Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Truth in Advertising March 8th, 2010
[image taken last weekend on the DC Metro - Red Line]
[graph via Good Medicine - Autumn 2007 - Vol. XVI, No. 4]
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Another Fun Day of Telecommuting February 10th, 2010
Thanks to Aaron for thinking of me and connecting me with Stephanie Armour of the USA Today. After a very friendly ten minute conversation, here’s the quote she selected for the article, published today:
The ability to work from anywhere also means snow days no longer offer a break from work. Many are like Nicko Margolies, a communications assistant at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based non-profit.
With the federal government shut down, his office closed. Margolies worked at home.
“No snowstorm, no matter how big, will keep me from working. I lost heat, but I had my space heater and network access, so I kept on trucking. It’s actually a seamless transition from home to work,” he says. “The only difference is I’m in my pajamas.”
The full article is on USA TODAY. My quote was also picked up on Time Magazine’s ‘It’s Your Money’ blog and reposted on the Battle Creek Enquirer in Michigan. The image credits on this post go to NASA for this beautiful photograph taken by the Terra satellite (which I cropped).
Tags: Snow Week
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The Adventures of the Irreverent Squirrel January 26th, 2010
There is a surprisingly long story behind this simple coffee tumbler. On June 25th, 2007 I took a trip down to the National Mall with my friend Sam. I borrowed another friend’s Digital Rebel XTi and was eager to play around with it. Fortunately, we stumbled on a perfect subject, a common grey eastern squirrel that endured close human proximity in hopes of getting some edible loot from the passing tourists. I held my camera out at arms length and snapped as many pictures as I could. I eventually added one of the images to wikipedia, sharing the rather comical fellow with the world. The photo took on a life of its own (some of which I’ve touched on in a previous post).
Skip ahead to June of 2009. Regina F. Silva, a graphic designer/illustrator in the Philippines, sends me an email asking to use the original squirrel photo as inspiration for a drawing. Flattered and intrigued, I accept.
The shared appreciation for this entertaining creature and the tone of the Regina’s emails gave me confidence in the possibilities of this proposition. Months later, after more friendly exchanges and a sneak peek at a draft, she launched the first item in a line of squirrel-related items. She promised to send me the entire line of products and yesterday, I received the wonderful bounty.
I could not be more pleased with the results and I’d like to thank Miss Silva for her devotion to her beautiful designs and for letting me know about this project. While we’re on opposite sides of the planet, it’s nice to know that there is someone else out there who wants to share humorous squirrel antics with the world.
When I excitedly opened the package from the Philippines I was touched by the note that Regina included with all the fruits of her labor (reproduced to the right). Best of luck to you and may the squirrel products prosper!
Please check out her Etsy shop and website, both are filled with whimsical original work. I would also recommend checking out her recent blog post about how she took a leap of faith to follow her dream of becoming a graphic designer.
Tags: Squirrel
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How to Write With Style – Kurt Vonnegut January 13th, 2010
I recently stumbled on an old and brief article written by one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut. Ever since I read Welcome to the Monkey House (1968), I’ve counted him among the most enjoyable authors to read. He is also quite insightful, such as a statement that has stuck with me about smoking from the into of Monkey House:
The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide.
Anyways, earlier today I found a piece called How to Write with Style, which I eagerly sped through. Certainly worth the five minutes it takes to read. The version I found was published in 1980 and starts with this advice:
Newspaper reporters and technical writers are trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writings. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers. We call these revelations, accidental and intentional, elements of style. These revelations tell us as readers what sort of person it is with whom we are spending time. Does the writer sound ignorant or informed, stupid or bright, crooked or honest, humorless or playful — ? And on and on. Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead — or, worse, they will stop reading you.
Here are the headers for the piece that give an even shorter overview of his advice:
1. Find a subject you care about
2. Do not ramble
3. Keep it simple
4. Have guts to cut
5. Sound like yourself
6. Say what you mean
7. Pity the readers
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Why Traditional Journalism isn’t Dead January 11th, 2010
From a Washington Post article this morning:
The Project for Excellence in Journalism examined 53 outlets that regularly cover Baltimore over the course of one week last July. In looking at six major news stories, the group found that 83 percent of them — in print, television, radio, blogs and Web sites — were essentially repetitive. “Much of the ‘news’ people receive contains no original reporting,” the study says. “Fully eight out of 10 stories studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published information.”
Among the remaining stories that advanced the ball, 61 percent came from newspapers — from the Baltimore Sun to specialty publications — followed by 28 percent from local TV stations and 7 percent from radio. Twitter and local Web sites “played only a limited role: mainly an alert system and a way to disseminate stories from other places.”
The full study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is quite an interesting read as well (and yes, I recognize the irony of posting this to a blog).
