So far, the only video I’ve seen from the Tony Tribute is this one from the RocPic guys. If you squint and look to the left of the screen, that long-haired dude is me. Rick even announces my presence! The song is “Through the Veil,” and while the audio is predictably shaky, it’s still a great performance, especially by Nate Coffe on guitar:
Oh, crap. I just read this over at RochesterTurning, original story to be found here. CNN picks up the story:
Reports: Two hostages freed at Clinton campaign office – CNN.com
A woman with a baby was released by the hostage-taker early on, she told a witness, Lettie Tzizik, who spoke to WMUR.”A young woman with a 6-month or 8-month-old infant came rushing into the store just in tears, and she said, ‘You need to call 911. A man has just walked into the Clinton office, opened his coat and showed us a bomb strapped to his chest with duct tape,’” the Web site reported.
I was going to ask “what is in people’s heads?” But then I read this from the ABC affiliate in NH that’s following the story:
Two Clinton Campaign Hostages Released – New Hampshire News Story – WMUR Manchester
ABC News reported that the hostage-taker was an older male who was well-known locally and has a history of mental illness who told his son today to “watch the new[s].”
Here’s the really dangerous part about social networking sites: when they mess up, they tend to mess up huge. Facebook recently began a new advertising service called Beacon, which allows your online purchases to be added into your news feed when they happen. Those familiar with Facebook know that many of the things they do while on Facebook get added to their news feeds and broadcast to all their friends. It’s a neat way to be able to know what’s going on in your little Facebook community without having to constantly check other user’s profiles and can be tailored by both the broadcasting and receiving users to limit the amount of information included.
However, the Beacon advertising campaign was automatically turned on for all users without announcements, and then it required users to “Opt Out” of the service if they didn’t want it. The very real problem with that scenario – in addition to at least giving the impression of sneakiness – is that most users never see their own news feeds and so don’t know what’s happening until someone tells them.
This Christmas season, that “someone” often turned out to be the recipient, as the below story discusses:
Feeling Betrayed, Facebook Users Force Site to Honor Their Privacy – washingtonpost.com
Within two hours after he bought the ring on Overstock.com, he received an instant message from his wife, Shannon: Who is this ring for? What ring, he messaged back, from his laptop at work in Waltham, Mass. She said that Facebook had just put an item on his page saying he bought a ring. It included a link to Overstock, which noted that the 51 percent discount on the ring.
» Continue Reading…
I’m very pleased to announce that we have yet another new blogger in our midst here at DFE, Carla Palumbo. Mrs. Palumbo was the Democratic Minority Leader in the Legislature until this past election cycle, when she successfully campaigned for the City Council North East position.
I’ve been talking to Carla about all things Legislature for a while now, and she agreed to blog here on DragonFlyEye.Net, so now we’ve finally got her setup. Her first piece points out that, while a recent D&C article anoints Wayne Zyra as the new President of the Lej, the actual vote has not happened yet. The D&C seems awfully invested in making decisions among the Republican majority seem like decrees from Caesar.
Even more interesting is her discussion of the Monroe County budget. I don’t want to startle anyone, but the F.A.I.R. plan may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Carla has a number of questions about the supposed tax breaks for county residents, but don’t miss the discussion of some interesting and here-to-fore unexplained earmarks left in the budget. I thought we had a balanced budget 20 million dollar deficit?
So, there’s some good reading to be had over there! Please check out her writing and comment if you can! Ask questions, maybe she’ll write more posts!!
In other news
I am in discussions with another blogger who may be joining the team. If he does, he’ll be much more intimately involved with the site, contributing to this, the Editor’s Blog, doing some site administration and such. I don’t want to say too much too soon, but he’s a smart guy with a lot of potential. Stay tuned!
What a great gift idea! Perfect for the web designer who wants to ensure timely conclusions to weekly meetings and project check-points:
The Most Dangerous Object in the Office This Month: The Photonic Disruptor
This laser is borderline illegal. With an output of 105 milliwatts, it’s 21 times more powerful than your average presentation pointer. It was designed for SWAT and military use in nonlethal takedowns. The adjustable-focus green ray will do permanent retinal damage to anyone within about 60 feet, visually disorients people up to 1,150 feet away, and illuminates objects almost 2 miles out. Alternative uses: melting plastic, lighting fireworks, and settling heated disagreements over Wired kitchen queue-cutting on Burger Thursdays.
