Definitely Un-Proofread

oh my god i just found the greatest gif ever

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:00:04 -0500

betelnut:inflightradio:

This is truly great. The best part is when it slowly loads for the first time and your mind grasps what is happening.

i thought you were probably exaggerating or something, but this is the greatest gif ever.

StimulusWatch 2.0: Interesting items in the Data

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:05:47 -0500

StimulusWatch 2.0: Interesting items in the Data:

It turns out that the Lake View Towers Residents Association of 4550 N. Claredon, Chicago received, or will receive, $1,831,121 out of the stimulus for housing assistance. I used to live just a few blocks from there, in a building much less nice! Irritating!

See what stimulus money has gone towards in Chicago

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:46:08 -0500

See what stimulus money has gone towards in Chicago:

After a lot of long nights, StimulusWatch 2.0 is live and its terrific. It tracks around 70,000 awards, grants and loans that have been given out under the stimulus. It also allows for searching by zipcode and radius, among many other options. For example, see whats been spent in Chicago so far here.

Tell you friends!

(via popfop) Holyshit this is weird

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:39:51 -0500

(via popfop)

Holyshit this is weird

So I just got back from a trip to Athens and it was...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:48:11 -0500

So I just got back from a trip to Athens and it was terrific.

My grandfather was an archeology professor at the University of Chicago. He spent a lot of time in Athens doing field work during his career. While he was there he and his team hired many Greek folks to help with the work. One of these men was named Christos. Christos was a good man, and a good worker. He was however very poor, like the vast majority of Greeks following the second world war. Much of the country was, to my surprise, poor to a level that shocked me for a Western European country. Donkeys instead of cars, holes instead of flush toilets, etc.

Christos, had four children. Tassos, Kostas, Panos and Eleni. Kostas was particularly sharp and likely university bound, despite the poverty he grew up in. However, at some point, Kostas was diagnosed w/ cancer. My understanding was that Christos was far too poor to be able to even begin paying for treatment for his son. My grandfather though was part of a effort to raise funds back in Chicago for treatment for Kostas. I don’t know how much was raised, but my understanding was that the numbers were significant.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and Kostas passed away. Chirstos’s family was never the less very greatfull and became very close with my Grandfather, Grandmother, and when they had kids (my mom, her sister, and her brother) they also visited them in Greece.

Aunt Mary had gone back and visited a couple of times, but other than an occasional Christmas card, the bond had been fraying a bit recently. So, when my Mary suggested I go visit before I leave Europe, it made me uncomfortable. I mean, I’m not great at meeting new people to begin with, but meeting and living w/ people who don’t speak English or German for several days made me nervous. Plus, while I’d heard bits and pieces about the Greek family growing up, I had no real knowledge of who they were. My mom hadn’t even met them since she was 5 or 6. So, I was nervous.

Well, let me say this, they were unbelievably kind and generous. So welcoming. I stayed with Tassos and his wife Maria and his daughters Penny, Olga (and her bf George) and Christina. His daughters and George all speak good English so that was very helpful, but more importantly, they were all very patient w/ my non-Greek, and so fantastic in showing me around.

We saw the Parthenon, the Agora, Akrokorinthos and the castle there and a bunch of other sites. They showed me where my grandfather worked with Tassos’s father, and where my Grandfather’s books and works are still stored in several museums. They showed me pictures of my Grandparents and their children, and Christos and Nota and their children, and it all made me very happy.

So, all and all, a great trip.

[the picture was taken by Penny and us after climbing up the Akrokorinthos castle)

FYI EVERYONE At the Zurich airport you can buy a drink called...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:38:05 -0500

FYI EVERYONE

At the Zurich airport you can buy a drink called “Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea”. It costs 3 Swiss Franc and is not particularly good.

Ticket back to Chicago

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:59:47 -0500

Just bought my return ticket. I get back to Chicago next Friday, 3:30pm. Looking forward to it!

Battles - HiLo From the YouTube comments: this shit would have...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:30:57 -0500

Battles - HiLo

From the YouTube comments: this shit would have been banned back in the 1800’s

jerrybrito: This is me on WUSA Channel 9 News last night...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:23:33 -0500

jerrybrito:

This is me on WUSA Channel 9 News last night talking about government transparency and the new StimulusWatch.org which went live today.

