erin semagin damio

Hm.

2008-08-01T21:25:00.002-04:00

Also. I really don't just eat tofu. I just like to photograph it I think. Maybe I should have photographed my toast and ice cream yesterday...

Needing-to-be-used Produce!

2008-08-01T21:02:00.002-04:00

carrots, broccoli, baby bok choi, garlic, and tofu, with some soy sauce, peanut oil, rice vinegar, and paprika (I got creative. or I'm weird. or my black pepper mysteriously disappeared. okay, and I'm weird.)

this should totally be dessert

2008-06-02T13:59:00.003-04:00

But hey, pancakes a good vehicle for chocolate and coconut/lunch

Breakfast

2008-05-31T07:44:00.000-04:00

Tofu, shiitakes, spinach, green garlic

Dinner

2008-05-30T19:22:00.006-04:00

Baby bok choi, green garlic, shiitake mushrooms, and tofu with soy sauce.

Strawberry sorbet :)

Green Garlic (whatever that is)

And baby bok choi because it's cute

Cool Multimedia Project in the New York Times

2008-05-22T10:50:00.001-04:00

right here

Tech-Savvy Leaders?

2008-04-14T15:45:00.002-04:00

In the New York Times' The Lede, blog, there is a story on Russia's new president, Dmitri Medvedev. Apparently, he has made a point of showing the world how technologically comfortable he is.

“I was digging around in Odnoklassniki yesterday,” Mr. Medvedev said in a speech at Russia’s annual Internet Forum this month, referring to Russia’s version of classmates.com.
“I found about 630 Dmitri Medvedevs,” he said. “Some of them looked a lot like me, almost like twins.”
The speech and Mr. Medvedev’s expressed interest in social networking suggest that he is going to be one of the world’s more tech-savvy leaders.
In fact, this was not the first time that Mr. Medvedev has showed off such knowledge.

Is it that big a deal for world leaders to be able to use the Internet? I don't know how long it will take for people to forget Al Gore's ubiquitous claim to have invented the Internet (whether he actually claimed that or not is still up for debate). What about George Bush's Internet usage? Here's one take (although whether this is an actual Internet knowledge issue or a language issue is unclear).

John McCain was born in 1936. Does he understand the Internet? Does it really matter? George Bush doesn't read the news and has no idea how much gasoline costs. I guess it's cool if we have a leader on Classmates.com or Facebook or whatever, but in all honesty they probably have better things to spend their time on anyway.

Facebook Spreading

2008-03-26T10:11:00.004-04:00

Nicholas Kristof is a pretty popular columnist for the New York Times. He's been enormously involved in some human rights issues, and traveled all over the world, focusing especially recently on the Darfur region and documenting what's been going on.

Kristof has also incorporated multimedia into his reporting. His column in the New York Times appears Sundays and Thursdays, but he also keeps a blog, On the Ground, which he uses very well to interact with readers. He uses the blog as a forum for reader comments on his columns, creating a new entry every time he has a new column. In one March 22 entry, for responses on his column about Iraq, Kristof has garnered 169 comments so far. I recognized at least one name from a quick read down -- Dan Savage.

Kristof has also done a great job taking advantage of multimedia and video to further his efforts towards human rights. This is one video he did in the Sudan that's a good example of the kind of work he does:

Anyway. I went to read Kristof's blog a few days ago, and found the following:

As part of my dogged determination to be cool, I’ve started a new Facebook site:
www.facebook.com/kristof. Please visit it and join it.

Kristof joins a number of New York Times staff members with Facebooks, though there doesn't seem to be a company-wide policy on such things. Paul Krugman doesn't seem to have a personal page, but has inspired several groups. I think Maureen Dowd has a personal page, but I'm not her friend so I can't see it. Kristof's page is set up like the New York Times' page itself, where people choose to be his "fans" instead of "friends." And, a few days after his page's inception, he already has 195 fans, and some pictures, content, and Eliot Spitzer discussion.

I thought Kristof's rationale of his Facebook, besides the "being cool" bit, was interesting:

The back story is a bit complicated….One of the reasons I play with this blog is that I’m a firm believer that the best business model for newspapers in the future has less to do with dead trees than with social networks. Look at what has happened to newspaper company valuations over the last decade, versus what has happened to valuations of Facebook, Myspace, Youtube and the like, and if you’re a journalist you’re simply filled with jealousy, but also inspired to learn from them. Increasingly, news organizations are trying to build social networks as well, and that’s partly what I’ve tried to do with this blog and with multimedia. I can’t claim that any of this is intuitive to me — I feel like a prehistoric fish, trying to clamber on land and evolve lungs and legs — but I think it’s the way forward. I’m like a fish, looking at mammals and realizing that that is the future.

The rest of the entry continues in this line and is quite interesting.

A reader comment agreed with Kristof (in a Facebook comment). Michael Swiontek wrote:

Other journalists are getting onto Facebook and if they're not, they need to soon. As Mr. Kristof says, the business model has changed. It will continue to change.
Good Luck Nicholas.

I think there are some interesting points in this whole discussion that are things that we as potential future journalists have been talking about for a while.

Here are a few other interesting videos from Kristof:

In Honor of Easter...

2008-03-20T11:23:00.011-04:00

How many of you all are Peeps fans? Did you ever read books about Peeps as a child? This official website has animation, music, history, and fun facts, including the fact that there are over 200 websites devoted to Peeps!In all honesty, I've actually never eaten a Peep. Dyed marshmallow doesn't really appeal to me as something I want in my stomach. But there are so many awesome things one can do with a Peep besides eat it.

