Multi Medium

Monday Media Blogging

Diesel presents a heartwarming story of triumph over adversity.

Add comment October 31st, 2011 at 01:55pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

More Non-Fisheye Guggenheim Interior Photoblogging

And this is the last of the Guggenheim. Alas.

1 comment October 30th, 2011 at 11:41am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Non-Fisheye Guggenheim Interior Photoblogging

Of course, the Guggenheim’s interior does offer non-fisheye photo opportunities as well…

Add comment October 29th, 2011 at 11:35am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Fisheye Guggenheim Interior Photoblogging

Ahh, that’s much better. It’s not so much the fisheye effect itself, as it is having sufficient field of view to really encompass everything. It reminds me of the National Museum of the American Indian a little bit.

Add comment October 28th, 2011 at 11:26am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Fisheye Guggenheim Photoblogging

So it turns out that using a fisheye lens on the exterior of the Guggenheim is actually kinda redundant. Now, the interior, on the other hand…

Add comment October 27th, 2011 at 11:19am Posted by Eli    Permalink

More Guggenheim Photoblogging

Guggenheim again. Up next: Fisheye!

Add comment October 26th, 2011 at 11:40am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Guggenheim Photoblogging

Finally!  I actually walked all the way from Penn Station to the Guggenheim about 4 years ago to take pictures, only to discover that it was under construction.  But I finally got my chance, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

Add comment October 25th, 2011 at 11:14am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Star Wars + Disco = This:

I think maybe that’s Donne & Marie and Kris Kristofferson in that second one?

Add comment October 24th, 2011 at 01:39pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity and the gang review some… prototypes.

Actually, sir, the chips… didn’t work with the bag.

Add comment October 23rd, 2011 at 11:29am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Random Stairwell And Empire State Building Photoblogging

The Empire State Building looking like some sort of military spacecraft, and a random stairwell photo that turned out surprisingly well.

Add comment October 22nd, 2011 at 11:53am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Mo’ MOMA Photoblogging

Couldn’t make up my mind between the horizontal and vertical versions, so you get both. Also, people!

Add comment October 21st, 2011 at 11:33am Posted by Eli    Permalink

The Return Of Photoblogging

It’s been a while, I kinda drifted out of the habit.  But now that I’m traveling all over California, it seems like a good time to start back up again.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled MOMAs…

Add comment October 20th, 2011 at 11:27am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Rick Scott Goes Too Far

The latest in Rick Scott’s never-ending parade of bad ideas:

Gov. Rick Scott has sent a list of 17 detailed, audit-like questions to Florida’s 11 university presidents, challenging them to show what they’re doing to prepare graduates for jobs.

(…)

Scott sent the letter, which bears his signature, on Thursday, at the end of a week during which he was pummeled by the academic community for suggesting universities needed fewer programs in anthropology and more in science and math.

(…)

He’s circulated copies of a Texas think-tank report called “Seven Breakthrough Solutions,” which proposes revamping how professors are paid and awarded tenure, emphasizing large classes and evaluations from students, whom it calls “customers.”

And Scott has made the rounds of newspaper editorial board meetings, talking about the importance of programs in what’s known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and math.

The governor began his Thursday letter with a brief discussion of the 900,000 people who are out of work in Florida, saying that many university graduates can’t find jobs and implying that the problem is with their education.

“Many employers are concerned that university graduates are not equipped with the appropriate writing skills, critical thinking skills, and technical expertise needed to succeed,” Scott’s letter says.

(…)

Scott’s letter focuses heavily on job training, asking for instance, “Do you have measureable goals to meet employers’ current needs?”

This is just incredibly foolish and short-sighted.  If Scott turns the state’s universities into vocational schools, why, it could do incalculable damage to the for-profit education industry.

Add comment October 19th, 2011 at 11:46am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Another movie I would pay to see.

Well, maybe.

Add comment October 17th, 2011 at 01:33pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Missing The Point

The problem is not that there is a lack of game-changing ideas, the problem is that our political system is so corrupt and broken that it’s impossible to implement any game-changing ideas, unless they’re the shitty kind that benefit moneyed interests.

Really, how can anyone expect any kind of meaningful reform when the most ironclad rule of government is “First, do no harm to your biggest campaign contributors”?

1 comment October 14th, 2011 at 11:52am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Concerned CO Governor Is Concerned

The latest it’s-totally-not-because-I-hate-dirty-hippies-at-all excuse for busting up one of Occupy Wall Street’s regional offshoots:

“Come at 6 o’clock in the morning, make all the free speech you want until 10 at night,” said [Colorado Governor John] Hickenlooper, who stepped away from a charity event to talk to the reporters. “But we can’t let you stay overnight. With all these tents … with these tents all next to each other. They could catch fire.

“What happens if suddenly one catches on fire, suddenly four or five tents burn. Who are you guys going to blame? You guys are going to be all over us like white on rice. In a second. The whole community will say how can you take that risk?”

All those tents so close together, rubbing up against each other, they could totally get ignited by friction and stuff.

