Read the absolutely fascinating article on vacuum packed food in Sunday's Times.

Seminarians turned scientist, the phrase "completely undisciplined", and the supposedly perfect temperature to cook eggs, 64.5°C.

FW: [IP] A New (London) Low

Craziness. But five years of this case must traverse several election cycles.

Clearly this country ain't about life, liberty & property...

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Saturday, Aug 13, 2005 4:38 pm
Subject: [IP] A New (London) Low

Begin forwarded message:

From: EEkid@aol.com
Date: August 13, 2005 4:08:27 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: A New (London) Low

A New (London) Low
A refrigerator box under the bridge: The Kelo Seven prepares for the worst

by Jonathan O'Connell - July 14, 2005

Those who believe in the adage "when it rains, it pours" might take the tale of the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London as a cue to buy two of every animal and a load of wood from Home Depot. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional under the principal of eminent domain, and now New London is claiming that the affected homeowners were living on city land for the duration of the lawsuit and owe back rent. It's a new definition of chutzpah: Confiscate land and charge back rent for the years the owners fought confiscation.
In some cases, their debt could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the homeowners are being offered buyouts based on the market rate as it was in 2000 .

The hard rains started falling that year, when Matt Dery and his neighbors in Fort Trumbull learned that the city planned to replace their homes with a hotel, a conference center, offices and upscale housing that would complement the adjoining Pfizer Inc. research facility.

The city, citing eminent domain, condemned their homes, told them to move and began leveling surrounding houses. Dery and six of his neighbors fought the takeover, but five years later, on June 23, the downpour of misfortune continued as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the city could claim the property for economic development.

Dery owns four buildings on the project site, including his home and the birthplace and lifelong home of his 87-year-old mother, Wilhelmina. Dery plans to make every remaining effort to keep his land, but with few legal options remaining, he's planning for the worst.

And for good reason. It's reasonable to think that people who purchased property years ago (in some cases, decades ago) would be in a position to cash in, especially since they're being forced from their homes. But that's not the case.

The New London Development Corp., the semi-public organization hired by the city to facilitate the deal, is offering residents the market rate as it was in 2000, as state law requires. That rate pales in comparison to what the units are now worth, owing largely to the relentless housing bubble that has yet to burst.

"I can't replace what I have in this market for three times [the 2000 assessment]," says Dery, 48, who works as a home delivery sales manager for the New London Day . He soothes himself with humor: "It's a lot like what I like to do in the stock market: buy high and sell low."

And there are more storms on the horizon. In June 2004, NLDC sent the seven affected residents a letter indicating that after the completion of the case, the city would expect to receive retroactive "use and occupancy" payments (also known as "rent") from the residents.

In the letter, lawyers argued that because the takeover took place in 2000, the residents had been living on city property for nearly five years, and would therefore owe rent for the duration of their stay at the close of the trial. Any money made from tenantssome residents' only form of incomewould also have to be paid to the city.

With language seemingly lifted straight from The Goonies , NLDC's lawyers wrote, "We know your clients did not expect to live in city- owned property for free, or rent out that property and pocket the profits, if they ultimately lost the case." They warned that "this problem will only get worse with the passage of time," and that the city was prepared to sue for the money if need be.

A lawyer for the residents, Scott Bullock, responded to the letter on July 8, 2004, asserting that the NLDC had agreed to forgo rents as part of a pretrial agreement in which the residents in turn agreed to a hastened trial schedule. Bullock called the NLDC's effort at obtaining back rent "a new low."

"It seems like it is simply a desperate attempt by a nearly broke organization to try to come up with more funds to perpetuate its own existence," Bullock wrote. He vowed to respond to any lawsuit with another.

With the case nearly closed, the NLDC may soon make good on its promise to sue. Jeremy Paul, an associate UConn law dean who teaches property law, says it's not clear who might prevail in a legal battle over rent. "From a political standpoint, the city might be better off trying to reach some settlement with the homeowners," he says.

An NLDC estimate assessed Dery for $6,100 per month since the takeover, a debt of more than $300K. One of his neighbors, case namesake Susette Kelo, who owns a single-family house with her husband, learned she would owe in the ballpark of 57 grand. "I'd leave here broke," says Kelo. "I wouldn't have a home or any money to get one. I could probably get a large-size refrigerator box and live under the bridge."

That's one way to get out of the rain.

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Yoopers

Yoopers.

My subscription to the NYT started today.

Now I need to buy a pencil.

Cadilac Desert Midwestern Style

So Wisconsin is now running out of ground water and wants to raid Lake Michigan.

Tears can't express the feelings...

I'm in the shopping for a suit, and I'm perusing the Men's Wearhouse web site, and I can't read anything on their web site without hearing the voice of George Zimmer in my head.

Also, is it bad that the first thing I noticed on their site is the link to corporate governance information?

Any other recommendations for places to get suits?

Still don't make you kosher...

Pig Brain Injections: "

Pig brain cells could be implanted into human brains by the start of next year if trials of a pioneering treatment for Huntington’s disease are approved in the US.

Similar tests on primates have proved ‘astonishingly successful’ in treating the degenerative brain disease, according to researchers who carried out the work at Living Cell Technologies (LCT) in Auckland, New Zealand.

The injection of live animal cells into human brains is likely to raise ethical concerns and fears of pig viruses being transmitted to humans. But researchers say the benefits of a cure outweigh such concerns. ‘Yes, we have created a chimera, but one that is tolerated and beneficial,’ says Bob Elliott, LCT’s medical director…

"

(Via Warrenellis.com.)

Fracking hilarious.

