Still going after all these years.
New York Times: Chug, Don’t Sip. Relax, they’re talking about tea. Suddenly my wife’s habit of returning from weekend trips to London with enormous Harrod’s shopping bags full of loose tea seems sensible:
Those who drank the most tea — about 19 cups a week — were the least likely to die in the three to four years after [a heart] attack; they had a 44 percent lower death rate than nondrinkers.
Now if there were only advice on how to keep one’s teeth from browning under that regimen…
AP (via NYT): “Right-wing Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, whose anti-immigration party stunned the public with its strong showing in local elections last March, was shot six times and killed Monday as he left a radio interview.”
Adam Curry (the former veejay turned expat techie): “To reiterate: Pim Fortuyn never called for a ‘Ban on immigration’ or ‘Removal of Muslims.’ Unfortunately the memes were set, and the largest news organizations in the world are copying incorrect information and propagating it shamelessly. These organizations used to employ fact checkers. If they still do, then they should all be fired immediately.”
This is why newsblogging is important—it makes it possible for us to get the voice of the man on the ground in a way that would have been unthinkable in a world where only the pros disseminate the news.
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I was in Newport, Rhode Island over the weekend with a crowd from Sloan. There’s an annual gala there each spring for the b-school, and it was so well done it was almost possible to forget how much the tickets cost. I almost managed not to feel bad about not blogging or checking email. But it’s nice to be back in Boston and back on line.
The E-52s had their most unusual gig to date last night. As part of Sloan’s annual Follies, we were reengineered live on stage and undertook a joint venture with the Jack Tang Orchestra. The song? “Paradise City.” While I don’t think too many people in the crowd could hear us over the guitars and drums, it was a lot of fun. And now I can say I’ve sung with a rock band.
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Slashdot: Microsoft Expert Witness Stumbles. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that was Stuart Madnick, legendary Sloan School of Management IT professor. He is an institute professor. It’s interesting how many main campus (i.e. non-Sloan MIT) people on Slashdot jumped up to disclaim any knowledge of him when his testimony went awry.
Actually, reading the direct testimony, he did point out some interesting things. Does removing “the browser” mean removing the IE user interface? the HTML renderer (which is now used by substantial portions of the Windows explorer UI?
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Wired: Site Barks About Deep Link. Jeez, what is it with these people? “No, go away!” says the Dallas Morning News. “Don’t link to our stories! We don’t want people to be able to find what we’ve written!”
I think that the New York Times through their partnership with UserLand has shown a much more enlightened mode of operating—if you want to build a reputation, make your content more visible, not less. But then, that’s why they are the Times and the others are the Dallas Morning News.
Oh, and by the way, here are some deep links to the DMN articles. The same deep links that got BarkingDog.com in trouble. Link them from your site, won’t you? Let’s push back on this one a little.
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Slashdot: Turner CEO: “PVR Users are Thieves”. Why are users of Personal Video Recorders such as the TiVo criminals?
“Because of the ad skips…. It’s theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you’re going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn’t get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you’re actually stealing the programming.”
Anyone out there remember signing a contract with the network? Obnoxious question: did the cable industry hear from the music industry that heaping abuse on their customers was good for business?
Serious question: Does watching TV really constitute an implied contract? If so, my TV set stays off starting today.
Today, as pointed out in this Slashdot article, has been designated Internet Radio Day of Silence to protest the CARP ruling on additional royalties for streaming music over the Internet. There’s a detailed description on why this is A Bad Thing at the DNA Lounge.
Unfortunately no one seems to have told my favorite Seattle station, KEXP, who are still streaming their broadcast.
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…but exceedingly fine. Washington Post: Judge Rejects Jailing of Material Witnesses: Ruling Imperils Tool in Sept. 11 Probe. Since September 11, Ashcroft’s Justice Department has been throwing people in jail who are not accused of any crime “to guarantee that [they] will testify before a grand jury.”
Thank goodness for those “unelected judges” who keep sticking their nose into the law and upholding niceties of American justice like “probable cause.”
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Washington Post: Hubble Photo Shows 3000 More Galaxies. Pointing the camera at two previously blank spots of sky, the camera discovered about 1500 galaxies in each one. “Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space,” indeed.
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Long day today; hard day. Lost my cool in a very bad way at some good friends tonight, who I hope are still friends.
Just got back from the 2002 Earth Fest at the Hatch Shell in Boston. Johnny A, Garbage, Lisa Loeb, Midnight Oil, and Bonnie Raitt. I’m a bit sunburned and dehydrated, but happy.
Garbage played a short set, maybe seven songs, but rocked pretty well. Lisa Loeb seemed to play on forever. I’m sort of a fan, but I had to agree when my friend Carie said to me, “She tries to sound really happy, but she’s got all these Alanis Morrisette lyrics.” “Yeah,” I said, “She’s like what if Alanis went to Mt. Holyoke.”
Midnight Oil rocked my world. I had forgotten that there was a period of time, starting around 1987 or 1988, when I listened to this band quite a lot. The CDs are long gone but the band is still going strong. One of our friends, a banker-to-be from Europe, was enjoying the show. He confessed, “I used to be really into this band, but then I used to be a Communist too.”
I was too tired to take in much Bonnie Raitt; when I found myself almost falling asleep I decided it was time to head back. Good show, though, and well worth the money I didn’t pay for it (yeah, it was a free show!).
Lisa is home from a business trip. We’re about to check out Mamma Maria, a restaurant that we’ve lived up the street from for a year now and have never been to. Tomorrow I’m going to see Midnight Oil and Garbage, among others, for free. That’s about it for me. Hopefully I’ll have more blogging soon.
Currently playing song: “Hot rock” by Sleater-Kinney on The Hot Rock.
New York Times: Campuses Echo With the Sound of a Cappella. It’s true, it’s all true.
But it’s not new. I graduated from Virginia in 1994, and in the time I was there the scene went from four groups (Virginia Gentlemen, Virginia Belles, Hullabahoos, and Sil’Hooettes) to six with the addition of the New Dominions and the Academical Village People, not counting the “graduate and professional school groups” (there was a group at the Med school whose name, shamefully, I can’t remember).
Now I’m directing a young group at the Sloan School of Management, the E-52s. In many ways our group is more typical. We don’t have 50 or 60 people trying out; we don’t sing in championships or Avery Fisher Hall. We just hang out and sing and have fun. And joke about singing songs like Radiohead’s “You and Whose Army” or the Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll” a cappella. And occasionally we stop joking and start learning a song or two.
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