1GXvOdf6XaWuewAL533YtuwxsExRUuKno3HwfvqDLCqeA5oPCz10kknV52slJZ3Re/s1600/halal-kosher-logos.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJrfQv57hUTASMGdHErg41RPt6fxZDzBabPAscIpPZnQdlvMZj2neIFrMyGzsROEMFVA1GXvOdf6XaWuewAL533YtuwxsExRUuKno3HwfvqDLCqeA5oPCz10kknV52slJZ3Re/s400/halal-kosher-logos.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723151678588029938" /></a><br /><br />Interesting <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2012/03/french_anti_semitism_must_share_the_blame_for_the_murders_in_toulouse_.html?wpisrc=nextbox">article by Rachael Levy on Slate</a> about issues of ethnic and religious identity in France. The basic gist is that ethnic identity is supposed to subsume French identity, which is pretty different from the American idea that you can be a [something]-American. Therefore, French identity, which was created prior to the emergence of a French multi-ethnic society, is essentially code for "ethnic and religious majority French." Minorities are expected to assimilate or they are aggressively "othered" and contextualized as non-French. Most famously, the question as to weather Dreyfuss could have truly been both French <i>and</i> Jewish was answered in the negative in the early 20th century.<br /><br />That is basically a permutation on the issue of French identity for Muslims in recent years, but the Toulouse shootings brought the Jewish angle to the fore. I am constantly confronted with striking similarities in the way modern Muslims as compared to frequent historical (and sadly, sometimes current current) instances of anti-Semitism.<br /><br />It's a reminder that as Muslims and Jews, our differences often blind us to our broad and important similarities.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-60724305249678141292012-03-06T14:21:00.009-08:002012-03-06T15:12:38.809-08:00This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things<a href="http://www.vinylvendors.com/Pictures/t/w/twinhype194409.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 476px; height: 467px;" src="http://www.vinylvendors.com/Pictures/t/w/twinhype194409.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />My neighborhood brew-pub, Dock Street, is asking local graphic designers to enter <a href="http://www.dockstreetbeer.com/Events.html">a competition to design their newest t-shirt</a>. After they receive the designs, staff and facebook group members will vote for a winner. The winning designer receives some limited edition beer, four t-shirts and exposure to any potential clients who may be paying attention to the voting. Oh, and what the Dock Street site calls "bragging rights."<br /><br />I have a better idea - stop pretending that you are doing somebody a favor by printing their design on your t-shirt and stop pretending that a handful of beers and a t-shirt are worth anything at cost and just PAY A WORTHY DESIGNER TO CREATE A T-SHIRT DESIGN. It's really transparent to suggest that you are doing anybody a favor - you are Dock Street, a small neighborhood business. The scale of your business does not allow for your crowd-sourcing to reach so many people that the winner of the contest is sure to get tangible free marketing from this.<br /><br />If you want to be a good neighbor, how about you ask if there are any graphic designers from West Philly (there are tons), and you stimulate your local economy with something that they can spend wherever t-shirts and limited edition beers are not accepted as currency.<br /><br />You will also get a much better product, because when you pay somebody to design something for you, you can tell them exactly what you want and then they make it to your specifications. But if there's anything we know about business in the 21st Century, it's that everybody wants everything for free.<br /><br />Crowdsourcing, the act of outsourcing a task to some general and broad population, seems like a slick, 21st century way to do business. Seems like some folks think they can get some kind of cool points for just dropping words they heard Kai Ryssdal use. The only way around this model, in this case, is to tell any graphic designers you know that they ought to keep a little self respect and spend the time they could have spent on Dock Street out there finding clients who pay for good work.<br />__________________<br /><br /><i>For posterity, since the contest information is on the Dock Street "events" page and there is no permanent post with a URL with the contest rules, here's a screengrab, which contains the awesome line "just for fun and to get your name out there!"