Month: August 2010

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-19

swanksalot0 comment
  • Delusions Abound on Energy Savings http://tinyurl.com/26mya5c #
  • Death in Venice: Who was Geo. H. Macomber and what's he's doing on the Chicago Athletic Club? http://tinyurl.com/2f8pp96 #
  • wait, Rush did a cover of Shapes of Things? Odd. After the David Bowie version? or Yardbirds? #
  • still haven't been to see the space on Wolcott, apparently the current tenant is "being difficult". #
  • Does Salade Niçoise, in your opinion, require tuna? #
  • RT @thefrontloader: The Vaselines are back! Check out "Sex with an X" & "I Hate the 80's" from their upcoming release http://bit.ly/aCRw60 #
  • don't know why I cannot remember, without aided recall, who is who in XY sex-determination system of taxonomy. Granted school was long ago #
  • …but come on brain, you can do better #
  • NYTimes: Mezcal, Tequila’s Smoky, Spicy Cousin http://nyti.ms/dauS7i #
  • Pip and his iPad http://flic.kr/p/8trv4J #
  • Wishbone for lunch meeting FTW #
  • no duh RT @HowardBeckNYT: Twifficiency Spammer Turns Out to Be An Emo 17-Year-Old http://shar.es/03WOh #
  • My Top 3 Weekly #lastfm artists: Johnny Cash (91), Sonny Boy Williamson (86) and The Handsome Family (56) #music http://bit.ly/bb69Xx #
  • Alaska Is Leery of Washington but Feasts on Its Dollars – http://nyti.ms/dhDrdo #
  • New Orleans circa 1937. "1133-1135 Chartres Street." Laundry day in the Quarter. http://tinyurl.com/2vl6f2p #
  • Dr. Laura: criticism of me infringes my first amendment rights http://tinyurl.com/26xdhr5 #
  • RT @copedog: Not only is Empty Bottle still doing honky tonk, they are also answering their phones and being both friendly and helpful! #
  • guess I'm going to Austin for Thanksgiving. Cool, has been a few years… #
  • So is the implication that TE Lawrence was sodomized/raped by his Turkish captors? #LawrenceOfArabia #
  • Fuck it, I guess our neighbors win, and we are putting our place for sale. No good to be sued by assholes. #

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Alderman Fioretti- Daley Being A Child

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Pretty funny actually. And is Daley running or not? Lots of people are speculating, even people who don’t live in Chicago city limits.1Mary Bartelme Park

[Mary Bartelme Park, aka Adams and Sangamon Park]

Second Ward Alderman Robert Fioretti says he hasn’t yet decided whether he’s running for mayor next February, but his flirtation with the idea appears to have gotten the attention of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

At least that’s Fioretti’s take.

Daley told Fioretti and community groups this morning that he’s planning to dedicate a new park Thursday at the corner of Adams and Sangamon on the near West Side. The only problem is that Fioretti and the groups had already planned a dedication ceremony there for this Saturday, and the alderman thinks the mayor is simply trying to upstage him.

“He must be very frightened of something,” Fioretti said. “That or he’s just being the child that he is.”

Rosa Escareno, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said Fioretti is flat wrong. The mayor’s office has been planning to dedicate the new park for weeks, she said, but because Daley has a conflict Saturday they decided to hold a ceremony tomorrow.

“The mayor has numerous park dedications we’ve been trying to get on his schedule,” Escareno said. “We had this time open up.”

Martha Goldstein, executive director of the West Loop Community Organization, said community leaders have worked on the park with the Chicago Park District and city officials for nearly a decade. She said she didn’t know anything about the mayor’s event until today but planned to attend.

“We’re excited he’s coming,” she said. “We were disappointed when we’d heard he wasn’t coming Saturday.”

(click to continue reading Alderman: Daley Being A ‘Child’ / Chicago News Cooperative.)

and a classic Daleyism, for your pleasure, even if it was uttered by a staffer

Escareno said Daley isn’t available Saturday—she said she couldn’t say why—and so his schedulers were planning something for the middle of next week. But when they learned about Fioretti’s plans they decided to move the mayor’s event up.