While the original site featured proposed stimulus projects taken from the U.S. Conference of Mayors survey, this new version contains actual stimulus spending in your neighborhood. We get our data from the official recipient reports available at Recovery.gov. We will update the data quarterly when Recovery.gov makes new data available.

You can search for contracts and grants awards by state and city, by awarding agency, or by recipient. (Keyword searching is coming soon.) When you find an award that interests you, you can vote on whether you are satisfied with it or not, add to the wiki description of the project, and join in the conversation about the award in the comments section.

Check it out, blog it, tweet it, and tell your friends!

Here is Jerry, discussing a new site that I’ve been working on. Tell your friends, and vote down the Park Bench reworking project!

Why friends sometimes begrudginly pay for govt data

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:19:50 -0500

Explanation on why I’m looking for a zip code DB in the first place:

I’m using different govt data (federal stimulus spending numbers) and the data about where contractors are located, and where the work is being performed, contains so many fractured, incomplete, and irregular entries that its become easier to ignore all address data other then zip code and then rebuild / approximate it using the corresponding city - state for the the zip.

Of course, this new attempt will only work if the people who inputted this data have managed to get at least those 5 digits correct a useful amount of the time. Given my experience working with the data provided at USASpending.gov and in building OpenRegs.com, I’m reserving my enthusiasm.

All this is making me think about something I heard Joseph Heath say in a lecture. He said something like “just because the American state is unable to produce a good efficiently doesn’t mean that the state is unable to do so”. And while I think he in general underplays the role that competition plays in generating efficiency gains, hes of course right here, namely: just because there are reasons to expect private competitive entities to be more efficient doesn’t mean that there is any reason that the federal government needs to be so inept, either at providing access to something as simple as their drawn up ZIP data or to keeping quality records of their own spending.

Done!

Friends don't let friends pay for govt data

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:00:09 -0500

Friends don't let friends pay for govt data:

After a few hours of searching for it, and one aborted effort to write a script to screen-scrape from google maps, I’ve finally found a current US zip-code database.

Funny note, the US Postal service charges $2,800 for this same information. Plus their web services are absurdly poorly engineered. F-em

(via annicka) I bet if you plotted “Songs in...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:39:03 -0500

(via annicka)

I bet if you plotted “Songs in ‘Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’” against “amount of sex an average Rolling Stone editor has” you’d find an even closer correlation.

I can’t trust any list of the 500 greatest classic rock songs of all time that doesn’t have at least “Mr. Blue Sky” in the top half

Give Me a Reason Hastily written and recorded (not excuse, just...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:36:37 -0500

Give Me a Reason

Hastily written and recorded (not excuse, just explanation), formally shit-hot Pete Snyder drank some wine, drank some more, watched Arie and Mark’s masterpiece Summon Lovin’ (see previous post plz), and tried to re-record a song Mark wrote for the movie. Er couldn’t understand the words, ipso factor Snyderp recorded a new song about a dog running away. Includes several drum parts, an absurd guitar solo, and lots of reverb. That is all.

Give me a reason

I love to take you out for long walks
you hardly every say “thank you”
when I buy you all your nice food
all you do is chew and chew

and when I buy you fancy out fits
you always shake and scratch at them
and when I take you to the doctor
You always try to bite at him

And now you’re leaving

Give me a reason
Or else all nice days could fade
Give me a new chance
So I don’t feel betrayed

When you go, away, I cry

And when I pet you while you’re sleeping
you just give me empty stares
and when I give you hugs and kisses
I only get coated in hair

and when I introduce you to friends
you just fill the room w/ noise
and when I take you with me shopping
all you want to buy is toys

And now you’re leaving

Give me a reason
Or else all nice days could fade
Give me a new chance
So I don’t feel betrayed

When you go, away, I cry

Thousand and One Words

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:17:41 -0500

Thousand and One Words:

Enjoy the photography of Ryan Howard, from the Office

Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson. Its not really...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:52:00 -0500

Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson. Its not really that interesting to hear Hitchens (or, really anyone) debate religion on the substance, but it is worth hearing because Hitchens is a hilarious man. Whether its foreign policy (“North Korea is the world’s only necrocracy, or thanatocracy”), religion (“When Maimonides says that the Messiah will come but that “he may tarry,” we see the origin of every Jewish shrug from Spinoza to Woody Allen”), or even just snarky-ness (“If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox”), the guy is a great comedian.

Debate aside, the first 2 minutes stand on their own as excellent stand up act.