<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV6IjQ5OiaSnnzbZm5pLwhP5FNvJPjhSaM1Gh3kWuYimHLU9xe31kL59jU-IrrBdcaFeyX7XDiZ47vEeOuPcTpF8z7Aqv3eydE7hSuwiL7LKUPNcg3ioGzwVRQVMg449xKfMzv/s1600/screen+grab+dock+street.jpg">SCREENGRAB</a></i>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-52330289422706857822011-12-01T12:53:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:58:01.607-08:00Canada Dispels Falco's Amadeus Prophecy<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cVikZ8Oe_XA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"No plastic money anymore."</span><br />-Falco<br /><br />Note at 1:35.<br /><br />Canada just introduced <a href="http://www.bankofcanada.ca/banknotes/">polymer bank notes</a>.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-76107585300524751512011-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:002011-11-17T11:34:40.909-08:00Language Wars<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdnkIpL3xCC3grwjpRVqkO4XGPpNBgLKcMu3B1lq6aw6vGtGuBM72ziE8WOMuCF_4WAruAERyhLdi7R5m7guSKnePg5WXarvOUQSHnOO4ugEI2SN4OjOTdYHVBKsXysxbVECP2_g/s400/IMAGE0229.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 398px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdnkIpL3xCC3grwjpRVqkO4XGPpNBgLKcMu3B1lq6aw6vGtGuBM72ziE8WOMuCF_4WAruAERyhLdi7R5m7guSKnePg5WXarvOUQSHnOO4ugEI2SN4OjOTdYHVBKsXysxbVECP2_g/s400/IMAGE0229.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />A short list of ubiquitous language tics that make me crazy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Literally</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"My eyes literally popped out of my head when I saw his outfit."</span><br /><br />Your eyes figuratively popped out of your head. If they had literally popped out of your head it would be a medical emergency. Stop using the opposite of the word "figuratively" to mean "figuratively."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Around</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"We had a meeting around upgrading our accounting software."</span><br /><br />No you didn't. You had a meeting around a table. You didn't sit in a circle surrounding a physical manifestation of the idea of "upgrading our accounting software." You didn't have a meeting a block from "upgrading our accounting software." The word "around" is an adverb or preposition that describes your physical proximity relative to a THING.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gutty</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"What a gutty performance by LeBron tonight."</span><br /><br />Either you meant "gutsy" or you are an Irish person colloquially referring to a street urchin who lives in the "gutter." Gutty is not a word.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-58862894023465121222011-11-09T10:10:00.000-08:002011-11-09T10:39:16.313-08:00Injury to All<img src="http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/1066/iwwkat2007.jpg"><br /><br />A popular pundit opinion these days is "The NBA players are not going to get a better deal from the owners than the one on the table and every canceled game is money that they lose forever."<br /><br />I haven't heard a single person say "the canceled game next week doesn't matter for the future union brothers - those who haven't even set foot on an NBA court. They are your brothers too, and they have a stake in this negotiation. However, they have no voice at this table and you can't sell them out for a handful of game checks."<br /><br />This sort of stuff is even worse when it comes to "grandfathering" in negotiations - everything from union contracts to a new medicare system. You placate the existing stakeholders by saying they can keep what's theirs and then you sell the future stakeholders out. When it comes to environmental matters, we're particularly adept and unthinking in practicing this method repeatedly, every day.<br /><br />I feel like a hundred and twenty five years of right-wing messaging about unions has turned the populace into a bunch of feeble ciphers, trained to regard unions as inherently corrupt and unnecessary in this world of corporate utopianism. Unions, as with any organization, have their aims subverted by their entrenchment and the people who see their jobs primarily as personal security rather than as a means towards serving their stakeholders. That's all well and good to say, because there is corruption and rust in the apparatus of many unions, but it's so far from being unique to unions that it's kind of a strawman. <br /><br />Back to the NBA. I don't follow league finances particularly closely, but it's undeniable that the league uses star players and their personalities to drive sales. The players are obviously owed a big piece and rightly so. I can't speak to how big that piece should reasonably be, but just make sure that the part that goes to the future Kobe Bryants isn't sacrificed for a handful of checks for present Kobe in December.