December 12, 2009
Annise Parker elected mayor of Houston
Annise Parker, current City Controller
of Houston, has defeated Gene Locke in a runoff election for mayor.
She is the first openly gay person to lead a major U.S. city.
Bittorrent site resurrected
Prominent bittorrent sites close down or are defanged. Rarely do we hear about any of them coming back from the dead. Today one of them did - demonoid. In the bittorrent world, demonoid occupies a special place. It is not quite as famous as Pirate Bay or the long gone Oink, but beloved by connoisseurs of rare product, be it music, video, e-books or software. Today many people across the globe celebrate.
Tourist Traps in Michigan
You got your Twitter API in my WordPress blog
WordPress has added Twitter API support to hosted blogs. Now you can use Tweetie (or any other configurable Twitter client) to actually read blogs, instead of just getting links to them. The
API integration is still undercooked, but is a reminder that there's a lot happening outside of 140 characters. APIs may be BizDev 2.0, but does that include work-alikes?
(This isn't the first project to use the Twitter API as a lingua franca for micro-blogging.)
The Potential Power of Organized People
Amid the financial headlines (about new banking reforms, more bank failures, the need for more lending by the fat-cats, the question of whether a European-style bonus-tax might be possible here, and the shrinking of the middle class), on PBS yesterday Bill Moyers wondered, in an in-depth segment (with organizers from here and here), whether a new wave of populist economic activism is perhaps, despite all odds, beginning to make a dent after all.
Magnum Opus
A Wish... (part 1) ...For Wings... (part 2) ...That Work (part 3). The only Christmas Special you'll see this year with hairballs, a cross-dressing cockroach, Ronald Coleman and a 22-second warning. The apex for Berkeley Breathed and Opus (for Bill, notsomuch). via.
NO STORIES ABOUT BATMANS ORIGIN
The adventures of Batman will incorporate many different elements of the Batman mythology. Our half-hour series will have a darker look and tone to it, keeping in line with the movie version and recent comic book interptretations. With a nod to the crime films and novels of the 1940s, we will combine both old and new in this "Dark Deco" visual design and create a fresh take on The Batman. - Batman: The Animated Series, the writers guidelines (pdf)
it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing?
With his whimsically biting number from 1988 entitled Jazz Police, ol' Lenny Cohen has shown himself to be a prophet once again: Jazzer drop your axe it's jazz police! [more inside]
calibre e-book management software
calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. [more inside]
I wish I was special
Every so often, the Opie and Anthony radio show run a Homeless Shopping Spree, where they take some homeless people off the streets and take them out to an upscale mall to buy clothes for them. This year, a man who calls himself Mustard mentioned to them that he used to be a musician, so they gave him a guitar.
Architectures
Brilliant short series of documentaries each dealing with an architect and their signature creations. (each approx. 30 minutes) Frank Lloyd Wright Johnson Wax Building :: Walter Gropius The Dessau Bauhaus :: Alvaro Siza The Siza School :: Renzo Piano Centre Georges Pompidou :: Santiago Calatrava Satolas TGV :: Felix Duban School of the Beaux Arts :: Peter Zumthor The Thermae of Stone :: Emanuele Rocco La Galleria Umberto :: Otto Wagner The Vienna Savings Bank
Quando. Quando.
“I love you anyway too.”
The Defiant Ones. In today’s picture books, the kids are in charge.
Adobe will use this crash report to help find a future solution to this problem.
Dow Jones Index for Climate Change
A "Dow Jones Index for Climate Change". The IGBP Climate-Change Index distills complex climate change factors into a single number, like how the Dow Jones distills the markets to a single number, and visually graphs it over time.
The Devil in Georgina Spelvin
A 73 year old Georgina Spelvin talks about her work in The Devil in Miss Jones as part of a music video for Massive Attack's latest single, Paradise Circus. (Last link NSFW, contains porn clips, etc., etc.)
Where the Ghost of Christmas Past buys his gifts.
Ghosts of Shopping Malls Past. : beautiful photos of modern ruins.
Chicken Saturday?
Happy Birthday, Second City!
The Second City, the world's premier theater of comedy and school of improvisation, is celebrating its 50th birthday. The school has had many notable alumni: Some early Second City performances by Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, some reminiscences by Tina Fey, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie, and Fred Willard. [more inside]
Deep politics
Lobster: The Journal of Parapolitics was started in 1983 by Robin Ramsay and Stephen Dorril, two conspiracy enthusiasts who weren't actually nuts and believed in proper research. The magazine primarily covered the activities of the British security and intelligence services and what they term 'parapolitics'. They've had a brochure website for a while with some sample articles, but starting from the current issue the full journal will be free online (PDF download). The pair had a falling-out some time ago and have gone their separate ways. On his personal site Dorril, now also the author of a well-received study of Mosley and the Blackshirts, offers early back issues of the magazine for free download too.
Avatar is actually pretty good
The most expensive movie ever made, is getting its first reviews ... and so far the thumbs are mostly up. [more inside]
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