Blog Posts

May 2009

• 2009-05-08

  Manny being Manny

  Check this post Thank you Jason Bay from 38 Pitches: “… Yet somehow we’re hearing these same people talk about being struck momentarily stupid when West African bullfrog semen is found in their blood. “What? How’d that get there????”

  Their routines, from reps to nutrition are as mapped out as scouting reports. They eat a certain way, train a certain way, and they play a certain way. There is no ‘black hole’ or ‘hidden formula’ happening in these instances.

  So you get up at 5am? You eat at 6am? Thirty minutes of cardio, upper body, lower on alternate days, whirlpool ...

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• 2009-05-06

  Help your favorite Massachusetts historic site win a grant

  The National Trust of Historic Preservation and American Express are giving away $100,000.00 to a Massachusetts historic site. All you have to do is to exercise your left mouse finger to increase the chances of your site. Click here to register and cast your vote. It’s all free and takes (by my watch) 24 seconds.

  By the way, I would appreciate it if you cast your vote for the Crane Estate.

  Technorati Tags: preservation, crane estate, massachusetts

  

• 2009-05-02

  A touching piece by Curt Schilling

  This is from his blog: “When our third child was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome almost two years ago all I can say is that my heart was aching. A child that I had raised to that point like his siblings, I couldn’t understand how he could be so different. I was in the doctors office when I heard the words ” On the spectrum of Autism” Aspergers.” (from 38 Pitches)

  

  #health

April 2009

• 2009-04-30

  Twice as many people vote for Idol than watch it?

  This does not compute: **“As the final five contestants on “American Idol” competed for a chance at the top prize on Tuesday, Fox once again took first place in the night’s ratings.

  According to Nielsen’s estimates, 22.5 million viewers tuned in to the reality show during the 8 p.m. hour, easily more than any other program on Tuesday” (from** New York Times)

  According to our pal Ryan Seacrest, over 45 million votes were cast for this week’s vote-off. Can anyone explain the discrepancy? First of all I really doubt that the majority of viewers vote at all. My guess would be tha...

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• 2009-04-30

  “What’s next in tech” event in Boston in June

  If you live in the Boston area and somehow connected to technology professions you should be interested in this meeting being put on in June: What’s Next In Tech – Where will the next waves of growth will come from?

  Date: Thursday, June 25th Time: 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM (ET) Where: Boston University, School of Management, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, 02215 Price: $40

  (If you are a student interested in attending this event and would like financial assistance, scholarships are available through www.stayinma.com.)

  Take a look at the program, Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe has lined up a...

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  #boston #technology
• 2009-04-27

  Back from Barcamp Boston

  This weekend I had a chance to attend BarCamp Boston (4). As usual it was fun and interesting and I had a chance to hang out and talk with a bunch of interesting people.

  If you don’t know how a Bar Camp works, it is of the genre of “Unconferences” and one of the keys is that it has no program, ahead of time.

  Kind of a leap of faith, you know? Anyway, the image to the left (and click on it to see the enlargement) shows how at the end of the meeting the program is fully visible, and actually quite interesting! Click on it to see a big englar...

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  #boston #technology
• 2009-04-25

  Weapons of civic mass destruction

  I am struck by how broken our political process is. I’m not the first nor the last to make this observation, How did we get here and what are the underlying reasons? Here’s one way I have started to look at it: we have perfected the science of persuasion to such a point that it is now destroying us. Here’s what I mean:

  In the world of CNN and YouTube, all questions, answers, comments and remarks are all very carefully honed with an eye towards what it would look like out of context, or as a soundbite in a commercial.

  Each candidate has top notch advisers and trainers, the best in the business. They are like world class athletes at the olympics. Every move is rehearsed and practiced to ...

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  #politics
• 2009-04-23

  The torture discussion back in 2001

  Recently of course, because of the ‘torture memos’, the topic is all over the papers and cable ‘news’ programs. It’s brought back to mind a discussion that was raging hot and heavy, starting back in 2001, about the idea of allowing the issuance of ‘Torture Warrants‘. Alan Dershowitz, famous Harvard Law Professor first espoused that in 2001 (as best I can determine) in this article in the LA Times. If you search google you will see lots of ...

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  #politics #legal
• 2009-04-17

  Great proposal re: http://data.gov from Sunlight Foundation

  Check out this post Redesigning the Government: Data.gov: “One thing we’ve been most excited about here at the Sunlight Foundation is the concept of Data.gov. Due later this year, new federal CIO Vivek Kundra will release a new central repository for government data and research.

  And while in this series we traditionally re-design federal websit...

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  #politics #technology
• 2009-04-16

  Inside the Shot Heard ‘Round the World

  Did you wonder how those snipers were able to shoot those pirates when both groups were on boats on the open sea? Check out this post Inside the Shot Heard ‘Round the World: ""These guys can put three rounds onto the head of a quarter at that range," Allen told me. " (from: from Defense Tech)

• 2009-04-13

  [GEEKY] How DataRSS might work

  Editors Note (that’s me, Pito): I’ve decided to change the name of this thing to “Decentralized Data Discovery – DDD” because I learned from more than one person that calling it Data RSS was misleading and confusing. I need to go back and update the papers and blog posts. I’ve just finished writing part 3 of my series about DataRSS. Part 1 gives the background and justification for the concept, and Part 2 worked through a semi-believable scenario where having DataRSS would be a good thing.