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-65178435375619666812011-10-06T10:32:00.000-07:002011-10-06T10:58:14.039-07:00What He Did, and What He Didn't Do<img src="http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/6588/xeroxaltox.jpg"><br /><br />Steve Jobs died yesterday. I read an article that Malcolm Gladwell wrote earlier this year in the New Yorker about how Jobs had a reputation as a pure, Edison-esque inventor that he hadn't quite earned. Gladwell recounts Jobs' visit to a Xerox facility in the 1970s where engineers were building what would later come to be called a Personal Computer. And it had a mouse. Jobs would later perfect the idea, and the rest is history.<br /><br />The article recounts a number of instances where companies were developing technologies but didn't realize their application, and let them fall to the cutting room floor. If it weren't for guys like Jobs, inventions like the mouse and the laser printer would have collected dust in a warehouse.<br /><br />If you think about it, Jobs didn't invent the PC, or the touch screen, or the smartphone, or any of the things that we think of him as "inventing." What Jobs did was probably more difficult - he was able to package and present technologies in a way that impacted the way people lived.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.gladwell.com/2011/2011_05_16_a_creationmyth.html">Malcolm Gladwell - Creation Myth</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-90456026168826464692011-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:002011-07-01T09:49:47.613-07:00Cliffhanger<img src="http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/3897/cliffleecatch.gif"><br /><br />I saw Cliff Lee <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_06_28_bosmlb_phimlb_1&mode=box&c_id=phi">pitch this week</a> - he faced the minimum 27 Red Sox, giving up a couple of hits but getting as many double plays from his D. Complete game win, 29 straight scoreless innings. Turns out he is the 3rd starting pitcher in the last century to drive in more runs in a month (2) than he let up (1). Crazy shit.<br /><br />He still is, statistically, the third best pitcher on his own team. According to <a href="http://baseballreference.com">Baseball Reference</a>, up until this point in the season, Halladay's WRP (wins compared to replacement player aka WAR) is 4.6, Hamels' is 4.0 and Lee's is 3.8. I did an analysis on the "great rotations" of all time over on Just Sayin after the Lee acquisition. Here is a brief review:<blockquote><br />1927 New York Yankees<br />Waite Hoyt (22-7, 2.63, 5.6)<br />Urban Shocker (18-6, 2.84, 2.7)<br />Herb Pennock (19-8, 3.00, 3.0<br />Dutch Ruether (13-6, 3.38, 1.6)<br />George Pipgras (10-3, 4.11, 1.3)<br />Avg WRP = 2.84<br />Total WRP = 14.2<br /><br /><br />1954 Cleveland Indians<br />Early Wynn (23-11, 2.73, 5.2)<br />Mike Garcia (19-8, 2.64, 5.1)<br />Bob Lemon (23-7, 2.72, 4.2)<br />Art Houtteman (15-7, 3.35, 1.3)<br />Bob Feller (13-3, 3.09, 1.7)<br />Avg WRP = 3.5<br />Total WRP = 17.5<br /><br />1993 Atlanta Braves<br />Greg Maddux (20-10, 2.36, 6.2)<br />Tom Glavine (22-6, 3.20, 3.8)<br />Steve Avery (18-6, 2.94, 4.0)<br />John Smoltz (15-11, 3.62, 2.8)<br />Avg WRP = 4.2<br />Total WRP = 16.8<br />(Avg = 3.4, Tot = 17 with Pete Smith: 4-8, 4.37, 0.2)<br /><br />1971 Baltimore Orioles<br />Mike Cueller (20-9, 3.08, 2.7)<br />Pat Dobson (20-8, 2.90, 3.1)<br />Jim Palmer (20-9, 2.68, 4.1)<br />Dave McNally (21-5, 2.68, 3.1)<br />Avg WRP = 3.25<br />Total WRP = 13<br /><br />2003 Oakland A's<br />Barry Zito (14-12, 3.30, 4.9)<br />Tim Hudson (16-7, 2.70, 6.7)<br />Ted Lilly (12-10, 4.34, 2.0)<br />Mark Mulder (15-9, 3.13, 5.1)<br />Avg WRP = 4.675<br />Total WRP = 18.7<br /><br />1998 Atlanta Braves<br />Greg Maddux (18-9, 2.22, 6.1)<br />Tom Glavine (20-6, 2.47, 5.6)<br />Denny Neagle (16-11, 3.55, 2.0)<br />Kevin Millwood (17-8, 4.08, 0.6)<br />John Smoltz (17-3, 2.90, 3.2)<br />Avg WRP = 3.5<br />Total WRP = 17.5<br /><br /></blockquote>I used those averages just to balance out the 4 vs. 5 man rotations, but the WRP stat is cumulative (I think?), and at this point in the year, Roy/Cliff/Cole have accounted for 12.4 wins relative to a replacement (read- bargain) pitcher. The season is only half over. Toss an oft-injured Oswalt in there, with his 1.1 WRP, and spot starter Vance Worley with his 1.1 and you are talking about a rotation that has provided more value to its team over half a season (14.6 wins) than the entire rotation of the 1927 Yankees or 1971 Orioles did over the course of a whole year! If they keep up the pace, or even pitch <span style="font-style:italic;">half as well</span> as they did in the first half, it will be the most valuable pitching staff in the modern history of baseball. Since the Phillies hit like shit now, the timing couldn't be better.