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Sunday reading
- Cities and Ambition –
“A friend who moved to Silicon Valley in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping.”
I’ve always judged cities by the quality of the homeless and convenience stores, but there’s all sorts of different metrics I suppose.
- What if politicians pandered to economists?
- The AJC now has foreclosure listings
- Cities and Ambition –
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I play with video
From my new tiny video camera. The sound quality is impressive, the degree to which YouTube Crunches it is not welcome.
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A decent article about Barr and the LP
In Time magazine no less.
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Thursday rapid fire
- Zinger of the day – Cop’s special treatment after DUI examined – it’s the usual “How did this happen” finishing with “But he said he didn’t anticipate any criminal charges against anyone involved in Stephens’ release.” Lame.
- Bike boxes
- John Templeton has passed away – he started his financial company in the 1930s! That fills me with awe for some reason, I’m not sure why.
- PublicDomain4U.com – cool stuff
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The rare wise move from the APD
Finally the Atlanta Police department cracks down on the idiotic critical mass rides.
After years of looking the other way, Atlanta police recently cracked down on a monthly bicycle ride through the city streets that includes blocking cars and flouting traffic laws.
At least 10 officers, eight on motorcycles and two in patrol cars, followed more than 300 bicyclists through downtown Atlanta, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland on June 27 from about 6:30 to 8 p.m. Most of the bicyclists stopped for red lights they normally would have ignored. At least two bicyclists were ticketed for disobeying traffic laws.
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Highsmith, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, said Critical Mass would not be the same if the bicyclists followed the rules.“The little bit of disruptiveness and the civil disobedience is a part of raising awareness [about bicycles] in a more conspicuous way,” he said.
The group wants both better infrastructure for bicycles, including bike racks and lanes, and to show drivers that they, too, can hop out of the car and onto a bike.
Now honestly, if the cyclists are lobbying for better infrastructure, how does NOT using the infrastructure that’s already there help matters? Why should anyone pay for more bike lanes when the existing lanes aren’t being used and the people agitating for them are as boorish as possible?
Not that many people will care about this, but it’s been a pet peeve of mine for years…
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Tom Waits
Last night I saw Tom Waits playing the Fox Theater. The show was wonderful; he did about half the songs I was hoping he would do. The only fly in the ointment was the massive array of hoops that TicketMaster made everyone jump though; only two tickets per household, original credit card required to enter, ticket checks every 20 feet, etc. It was a bit like the old Soviet Union. Security was much tighter at the show than at my visit to the capital last year actually.
And an addendum – I was talking to a long time Waits fan after the show and she said that the security concerns probably were Waits’ idea; apparently he’s willing to go a long way in his vendetta against scalpers.
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Here’s a first
I actually donated money to a political candidate for the first time in my life. Go Barr!bob
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From yesterday’s photo shoot
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Bob Barr on BloggingHeads.tv!
A pretty good interview as these things go. Barr comes across pretty well.
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Random links
- Joel Spolsky “If something seems possible, that’s probably because someone is already doing it. When something seems that it can’t possibly work, nobody tries it. Real innovation happens when someone tries anyway, overlooking an obvious flaw, and finds a way to make an idea work.”
- Female Patriarchs in Albania – apparently they swear virginity, live as men, and take over the male role as head of the family. Very weird.