If the world ends, it’s been nice knowing you all.
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Category: news
The Seattle Times has an interesting interview with Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect who designed the much-lauded Seattle Central Library. He mentions his thoughts on the “book spiral”, saying:
… one of the points of a library was that there are accidents and that you find yourself in areas where you didn’t expect to be and where you kind of look at books that are not necessarily the books that you’re aiming for. So it was to create a kind of almost arbitrariness — or to create a kind of walking experience, an almost kind of urban walk … a kind of Rotterdam, a very efficient, direct aiming for limited destinations.
I’m in an alliterative mood today. Besides, sibilants are sexy.
ABC News, among others, is a-huffle
over another Joss Whedon kerfuffle.
“Why can’t he”, they say,
“keep his girls ungay,
or at least make the sex more a-muffled?”
Double-meaning FTW.
The story is interesting itself, of course, especially if you’re a Buffy fan. Perhaps even more interesting are the current 113-odd comments of people calling for censorship and of people responding to the people asking for censorship, telling them that they’re uninformed idiots. Personally, I don’t know what the big issue is. (That was a comic book joke, right there.) BtVS had plenty of steamy moments in the show. In one episode, Buffy almost gets sexed-to-death as she and Riley get it on at a haunted party. Less graphic, but equally blatant in its own right, is when Tara goes down on Willow in the musical episode singing, “Lost in ecstasy / Spread beneath my Willow tree.” The camera pans up, of course, just as Willow begins to levitate over the bed. No, that’s not obvious at all.
So what if Buffy gets a little saucy between the pages. Graphically, it’s nothing worse than what we see on the standard Image comic cover. Even DC and Marvel covers can get pretty racy these days. Ideologically? Well, considering chicks are making out on street corners these days (albeit in Canada) as a form of protest, I’d say that it’s only a matter of time before the taboo gets … well, less taboo.
In the meantime, good for Buffy, and as she so eloquently puts it, “Wow.”
Everytime I blink it seems like Google takes over one more small part of the world. Maybe next weekend they’ll learn French?
Earlier this week, we started inviting a selected group of people to try a new, free tool that we are calling “knol”, which stands for a unit of knowledge. Our goal is to encourage people who know a particular subject to write an authoritative article about it. The tool is still in development and this is just the first phase of testing. For now, using it is by invitation only. But we wanted to share with everyone the basic premises and goals behind this project.
Sound familiar? Yeah, Google is out to kill Wikipedia. Kill ’em dead.
(via Steve)
Categories
Last laugh …
Heath Ledger found dead in Manhattan apartment.
For some reason this news makes me very sad. Maybe because he’s about my age. Maybe because Abby and I were just talking about him in 10 Things I Hate About You. Maybe simply because he was a damn fine actor.
In any case, so long, Heath, and happy trails.
“The state Pharmacy Board adopted rules taking effect Thursday that require timely dispensing of medications and allow a pharmacist to refuse if someone else can fill the order. Exemptions cover potentially fraudulent prescriptions and other concerns.
The rule revisions arose in the wake of concerns about pharmacists’ moral objections to dispensing emergency contraceptives such as Plan B.”
Which brings Ralph’s Thriftway back into the spotlight. After the initial furor over their refusal to stock Plan B, things went mostly back to normal, with a not-insignificant number of activist-minded folks boycotting the store. Now, with Safeway gone, Ralph’s is doing better than ever, but are their morals on the right side of the law?
Read more: The Olympian, Stormans ponders legal action over Plan B rule
J.K. Rowling talks to Meredith Vieira of MSNBC about the original epilogue for book 7 (it was a lot more detailed), and her future plans to write a Harry Potter encyclopedia. There ARE spoilers, in case you haven’t finished book 7 yet.
Exciting stuff.