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-34970602902643701552011-05-02T10:24:00.000-07:002011-05-02T10:54:21.665-07:00On Yesterday's Events<img src="http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/5930/unclesaml.jpg"><br /><br />In the wake of last night's news that Osama Bin Laden was killed by American special forces in Pakistan, some scattered thoughts, some of which are distilled from conversations I have had over the last 12-14 hours:<br /><br />-I don't think it's appropriate to rejoice over the deaths of others, even if they were very bad people. Bin Laden had this coming, but dancing on his grave is wrong. At a Passover Seder, you remove a drop of wine from your glass for each one of the ten plagues as a reminder not to take joy in the suffering of your enemies. It's important not to lose your humanity in the moments when extreme circumstances force a resort to violence.<br /><br />In mentioning this sentiment, I've had a few people say this is somehow a sympathetic viewpoint, which is ridiculous. I believe that our greatest potential asset in combating violent extremism is exerting a goodness of character and comporting ourselves in a way that suggests that using violence is something that we do not enjoy or wish to do willingly except under the most grave circumstances.<br /><br />-I think that it is unclear whether this diminishes the operational capacity of Al-Qaeda or changes the political momentum in favor of the United States, but it is most certainly a better outcome than NOT killing Bin Laden and it provides some closure. Al-Qaeda is designed to be decentralized, and I can't help but think that although political events since 9/11 may have lionized Bin Laden in the Arab world, they may have made him less relevant because of the other, similar organizations that coalesced around American military intervention and detention policies.<br /><br />-Conspiracy theorists are boring. I'm not saying that politicians don't hide things or offer misdirection from time to time, but I don't have time for people who think that grand orchestrations like fake moon landings, inside-job 9/11s or fake Bin Laden assassinations are worth the time or risk. Why would you fake killing Bin Laden, only to have him pop up later and make you look really really really bad? Impeachably bad. Dumbasses.<br /><br />I really wonder about the folks that distrust anything that an "authority figure" says, but offer near blanket acceptance of pretty much any jerk who writes a book about how the symbols on currency imply some sort of cabal to poison you with MSG and cell phone brain rays.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-82481292312378512582011-04-21T11:00:00.000-07:002011-04-21T11:10:04.307-07:00Bout It Roll CallCOPPED:<br /><br /><img src="http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/5182/book013b.jpg"><br /><br /><a href="http://infinitecardset.blogspot.com/2011/04/premier-issue-of-21-illustrated-journal.html"><br />21: The Illustrated Journal of Outsider Baseball</a><br />Issue 1 - Jewish Baseball Pioneers and Stars<br /><br />Looking forward to Issue 2, which is apparently a 1933 Pittsburgh Crawfords yearbook.<br /><br />DROPPED:<br /><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhul17ica_VkVJgdaqYPhm8gBKd2Ws_CSvVQ2452n7ufdP9jpLIqJ5acSBXA6SQFkfHwUC4Auhfi-rQ_xb-mzoR3HQoIyeqbuCls-M6vQxJJrxUAzyrXqpH6tyzWcUxpjbab498Gw/s400/legend+rmx+copy.jpg"><br /><br /><object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F13878056"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F13878056" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/djaptone/john-legend-rolling-in-the">John Legend - Rolling In The Deep (DJ Apt One Remix)</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/djaptone">DJ Apt One</a></span><br /><br />WATCHED:<br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="500" height="311" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LcBwUL6Y3UA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>><br /><br />Hennessy Youngman's Art Thoughtz rolls on, into the woods.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-37642823589208440782011-04-12T12:49:00.000-07:002011-04-12T14:01:47.232-07:00Don't Drink The Water?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePFkyFONWJkgVbgaa7-zO2wdiMy1d7azDBKJZTGpYr6MezKHMKPpbBU5Vv267-GBMwuqKv3x-spCBT4PbO3dWvHPF6Sql4kfdvgIv80QANmrKWGNal82X0KaXjc65PRJ332i3/s1600/blck+hlcptrs.