  In part 3 I try to get into more technical detail. I hope that you take the time to read it beca...

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• 2009-04-11

  An excellent paper about Curaçao Politics

  This is probably not high on your radar, but if you have interest in the island of Curaçao you may have heard about the big referendum issue that is being hotly debated these days. I won’t even try to capture the sides of the argument, rather I want to refer you to this outstanding paper written by people from Harvard Law School that cover the issues and sides thoroughly. It is, by the way, extremely well written.

  The paper is called “A Look Through the Constitutional Prism” and it was written by Jeremias Prassl and Ben Gardner.

  Here’s a taste:

  “These issues were counterbalanced by a major advantage we brought to this ...

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  #curacao #politics
• 2009-04-10

  Has Paula gotten Smarter?

  I’ve been an American Idol fan for a while now, in fact from the very start. I’ve been commenting to the TV Set that Paula is seeming much smarter, incisive and interesting this year than in the past.I see I am not the only one to notice 🙂 “Advantage Paula, who, over and over again this season, has managed to emit little nuggets of wisdom. While the numerically challenged Kara tends to ramble and repeat stock phrases – “Who are you as an artist?” “What we’re looking for is artistry. . .” – Paula finds an apt analogy or suggests a useful bit of stagecraft. She told since-departed Megan Joy Corkrey, who d...

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• 2009-04-09

  If you think stronger regulation is a good answer, heed Buffett

  Check out this post If you think stronger regulation is a good answer, heed Buffett: “Warren Buffett gave a three-hour interview in August. Here’s an interesting bit from the transcript:

  QUICK: If you imagine where things will go with Fannie and Freddie, and you think about the regulators, where were the regulators for what was happening, and can something like this be prevented from happening again?

  Mr. BUFFETT: Well, it’s really an incredible case study in regulation because something called OFHEO was set up in 1992 by Congress,...

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  #business #politics
• 2009-04-08

  Great paper about Harri Hursti’s demonstration of ballot scanner security concerns

  I recently saw the movie Hacking Democracy. It’s absolutely fascinating and basic background for anyone interested in election reform. In it you learn about some of the heroes of election reform, including Harri Hursti who demonstrates in a pretty dramatic manner some of the weaknesses of commonly used election technology. This is from the wikipedia article:

  “Seven participants made out their ballots using the opti-scan paper sheets (Hursti remaining outside the test area). Sancho then went to Hursti and gave him a ballot which Hursti filled out. Hursti then gave Sancho the memory card to insert in to the machi...

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  #politics
• 2009-04-07

  Paul Simon’s Graceland Album: the back story

  Ethan Zuckerman writes a great piece about how Paul Simon’s Graceland album came to be, with some of the historical context, backstory and being a xenophile. A great read: “At its best, Graceland sounds like Simon is encountering forces to large for him to understand or control. He’s riding on top of them, offering free-form reflections on a world that’s vastly more complicated and colorful than the narrow places he and Art Garfunkel explored in their close harmonies. In “Boy in the Bubble” (video above), the chorus, “These are the days of miracle and wonder, this is the long distance call” could serve as a tagline for anyone confronting our strange, connected world.” (From ...

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  #music
• 2009-04-05

  Maybe I hate my iPhone

  This is from today’s New York Times Magazine. I didn’t know Virginia Heffernan was funny! “Actually, the iPhone probably sips, like a lipsticky girl with a vodka drink. It usually does things in a cute way. Whatever. At 4 in the morning, I was in bed, fighting rage. I couldn’t stop thinking about that device’s tarty little face and those yapping “apps” you can download for it. The whole iPhone enterprise seemed to require so much attention, organization, explanation, praise, electricity. I know — I know: in the morning, ...

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  #apple
• 2009-04-03

  Meeting24.tv Keeps Online Meetings Simple

  Check out this post Meeting24.tv Keeps Online Meetings Simple: "Like Utagoe Live 100, meeting24.tv also has a similar minimalistic feel to it, which is supposed to make it easy for anyone to use – even those with little web experience. The service is based on the assumption that other online meeting solutions such as TokBox (which we covered three times), Cisco’s Webex, Polycom or Skype are just too complex. " (from: from TechCrunch)

  I tried it, at least by myself. It seems to work but I am not sure that I am getting the most performance out of my Logitech webcam. Pretty cool.

  #technology
• 2009-04-03

  Bizspeak

  Who cares about equities traders leaving Morgan Stanley. Not me, but check out this post Top Equities Trader Leaves Morgan Stanley: "We’re convinced that no one would actually use the "spend more time with family" line unless they are trying to convey that the real reason for leaving is something else. Very probably Gallo will pop up at another firm, or perhaps start his own hedge fund before long. His predecessor at Morgan, Sutesh Sharm, left to join Vikram Pandit’s Old Lane hedge fund in 2006." (from: from Clusterstock)

  Funny and possibly true 🙂

  #business
• 2009-04-03

  NBC’s Boston affiliate isn’t going to show Leno’s new show

  Check out this post NBC’s Boston affiliate isn’t going to show Leno’s new show: "WHDH, the NBC affiliate in Boston (I’m watching it right now) says that they’re not going to show Leno’s new 10PM show. Starting in September, the station is going to show local news at 10PM instead!" (from: from TV Squad)

  This is pretty interesting. I was wondering how the world could give up the 10:00pm time slot, each and every day on NBC. So ‘our’ station is choosing to opt out. Didn’t realize this was even possible!

  #boston