Add comment October 14th, 2011 at 11:22am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Remember When The Tea Party Was The New Silent Majority?

I seem to remember media (and politicians) making a big deal out of polls showing that some huge percentage of Americans “supported” the Tea Party, and both parties were eager to appease them.

How things can change…

[Occupy Wall Street] has a 54% favorability rating compared to the conservative group’s 27%, according to a new Time magazine poll.

A sizable number – 23% – said they didn’t know enough about the Wall St. protesters to make a decision.

In contrast, 23% said they had a negative opinion of Occupy Wall Street compared to 65% who said the Tea Party’s influence has been negative or negligible.

Who ever could have guessed that a message about corrupt rich people and corporations hijacking our country for their own gain would be more popular than “Fuck the poor”?

(I also find it hilarious when teabaggers and Republicans indignantly complain about how the Occupiers are angry, rude, divisive and negative.  Not like those nice polite people who were carrying guns and shouting down their elected representatives at healthcare town halls, or carrying misspelled signs portraying the President Of The United States as an African witch doctor with a bone through his nose.)

Add comment October 14th, 2011 at 07:21am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

Hilarious but a little morbid.

Nooope.

Add comment October 10th, 2011 at 12:07pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week’s quote is from SpaceCamp, with Lea Thompson and Joaquin Phoenix.

He used to hold his breath for hours, just by thinking about french fries. Guess he really got off on french fries.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s bitey bowl kittens.

Aww.

1 comment October 7th, 2011 at 11:26am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Why Does George Will Hate Billionaires?

George Will is deeply offended by Elizabeth Warren’s obvious communism, clearly on display in this statement here:

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. . . . You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea — God bless, keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

Will’s epically point-missing response:

Everyone knows that all striving occurs in a social context, so all attainments are conditioned by their context. This does not, however, entail a collectivist political agenda.

Such an agenda’s premise is that individualism is a chimera, that any individual’s achievements should be considered entirely derivative from society, so the achievements need not be treated as belonging to the individual. Society is entitled to socialize — i.e., conscript — whatever portion it considers its share. It may, as an optional act of political grace, allow the individual the remainder of what is misleadingly called the individual’s possession.

Will thinks that “collectivists,” otherwise known as “people who want a functional country,” believe that the government should collect taxes from corporations and the wealthy solely as some sort of reward or payback for the generosity that made their individual successes possible.  But that’s not it at all – we believe that the government should collect taxes from corporations and the wealthy in order to preserve and grow the foundation for future individual successes.

Starving the government to satisfy some misguided fetish of rugged individualism and self-reliance will make it increasingly difficult for future – and current – entrepreneurs to succeed, as they try to produce, sell and transport their products with poorly educated workers, slow internet connections, and crumbling roads and rail.  More and more of them will either flee to or be out-competed by countries that recognize the value of investing in themselves.

Taxes are not a prize that government arbitrarily awards itself for being generous and awesome.  Taxes are the revenue that government uses to build infrastructure and weave a safety net, making it easier to take risks and then make them pay off.

Will thinks that any government that collects taxes is socialist, that our system is hopelessly tilted against businesses. But the reality is the exact opposite – just ask Dwayne Andreas:

[Archer Daniels Midland CEO Dwayne] Andreas recently told a reporter for Mother Jones, “There isn’t one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. Not one! The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians. People who are not in the Midwest do not understand that this is a socialist country.“

Hey, I guess we’re both right!

1 comment October 6th, 2011 at 10:12pm Posted by Eli    Permalink

Wanker Of The Day

Herman Cain:

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday, the up-and-coming GOP 2012 contender and former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza summed up his bewilderment about recent demonstrations on Wall Street.

“Don’t blame Wall Street,” Cain said. “Don’t blame the big banks. If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.”

The conservative radio talk show host described the protests as “planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration, though he admitted he didn’t “have the facts to back this up.”

(…)

“It is not a person’s fault because they succeeded. It is a person’s fault if they failed. And so this is why I don’t understand these demonstrations and what is it that they’re looking for.”

Cain also has the Quote Of The Day:

“When I was growing up I was blessed to have had parents. That didn’t teach me to be jealous of anybody and didn’t teach me to be jealous of somebody,” Cain explained.

Wha?

Herman Cain is obviously an al Qaeda infiltrator sent to destroy the United States from within, but I don’t have the facts to back this up.

Add comment October 6th, 2011 at 07:00am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

And this is why 60s Batman was awesome.

2 comments October 3rd, 2011 at 07:54am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Close But Not Quite, Part 2

Gawker commenter Olaf:

This whole mess is like a really bad 80′s teen movie.

Pakistan and India hate each other — they’re like two high school cheerleader frenemy types.
Pakistan is messing around with Afghanistan because it wants a buffer against India — so Afghanistan is kind of like the hapless geek-boy who gets manipulated by all of the girls. The USA is the popular but dumb-as-rocks jock who need geek-boy Afghanistan’s help to get passing grades. In order to do so, the USA is courting Pakistan like she’s the only pretty girl in town. Which is dumb, because Pakistan is all, like, “whatevs.” What the USA *should* be doing is playing Pakistan against India. Like, the USA should be all “What’s that Pakistan? You won’t put out? And you won’t stop messing with Afghanistan? OK then, I’m not taking you out to Prom [i.e. spending millions on your military], and you know what, maybe I’ll ask India out to the Prom instead! And maybe India and I will totally make out under the bleachers — what do you think about that?”