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 397px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiePFkyFONWJkgVbgaa7-zO2wdiMy1d7azDBKJZTGpYr6MezKHMKPpbBU5Vv267-GBMwuqKv3x-spCBT4PbO3dWvHPF6Sql4kfdvgIv80QANmrKWGNal82X0KaXjc65PRJ332i3/s400/blck+hlcptrs.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594792875928042802" /></a><br /><br />There was a story in a number of media outlets today about <a href="http://online.wsj.com/video/radioactive-iodine-found-in-philadelphia/CF7600FD-4AD8-49CF-8839-4E015503BFBF.html">high levels of radioactive isotopes of Iodine in Philadelphia drinking water</a> detected last week - amounts as high as 2.2 pCi/L (picoCuries per liter of water). The EPA's limit is 3.0 pCi/L Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is the Fukishima nuclear disaster in Japan, which has just been upgraded to a level of severity on par with Chernobyl. <br /><br />In a number of the articles I have read, experts are saying that the amount of radiation measured in Philly's water is not a big deal, and somebody is always quoted as saying the opposite "for balance." With trust in government at quite a low in the last 40 years, skepticism is natural, but with a lot of my friends wondering if the water is safe (myself included), I think it's a good idea to break down some of what we know and figure out what this means for public health. <br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Disclaimer - I am not a chemist, physicist or public health expert, merely a guy with an ecology degree and a blog, so I welcome anybody to correct any errors I may make or add to my comments.</span><br /><br />First off - there are several kinds of radiation measures, a number of which you have probably heard on the news. These measures can tell you the radioactivity of a substance, the amount of dosage a human has absorbed or several other things. The Curie (Ci) is a non-metric measurement of radioactivity. Although I strongly prefer metric units, the Philly Water Dept measured in Ci, so let's talk in Curies to make life simple.<br /><br />Second - all objects continuously emit electromagnetic radiaton, even human beings. This is how we're able to date archaeological objects - by measuring the decay of radioactive isotopes of carbon in formerly living objects.<br /><br />Third - the water measurement was in pCi/L, picoCuries per liter of water. The prefix "pico" denotes a 1 in a Trillion multiplier (1/1,000,000,000,000 or 1x10<sup>-12</sup>)). This is important because there are lots of radioactive objects and substances that would be useful as points of comparison. Many every-day radioactive objects have levels of radiation measured on different orders of magnitude: nano (1/1,000,000,000), micro (or milliCuries per weight or volume. At the risk of being insulting, this is worth explaining a bit. This chart gives a little rundown - keep in mind that these prefixes denote immense changes in magnitude of ONE THOUSAND. A centimeter is less than an inch, a meter is a few feet, a kilometer is a few blocks, a megameter is twice the width of Pennsylvania.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvm43ChD7TcQnBZKnwSf_9zIBy7ZhFj_CzxI20BAmUv9st9gsZr1GEfjWqLotALs3CDnRPSVLvBLrTvfhUPwUcJiPm9joJX5XQ9QOKWm_AKYswpQgPt9Y_U9QHlv35bt5tBJuB/s1600/metric3.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 362px; height: 341px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvm43ChD7TcQnBZKnwSf_9zIBy7ZhFj_CzxI20BAmUv9st9gsZr1GEfjWqLotALs3CDnRPSVLvBLrTvfhUPwUcJiPm9joJX5XQ9QOKWm_AKYswpQgPt9Y_U9QHlv35bt5tBJuB/s400/metric3.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594787258007664754" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Now based some figures from various health departments and universities (links provided), here are the equivalents in water volume from the Queen's Lane facility:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/rp/factsheets/factsheets-htm/fs2rad&life.htm">1 Coffee = 12.27 nCi/lb</a><br />One pound of coffee has the same radioactive content as 5335 Liters of Philadelphia water.<br /><a href="http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm"><br />Animals, plants = 6 pCi/g</a><br />One gram of any living animal or plant has the same radioactive content as 2.6 Liters of Philadelphia water. That means that a one pound steak has approximately the same amount of radiation as 73.8 Liters of Philadelphia water.<br /><a href="http://www.physics.isu.edu/radinf/natural.htm">Beer (dry weight) = 390 pCi/kg</a><br />One kg of the solids left by dehydrating beer (which is probably equivalent to about 10 kg of beer by wet weight, not sure of the volume because I don't know beer's density) has the same radioactive content as 170 Liters of Philadelphia drinking water.