The wonderful people at PeepResearch.org have conducted extensive tests about peeps and their responses to situations. Visit the site, and you'll see what happens when Peeps drink, smoke, spend too long in the heat or cold, or get scared. Here is an image from their smoking test -- the results, they said, were that "The Peep showed no adverse signs to smoking this cigarette, although it expressed concern that it might someday be forced to huddle outside public buildings in the snow. Of course, it can quit anytime it wants to..." Go to this fabulous site to find out more, like the adverse reaction a Peep has when using cigarettes and alcohol at the same time.

What else can one do with a Peep? Lots of people have made fun Peep videos on Youtube. I think the classic is the Microwave -- here's a pretty good demonstration of that:

But this is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Seriously, if you don't look at anything else in this post, watch this video. "This is Project Peepway!"

Apparently the Ann Arbor News in Ann Arbor, MI does a contest every year before Easter where contestants create things out of Peeps. On their website, there's a slideshow of all 128 entries.

In a way, all Lori Burke and Arianna Gelderoos needed to find inspiration for their winning Peeps dioramas was to look around.
They used their peepers.

Burke, the winning adult entry, depicted a model of Peep Hell -- a S'more factory. Gelderoos won the children's category with "The Peepular Vote," a voting booth set up in a high school gymnasium.

These are two of my favorites:

Internet Technology Catches Up To Procrastinators

2008-03-19T20:29:00.004-04:00

I think we all know what it is to procrastinate. Seriously, though, we're connected to the internet all the time, and there can be so many things on there that seem more interesting than whatever it is we're supposed to be doing. If you have that problem, the internet now has a solution to protect you from it. I found this fabulous article focusing specifically on how not to waste time online.

The Web is replacing the TV as the #1 time-thief in our lives. And, unlike the TV, the Web does not respect the boundaries of work. Thus the time you spend on the web "working" is inherently intertwined with the time you spend "playing." As you can tell from our How To: [traverse_corporate_firewalls Traverse Corporate Firewalls] wiki entry, this cause for excessive amounts of stress for everyone and particularly affects those who charge by the hour (and thus actually lose money to procrastination, in addition to less free time).
Here are a few tools that you can use to help the watchful eye of your employer relax a little, and maybe focus on someone else for a change.

The article suggests downloads, like the temptation blocker, which will temporarily block you from being able to use certain applications. I really like the idea of the MeeTimer, a Firefox extension that shows you where your time is being wasted and tries to advise you into not wasting it.

A core design principle is to 'advise' you, rather than 'force' you. This is because there are plenty of times where you legitimately need to bend the rules - e.g. to check some new resource for work - and thus you waste time (not to mention become frustrated) fighting against tools that try to block the Web. MeeTimer does not fight, it guides.

Other ideas include different types of hourly breaks and a countdown to remind you that it's time to work. The Procrastinator's Clock also seems pretty awesome. It's guaranteed to be fast, but doesn't tell you how fast -- and changes.

So what will motivate you to be on time if you use this clock? FEAR, UNCERTAINTY and DOUBT! Use of this clock shows that, although your friends have created a separate timetable just to accommodate your legacy of tardiness, you really care about being on time. By assuming that the clock might actually be telling the correct time, you'll hopefully assume that that afternoon meeting is sooner than you thought and get back to work. Hopefully.

I have not tried any of these tools out yet, but they do seem like good ideas. If you try any, comment and let me know how they work out for you.

2008-03-17T16:16:00.002-04:00

9Neighbors, a new(ish) website started by Rick Burnes and Faneuil Media, seems to be a good idea that will be better when more people join and participate.

The purpose of the website, almost like a local version of Digg, runs by readers recommending, posting, and voting on stories within the communities of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton, and Brookline. It started in September of 2007 and already has quite a few members. However, scanning through the member profile list, I did see quite a few that seemed inactive -- and the site encourages users to be so active.

Features are constantly being added, and Burnes uses a blog to update users on the changes. From the beginning, feedback has been welcomed. In the first blog entry, Burnes asked for feedback, and in the second, he explained three ways that he had incorporated that feedback.

Members can submit articles on their own, recommend or vote for them, and share them with their friends. Additionally, there is the capability for "following" other members; seeing their new posts on your news page every time you log on.

This does seem like a great new way of finding local news, and having it all together, recommended by people living in the community, is definitely a good idea. It seems like getting the word out more is important. The FAQ recommended that those with problems visit the 9Neighbors Google Group, but the group currently has one member and no discussions.

Ska!

2008-03-17T12:09:00.011-04:00

Okay, well not all ska. :)

My high school, EO Smith, in Storrs, CT, requires that all graduating seniors complete a senior project with elements of research and community service, and activity, and a project. My brother, who is a senior this year and wants to study lighting design, put on a concert with the goal of donating profits to WHUS, Uconn's radio station. WHUS is really not just a college station, but our local community-based station. Kevin (my brother) has had a show there for about a year, which I listen to online when I remember.

Anyway, last Friday afternoon I took a trip back home for the concert. Kevin had spent about two days setting up his stage and sound and lighting equipment in one of the school gyms.

With the right light, you can see that it's still a high school gym, but for the most part it was pretty effectively transformed into a concert stage.