If I had to choose between having this guy’s sense of humor, success, or knowledge, it’d be an toss up.

Summon Lovin'

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:57:41 -0500

Summon Lovin':

Mark and Arie have released a new movie called Summon Lovin’ and it is extremely funny and well made. At 6 minutes, 30 seconds its got a far higher laugh a minute ratio than this season of 30 Rock, The Hangover, or any Weird Al album since “Dare to be Stupid”. Check it out!

Here's what burns my biscuit:

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:36 -0500

annicka:

anniehinton: daveholmes:

You can’t make a commercial that says “Cheerios is 10% more nutritious than Corn Chex” unless you can back that claim up. You can’t say “More people chose Late Night Doritos in a blind taste test” unless you’ve actually run that blind taste test and more people really chose Late Night Doritos. But you can make a commercial that says “Married gay people will definitely come to your children’s schools and teach them how to have gay sex,” and that commercial can just air as is. Even when the people who made the commercial admit that they pulled that claim out of thin air, and that it is not meant to be taken literally. You can just put that commercial up on TV and scare a tiny sliver of the population out of their homes and into the ballot box, and people’s rights can be taken away.

Dear Friends and Family (I’ve Got Your Back) I just...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:29:00 -0500

Dear Friends and Family (I’ve Got Your Back)

I just finished this new song, and let me tell you, it is terrific. I am extremely proud of it. It may be the best song I’ve written in a while. My new strategy is to sing / write melodies as if I were singing along w/ an Auto-Tuned song, and then to actually auto-tune my voice.

Anyway, this song is roughly about the last two Halloweens, where I’ve started great but doomed from the get go relationships, last year because of anal fissure, and this year because of Deutch.

Anyway, lyrics!

I meet her at party
she was dressed as atari
we snuck out to the balcony
she tried to stick it to me
THere were some complications
she planned to leave the nation
a peace core occupation
a permanent vacation

I know, autumn loves can’t last
and now I’m wishing for the past,
oh, I’m doomed again

Dear friends, and family
I got back, I got your back
If you punch a dude in the face a bar
I’ll grab a stool and I’ll join the fight
and then if you decide to key his car
I’ll etch in parallel with a knife

I met him at a party
I think he was in army
He took me to a movie
he tried to stick it to me

There were some complications
he was out on probation
for some tax evasion
my time was his donation

If its early morning on on Friday night
and you’re feeling bummed and alone
Don’t worry bout charges
just call me on the phone

Escape The Grave! I just finished a new song. Its a bit of the...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:16:00 -0500

Escape The Grave!

I just finished a new song. Its a bit of the audio equivalent of the Photoshop project that uses all the filters but I’m still pretty happy w/ it. Especially w/ the semi-cool, semi-silly Lincoln Park esk chorus.

Quick note about the lyrics: its not worth spending too much time thinking about them. I certainly didn’t….

The new secret: just make up different lyrics to “No Tan Lines” by Pavement and then shove them into your song.

Another thing: Mark suggested that I try to use a couple of different singing styles, which I think was a good idea. However, all of the other styles ended up sounding just like Mark. Which, is to say, better than my singing normally does.

Europe is a Mausoleum
thats trapped its youth inside
The buildings old, the people cold
but honest they don’t mind

followed home with hollow shoe soles
calamity in frightened discos
From teen to Wein is humbling
to know that mom came first

and I know,
and I know,
that there no problems now

the glove it fits, this lovers spit
is drying all the same
no consolations or approbations
or sudden squandered fame

the handi screens show ghastly fees
from chatting up old friends
the price is fine, i’d mind,
I’ll call you back agian

Nasal sprays and guiltless gays
in scare supply but old men’s ways
the polygotts may talk a lot
but have nothing to say

The wurst stands folks recycle jokes
and breath in satler air
and to tell the truth the kebab booth
is too a grim affair

—

sometimes I can’t think so straight
I start to worry
legacies and silly things

folks I’ve meet here
carry less fear
less ambition
of grander plans, escape the grave!

1. Free Audiobooks, Lectures and Debates

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:57:05 -0500

1. Free Audiobooks, Lectures and Debates:

Joseph Heath interviewed about his book Flithy Lucre on the economic fallacies of the left and right. Sharp, funny, and not even a little bit pandering. I will read this book as soon as I get back to the US.

Found on Rabble.ca