Google Mashup of the Moment: Manhattan All Night

I LOVE NY.

Google Mashup of the Moment: Manhattan All Night: "

Another day, another nifty Google Maps mashup. Today's pick: Manhattan All Night. It's only got Manhattan stuff, hence the name, but it still manages to list 100 restaurants, 102 Deli/bodegas, 57 drug stores and 21 other stores that just don't close. That 280 24-hour spots for you to hit up those times when you're just too wired to get to sleep.

Speaking of Google mashups, if you haven't played with it yet, check out our own Gothamist Maps. Not to mention our Superfun Christmas Tree Map!

Via Google Maps Mania.

"

(Purportedly Via Gothamist.)

Meta pretention

This pretentious phrase was thrown at me today.

It took a while, but I eventually figured it out.

CULTURE: The 50 Greatest Independent Films

I've seen 27/50.

Shameful, I know...

CULTURE: The 50 Greatest Independent Films: "Empire lists: 'The 50 Greatest Independent Films.' Intended to highlight movies made without big budgets and big stars in service of creating bolder and more creative films, Empire trots out what it deems to be cinema made with a truly independent spirit. Number 49 is 'Run Lola Run.' Number 38 is 'Grosse Point Blank.' Number 24 is 'Happiness.' Number 12 is 'Eraserhead.' And, Number One is:

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Some will bleat that this is an easy, obvious choice, while others will say… well, pretty much the same, but nominate differently. Our criteria for deciding the films were: firstly, the circumstances and spirit in which they were made, second, the quality of the result and, finally, its mark on the movie world. This is how Reservoir Dogs gained consensus as the winner. Consider firstly the film's creation: script written in two weeks while the author was in a dead-end day job, it barely changed from first draft to shooting script, and attracted attention by word of mouth. It garnered rave reviews, but Dogs' box office performance wasn't great - again, it had to wait for word of mouth. Most importantly, the magnitude of effect this one film has had on indie culture in the last 13 years is, to say the least, overwhelming. The fact is that more than one generation has had their eyes opened to the long-snubbed world of movie-making's outsiders, be it American mavericks, foreign actioners, or just plain old B-pictures. If it wasn't for Dogs, Hong Kong action cinema would still be a lot more marginal than it is today, and nobody would likely have got around to transferring blaxploitation titles onto DVD yet. You only have to look through the homages and ripoffs that have abounded - how many more films have suited gunmen, feature heists gone wrong, have people talking about pop culture, or 'boast' a fractured narrative? Love or hate it, Reservoir Dogs is the greatest independent movie ever made.

(Written by: susannah_breslin)

"

(Purportedly Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

FW: [IP] 24 hours!!! review of elections-computers' source-code completed in 24 hours!

Yet another reason not to trust government south of the Mason Dixon line.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Date: Thursday, Dec 1, 2005 5:36 pm
Subject: [IP] 24 hours!!! review of elections-computers' source-code completed in 24 hours!

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Warren <jwarren@well.com>
Date: December 1, 2005 4:36:08 PM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>, Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: review of elections-computers' source-code completed in 24 hours!

Sheesh! Hope EVERY computer-literate citizen of North Carolina learns about this -- and screams bloody-hell to their legislators. What a amazing SHAM!

--jim

From: Justin Moore <justin@cs.duke.edu>
Organization: Duke University Department of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 13:31:05 -0500
Subject: [NCVI] Diebold back in NC

It seems that Diebold didn't cut and run from North Carolina after all. Less than 24 hours after Diebold finally placed all of their source code into escrow -- OS and all, they claim -- the State Board claims that
their source code audit confirms that Diebold system meets necessary
security and reliability standards.

The portion of relevant state law is

===
c) Prior to certifying a voting system, the State Board of
Elections shall review, or designate an independent expert to review, all source code made available by the vendor pursuant to this section and certify only those voting systems compliant with State and federal law. At a minimum, the State Board's review shall include a review of security, application vulnerability, application code, wireless
security, security policy and processes, security/privacy program
management, technology infrastructure and security controls, security organization and governance, and operational effectiveness, as
applicable to that voting system.
===

By certifying Diebold's system, the SBOE claims (implicitly) that they have conducted this review within the last 24 hours on all code placed in escrow.

Perhaps the NC SBOE could publish their audit methods in the next top- tier software engineering conference. This is the most amazing code
audit -- in terms of speed, breadth, and depth -- that I have ever seen.

-jdm
-- Duke University Department of Computer Science, Durham, NC 27708-0129 Email: justin@cs.duke.edu
Web: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/

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Poor Man's iTunes Tagging

There still isn't any useful tagging in iTunes.

Doing a get info on a file and entering stuff in the comments field of the ID3 tag of the file doesn't count. I want to be able select a bunch of files, create arbitrary tags, and apply them all at once.

As a workaround, I'm tagging songs with one star as a negative tag - don't copy this song to the iPod. This gives me six tag states which are addressable by selecting many songs and right clicking and changing, or just letting me see the tags from the initial song interface.