I helped to finish some shopping and got to the school around 6 p.m., an hour before the event was scheduled to start. We finished setting up tables: one at the door for tickets, one selling refreshments like cookies and brownies and soda, and some in the back of the room for the bands to be able to sell their CD's and merchandise and for WHUS to hand out stickers, refrigerator magnets, and keychains. Kevin had also improvised a "green room" for the bands to warm up in; it was the small auxiliary room off of gym where EO Smith keeps workout bikes, elliptical machines, and ergs. (Ergs meaning rowing machines meaning I spent a lot of time there during high school).

The bands performing were Tenet, Otherwise, Tip the Van, and the Telegraph System, all from the Hartford/Storrs area. They all did an awesome job, although I'll admit that I did spend most of the night selling "tickets" (i.e. drawing on people's hands) just outside of the gym with Kevin's friend Jacob. That was probably just loud enough for me anyway.

Here's a video of the Telegraph System performing that one of the band members already posted to youtube:

I did also take a few videos myself, though they (and the pictures I've been posting) were all done with my cell phone, so the quality is pretty iffy. (And I'm sorry for how dark everything is). These are all from Otherwise's performace at the end of the show.

Some singing:

And this one, though horribly unclear, is some dancing:

The whole thing was very thoroughly filmed and photographed, and Kevin swears to me that there will be more media available soon. He's been taking lights down and going to class.

In case anybody was wondering...

2008-03-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama is not the Anti-Christ.

2008-03-03T20:41:00.002-05:00

I am currently at the UConn-Rutgers game (both teams with a 14 and 1 big East record, winner wins the Big East regular season). I've been taking some pictures with my cell phone and emailing them to myself so I can post them sort of live time here.

Obama

2008-03-03T11:34:00.002-05:00

This article by Joseph Wilson, former ambassador to Iraq (his wife is Valerie Plame, the outed CIA operative), pretty well sums up the issues that I have with Barack Obama.

What should we make of Obama's other judgments in foreign affairs? Take Afghanistan, for example. It has been evident for some time that our efforts there are going badly and that cooperation and support from our NATO allies would be helpful. As chairman of the subcommittee on Senate Foreign Relations responsible for NATO and Europe, Obama could have used his lofty position actually to engage the issue and pressure the administration to take some action to improve our chance of success in that conflict against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Of course, that would have involved holding hearings, questioning administration witnesses, and taking a position and offering alternatives. That is what we expect that from senators in a democracy. It is called oversight.

Would I vote for Obama in November? Sure. Do I think he's the best Democratic candidate still in the race? Probably. But I really do wish so many people hadn't dropped out.

Bree Sharp

2008-02-28T15:15:00.004-05:00

When I spoke to Bree Sharp about veganism for my midterm paper, I also asked her when her new CD would be coming out. I have both of Bree's previous CD's, A Cheap and Evil Girl and More B.S., and because she was amazingly helpful and available and her music is awesome, I just want to pass the information along.

This is a video for one of Bree's songs, 'Everything Feels Wrong.'

The new CD...will be called Robots in Love and released hopefully soon. Bree said most of the work is done, and the issue now is just finding the time to work with her collaborator, Don DiLego, to put the finishing touches on. Some of the track's are available for listening on Bree's website or her myspace.

Some Pretty Cupcakes

2008-02-27T20:24:00.003-05:00

My friend and I made this from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The one on top is coconut lime and the one on the bottom is gingerbread.

Midterm

2008-02-27T20:22:00.008-05:00

When Lauren Ulm of Boston started posting pictures, descriptions, and recipes of the food she made on a blog a little over a year ago, she was hoping to show her friends and family that vegans could eat delicious and appealing food. Today, Ulm’s blog, VeganYumYum, gets more than 160,000 hits per month. Ulm, 24, is writing a vegan cookbook that she hopes to have published soon. And, in February, Ulm was a guest on the “Martha Stewart Show,” where she made knitting-themed cupcakes.

The animal-rights/vegetarian movement has found a new platform and eager audience with the growth of the Internet. Vegan food blogs like Ulm’s have been experienced a surge, both in growth of amounts of blogs and popularity. Activists interested in helping the animal rights cause are able to better organize and find information online.

Alyssa Stanfield, a 20-year-old Northeastern University student, became a vegetarian because of the internet.

“I was on someone's MySpace page and there was a link to a video, ‘Meet Your Meat,’” Stanfield said. “I watched it for about two minutes and never ate meat again.”

Clearly the Internet had a direct impact on Stanfield’s eating habits. She is currently in the process of starting a student vegetarian group at Northeastern, and had she not stumbled across that video, she would still be eating meat. The medium that the Internet allows for communication has been vital for the growth of the animal rights movement. Vegan bloggers have large followings, and have been able to use their blogs as stepping stones towards book contracts and television appearances. Animal rights organizations have been able to better organize and better spread their material. Without the internet and its easy methods of exposure and communication, vegetarianism and veganism would be much less widely accepted and practiced.

Lance M.*, 29, is an animal rights activist in Boston. He feels that the internet has helped enormously in organization efforts. Before the wide popularity of the internet, Lance M. was interested in veganism but didn’t feel it was accessible to him. Today, he’s taken an active leadership and organizational role in the animal rights movement, and eats no meat, eggs, or dairy; wears no leather or other animal products.

“Before the onset of the internet, I think that people viewed veganism really as for folks who lived in New York City or who lived in San Francisco or who lived in these sort of metropolises of liberal thinking,” Lance M. said. “I know growing up in a small town in Connecticut, I didn’t know any other vegans, I didn’t know any other vegetarians. I did feel really isolated, and I felt like I’d never be able to make that transition because I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have that information. And I’d subscribed to animal rights publications , I’d read books and such like that but I certainly didn’t have access to the thousands of recipes or information about the conditions of animals living on factory farms or killed in slaughterhouses and such. So, the onset of the Internet really did raise my awareness, and also raised my awareness of the accessibility of veganism and how easy it is.”