“It didn’t make sense to dedicate a park that’s already been dedicated,” she said.

But now that’s what Fioretti will be doing Saturday. Escareno says he’s welcome to attend the mayor’s event tomorrow. “The alderman is invited, and we’re hoping to have him on the agenda.”

“Less than 24 hours notice for this?” Fioretti said. “This is just unfortunate.”

Inflated Importance Toned

[former buildings at Adams and Sangamon]

and from the Chicago Journal a few months ago:

 

The two names usually used as shorthand for the West Loop’s new park are the Chicago Park District’s administrative-feeling Park #542 and the more informal (and geographic) Adams-Sangamon Park.

Recently, Ald. Robert Fioretti’s office pitched an official name for the space to park district superintendent Timothy Mitchell.

The honoree: Mary Bartelme.

Born near Halsted and Fulton in 1866, Bartelme became the first female judge in Illinois in 1923 and the second female judge in the nation, according to a biography of Bartelme written by Brian Hays, Michael Levy and Gwen Hoerr McNamee and included the Chicago Bar Association’s 1998 book, 125 Years of Women Lawyers in Illinois.

After being admitted to the Illinois bar in 1894, according to the biography, Bartelme began her legal career as a probate attorney with Barnes, Barnes & Bartelme.

Her practice, however, ultimately focused on the plight of children and young people during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Chicago was industrializing and immigrants were filling the city. In 1897, she was appointed Public Guardian for Cook County, the first woman in the country to fill that role. She used the post to improve the lot of teens and children in Chicago who needed assistance. It was a role that brought her into close contact with such renowned social reformers of the era as Jane Addams, the founder of the Hull House settlement house on the Near West Side.

(click to continue reading Fioretti pitches name for West Loop park | News | Chicago Journal.)

Wikipedia entry on Ms. Barthelme:

Mary Barthelme was born in Chicago, the daughter of an Alsatian immigrant Balthasar Bartelme and his wife Jeannette. She had two sisters and a brother, and attended West Division High School. She graduated from Chicago Normal School, a teachers’ college, and taught for five years, before deciding to attend law school, at the age of 25. In 1892, she enrolled at Northwestern University Law School, from which she graduated; she was admitted to the Illinois Bar by 1894.

Known as a social reformer, during the Progressive Era, Mary Bartelme devoted much of her life to the reform of juvenile laws and the welfare of children. In 1897, she was named Cook County Public Guardian, the first woman in this post.

She became known throughout Illinois as a tireless advocate for children; her compassion for the girls who came before her earned her the nickname “Mother Barthelme.”  She would later acquire another nickname– “Suitcase Mary,” because when she sent girls to foster homes, she always provided them with clean clothes, packed in a new suitcase.

Bartelme believed that there was dramatic social neglect of girls, that parents must speak frankly with their daughters about sex, and that poverty was the main cause of delinquency. In May 1912, she was named an Assistant Judge in the Juvenile Court of Cook County.

Then, in March 1913 Bartelme convened a special Girls’ Court, which heard cases of delinquent and dependent girls, many of them prostitutes. All personnel in this closed court were female, which was felt to encourage a more open discussion of sexual and other private matters. Bartelme later established three Mary Clubs for girls who were not able to return to their parents, supported by volunteer services, as an alternative to state institutions. The first two clubs, which started in 1914 and 1916, accepted white girls; the last one, started in 1921, accepted girls of color. More than 2,000 girls passed through these group homes in a space of ten years.

In late 1923, she was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and she was re-elected in 1927.   After a distinguished career, she retired in June 1933. Prior to her official retirement, in May, more than 2000 well-wishers honored her with a luncheon, at which she was praised for her many achievements.

(click to continue reading Mary Bartelme – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.)