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The Most Interesting Stories of 2009 January 1st, 2010
On New Years Day 2009 I wrote a brief post linking my favorite news stories from the previous year. Nothing beats an epic tale, so I’ve decided to publish it again and continue the tradition. Without further ado, here are my favorite stories from 2009:
Last week, according to the pirates and maritime officials in Kenya, the ship’s owners finally paid $3.2 million — in cash, dropped by parachute — to free the Faina and a day later the last of the heavily armed pirates made their way off the ship.
2) Colombia Confronts Drug Lord’s Legacy: Hippos
Doraldald, Colombia — Even in Colombia, a country known for its paramilitary death squads, this hunting party stood out: more than a dozen soldiers from a Colombian Army battalion, two Porsche salesmen armed with long-range rifles, their assistant, and a taxidermist.
They stalked Pepe through the backlands of Colombia for three days in June…
3) Metro Bus Driver Takes a Bite Out of McGruff the Crime Dog
The bus driver, 38-year-old Shawn Brim, climbed out of the bus, adjusted both sideview mirrors and then slugged McGruff in the face with his closed fist, according to a police report. Because the huge McGruff head offered little visibility, Hardy didn’t see the punch coming, one officer said.
4) Man with Cocaine-Filled Chicken Busted at Dulles
Chicken a la cocaine?
Federal officials said Friday that was on the menu after a man tried to pass through customs at Dulles International Airport last week carrying a fully cooked chicken. It turned out the bird was stuffed with the drugs, they said.
“It’s the Thanksgiving holiday, and this guy is bringing in a chicken. You’d expect a turkey,” said Steve Sapp, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
5) Miles for Nothing: How the Government Helped Frequent Fliers Make a Mint
At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.
Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.
I hope everyone has a happy new year!
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The S Street Dog Park November 18th, 2009
The Story
This past weekend I finally took the time to try out the new S street dog park. I don’t have a dog and I’ve steered clear of the park since it opened a few months ago out of general annoyance of the smell omitted (despite fancy K9 grass), noise created and frustration with the $552,700.51 spent on it. However, after voicing my complaints I realized I never actually went into the park. Turns out, it’s full of very friendly owners and incredibly happy pooches. After watching some cute dogs eagerly lap up some water from the water fountain specially designed for dogs, I felt like the Grinch watching all the happy creatures down in Whoville. My small heart grew three sizes that day.
I knew there would be some photo opportunities, so I brought my new camera and the rest of this week will be devoted to the dogs I saw.
The Controversy
The space for the current dog park at S and New Hampshire and 17th Street was always a dog park. At some point there may have been people who ventured over there, but only if you enjoyed a dirt patch covered in large amounts of dog remnants. The dog owner community was lobbying and signing petitions for a fully outfitted park since early the early 2000s. After a number of community meetings, the park was eventually approved and designs were submitted. Even in these early meetings, a number of concerns were raised. Here are some bullet points from the preliminary application [PDF link]:
Community concerns around the use of S Street Park as a dog park have been extensively discussed since public forums were held on the matter in 2005.
The primary concerns against the dog park involved excessive barking, late- night use, and environmental impact. In each case, the same laws that apply to human use of public parks can be applied and enforced by the dog community at large as well as public enforcement.
The designs were made, approved and the park broke ground this past summer. However, since the park opened to much fan fare, the controversies have risen again. According to the DC Government’s Dog Park Rules and Legislation FAQ, there is “a maximum of 30 dogs per 10,000 square feet may be in a park at one time.” If you look up the specifics on the S street park, it is 5,600 square feet and should be limited to around 15 dogs at a time. This is rarely observed. On beautiful days, like this past Sunday, upwards of 30 dogs are crammed into the tiny park. While it is usually quiet, dog fights quickly escalate and turn into a cacophony of barks and yelps, much to the dismay of anyone living nearby. A petition went out recently in the neighborhood, asking for police enforcement of the 15 dog limit, but clearly this is a stupid use of city resources (which the park itself may also qualify under).
Most recently, someone dug up a quote from Obama about stimulus money not going to projects like dog parks, drawing attention to the massive Recovery sign at the front of the park. Here are Obama’s words from the National Conference of State Legislatures in March 2009:
Now, no plan is perfect. And I can’t stand here and promise you that not one single dollar will slip through the cracks. But what I can promise you is that we will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening, which is why we’re building on the provisions in the Recovery Act to forbid the use of these funds to build things like dog parks.
Now, let me be clear. I don’t have anything against dog parks. [Laughter] I intend to get a dog. [Laughter] What I do oppose is building them with funds from the Recovery Act, because that’s not how we’ll jumpstart job creation, and that’s not how we’ll put our economy on a firmer footing for the future.
It’s certainly a great find for any investigative reporter and the huge sign stands in stark contrast to the quote. It is outrageous that stimulus money went to this dog park for upper middle class yuppies, but when I tried to track down the Recovery contract I found it didn’t exist (or just as likely, wasn’t in the system). Here is what I found on Recovery.gov:
No matter where your opinion falls, I think we can all agree that some cute dog pictures will be a welcome change to this long winded post.
Tags: High Dynamic Range Imaging
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