Activist groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have exploited all of the advantages they can off of the internet. The front page of PETA’s website is busy and colorful. A headline names Aretha Franklin PETA’s worst dressed of the year alongside a picture of her in a fur coat (“How 'bout some R-E-S-P-E-C-T for animals, Aretha?”). There are news headlines, a PETA blog (both of which readers can subscribe to via RSS feed), and “lifestyle” and cooking blogs. There are links to action alerts, letting people know what’s going on with PETA’s current campaigns and what they can do. There are Frequently Asked Questions, and current job openings. There’s even a PETA TV feed, featuring the “Meet Your Meat” video that was so influential to Stanfield and other similar videos. For many animal rights activists, the PETA website is a place to visit every day to stay updated.

“I get most of my information from either PETA or the humane society,” vegetarian singer Bree Sharp, 32, said. Sharp uses the internet widely in promoting her music, with her Facebook and Myspace pages, as well as a personal website, and she has links to the PETA website from both her personal website and her myspace page.

Though Sharp finds PETA enormously useful, and Stanfield is a case in point for why PETA uses the shock tactics it does, some people feel like PETA is too extreme to really help promote the cause. Videos like “Meat Your Meat” are graphic and disturbing to the vast majority of people, and some don’t believe that this is the right way to introduce people to the cause.

Mona H.*, a 20-year-old college student in Boston and a vegetarian, strongly disagrees with PETA’s ideas of showing graphic images and videos.

“I have found in discussing vegetarianism, veganism, and animal rights with people, that the sort of forceful shock tactics that PETA tends to use are quite off-putting, whereas a more gentle approach makes people more receptive to what I’m saying,” she said.

Ulm supports PETA’s views, but agrees to a point that their extremity can be overwhelming.

“I think that there are a lot of different things that people need to see,” Ulm said. “So videos like “Meet Your Meat” and some of the PETA things that are out there are really important but not everyone needs to see that all day long every second of the day, and some people react so badly to that - I know I do - that they don’t want to see it at all.”

Ulm uses her blog to try to get an audience and support by promoting vegan food, staying more positive than just slamming the meat producers.

“I meet a lot of people that assume that because I’m vegan I’m judging them, I hate them, and I’m going to tell them that they’re terrible people, so I’m just trying to sort of trying to make the site welcoming for everyone,” Ulm said. “There’s a lot of information on the web for all aspects of veganism, so I’m just trying to focus on ‘hey we eat real food, it’s god food, I’m not deprived, it’s really tasty, you can make it too, it’s not too hard, so I sort of use that as the way I reach out to people and it seems to be fairly successful. I get a lot of people who say that the things that help them are just seeing that eating vegan isn’t mysterious at all. Even people who decide not to go vegan feel more comfortable eating vegan food and have sort of a better outlook about it and I feel really good about that.”

Susan Voisin has been keeping her blog, FatFreeVegan, for two years and maintaining the website itself for three and a half. She is fascinated with blogging itself, and spoke at a women’s blogging conference, “Blogher” in summer 2007.

“I really think that blogs have emerged as the next ‘big thing,’” Voisin said. “You can see it in how newspapers now have their own blogs written by their columnists as well as by readers.”

Voisin said she has more than 100 blogs on her RSS reader, with a handful that she checks very frequently.

The internet has also opened up another medium to animal rights activists: television. Food Network, home of Rachael Ray, Emeril LaGasse, Ina Garten, Alton Brown, and many other “celebrity chefs” does not have a vegetarian cooking show. Different solutions have been offered for this.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz, a vegan living in Brooklyn, New York, offered her own solution. In 2006 she started a public access cooking show called the Post Punk Kitchen. In an interview with Gothamist magazine, she described the show, which she cohosted with Terry Hope Romero, as a response to the lack of vegan cooking shows on Food Network. Today, episodes of the show are available on Google Video. Moskowitz's easy-to-make vegan cupcakes and other delicious dishes have earned her the distinction of “America’s Most Popular Vegan Chef” in her Barnes and Noble biography. She and Romero have written three bestselling cookbooks, including Vegan With A Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and Veganomican. She also maintains a website, which includes forums and her own blog.

While Moskowitz’s method of just doing everything herself to create a show gained her a following, vegan blogging and internet presence is slowly pushing animal activists onto mainstream national television. Ulm’s blog actually brought about her recent appearance on the Martha Stewart Show. The show was looking for people to feature in its knitting episode and a production assistant found some knitting-themed cupcakes on her blog.

Ulm said she might have preferred to have a chance to talk about veganism -- she spent most of the segment rolling marzipan with Stewart -- but she still enjoyed the exposure.

“It was a lot of fun, and I hope that people heard me say vegan food blog and looked into veganism if they hadn’t thought about it before,” Ulm said. “But even if it doesn’t convert tons of vegans, which I’m hoping it will, it was a fun experience and the more exposure vegan food gets on mainstream TV, the more people will realize that it’s not something that’s impossible to do. Even if they don’t decide to go vegan themselves, they can at least start to feel comfortable with the idea to begin with.”