 

Footnotes:
  1. Chicagoland is a big area, but most of those folks don’t vote in the municipal elections, right? [↩]

News Corp Is Republican

Seth Anderson1 Comment

Ending the debate1 whether News Corporation is part of the Republican Party, Rupert Murdoch put his money where his heart is.

WASHINGTON — With Republicans hoping to recapture a number of statehouses in November, the media conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch is inserting itself into the races in bold fashion with a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association.

T Rex isn't afraid of the puny sun

The contribution from Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, which owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and other news outlets, is one of the biggest ever given by a media organization, campaign finance experts said

…

Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said seven-figure donations from anyone to “527” associations were unusual, but a $1 million donation from a news organization was particularly rare.

The donation generated significant buzz in Washington on Tuesday. Much of it focused on Fox News, whose stable of highly rated, conservative hosts have made it the frequent target of liberals, who accuse the network of blurring the line between news and opinion.

In an e-mail to reporters, the Democratic National Committee said the donation showed that Fox News’ well-known mantra, “Fair and Balanced,” had been “rendered utterly meaningless.” Hari Sevugan, a D.N.C. spokesman, added that Fox News’ political coverage “should have a disclaimer for what it truly is — partisan propaganda.”

While many news organizations reported Tuesday on the $1 million gift, a late-afternoon search of Fox News’ Web site produced no mention of it.

(click to continue reading News Corp. Gives Republicans $1 Million – NYTimes.com.)

Media Matters, predictably, did not let the moment pass without comment.

Politico’s Ben Smith has received the following quote from a News Corp. spokesman: “News Corporation believes in the power of free markets, and the RGA’s pro-business agenda supports our priorities at this most critical time for our economy.” They’re not trying to hide it anymore. As the coverage of its media outlets indicates, News Corp. supports the Republican Party’s platform. It’s just now started putting its money where its mouth has long been.

AIG and you

Sixteen months ago, we drew attention to Fox News Senior Vice President Bill Shine’s characterization of his network as the “voice of the opposition.” Ever since, we’ve been demonstrating how the network has been living up to his words.

In September, we defined Fox News as a conservative political organization, noting that the network had been openly advocating against the Democratic Congress and White House through extreme promotion of anti-government rallies, witch hunts against administration officials, and by urging their audience to call Congress and the White House to protest Democratic policies.

In October, we revealed the revolving door between the Republican Party and Fox News Channel, with a number of former Bush administration officials, former and potentially future GOP presidential candidates, and Republican strategists on Fox’s payroll and airwaves.

In November, we chronicled Fox News’ promotion of Conservative Party congressional candidate Doug Hoffman, New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie, and Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell in the run-up to the November 3 election. We also noted how Fox News hosts and analysts spent Election Day promoting their candidacies.

In January, we documented Fox’s campaign for Scott Brown; in February, we pointed out the network’s advocacy for fellow Republican Senate candidates Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk.

In April, we showed how Fox News hosts and contributors have raised millions of dollars for Republican candidates and causes in the 2010 election cycle. We also pointed out that in recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states.

And now we have Fox’s parent company donating $1 million to elect Republican gubernatorial candidates. Are there still people who doubt that Fox is just an arm of the GOP?

(click to continue reading UPDATED FoxPAC: Fox News’ corporate parent gave Republican Governors Association $1 million | Media Matters for America.)

 

Footnotes:
  1. as if there were anyone who could argue with a straight face that Fox News was ever non-partisan [↩]

Delusions Abound on Energy Savings

Seth Anderson0 comment

Americans deluded about energy and energy savings? Who would have thought? We’re so well informed about other topics…

That Peculiar Glance

When it comes to saving energy, many Americans seem to get it — and at the same time they don’t get it at all.

That’s the takeaway from a new study by researchers from Columbia University, Ohio State University and Carnegie Mellon University who found that people are far more likely to focus on switching off lights or unplugging appliances than on buying new bulbs or more efficient refrigerators. But people’s perceptions of the relative savings of various actions are significantly at variance with reality.