A group of scholarly societies is uniting to create more direct access to their collective content. In June, thirteen of the world’s leading science and technology societies will launch scitopia.org, a free federated vertical search portal that will enable users to explore the research most cited in scholarly work and patents in a single click. Scitopia.org will aggregate the entire electronic libraries of the leading voices in major science and technology disciplines. More than three million documents, including peer-reviewed journal content and conference proceedings, spanning 150 years of science and technology will be searched through this dedicated gateway.
Read the official press release: (it’s a pdf)
Sci-Tech Societies Unite to Create Super Research Site
Check it out: Scitopia.org
The Maplewood Library, who I previously mentioned were planning on closing their doors immediately after school to cut back on “teen rowdiness”, has now decided to remain open, after a unanimous decision by the board of trustees just one day before the first closure was to take place.
Teens are a valuable part of a community, and of the library that serves it. Granted, they can be rowdy and tough to manage. I personally once had to break up a fight between two teenage girls right in front of the library, so I know how it can go, but I think the answer, rather than to lock them out, is to bring them in and to give them some outlet for their energies. The Lester Public Library in Wisconsin created a Teen Advisory Board whose job it is to do just that: arrange events for teens, by teens. I understand that not every library is going to have a librarian interested in playing DDR, or even having video games inside the library (feelings definately remained mixed on that one among professionals), but that doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be something available, inside the library, to engage teens on a level they’re interested in.
According to this librarian’s story, it may be becoming one:
I recently spoke with a junior who was stressed about her decreasing ability to focus on anything for longer than two minutes or so. I tried to inspire her by talking about the importance of reading as a way to train the brain. I told her that a good reader develops the same powers of concentration that an athlete or a Buddhist would employ in sport or meditation. “A lot out there is conspiring to distract you,” I said.
She rolled her eyes. “That’s your opinion about books. It doesn’t make it true.” To her, the idea that reading might benefit the mind was, well, lame.
On the one hand, I appreciate librarians using things like DDR to connect with teens, but I’m anxious that with more “engaging” (i.e. distracting) pursuits, reading will continue to be set aside, to our (as a society) long-term detriment.
While I was on a very nice Christmas vacation back in Olympia, I was sent a few interesting library-related stories that I thought I’d link to here for your reading pleasure. Hope everyone had a great holiday and that the new year is off to a good start!
Lock the Library! Teens are rowdy, that’s just the way it is. Hormones or something.
Librarians stake their future on open source. “A group of librarians at the Georgia Public Library Service has developed an open source, enterprise-class library management system that may revolutionize the way large-scale libraries are run.”
Holiday updates and such will be posted in due course, along with some of the photos I took on my shiny new camera. Stay tuned!
Today’s comic over at Penny Arcade is both amusing and topical. Buzz marketing and fake viral advertising is the most worrisome and morally corrupt way to get at consumers, ever. As always, Tycho’s comments are also incredibly worthwhile.
Opinions on the internet are huge. They’re powerful. When I want to buy something on Amazon, the choice is made or broken by how people have rated it and how they’ve reviewed it. I bought a new digital camera recently, and a large part of the decision process was other (assumed) camera owners describing their experience with the camera. I was aware the entire time that people get paid to do this (I have been ever since I read William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition), and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t make me uneasy, but the fact remains that user reviews are the most current, unbiased, and broad-spectrum way to learn how worthwhile an item is in the hands of your average user.
Thankfully, the FTC is moving on the issue, or at least taking some tentative first steps. Force needs to be brought to bear on both advertising and product companies to let them know that marketing via anonymous, paid comments will not be allowed. The internet is a large conversation, taking place simultaneously among thousands of people across the world. Between folksonomically-tagged content, sites ranked in relevance to the number of people talking about them, and user-ranked consumerism, the voice of the individual stands out more, day after day, in this global conversation. It’s important then, in terms of this conversation, to know exactly who is speaking, and what agenda they’re harboring.