Another mainstream media that bloggers are slowly gaining a foothold in is book publishing. Moskowitz’s bestselling cookbooks Vegan With A Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and Veganomican, were produced in part with enormous help from people all over the world testing the recipes and emailing Moskowitz with feedback.

“I think the line between amateur bloggers and published authors is starting to blur, with bloggers getting book contracts and authors writing blogs,” Voisin said. “Bloggers are turning up in lots of mainstream media -- magazines, T. V., newspapers -- proving that traditional media is taking notice of blogging as a powerful force.”

The blog that Ulm started for her family now has a life of its own. In the 2007 Blogger’s Choice Awards, VeganYumYum was named Best Food Blog. Voisin’s FatFreeVegan Blog, which currently has over 3,000 subscribers, took second place. What is the pull here? Why do these stand out so much? Are they answering a specific need in the vegan community?

“I view my food choices as both personal and political,” Mona H. said. “I feel like these blogs make animal rights personal by exploring how normal people go about living their activism day to day.”

“There are so many vegan blogs out there now, and it’s awesome,” Ulm said. “I love being able to read what other people are eating, it’s really fun. We all get inspired by each other. I do it because I enjoy it, and I think everyone else does it because they enjoy it too.”

*Names have been changed or last names omitted.

Also

2008-02-27T07:20:00.002-05:00

Apparently Pakistan broke youtube on Saturday...

Comcast hearings

2008-02-26T22:45:00.004-05:00

Monday at Harvard Law School, there were extensive hearings involving Comcast, the Federal Communications Commission, and what exactly Comcast is allowed to charge for the Internet.

Fine. Okay. Big issue to begin with, lots of contention, right? Whatever.

What was a big issue with Comcast looking like the bad guys turned into an even bigger issue with Comcast, yes still, looking like the bad guys. According to this article, at 6 p.m. tonight, Free Press was accusing Comcast of paying people to attend the hearing.

Free Press accused Comcast of packing the Federal Communications Commission hearing on network neutrality at Harvard Monday, while the cable operator said it simply had lots of interested employees in the area and some line-standers to save seats for them.

Comcast's stance has changed, however. According to this AP article, published at 9 p.m., Comcast has admitted that it did pay people to hold seats before the hearing, reservings for its supporters while other interested people were getting turned away at the door.

After Free Press on Tuesday accused Comcast of using unfair tactics, Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice confirmed to The Associated Press that the company hired people to fill seats after the hearing room doors opened at 7 a.m. and before the 11 a.m. start. As Comcast employees arrived, they replaced the hired seat-warmers. Fitzmaurice declined to say who or how many were hired, how the company found them, or how much they were paid.
The company said it "informed our local employees about the hearing and invited them to attend. Some employees did attend, along with many members of the general public."
Free Press accused Comcast of unfairly packing a hearing that featured hearty applause — some in response to comments from a Comcast representative who testified before the FCC's five commissioners, and some in response to Comcast critics' testimony.

I'll close this out with what seems to be Free Press' big quote (it appeared in both articles):

"First, Comcast was caught blocking the Internet. Now it has been caught blocking the public from the debate. The only people cheering Comcast are those paid to do so," Free Press campaign director Timothy Karr said. “Clearly, Comcast will resort to just about any underhanded tactic to stack the decks in its favor. And yet Comcast still expects us to trust it with the future of the Internet?"

Some Pretty Snow Pictures

2008-02-25T20:17:00.005-05:00

The snow around Boston is all gross and slushy so I asked my brother to take some pictures... These are on Pleasant Valley Road in Mansfield, CT

Castro!

2008-02-21T21:28:00.005-05:00

Fidel Castro, president of Cuba, has announced, after 49 years in office, that he will not seek reelection. Not seeking reelection is, of course, something of a euphemism for resigning from office, since Castro has been running unopposed in past elections.

The Nation has an interesting article by Peter Kornblun about Castro's legacy:

While most authoritarians only leave power in a coffin or a coup, Fidel Castro is leaving on his own terms. Fidel has survived long enough to see the revolution he led so institutionalized that it will endure without him. He has been in power long enough to transform his country from a small Caribbean island into a major player on the international stage. He has lasted long enough to watch other major nations in Latin America move closer to his worldview, so that Cuba is no longer isolated in the region. And he has outlasted those who tried to isolate and destroy him--no fewer than ten US Presidents who, through paramilitary assaults, assassination attempts, economic embargoes and diplomatic pressures, have embraced a policy that seeks to overthrow Castro and roll back his revolution.

When I was in high school, I did a History Day project on the Cuban Revolution and the impact on the country. It's an issue that is so hard to judge objectively, and such a loaded issue in this country. Even now, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are debating on diplomatic relations with Cuba (Hillary wants to see evidence that the government is willing to change before she will go there; Barack is more liberal). It will be very interesting I think, whether the new leader is Raoul Castro or someone else, to see what the future of that country is like.

The New York Times had two interesting slideshows, one a retrospective of Castro's rule, and one some reaction shots in Cuba and Miami (those are pretty jubilant).

(photo from Javier Galeano, AP, in the New York Times, appearing in the second slide show)

Lunar eclipse?

2008-02-20T22:16:00.002-05:00

There is a lunar eclipse going on outside right now, and fortunately I can see it out my window. However, LiveNewsCamera.com is also broadcasting a live version from Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Greensboro....supposedly.

I've been having issues getting it to work, though I did download the necessary plug-in. It might actually be working, but just be very behind...because it's showing a slowly moving but still mostly visible moon, though it's actually pretty much invisible right now. Oh well. It's a fun idea, although it's not quite working. There's streaming on the website from a lot of cities. Is it working better for anyone else?