“Participants estimated that line-drying clothes saves more energy than changing the washer’s settings (the reverse is true) and estimated that a central air-conditioner uses only 1.3 times the energy of a room air conditioner (in fact, it uses 3.5 times as much),” the researchers wrote.

Perhaps more to the point, people seem conditioned to think of energy savings as they would of saving money: that they can save by simply reducing use, the study found. But the biggest energy savings are tied to replacing things that use a lot of energy with things that use far less.

Habits like turning out the lights when leaving a room may be virtuous but don’t move the needle much on energy savings. Yet that action was cited by more of those surveyed (19.6 percent) than any other method of saving energy. By contrast, just 3.2 percent cited buying more energy-efficient appliances.

The top five behaviors listed by respondents as having a direct impact on energy savings (turning off the lights, riding a bike or public transportation, changing the thermostat, “changing my lifestyle/not having children” and unplugging appliances or using them less) yield savings that are far outweighed by actions cited far less, like driving a more fuel-efficient car.

(click to continue reading Delusions Abound on Energy Savings – Green Blog – NYTimes.com.)

The full study (PDF) is here, if you are curious about methodology and so on.

Twitter Updates for 2010-08-18

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Twitter Updates for 2010-08-18

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Reading Around on August 16th through August 17th

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A few interesting links collected August 16th through August 17th:

  • Les Inrocks : E-books: une entente entre Amazon et Apple? – Le procureur général du Connecticut veut entendre les deux principaux distributeurs de livres numériques dans une enquête préliminaire. Il suspecte Amazon et Apple de s’entendre sur les prix, barrant ainsi la route à la concurrence.

In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming

Seth Anderson0 comment

Bears repeating, a million times: the weather is going to become more extreme as we finish the job of destroying planet Earth. Paid shills like George Will may dispute the facts, may be given a national platform to spew their garbage, but science will triumph.

Glimmer of Spring

“The climate is changing,” said Jay Lawrimore, chief of climate analysis at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. “Extreme events are occurring with greater frequency, and in many cases with greater intensity.”

He described excessive heat, in particular, as “consistent with our understanding of how the climate responds to increasing greenhouse gases.”

Theory suggests that a world warming up because of those gases will feature heavier rainstorms in summer, bigger snowstorms in winter, more intense droughts in at least some places and more record-breaking heat waves. Scientists and government reports say the statistical evidence shows that much of this is starting to happen.

(click to continue reading In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming – NYTimes.com.)

and

Thermometer measurements show that the earth has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. For this January through July, average temperatures were the warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Friday.

The warming has moved in fits and starts, and the cumulative increase may sound modest. But it is an average over the entire planet, representing an immense amount of added heat, and is only the beginning of a trend that most experts believe will worsen substantially.

If the earth were not warming, random variations in the weather should cause about the same number of record-breaking high temperatures and record-breaking low temperatures over a given period. But climatologists have long theorized that in a warming world, the added heat would cause more record highs and fewer record lows.

The statistics suggest that is exactly what is happening. In the United States these days, about two record highs are being set for every record low, telltale evidence that amid all the random variation of weather, the trend is toward a warmer climate.

Next winter there will be a snow storm, and some wag or idiot1 will make a lame joke about Al Gore and cold weather. Remember this quote:

“Global warming, ironically, can actually increase the amount of snow you get,” said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “But it also means the snow season is shorter.”

Footnotes:
  1. the two terms are closely related [↩]

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Lived Here 1764

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Composed his first symphony here.

Belgravia, London

http://www.thewordtravels.com/Mozart-London.html

Leopold Mozart moved his family here on 5 August 1764 to recuperate from a chill and sore throat caught at an open-air concert at the Earl of Thanet’s home in Grosvenor Square. A blue plaque commemorates their stay.

In order to occupy himself Mozart composed his first two symphonies, K16 and K19. ‘Nanner’ transcribed the composition sitting at his side, and reminded him ‘to give the horn something worthwhile to do’.