The Tag States:
_ No rating
* Rating (equals do not play)
**-***** Rating (ok to great)

Songs such as the Notre Dame fight song have a 1 * rating.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says it is every soldier's obligation to stop torture if they see it

Good Cop Person, Bad Cop Person.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says it is every soldier's obligation to stop torture if they see it: "

Great exchange between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who seems to be a normal, real, honorable human being - and then there's idiot Rumsfeld...

When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that 'obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility' other than to voice disapproval.


But [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs] Pace had a different view. 'It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it,' the general said.


Rumsfeld interjected: 'I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.'


But Pace meant what he said. 'If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it,' he said, firmly.

"

(Purportedly Via AMERICAblog.)

Science: Vast Subsurface Martian Ice Discovered

Dear Santa,

I want to go on vacation to...

Science: Vast Subsurface Martian Ice Discovered: "The Fun Guy writes to tell us New Scientist is reporting that deep-scan radar results from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft have revealed vast amounts of subsurface ice. From the article: 'Intriguingly, the signal reflected from the bottom of the crater is so strong and appears so flat that it may be liquid water. 'If you put water there, that's what the signal might look like,' Johnson told New Scientist. But he cautions the data is based on only one pass over the region and could be caused by another material.'"

(Via Slashdot.)

The Precious Allure of Brooklyn

HAHAHA

The Precious Allure of Brooklyn: "

By the time we got to the third page of Mark Lotto's ode to Brooklyn in today's Observer, we were starting to think that, in fact, Brooklyn might be the way. The borough's celebrity-friendly neighborhoods, sprinkled with 'Sesame Street idealism' and domesticated couples clutching soy chai lattes, very well may be the antidote to the perpetually adolescent woes of Manhattan living. And, God, it just sounds so damn nice out there. Why don't we just take the leap and cross the river?

‘You know in The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, when, at the end, the hobbits have been up in this fantastic place, and they’ve been hanging out with Gandalf and Liv Tyler and all of these people, right?’ said Edward Wilson, 36, a banker at Goldman Sachs who moved with his wife, Hesu (Suzy) Coue, 39, from the West Village to a brownstone in Park Slope. ‘And then suddenly they’re back in the Shire, and they’re all kind of in the pub. And when we were watching the film, and it’s all over, we just looked at each other and both said, ‘Brooklyn.’’

Investment bankers who think they're Hobbits. That's why.

Welcome to Schnooklyn [NYO]

"

(Via Gawker.)

The elephants behind the curtains

A solid read of Web 2.0...

The elephants behind the curtains: "Every once in awhile I stumble across a blog post I want for all the world to take as my very own and post it on the site. Jim Lowney's Party Like It's 1999 is one of those entries, and it's been kicking around my head (and lurking in my..."

(Via DrunkenBlog.)

Vernors in NYC

Vernors in NYC
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

David was kind enough to bring me a bottle of this from Michigan.

This barrel aged, bold tasting nectar prized in the Midwest - I will now enjoy it in a party cup with a slice of American Cheese delicately liberated from its wrapper.

And you thought that MidWesterners had no class...

I need to visit Hungary

Introducing Ask Erzsi: "

[Editor's Note: Today marks the first installment of 'Ask Erzsi' by famed Hungarian-American advice columnist Erzsébet 'Erzsi' Gyergyószépfalvy.]

Dear Erzsi:

My husband and I are having a terrible quarrel. He says that my főzelék tastes terrible, and that the problem is that I don't use real pork lard when making the rántás. But I've been trying to get him to lose a few kilos, and I don't think there is really a difference in the taste. Who's right?

Healthy in Hajdúszoboszló

Dear Healthy:

Well, I'm afraid that this time you're hubby's right! True, you can make a rántás (roux) with any kind of fat or edible oil and starch, but you can only make a true, silky-smooth rántás using proper animal lard and flour. Plus, do those few extra kilos make your husband any less loveable? I didn't think so!

Smoothly, Erzsi

...Snipping out lots of good stuff...

The 'Weekly Stink' will return next Monday. Send you questions for Erzsi to tips@pestiside.hu

"

(Via Pestiside.)

mixed messages

I saw a christmas tree stand being carried on the subway today that had the trade name "Santa's Last Stand".

Not the first thing (stabby, stabby) that comes to mind...

The Death Of The Chemicals Of Love

Now let the drug companies get to work on this.

I can already see Stage 2 Trials for a drug code named "LP9"

;-)

The Death Of The Chemicals Of Love: "

Romance lasts little over a year, Italian scientists believe.

The University of Pavia found a brain chemical was likely to be responsible for the first flush of love. Researchers said raised levels of a protein was linked to feelings of euphoria and dependence experienced at the start of a relationship. But after studying people in long and short relationships and single people, they found the levels receded in time. The team analysed alterations in proteins known as neurotrophins in the bloodstreams of men and women aged 18 to 31…

"

(Via Warrenellis.com.)

Dilbert on Cloning

Comic for 28 Nov 2005: ""

(Via Dilbert.)

Thanksgiving Meal

Thanksgiving Meal
Originally uploaded by sstrudeau.

Thanks to Scott for the kickass meal on Thursday.

The Menu

The Pic is annotated (you can do that?)... proving once again that the audaciousness of Scott's adeptness knows no bounds

Purity Of Essence

a beautifully depressing rant regarding such