Duke Lacrosse Redux

2008-02-13T13:58:00.002-05:00

I think most people remember the scandal involving the Duke Lacrosse team a few years ago. In 2006, a stripper accused some players on the team of raping her, and the team's season ended up being canceled (they were later found innocent).

Anyway, apparently as a result of that, Duke adopted a new rule disallowing strippers at any kind of university event. I didn't know that, and wasn't even thinking about it, but I just found this column by Stuart Taylor in the National Journal.

To underscore its horror, the university adopted a new rule: "Strippers may not be invited or paid to perform at events sponsored by individual students, residential living groups, or cohesive units."
So, some might be surprised to learn that on this year's Super Bowl Sunday, Duke University played host to a group of strippers, prostitutes, phone-sex operators, and others in a "Sex Workers Art Show" to display their "creativity and genius." The university spent $3,500 from student fees and various programs to pay the performers and cover expenses.

Apparently, it was pretty intense.

One account of the February 3 show in the on-campus Reynolds Theater -- from which I have redacted the more repulsive particulars -- was posted on the Internet by Jay Schalin, of the conservative-leaning John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
"The performers did not just take their clothes off -- and the actual nudity part of the show was rather tame. But mere nudity could hardly compare with a show that began with the Art Show's founder and director, Annie Oakley, imploring the audience to stand up and shout 'I take it up the butt!'...

Taylor said that Duke Provost Peter Lange responded to his questions about why this was allowed (it was co-sponsored by several student groups, with the main sponsor being a group called Healthy Devils)

"There is an obvious difference," Lange responded, "between strippers performing at a private party and a group of artists touring university campuses across the country to present a show with political discussion, musical theater, and displays of sexuality."

Though Taylor's article was the first I saw about this issue, it was made some other headlines around the country. It was the focus of a column in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's student paper, the Badger-Herald, where Gerald Cox, the columnist, stated that "A university should not have censors, but it should have morals."

Duke's advertisement of the show is right here, (free admission!) but it is a traveling, not something originated at Duke.

The Sex Workers' Art Tour 2008 website, linked to from Duke's, explains a bit more, though their description of "spoken word, music, burlesque, and multimedia performance art" certainly seems milder than Taylor's descriptions...then again, Taylor's descriptions were secondhand. I guess Duke isn't afraid to be involved in controversy.

High School Basketball

2008-02-09T18:21:00.000-05:00

It's wet and cold and snowy and generally icky, but here I am, at a high school girls basketball game in the University of Hartford gym. Amazingly the game starts in just under an hour and the gym is already filled with people in UConn sweatshirts. Anyhow, I am actually here on a credential from a different blog, so I will be posting some updates through the game here, but probably not much here.

Wi-Fi T

2008-02-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

I am writing this from the Worcester/Framingham train, which I'm taking to go home for the weekend. The T is using free Wi-fi on this line as a test; I guess if it goes well, they will expand to include all the other commuter rail lines.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to see Elena Delle Donne's Ursuline Academy team play Connecticut's Manchester High School at the University of Hartford. To anybody in Connecticut who wants to see her play (she had 51 points her last game!), tickets are available at the door -- $10 for bleacher seats and $12 for seats with backs.

I may be doing some writing here from the game.

Political Ads

2008-01-31T17:10:00.000-05:00

I saw a brief segment on the news yesterday that Maya Angelou was endorsing Hillary Clinton, and I was curious to find some more so I did a google search. There were a lot of results, so I clicked on a Salon article called "The battle of the literary endorsements." The page I got looked like this:I didn't read it very carefully, but clicked on the "Skip Signup" link and was taken directly to Barack Obama's campaign page! I was eventually able to get back to the Salon article by following links in the frame on top (not visible in the screenshot).

I realize that this is perfectly within a candidate's rights to run ads wherever they have paid for them, but to me, it does seem a little low, both on Obama's and Salon's parts, to do this. I don't usually notice political/news websites featuring political ads, and this was a particularly glaring one, taking over access to the site. I'll try to look out for this more and see if it's on other websites at all in the future.

New York Times

2008-01-31T15:57:00.000-05:00

I've just discovered the New York Times' customizable home page, "My Times" (found at my.nytimes.com). I'm not sure exactly when this feature was added, but it's pretty awesome. It gives you a front page that is completely designed by you. You can add features like showing the top stories from any section (or subsection) of the paper, as well as headlines from other sources, like BBC World News, Slate.com, or WashingtonPost.com.

It seems like the Times is trying to incorporate multiple sources, even if it means linking to another website. I think that's a good idea, because the way this page is designed could make the Times an easy first place to stop, or maybe even a home page. That will still draw a lot of visitors to the website.

You can also choose content based on New York Times journalists' recommendations as to their favorite sources, and incorporate RSS feeds from anywhere into it. Again, I think this is a big step for the Times, to be using their website to combine so many outside media sources.

According to the Times' "First Look" blog, "My Times" is in its beta version. (It does say it's been open since August, so maybe it's not quite as new and exciting as I thought it was). This is what that page has to say about it:

My Times Beta is a new service that lets you organize New York Times content, as well as content from around the web, on your very own page. This personalized service makes it easy for you to read all that you like, from one central place. You can further personalize your my Times page by adding up-to-date weather information of your city, movie showtimes in theaters near you, or display your favorite flickr photos. We are constantly adding more widgets to my Times, so make sure you keep checking this blog.