<br /><br />So I guess these levels of radioactivity in Philly water are not really that high, and the EPA standards seem awfully strict. Apparently, in August there were elevated levels of radioactivity in Philly's reservoirs but this went more or less without comment. I would be interested to see how much radioactive Iodine from Fukishima is being deposited in the Delaware watershed relative to elsewhere. I don't know how high the radioactive particles ride in the air across the Pacific, because my expectation would be that much of the radioactivity will condense over the western mountain ranges and fall as rain in the West or Midwest before it reaches here.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08CDWucuBUXl_ONy7Q9rrprYrTDvRB3xCxNv4eVFjsRfZt1uEBApUOefFRAzCODeq-c2cUQbsnxAOBvr4NwNhNut3oaTrFA57ZEifp917QEmLVkRu4K_HT82102uVzaSXgm2W/s1600/Rainshadow_copy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi08CDWucuBUXl_ONy7Q9rrprYrTDvRB3xCxNv4eVFjsRfZt1uEBApUOefFRAzCODeq-c2cUQbsnxAOBvr4NwNhNut3oaTrFA57ZEifp917QEmLVkRu4K_HT82102uVzaSXgm2W/s400/Rainshadow_copy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594802233726400114" /></a><br /><br />Anyways, I hope this was helpful, I'm gonna go get a drink.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-28670171911211386332011-04-06T11:42:00.000-07:002011-04-06T12:14:09.609-07:00The Philadelphia Experiment<img src="http://img858.imageshack.us/img858/4315/freewayarm.jpg"><br /><br /><i>"I ain't talkin bout chicken and gravy mang"</i><br /><br />My homie Drew Lazor wrote a piece in a recent Grid issue (which is not available online yet) profiling "The Minimalist," Mark Bittman. In the interview, Bittman revealed (to me at least), that he was about to move from writing about cooking to writing about food politics. In his new role, and possibly as a result of his conversation with Drew or perusal of the Grid "Food Issue" that contained his interview, he developed an awareness of Philly's attempts to improve access to healthy food. His <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/go-philly/?hp?hp">most recent entry</a> is a glowing recounting of Philadelphia's nascent efforts to localize its food systems and discourage economic discrimination that is manifested by food-related health consequences.<br /><br />As most know, Philadelphia has large swaths of concentrated poverty, even after decades of relatively impressive and innovative experiments with mixed income housing, transitional housing and public housing redevelopment. Most of these areas are defined by their relatively poor access to jobs, services and goods, including healthy food, which generally costs more than processed food. This arrangement is not a coincidence - decades of neglectful and racially or economically discriminatory policies by business and municipalities combined with market forces that created "food deserts."<br /><br />Over the last several years, working a sort of consigliere to my fiancee's career efforts in community garden organizing, urban agriculture and sustainable food systems, I have gained an appreciation for the momentum this movement has in Philadelphia, and it's nice to see recognition from a national news outlet. <br /><br />All in all, there have been some great accomplishments that I have personally witnessed, big and small. I've helped build two gardens, <a href="http://phillyrooted.org/walnut-hill-community-farm/">one of which is a community farm</a> where young men and women from West Philly learn about food systems and business skills. Mainly through these efforts, and meeting my fiancee's acquaintances in this field, I have met a lot of people from a broad range of backgrounds who have come together because they care about food with an intensity equivalent to its importance in each of our daily lives. Alex Mulcahy, publisher of Grid, deserves a lot of credit for creating a well-produced publication that has communicated much of what I already knew to a broad audience.<br /><br />I could list the accomplishments of the fine Philadelphians in this field in this space - new supermarkets deep in the ghetto, farms and farmstands and green roofs - but instead, I'll just direct you to some choice links at the bottom and let you explore some of what's going on in the 215.