Brownout at the EPA
The agency shuts down five public libraries full of environmental data, and employees and activists question the Bush administration’s motives. (link – salon.com)
According to the story, these closures are not only ethically, but also fiscally irresponsible. So what gives!? Oh, right … our president.
More info available on the PEER website (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility).
My thoughts and condolences go out to the victims of yesterday’s attack. I’ve spent the past hour or so reading Gill’s online journal and looking at his pictures. I really don’t understand what drives a person to such acts of violence, but then, I don’t think I’m capable of any form of actual violence, on even the smallest level. I wish that people realized that there are other options and other ways to be. I wish we could always show each other kindness and compassion. I wish that we would respond to … well, President Clinton was quoted by Sarah Vowell in her essay Ike was a handsome man, and perhaps he said it best (at that time at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial service):
When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death let us honor life.
I’m avoiding linking to articles about it. The news is too sad as it is, and certainly easy enough to find and even hard to avoid. As for me, I’m fine, alive, and not afraid. I’m just so sad that things like this happen to people, both the victims and the shooter. Why must it come to this? It’s a question with no good answer.
The LA Times story by Claire Hoffman on Joe Francis and Girls Gone Wild has really been getting a lot of press lately. I've gotten a lot of hits on my write-up about it, mostly from the Chicagoist post which was nice enough to throw me a link. Pandagon also has an interesting take on it, stating that for Joe Francis the main pleasure in Girls Gone Wild is actually in forcing women to do things they don't actually want to do. While I'd love to agree with Amanda on this, I think that in this case it's really too easy to villainize Francis, letting the women completely off the hook. One must bear in mind that the places in which Girls Gone Wild operates are the sorts of places where people frequently "get wild". There are always more private, demure clubs for the girls who really are not interested in flashing their boobies.
On sort of a different side of the issue, John at Dealbreaker.com states that even Francis's business philosophy is full of crap.
Girls Gone Wild came to Olympia once, not too long ago, to the now-vanished (not surprising) Barcode. People got arrested, and the bar was practically fined out of existence for allowing nudity, sex, raucous behavior, and other sundry perversions. Good on ya, Olympia.
Diesel Sweeties covers Girls Gone Wild, which makes sense because R. Stevens' blog was the first place I saw the article linked. Quote of the day is definately: "My dignity fits me better." Hooray for dignity!
If I would keep up with my webcomics in a more timely fashion (silly me, I must be busy getting ready to MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY), I would have noticed that Jeffry "Snakes on a mutha' fuckin' plane" Rowland has also, in webcomics form, stepped up the assault on Joe Francis. For those not in the know, The Poopmonster (aka R. Stevens) is the one who strangles Joe Francis from behind in panel 5.
I'm sure there are plenty more webcomics out there using their voices to shout down Joe Francis, Girls Gone Wild, and inebriated booby-bobbing. Which is one of the greatest things about webcomics, really. They're funny, sure, but they're pertinent as well!
Claire Hoffman is brave. Joe Francis is gross. Either might be an oversimplification. Claire covers the adult entertainment industry for the LA Times, and as such might be a bit of a masochist, or perhaps at this point simply finds the wanton excesses of American society both trite and banal. Joe, the founder of the Girls Gone Wild empire, reveals himself as a young, frightened kid on a power-trip. In a way, being gross is an act. Sadly, that doesn't make it any less gross, and in a way all the more disturbing.
Claire's article covers Joe Francis, certainly, but it also covers a disturbing trend in our society. It's not that we're losing our inhibitions, necessarily, it's that we're selling them. Whether it's for a t-shirt and a trucker hat or for that elusive "fifteen minutes", people are becoming all too willing to do anything in front of a camera, for any reason. Ironically, even Joe has a problem with this. Like Dr. Frankenstein, and Girls Gone Wild his monster, it has inevitably turned against him and taken away that exposure of innocence he urgently sought and replaced it with a calculated exhibitionism.