"Sean Hannity (631) 673-8003": "

Indie rockers force Hannity to change number

A few weeks ago, we introduced you to Brooklyn indie agit-popsters Kids Against Combs, who'd just finished an album that used the private phone number of Fox News loudmouth Sean Hannity as its title.

Sean Hannity (631) 673-8003 was set to be released on July 21 by 10-34 Records. But, according to a press release sent out last week by the band, Kids Against Combs and 10-34 were issued papers on July 15 from Hannity's attorneys, 'threatening to sue both parties if they proceeded with releasing an album named after Hannity's home phone number and containing the political pundit's home address in the CD's liner notes.' (The digits, meanwhile, are now disconnected; 'changed to an unlisted number,' says the recording.)

[...] Luckily, the band had freshly printed copies of the album for sale, sans home address and retitled The Album Formerly Known As Sean Hannity's Phone Number ... Currently Sean Hannity Is a Democracy Subverting Douche Bag.

Despite the fact that 66 percent of our Style and Usage Panel prefer that 'douchebag' be written as a compound word, they're in unanimous agreement that the new title works just as well.

"

(Via jwz.)

POLITICS: Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance: "Radley Balko has a smart op-ed in the Washington Post about draconian zero tolerance measures against parents who wisely choose to supervise underage drinking.

Imagine for a moment that you're a parent with a teenage son. He doesn't drink, but you know his friends do. You're also not naive. You've read the government's statistics: 47 percent of high school students tell researchers they've had a drink of alcohol in the previous 30 days. Thirty percent have had at least five drinks in a row in the past month. Thirteen percent admitted to having driven in the previous month after drinking alcohol.



So, what do you do with regard to your son's social life? Many parents have decided to take a realist's approach. They're throwing parties for their kids and their friends. They serve alcohol at these parties, but they also collect car keys to make sure no one drives home until the next morning. Their logic makes sense: The kids are going to drink; it's better that they do it in a controlled, supervised environment.



That's exactly what a Rhode Island couple did in 2004. When they learned that their son planned to celebrate the prom with a booze bash at a beach 40 miles away, William and Patricia Anderson instead threw a supervised party for him and his friends at their home. They served alcohol, but William Anderson stationed himself at the party's entrance and collected keys from every teen who showed. No one who came to the party could leave until the next morning.



For this the Andersons found themselves arrested and charged with supplying alcohol to minors. The case ignited a fiery debate that eventually spilled onto the front page of the Wall Street Journal. The local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving oddly decided to make an example of William Anderson, a man who probably did more to keep drunk teens off the road that night than most Providence-area parents.



In fact, the Andersons were lucky. A couple in Virginia was recently sentenced to 27 months in jail for throwing a supervised party for their son's 16th birthday, at which beer was made available. That was reduced on appeal from the eight-year sentenced imposed by the trial judge. The local MADD president said she was 'pleasantly surprised' at the original eight-year verdict, and 'applauded' the judge's efforts.

Eight years for supervising their son's drinking? MADD isn't just mad. (And I mean mad as in 'nuts.') MADD is petty. MADD is vindictive. MADD now has enemies who are not drunk drivers.

(Written by: Michael_J_Totten)

"

(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

metacycles

I've been struggling to place where I have seen this funerary media circus surrounding Peter Jennings' death before.

I think the best comparison, albeit a loose one, is the death of Di.  Sure that event took on ridiculous overtones, but Jennings' death has similar overtones of the media losing one of its own, combined with that earnest outpouring of public grief from the many that themselves only knew him through the focussed lens of the media.

And to those who would say "Lo Siento Mucho, I hardly knew thee" - please shut up.

My favourite bar

My favourite bar
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Toast at 125th st.



A bathroom, looking at a poster for Anchor brewery through the mirror.

observations

There's a woman reading Highlights on the subway with the rapt attention often given to Cosmo.

Ldd is your friend.

I spent several days tearing my hair out over failures of installing rhythmbox on my debian system.


Then I ran ldd on one of the troublesome libraries and discovered that a library in
/usr/local/lib was being called. It turns out that I had compiled some version of gnome years ago and put it in /usr/local/lib, which was conflicting with the much newer gnome libs in /usr/lib.

One "sudo mv /usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib.old" and I was good to go.

Wakatake made an excellent birthday present...

Discussion: Wakatake Onikoroshi (Junmai-Ginjo): "What is your tasting note for this one?? I find this light with a dry finishing of citrus and hint of melon. By the way, Onikoroshi' means 'demon slayer,' and there are many sake around Japan sold under this product name. Once upon 'Onikoroshi' referred to sake that was so bad it would kill a demon that drank it. But Wakatake decided to embark on against-the-grain(or rice) marketing, saying their sake was so darned great it would kill a demon that drank it.

Kanpai
Paul (AzianBrewer)

Join this discussion.

"

(Via The New York Sake Meetup Group: What's New.)

Coding humor into their style sheets: "

Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends

Now this is funny. When Apple first released the Mighty Mouse last week, C.K. wondered if Apple had gotten the legal clearance to use the name, first made famous by the cartoon character, of course. The fact that they did doesn't make this screengrab of the Mighty Mouse page's source code any less amusing. Note the clever class attribute used for the legalese portion.

It's good to see they can still make a joke over there once in a while.

[Via I Heart Apple]

Read	Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

"

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.)

Peter Jennings, The Eulogy:

What Antonia said.

Btw, I miss my roommate.

And Allen wants "us" to get a Netflix subscription.

userfriendly : 31 jul 2005 (8161): ""

(Via User Friendly the Comic Strip. by Illiad.)