We do that, and I guarantee you Pakistan will come around real quick. That stupid manipulative cheerleader bitch.

The US is popular??? No, the US is more like the sneering sadistic asshole dumb-as-rocks jock who beats up on nerds just because he can.  And possibly to compensate for feelings of personal inadequacy and/or trouble at home.

6 comments September 29th, 2011 at 11:31am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Close But Not Quite, Part 1

Sean Paul Kelley:

So, elites our are on record calling for less democracy. Not days after they do the New York Times writes an article that in many ways delegitimizes public, peacefull assembly and protest:

Hundreds of thousands of disillusioned Indians cheer a rural activist on a hunger strike. Israel reels before the largest street demonstrations in its history. Enraged young people in Spain and Greece take over public squares across their countries. Their complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. But from South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.

They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.

Excuse me, but I was brought up to believe, even here in America that the right to assemble was an essential adjunct of democracy. Read the rest of the article. It’s very interesting in its use of innuendo, in the sly way it identifies protest as anti-democratic and they way it asserts that “that liberal economics combined with democratic institutions represented the only path forward.”

It’s the essence of neo-liberalism at work and the Davos-type elites are getting concerned.

While it may be true that the NYT is subtly dissing the protestors, I don’t see how their loss of faith in corrupt government systems where virtually every single politician is in the pockets of big corporations is inherently “anti-democratic”.  To me it sounds more like the protestors are starved for democracy, not opposed to it.  Additional quotes from the story:

“Our parents are grateful because they’re voting,” said Marta Solanas, 27, referring to older Spaniards’ decades spent under the Franco dictatorship. “We’re the first generation to say that voting is worthless.”

(…)

“We elect the people’s representatives so they can solve our problems,” said Sarita Singh, 25, among the thousands who gathered each day at Ramlila Maidan, where monsoon rains turned the grounds to mud but protesters waved Indian flags and sang patriotic songs.

“But that is not actually happening. Corruption is ruling our country.”

They really don’t sound anti-democratic to me, just anti-corruption.

Add comment September 29th, 2011 at 08:09am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Fierce Advocate 2.0

Good news, workers!  Obama’s finally got your back!

Obama said he has been accused by Republicans of fomenting class warfare.

“You know what, if asking a millionaire to pay the same tax rate as a plumber makes me a class warrior, a warrior for the working class, I will accept that. I will wear that charge as a badge of honor,” the president said.

Awesome!  I guess that means that Obama will grudgingly implement minor reforms and stop opposing major ones if the working class rises up as one and embarrasses the shit out of him.

(Note: Does not apply to government workers, but they have his “gratitude”)

Add comment September 28th, 2011 at 11:37am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Word Choice Of The Day

Chicago Business makes it sound like Obama’s supporters just got bored and wandered off:

President Barack Obama’s Chicago-based re-election campaign has a hometown problem: the donors and volunteers who have lost interest after launching his run for the White House four years ago.

Obama’s problem isn’t that his supporters have “lost interest,” it’s that they’ve been paying attention.

Add comment September 28th, 2011 at 07:36am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Monday Media Blogging

And for those of you who like trains, there’ll be trains.

Ooo.

Add comment September 26th, 2011 at 11:20am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Wanker Of The Day

Barack Obama in 2007:

And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner.

As you will recall, when American workers were denied their right to collectively bargain in Wisconsin, Obama did precisely nothing.  And now…

Barack Obama in 2011:

“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,” he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. “Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

You have some nerve, Mr. President.  Don’t ask anyone on the left to march with you if you’re not willing to march with them.

Add comment September 26th, 2011 at 07:17am Posted by Eli    Permalink

Obatross

It’s looking more and more like Obama’s going to take congressional Democrats down with him again next year.  But some Democratic consultants still cling to hope (and change):

“I’m glad the election’s not today,” said Democratic pollster Keith Frederick, a veteran of House races. “Every poll shows independents losing their patience for the president. These House elections tend to get nationalized, and there’s no doubt right now that as a referendum on Barack Obama, House Democrats lose.”

I would love to know what makes Frederick think that Obama is going to be more popular in 2012.  If Democrats think the jobs bill is going to be enough to save them, they are sadly mistaken.  Especially after Obama strips it of everything but corporate tax breaks and forces Democrats to vote for it.

Add comment September 23rd, 2011 at 11:51am Posted by Eli    Permalink

“Jobs”

I should probably refine my translation of “jobs” as used by corporations and Republicans (and almost everyone else) from “profits” to “profits for industries which have powerful lobbyists and throw lots of money at corrupt politicians”.

Add comment September 23rd, 2011 at 07:50am Posted by Eli    Permalink