January 2011
Fox nails it: how else to culminate 2010 besides having Brandy interview Carrot Top?
Apparently my sister works with the referee of the Florida State - South Carolina game. Nice work, Tom Tom.
December 2010
National Geographic created a nice little video to illustrate the significance of 2011’s expected population milestone: 7 billion people on Earth. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoy
Gawker presents the best dog videos of 2010. Which is all the recap I need. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aox
Nice! The Consumerist used my “Mr. Plow” photo to illustrate their story about the NYC sanitation workers. This one: Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aow
Diving in to this remarkable silent film produced by the Army in 1924, documenting a trip by air around the world. At one point, they brag of covering 370 miles in 5 1/2 hours. History buffs: if you don’t follow Carl Malamud on Twitter, you really ought. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aov
A repeat of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me featuring Dick Van Dyke features Van Dyke singing the lyrics to his eponymous show’s theme song. Did you know it had lyrics? Me neither. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aou
The informal Twitter guide - a good, accessible explanation of the technology. Made for moms. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aot
Nearly 9% of all US Internet traffic goes to Facebook. Please like this. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aos
The woman who provided Natalie Wood’s West Side Story pipes has received her own Peabody. Deservedly. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aor
Today I learned that three of my four grandparents had degrees in chemistry. Maybe should have stuck out that weed-out course at Ohio State.
The Times posts their ten most viewed articles of the year - three of which are about Steven Slater. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aop
If, as the Post reports, the slow snow removal in NYC was an intentional work slowdown to protest budget cuts? Not really helping the cause, guys. Key caveat: the word “Post”. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoo
The 110 things New Yorkers talked about in 2010. Remarkably, Lucy didn’t make the cut. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aon
Perhaps to prepare it for the upcoming snow, the Wall Street bull (which is on Broadway) was recently covered with a purple-and-pink crocheted garment. How elegant! The symbolism is lost on me. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aom
Honestly, if I were to get a Christmas card from my mailman, I would want it to look like this. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aol
This is a robust look at the challenges of governments seeking to share digital data. But it elides Lessig’s key political insight from last year - that being that unsophisticated or unscrupulous curators of the data could cause unwarranted political problems. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aok
Whenever I’m away from Twitter for an extended period of time, I feel anxious about the good articles I’m missing.
The inverse relationship between isolation and empathy may be one reason the latter trait is rapidly declining. Yet another reason to raise your kids in a city. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoi
Oh man. The New Yorker speculates on the city’s slow plowing efforts: resources are dedicated to prepping Times Square for New Year’s Eve. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoh
Judith Miller starts a new reporting gig - for arch-conservative “news” site NewsMax. The right has always been deliberate about protecting its allies, even the tarnished ones. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aog
During the blizzard, New York’s 911 system had an enormous backlog of calls as ambulances got mired in the snow. It appears no fatalities (besides, possibly, one still-born baby) resulted; if they had (or did), Bloomberg would be facing Katrina-like critiques. Justifiably. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aof
Looking to finally cast that role in your movie? The one for a dog? May I suggest the Dog Casting Agency? Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoe
Right-wingers want you to know something important: that Obama plans to give America back to Native Americans. Well, we had a good run, didn’t we? Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoc
A brief photo essay, starring China and me, entitled, “Two Hours Spent In Service Of A Car.” Here was how the car started: And here’s the end result: For some reason, my back hurts. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aob
Politicians: it’s probably worth comparing Bloomberg’s response to the blizzard with Cory Booker’s. New York City Mayor John Lindsay lost a re-election bid because of how badly he responded to a storm in 1969. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/aoa
Houston Texan fans plan a rally to urge firing the team’s coach. The things that people make time to organize around never cease to amaze me. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao9
This (very cool) video recorded from the end of a sword somehow reminds me of Nick Bilton’s observation about how maps are now predicated on the user. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao8
I am indebted to the recent New Yorker profile that provided the perfect way to describe the cologne of an enthusiastic applier: aggressive.
Watching I’m Still Here. Borat, without the jokes - and lots of squandered good will. Now, Joaquin is retired.
For the record, being paid millions of dollars to play a game isn’t “getting a second chance”. It’s a privilege afforded to a lucky few. Michael Vick is welcome to live the life of drudgery that nearly everyone else enjoys. But paying his debt to society doesn’t reinstate all of his privileges. He’d have been banned from football permanently for betting on the...
It was inevitable: my Boxing Day Blizzard Flickr set and slideshow. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao4
A food writer declares that she has finally tired of the “foodie” movement. I endorse this. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao3
Two good history posts: highways that never (or once) were, and their impact on cities; photos of wounds from the Civil War. I never knew that there was a highway along the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Didn’t move to the Bay Area until a decade after Loma Prieta. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao2
Finally, some answers (or at least guesses): why those guys in Chelsea may have been getting letters for Santa. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao1
The Atlantic releases its categorized, comprehensive Year in Review, trusting the next four days will be uneventful. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ao0
Unfortunately, the Times’ copyeditors couldn’t make it in this morning. (Or maybe she’s under the snow?) Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anz
Someone at the Times is feeling witty:The National Weather Service says the storm has largely moved east. There may be another inch or two in eastern Queens today, but most of the city will have to make do with what little snow they have. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/any
Here’s video I took of a cab stuck in the snow on our street (while I tried to get the dog to venture out in it). Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anx
This is officially the most snow we’ve seen in New York City. Drifts in the back yard are higher than the first bar of the porch railing - maybe 14 inches.
China’s picture of snow inside the subway station was picked up by Gothamist. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anv
Just took a little stroll out there. Worst snow I can remember seeing. White out conditions, brutal wind. And the lightning…
Apparently that rumbling I heard wasn’t the neighbors’ TV - it was what’s known as thundersnow - a snow thunderstorm. Um. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ant
2010’s most interesting New York City street art, as determined by the artists themselves. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/ans
A detailed look at how the blowout under the Deepwater Horizon led to the explosions that sank the rig - when it didn’t have to. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anr
How the inventor of baseball and his Union army compatriots assumed control of Fort Sumter 150 years ago last night, setting into motion the events of the Civil War. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anq
Here’s a 1917 silent film profiling Luther Burbank, produced by the still-young Ford Motor Company. Full post: http://p-bu.mp/anp
Everyone in the Garden is hogging cell reception, preventing photos. But sitting close enough to the Bulls bench that we can smell the Ben-Gay.
Given that my living in New York overlapped with the worst Knicks franchises in history, I’ve never seen them win at home. A Christmas miracle is in order.
Happy holidays! (I’m committed to the War.) The reason for China’s insistence on opening presents early becomes clear: we’re going to see the Knicks at noon. And, with this wonderful age we live in, I used the iPad to set the DVR at home so we can record the game.