But the women are changing, Francis tells me, and that makes him sad. In the beginning, when "Girls Gone Wild" cameramen first popped up in clubs, the women who revealed themselves seemed innocent—surprised, even, by their own spontaneity. Now that the brand is so pervasive, the women who participate increasingly appear to be calculating exhibitionists, hoping that an appearance on a video might catapult them to Paris Hilton-like fame.
The story is interesting, and it's difficult to stomach. But I think it's honest and it's necessary, because like it or not, this is our society.
Gross, innit?
Read the complete story: 'Baby, Give Me A Kiss', by Claire Hoffman: LATimes
Joe Francis, the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" empire, is humiliating me. He has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back. He's pushing himself against me, shouting: "This is what they did to me in Panama City!"
It's after 3 a.m. and we're in a parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago. Electronic music is buzzing from the nightclub across the street, mixing easily with the laughter of the guys who are watching this, this me-pinned-and-helpless thing.
Francis isn't laughing.
(via r.stevens)
On the evening of July 27th, the Deleting Online Predators Act passed in the House with 410-15-7; otherwise known as a ridiculously gigantic margin. The bill, which is incredibly vague, threatens once again federal internet subsidies for schools and libraries unless they take measures to block social networking sites and chatrooms. The goal is to block children, specifically; adults should still be able to ask permission to access the sites.
How many times are we going to try and put walls around the internet? How long will it take us to realize that our kids are smarter than we are and that the only way to really protect them is to be there, paying attention to their lives, and getting involved.
Though advocates for the bill constantly mentioned MySpace, the bill is broad enough that any site that allows "communication among users" could be blocked. In the Web2.0 world, this could mean pretty much every site out there, before too long. Blogs, forums, chat, IM, Skype, Amazon, Ebay, Livejournal, and online games are all at risk. Why not just outlaw the internet for anyone under 18 years of age, or better yet, 21, and see how much we've shot ourselves in the foot when, in less than a generation, we don't have any web innovators anymore.
From Library Journal:
"This unnecessary and overly broad legislation will hinder students' ability to engage in distance learning and block library computer users from accessing a wide array of essential Internet applications including instant messaging, email, wikis and blogs," said ALA president Leslie Burger. "Under DOPA, people who use library and school computers as their primary conduits to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the web's most powerful emerging technologies and learning applications. As libraries are already required to block content that is "harmful to minors" under the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA is redundant and unnecessary legislation."
DOPA is in the senate now, and it needs to be stopped. Please make your voice heard on this one, or else it's another Patriot Act in the making.
ZDNet has a great rundown on DOPA if you want the background skinny.
(via geekaresexy)
Proof that Canada has cooler news than we do, and really hot lesbians.
Student Nicole Dawson, 22, made out with girlfriend Tau, 27, at the southeast corner of King and Bay yesterday to protest alleged corruption in the investment industry. Here's how it went:
11:58 a.m.: Ms. Dawson slips Tau the tongue, two minutes ahead of schedule.
12 p.m.: The protest gets under way proper. Six protesters hold up signs targeting the Ontario Securities Commission and its chairman: "Liberal OSC a Sham," "David Wilson Must Go," and "Stock Market Rotten."
12:02 p.m.: Two young men pace around the protest, wearing the stunned, elated look that men wear when they stumble on something like this.
12:08 p.m.: The women get to second base, caressing each other's rears and nuzzling each other's breasts with impressive focus.
(via ryan)
Michele McNally, Assistant Managing Editor for Photography at the New York Times, has an enlightening Q&A involving equipment, use of photos in the news, and advice for young photographers (among other things). Even if you're not that in to photography, it's pretty interesting from the news standpoint.
(from Boudist)
I should have known that Gaiman's Emperor of the United States from the Sandman series would be based on a real character. I guess I'd just never thought about it that closely. Definately someone to add to my list of people, living or dead, it would be awesome to meet. I wonder if anyone still has some empire money lying around.
(via an r. stevens lj comment)