As a My Times Beta user, you also have access to Times Journalists’ pages, where you can add their favorite sources to your page or bookmark their entire pages.

Ralph Nader In for 2008?

2008-01-30T14:54:00.000-05:00

In the wake of John Edwards' resignation from the presidential race, Ralph Nader has said that he may reenter it.

Nader, who has run in each of the three previous elections, has launched a website to gauge interest:

Nader said in this CNN article that he originally decided to run after Dennis Kucinich dropped out of the race, but John Edwards' announcement today made Nader feel that representing his point of view was even more necessary. He is not a fan of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

"They are both enthralled to the corporate powers," Nader said of the two leading Democrats. "They've completely ignored the presidential pattern of illegality and accountability, they've ignored the out of control waste-fraud military expenditures, they hardly ever mention the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars to corporate subsidies, handouts, and giveaways, and they don't talk about a living wage."
He expressed particular disappointment with Obama, whose senate record he called "mediocre, and quite cautious."
"It's not that he doesn't know what the score is, of course he does — look at his background, he knows plenty," Nader said. "But he's censoring himself."

Nader said that he will decide whether or not he will be running within the next month. His decision will probably be based on the amount of money he can raise in that time (he would like to raise $10 million.)

To those Democrats who are still bitter over Nader's 100,000 votes in a tightly contested Florida election in 2000? Nader doesn't care.

"Political bigotry will be the label on anybody who uses the word 'spoiler,' he said. "Because ‘spoiler’ means minor candidates are second class citizens. Either we have an equal right to run for election, or we are spoilers for each other trying to get each other's votes.”

Reading the comments on the CNN article, many people, or at least those who read and comment on CNN articles online, do not want Nader to run again. Very negative reactions.

Edwards Out

2008-01-30T14:01:00.000-05:00

I just watched John Edwards' speech announcing the "suspension" of his campaign for president.

Edwards focused his speech on poverty and helping to unite Americans. He spoke at a Habitat for Humanity building site in New Orleans where he had worked previously, and was late to his speech because he stopped to talk to some homeless people living under a bridge on the way.

Edwards did not endorse a candidate but said that he got commitments from both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that would make poverty a central focus of their campaigns. Obama has already strongly reflected that in a speech made today.

The Democratic primary is now essentially a two-person race. From watching the coverage on MSNBC, it seems to me that Edwards is expected to eventually endorse Clinton or Obama, and is almost setting up a competition to see who can bring the focus to his agenda to end poverty more.

Also, Maya Angelou is apparently endorsing Clinton. As they put it, "Oprah may be endorsing Barack Obama, but one of her favorite people is endorsing Hillary Clinton." Is Maya Angelou one of Oprah's "favorite things"?

Geno Auriemma on the "State of the World we Live In"

2008-01-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

This is UConn coach Geno Auriemma joking around in a postgame press conference. This is what happens when Geno is tired...hilarious.

These are Geno's comments after beating Notre Dame, 64-47, on January 27, 2007. Freshman Tina Charles had just set the Big East Conference record for blocks in one game with nine, but the Huskies, playing in a sold out Gampel Pavilion, had also recorded a season-high 27 turnovers...

UConn beats Notre Dame

2008-01-28T16:09:00.000-05:00

The Hartford Courant is very slowly picking up some new media usage, at least in the basketball coverage world. They've started posting some more photos and videos, and they're putting up video highlights of some games, and video coverage of some press conferences.

There do not seem to be any videos associated with UConn's win over Notre Dame last night, though there is a photo gallery. This is UConn freshman Maya Moore, who scored all 15 of her points in the first 4:00 of the ballgame.

I do have to say that I am very impressed with some Courant writers' use of blogs. John Altavilla, whose blog can be found here, is the new UConn beat writer (actually returning to a beat he held a few years ago -- he covered the Giants in between). Altavilla has done an excellent job reaching out readers in his blog. He elaborates on news stories and gives information, but also uses humor and has an ability to laugh at himself. He was a little behind on information when he first returned to the beat, and he'd actually read the Boneyard, a UConn fan board, and developed a rapport with them.

His postgame blog from Uconn's game against Notre Dame began with the paragraph:

Ciao from the Courant's sumptuous hotel suite near the Blogre Dame campus. The butler has just left my room; the strawberries were a little too ripe for my taste. The hotel manager should be here soon with a suitable explanation.

Altavilla went on to give some of his thoughts about the game. He had already filed his game story, and written a pregame blog. I think that what I enjoy the most about his blog is reading his insights about certain aspects of his job.

When any highly recruited athlete commits, there tends to be something of a media circus surrounding the athlete, who is often only 16 of 17 years old. In Connecticut, the effect is somewhat exaggerated because of the amount of media coverage. We don't have that many sports teams. UConn games are regularly covered by the Hartford Courant (sends as many as three reporters to bigger games), Manchester Journal Inquirer, Williamantic Chronicle, UConn Daily Campus, the New London Day, the Waterbury Republican American, the Danbury News Times, WTIC Radio, WHUS (Uconn) Radio, and Connecticut Public Television.

