Author: Jeff

television

We Shall Remain…Online

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The recent excellent PBS series on how badly the various colonists and governments in the landmass now known as the United States of America screwed over the indigenous populations (i.e. the Indians) has come and went but if you missed it, like me, you can catch all 5 parts of “We Shall Remain” online at the American Experience web site.
I traveled to Hawaii a few years ago and while there I fell in love with the pronunciations and the language and social quirks – the evening news broadcast in Honolulu captures this idea completely. One reason I loved it so much was because I imagined this is how all of America could have been – where an indigenous population was absorbed peacefully and uniquely – where the sum is greater than the parts. Unfortunately, for most of the Indian groups in this country from the 1600s to even the present, this has not been the case.
Having grown up on Long Island where so many towns and parks have Indian names, having studied Long Island history starting in fourth grade, having had a Hopi as an Art Teacher for grades K – 6 (so of course many of the crafts projects through the years were Native themed) and frankly being part of an ethnic group that has gotten screwed throughout history, I have always had a strong affinity to Indian issues where my bias is towards the Indians. Everything from the Shinnecock Indian Pow-Wow to Dances with Wolves has captivated me and I am looking forward to watching this series. I just hope that at the end there is something positive to look forward too, because the past has been pretty horrible.

humor

Cincinnati Patrolled By Real-Life Superheroes. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

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This is why I love io9 – because without it I would have never known about the real-life superhero team called Allegiance of Heroes led by Shadowhare. This is for real people. Seriously.

Shadowhare is using a site called the World Superhero Registry to meet up with other heros, like Aclyptico in Pennsylvania, Wall Creeper in Colorado and Master Legend in Florida. Again, this is for real. Stop laughing.
Now, when you build a real-life superhero team, you’re only asking for trouble from a real life supervillain The “Consortium of Evil” has placed a $10 bounty on Shadowhare’s identity via the wonder of Craigslist: “I am seeking the identity of Shadowhare. – E, The Consortium of Evil.” And so it begins.
via io9

music

Deeper Than Rap

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I have been addicted to Rick Ross’s “Lay Back” for over a week now – I just cannot stop listening to it – and I’ve posted it for you here to listen to yourself – you tell me I’m out there or if its a bangin’ track::

Best line by far: “Number 1 at whatever, I get buddles of cheddar, ditch that black cloud, you deserve wonderful weather.”
The walking dichotomy of Rick Ross, a pseudo-gangster, maybe real gangster, and his feud with Fiddy has sent him to the top of the charts and made him stand out from the rest of the rap landscape. I usually only skim the surface of what is going on in the rap world, paying attention to the most famous / popular (unless you happen to be affiliated with the Wu-Tang Clan) and Rick Ross has done that here by elevating himself to a level that even I am paying attention. Not bad for a media savvy former corrections officer. Too bad for his persona though that Freeway Ricky Ross, his inspiration, has denounced him for his law ties.
One of my favorite aspects of his site is that his album drop countdown clock is totally off by one month on his MySpace page– the album has been released yet it says that is coming out over two weeks from now:
rickross.jpg
Last but not least, of course I learned about Rick Ross from the most hip of places – no, not Vibe or The Source but the Grey Lady. Yup, that is right – the N Y f’ing T baby. Believe it or not, they provide some good rap info in the Sunday Arts and Leisure section. Keep in mind that the NYT is the same place that a few years ago I learned about Ghostface Killah dropping a new album.

tech

The First Artificial Contestant on America's Favorite Quiz Show

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Answer: This highly successful television quiz show is the latest challenge for artificial intelligence.
Question: What is “Jeopardy”?
Not content with simply winning at chess, IBM has decided to build a machine that can win at “Jeopardy.” One point that has been decided is that the box will not be hooked up to the net during the match – it will have to reference its memory just like the rest of us. While you might think who cares, it’s brain can be many terabytes in size, just remember the AI has to synthesize the answer and then search this ridiculous amount of data before a human can do the same to figure out the right question. Sounds like a huge query challenge. Because it is.
As Kasparov is to chess, Ken Jennings is to “Jeopardy” so I hope that the AI indeed plays KenJen and that KenJen takes it down to Chinatown…

tech

Ding Goes The Oven – Tweet Goes The Feed

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Twitter is just in the news more and more these days. First Lance Armstrong used it to get his stolen bike back. Then we have the rumor that Google is going to buy it. Now, we have the news that some excellent geeks at Poke have hacked together / masterfully crafted something they are calling BakerTweet.
What is it you ask? It’s a wonderful hardware / software solution for alerting people to the latest oven output from the Albion Cafe, Bakery and Food Store. It’s a wireless Arduino thing that can be customized via a web interface to allow for various custom messages to be Twittered at the twist of a dial and the push of a water/flour-proof button.
What’s brilliant is The Albion actually using it. And it actually works. Check out the video below:

BakerTweet from BakerTweet on Vimeo.

ramblings

Subway Manners

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I read today on the NYT’s City Room blog about how Matt Muro has been riding the subway on crutches for the past few months and how he has been surreptitiously snapping pictures of those who wouldn’t give up from the seat marked “Priority Seating for People with Disabilities” for him. This post is just a snipit of a longer article that will appear in this Sunday’s paper titled Smile, You’re on Selfish-Jerk Camera.
Matt has posted all of the pics he took at People Who Sit In The Disability Seats When Im Standing On My Crutches.com Yes, the name of the site is really that long and yes, he has started a site just to vent about his subway frustrations (keep in mind though that he never asks for a seat, he just notes who automatically gets up for him and who does not).
I would suggest that you look through the photos and see if you recognize anyone (I didn’t). I think its now only a matter of tme before a copycat site for pregnant women pops us, just watch…

ramblings

Settle This Debate – Best Board Game Ever?

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I’ve always loved board games. I have been playing them for as long as I remember. From games of Chutes and Ladders to Candy Land to Monopoly to Clue to Stratego to Scrabble to RISK (my maybe current favorite) I have loved to just sit in a basement somewhere with friends or family and watch the hours roll on by while hoping to outplay and outsmart my opponents. I still love it. I just get to do it less.
RISK occupied plenty of my afternoons and evenings during my formative years. Each one of my friends played a certain role: one took Australia, one made an ill fated attempt to control Asia, one took Africa and could never hold it, etc. I was big on trying to take North America & Europe. Sometimes it was effective, sometimes not so much. The RISK themed Seinfeld episode – “The Ukraine is weak!” – is one of my favorites for the love that it bestows on my maybe favorite game.
I keep saying maybe favorite because a new game possibly has supplanted it for fav game status. The game to which I am referring to is Settlers of Catan the 1995 winner of the German Spiel des Jahres “Game of the Year Award” which over the past few years, through simple word of mouth, has become one of the most popular games in the world. It literally has sold 15 million copies. No joke.
If you’ve never heard of the game, let me tell you that it is flat out awesome for more than a few reasons. I could start with how each game begins with the random placement of 19 different hexagonal pieces but instead I would rather like to point you towards a Wired Magazine article in this month’s issue titled “Monopoly Killer: Perfect German Board Game Redefines Genre.” Here is an excerpt:

Settlers is now poised to become the biggest hit in the US since Risk. Along the way, it’s teaching Americans that board games don’t have to be either predictable fluff aimed at kids or competitive, hyperintellectual pastimes for eggheads. Through the complex, artful dance of algorithms and probabilities lurking at its core, Settlers manages to be effortlessly fun, intuitively enjoyable, and still intellectually rewarding, a potent combination that’s changing the American idea of what a board game can be.

The article is about 1000% true: after my friends turned me onto the game a few years back I’ve been addicted ever since. I regularly get together with between 3 – 5 friends to play both the Regular and expanded Seafarers editions and truly we all have become addicted – case in point, when a number of us took a trip abroad last year, we brought not one but two boards with us and played not one night but two nights in a row. Sick.
Net / net: I see no reason for this tread to not continue. I think 20 million copies is just around the corner…

humor

Happy St. Paddy's Day

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While I haven’t posted in a little while (I’ve been so busy at work that at night I’ve just wanted to chill combined with the fact that I am still trying to figure out what to say about the Hampton Phish show on 3/6 and how to say it), I could not resist honoring today’s holiday by posting the video below:

I’ve heard that today is the one day of the year when everyone wishes they were Irish. I’m not sure if that is truly the case – it might just be because they wish it was socially acceptable for them to be in a bar by 11 AM on a Tuesday. Was that too stereotypical? Not if I look across the street at Puck Fair…