<br /><br />Related:<br /><br /><a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/go-philly/?hp?hp">Mark Bittman "Better Food in Philadelphia"</a><br /><a href="http://www.gridphilly.com/">Grid Magazine</a><br /><a href="http://phillyrooted.org/">Philly Rooted</a><br /><a href="http://www.farmtophilly.com/">Farm to Philly</a><br /><a href="http://www.phillyorchards.org/">Philadelphia Orchard Project</a><br /><a href="http://www.thefoodtrust.org/">The Food Trust</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-19057527655259411212011-03-18T08:40:00.000-07:002011-04-04T10:20:26.605-07:00Worthy CausesSo micro-fundraising has seen a huge surge in popularity the last few years. I remember talking to Skinny about setting up a Kickstarter for some record label projects a few years back and it just seemed way to novel to get anybody interested. Now it's pretty normal, and that's a great thing.<br /><br />The last few weeks I've been hipped to three different micro-fundraising projects that I think are worthy of your attention.<br /><br />Apologies for the wonky video embedding:<br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="410px" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1370245749/the-urban-orchard-uc-greens-fall-2011-street-tree/widget/video.html" width="480px"></iframe><br /><br /><a href="http://phillyrooted.org">Philly Rooted</a> is working with <a href="http://ucgreen.org">UC Green</a> and the Philadelphia Orchard Project to plant lots of fruit and nut trees along the West Philadelphia streetscape. In exchange for donations, you can get all kinds of gift certificates and coupons to local businesses.<br /><br />Link: <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1370245749/the-urban-orchard-uc-greens-fall-2011-street-tree">UC Green Kickstarter</a><br /><br /><iframe frameborder="0" height="410px" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/672243413/lets-plant-my-novel-seeds-of-discent/widget/video.html" width="480px"></iframe><br /><br />Nic Esposito is my <a href="http://phillyrooted.org/">fiancee's business partner</a>. Together with Nic, Erica and I have started two gardens in West Philadelphia - <a href="http://woodlandscommunitygarden.wordpress.com/">a community garden in the Woodlands Cemetery</a> and <a href="http://food.visitphilly.com/walnut-hill-community-farm/">a grower's co-op and community farm behind the 46th Street El station</a>. Erica and Nic have conspired to become quite the big-wigs in the Philly gardening and sustainability scene the last few years.<br /><br />Nic is writing a book, in which Erica and I are characters - he's self-publishing and he's asking for donations to finance the printing. In return he's offering various benefits - from a copy of the book to a storytelling salon at your house.<br /><br />Link: <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/672243413/lets-plant-my-novel-seeds-of-discent">Nic Esposito Kickstarter</a><br /><br /><img src="http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/3708/132080.jpg"><br /><br />Mariposa Co-Op - My neighborhood food Co-op is moving from it's teeny-tiny, members only location into a big space in what used to be a church, just down the block at 49th and Baltimore. The new Marioposa will be much more like a full-service supermarket offering lots of healthy, organic and/or local food options to a neighborhood underserved in all said commodities.<br /><br />Link: <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/Mariposa-Coop-Fundraising?c=home">Mariposa IndieGoGo Campaign</a>Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38052134.post-82905657857331290542011-03-08T15:32:00.000-08:002011-03-08T15:38:22.863-08:00Video RoundupI'm playing in Vegas for a few days, and while I'm gestating on some ideas for long-form stuff in this space, here's a roundup of videos to amuse you b/w infuriate you:<br /><br /><div style="background-color:#000000;width:368px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:376266" width="360" height="293" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" base="." flashVars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-3-2011/crisis-in-the-dairyland---for-richer-and-poorer---teachers-and-wall-street">The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street</a></b><br/>Tags: <a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href='http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow'>The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p></div></div><br /><br />A classic John Stewart "gotcha" on double-talking talking-heads. This one compares defense of high-paid bankers during the crisis points of the last few years to attacks on (relatively) low-paid teachers as fat cats.<br /><br /><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-GoyBZAXkE4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />If you wanna throw up in your mouth a little bit, go to the youtube page hosting this video and read the comments. Wonderful.Gentlewhoadie Apt Onehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653498277481033751noreply@blogger.com0