The below-linked article on Pakistani President Musharraf’s vow to end the military emergency state in that country contains an interesting and perhaps enlightening epitaph to his military/political career. It’s a great lesson in what the politics of power will get you, in Pakistan or in the States:
Musharraf Says He Will End Emergency Rule by Dec. 16 – washingtonpost.com
At first, many Pakistanis welcomed the new military leader, a moderate Muslim with a winning manner who pledged to bring about sweeping political, social and economic reforms.After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Musharraf quickly sided with the West against the Taliban movement in neighboring Afghanistan.
But Musharraf began to lose support in Pakistan as his policies were resisted by domestic interest groups, Islamic extremism spread and he attempted to legitimize his rule by holding elections that monitors said were badly flawed. The low point came last March, when he tried to depose the chief justice of the Supreme Court, setting off a protest movement by the legal community that gained wide support among the civilian populace.
“This has been like a Greek tragedy. In his struggle for political survival, General Musharraf dismantled brick by brick the positive legacy he had built,” said Mushahid Hussain, a former senior aide to Sharif who later joined Musharraf’s political coalition.
More interesting fallout from the Subprime credit crunch. Cities that once relied on the low-interest bond market for loans to complete projects are now beginning to see those interest rates go up, and projects are being put on hold as a consequence:
Municipal Bond Deals Squeezed By Credit Crisis – washingtonpost.com
The municipal bond market has been squeezed by steep losses among bond insurance firms. Towns and cities with poorer credit ratings often rely on these insurers to back their bonds, enabling them to pay lower interest rates. But now bond insurers are facing massive write-downs because they promised to cover losses in the mortgage industry, leading some to stop insuring new projects.
As a society, we pay a heavy price for crime committed on our streets. The very least they could do is, every once in a while, entertain our asses for five minutes.
Craig C. Wilson gets that. He knows that there are people constantly scanning the newspaper for stories of interest. He knows that, in our work-a-day lives, things can get hum-drum and routine; he knows that stories in Rochester papers, especially, can get a mite depressing or monotonous. And he knows that, as a person about to commit a crime, he has a choice to make: do it well, or do it funny. And so, he did this:
Bumbling scam left cops a map || Democrat & Chronicle: Local News
Wilson traveled to Florida and then abandoned his 2002 Mercury Mountaineer in the parking lot of a Jacksonville apartment complex. He later reported the vehicle stolen, officials said.The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Rochester police were able to figure out what happened — and track down Wilson — partly because he left directions from MapQuest, the Internet mapping service, in the vehicle for a trip from his home to Jacksonville, said Rochester police Officer Deidre Taccone.
Authorities also found paperwork in the sport utility vehicle detailing Wilson’s airline travel from Jacksonville back to Rochester, Taccone said.
Here’s to you, Craig C. Wilson! In your own special way, you make blogging just a little bit nicer!
Hugo Chavez (or “Chaz,” as he’s known to his one or two friends) has once again found an enemy actively plotting to kill him. This time around, it turns out to be CNN:
Chavez: CNN may be instigating my murder | Top News | Reuters.com
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday CNN may have been instigating his murder when the U.S. TV network showed a photograph of him with a label underneath that read “Who killed him?” The caption appeared to be a production mistake — confusing a Chavez news item with one on the death of a football star. The anchor said “take the image down” when he realized.
Hmm. . . Not the most realistic of enemies, is it? I mean, even Fox News wouldn’t be a very good choice, but CNN? They’re too insipid and flaccid to even accurately report news, from whence would they muster up the cajones to pull off a stunt like that?
FactCheck.org always does a great job of laying bare the bull of national candidates. Their most recent post takes on Rudy Giuliani and his most recent ad, which states that Rudy is both responsible for the drop in crime rates in NYC and also a Conservative sheep among the Liberal wolves in Hippie Town:
FactCheck.org: The Not-Quite Truth About NYC
Rudy Giuliani’s latest TV ad falsely claims New York City experienced “record crime … until Rudy.” In fact, the city recorded its highest rates of both violent crime and property crime years before he took office. The downward trend was well established before he was sworn in.The ad also claims New York is “America’s most liberal city,” but his campaign offers no evidence showing that the city is more liberal than, say, San Francisco; Berkeley; Washington, D.C.; or Detroit, all of which rank as more liberal in a study of voting behavior in the 2004 elections. In that study, New York ranked 21st among cities with populations of more than 100,000.
But of course, NYC as the “Most Liberal City in America” fits well into the Conservative fantasy of the northern Liberal cabal that is New York. After all, the idea of Gary, Indiana as the most Liberal city just doesn’t fit the stereotype. It works well because it gives the impression that Rudy has tackled flaming Liberals in the past and so is qualified to take on Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic candidate.
But of course, like his entire campaign and his entire mythos, that’s all crap.