When UConn was waiting for a decision from recruit Chelsey Lee, the final piece to a very highly anticipated 2008 recruiting class, Altavilla was trying to do his best to keep the UConn faithful informed. At one point, though, he decided that he was doing too much and posted this:

In my role as the congressman representing the UConn women's basketball constituency that reads the Courant, I broke the promise I made to myself when I took over this beat. I called her cellphone directly three times this week in search of a clue about her timeframe or mindset. Remember, I am old enough to be her father. If some guy like me was calling my daughter after 8 p.m. on a school night there would be a serious price to pay, unless his father owned homes in South Beach, Manhattan and London - at which point all calls would be accepted. I can understand why other reporters covering women's basketball in this country do not call recruits and it has nothing to do with fearing NCAA compliance violations. There is a yuck factor at work here. It just doesn't feel right sometimes. We will all hear the news eventually, but after three strikes this week - not home, no return call, not talking - I'm taking my digital recorder back to the bench with me.

I really enjoy hearing that kind of candidness from a professional reporter, and hearing his response to issues like that. (Chelsey ended up choosing to attend Rutgers).

I'll end this with another awesome picture from the Hartford Courant. This one is from point guard Ketia Swanier diving for a loose ball. Ketia had 11 assists, 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals Sunday.

Elena Delle Donne

2008-01-23T16:27:00.000-05:00

I do realize that I live in Boston now, and all anybody cares about is baseball. I grew up 10 minutes from the Uconn campus. Our only pro sports teams in Connecticut are minor league baseball, minor league hockey, and the Connecticut Sun, a WNBA team. I've always watched Uconn, but my first regular reporting job was for the Sun, so yeah, I do follow women's basketball pretty closely.

On Friday, I had the chance to see one of Uconn's most highly-touted recruits. That's saying a lot. Uconn currently has three national high school players of the year on its roster, Tina Charles, Brittany Hunter, and Maya Moore. Elena Delle Donne is currently a high school senior and adding her to next year's team should make it very very good.

Elena was playing in Springfield at a high school basketball event hosted by Springfield College and the Basketball Hall of Fame. Her high school, Ursuline Academy from Wilmington, Del., was playing Christ the King High School from New York City. Elena, playing in her first game since December 8 (she was out with mono) outscored Christ the King by herself with 38 points. Ursuline won the game, 57-37.

I recently had the privilege of interviewing Elena. What makes her so special? Well, Brittany Hunter and Tina Charles, Uconn's starting frontcourt, are 6'3" and 6'4", respectively. Elena is 6'5", but she's had a private trainer teaching her point guard skills since she was in second grade. She holds the high school record for consecutive made free throws with 80 and is an amazing three point shooter. But she can play inside too if needed.

Elena's older, brother, Gene, plays football for Middle Tennesse State University, but her older sister, Elizabeth, is her true inspiration. Elizabeth's pretty badly handicapped and has inspired Elena to pursue a degree in special education at Uconn next fall. One of Elena's biggest struggles with going away to school, actually, was leaving her sister. The following excerpt is from a great article by Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant:

This is what Lizzie Delle Donne doesn't know and this is what Lizzie could never know. She doesn't know that her sister, bound for UConn next year, has been one of the most sought-after high school players in the history of women's basketball. She doesn't know that her sister has a chance to take her place among the greatest women's basketball players who ever lived.

Lizzie doesn't know her sister even plays basketball.

"No idea," Joan said. "She loves Elena for Elena, and not Elena the basketball player. That's beautiful."

"Lizzie is awesome," Elena said.

You can see a video of Elena playing in Springfield here

Thoughts

2008-01-22T16:02:00.000-05:00

I want to apologize for the lack of updates. I am actually back in Connecticut to attend a memorial service for a high school friend.

It looks like Dan was murdered in Dorchester last week. He was found stabbed to death in an apartment in Savin Hill early Thursday morning. He was 20.

After I first heard the news, I tried to look for more information and grew increasingly disappointed in the media coverage of the event. The Globe had one article, in which it did not identify Dan by name. The article seemed more like a chance to defend the Savin Hill area's reputation (a 23-year-old man was shot the same day that Dan was killed).

Most people that I know found out from an article in the Hartford Courant that ran on Monday or posts on Dan's facebook wall. The Willimantic Chronicle (my hometown paper that's not really online) also ran an article Monday.

Beyond that, the majority of news on Dan's death is in blogs like Queer Today, and moving memorials from his friends. Many are also questioning the lack of mainstream media coverage. The Hartford Courant reporter who spoke to his family has even posted a plea for those with more information to come forward as a comment on someone else's blog.

The lack of coverage of Dan's killing is actually making me wonder about other murders in Boston. We all want to know why somebody would do something so horrible. We want the police all over it and the media following the investigation and pushing the police to solve it.

In Boston, 66 people were murdered in 2006, which is about a murder every 5.5 days. I don't find that number particularly surprising. At the same time, I've probably seen a handful of articles around someone being killed in the past year. Are these killings being written off as gang-related and therefore not relevant to us? Does anyone who doesn't know the victim care?

I found an article in the Boston Phoenix from 2005 slamming the city's ability to catch and effectively prosecute murderers. Maybe that doesn't even get noticed as a problem because of the lack of reporting.

Test...one, two three

2008-01-16T16:18:00.000-05:00

So I just had to write that after I read that Rent will be closing on Broadway on June 1 of this year. After 12 years, it will close as the seventh-longest running show on Broadway (the first is Phantom of the Opera).

The purpose of this post is primarily the testing part, not to reminisce about Rent. (For those sane people out there, the title of this post is a line from the show). This is a blog for one of my classes, and will be maintained at least through the spring semester of this year. Topics will vary frequently and may include online media, women's basketball (I'm from Storrs, CT and UConn's undefeated), books, the upcoming election, rowing, or anything else I may be thinking about.