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Like the internet, only flammable WEEK OF May 7, 2009 Chicago Loop Edition VOL 1 No 14
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Zoltan Fodor | tpburl.com/rfzk0x Chicago
bino white riffs eloquently on the cta experience
living with excess - start your spring cleaning now!
By Kevin | 4/30/09 | CTA Tattler tpburl.com/h7scj4 A new rap video about the CTA articulates all the thoughts many of us have about our transit experience. Bino White, aka, comedian Joe Hanson, has many good lines in the video, including: “You can ride the El, you can ride the bus, if you don’t mind the smell.” “There’s no reason for you to be bored. You can read the graffitti.” That line features a photo originally shown in CTA Tattler. “Just don’t touch the pole. Why? It’s full of germs.” Good advice during the swine flu hysteria? “When the train is packed, it’s great. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to getting laid” -accompanied by a photo of seriously crowded train car. “Don’t wonder what’s faster. All you gotta do is check on Bus Tracker.” And in the end, he warns bus drivers: “I don’t have to pay no more! I promoted you in a song. You look at me and you smile and you let me pass.” Good luck with that. Hat tip to Gapers Block.
By The Eco Chic Organizer | 4/27/09 | Green Parent Chicago tpburl.com/fqh2zw A friend once sent me to The Story of Stuff website and it changed my thinking forever. As I look around I realize we have so much! Even someone like me (who is not a buyer, saver or a collector) has so much excess stuff. What to do as we spring clean this month? Here are my thoughts...
PHOTOS
Jeffery C. Johnson | tpburl.com/9c103p Advertising
My personal favorite is selling items on Craig’s List. It’s free. You post and sell on your own terms and it is done. I’ve found it to be hassle free and VERY economical when you consider all the fees and restrictions against sellers on eBay. *You can also offer free items on Craig’s List! Freecycle is another option if you want to organize an online donation. Take the maternity wear and kids clothes, books, decor, DVDs, bikes, strollers and overall gear to The Second Child on Armitage in Lincoln Park and make $$ on your forgotten items. Our family has been doing this for years and it works! The beautiful thing about consignment is that we always have a credit when we need to buy something new. It’s like not spending $$, but getting what you need. You can drop off items at organizations like the Brown Elephant, White Elephant or Salvation Army. There is even a drop off box for the Salvation Army at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.
I would be lying if I said I went through all of my closets and drawers each season to reduce our excess. In fact, it is much more than that (I am a born organizer!) and still I find I keep things way too long. In the end I have learned that if I am not using it, someone else could. With this very subject in mind I am adding a new section to our site Chicago Green Families that lists books and DVDs to swap (watch us start our own free local movie rental program!) as well as giveaway products for review. As this system grows, I would love to incorporate our toy swap program where we rotate forgotten toys. Why buy more when we can make the most of what we all already have? Whenever I get that craving to buy the latest trendy thing in a magazine I have to ask myself why I want it. Do I think it will make everything in my life different in some way? (Like one tablecloth has that power! ;) Do I think that I need to keep up with the Joneses when we all know that is a futile, shallow and never ending attempt. In our family we try to scrutinize everything we buy and see whether what comes in has purpose, function and longevity. If it doesn’t meet that criteria, it doesn’t make the cut. It doesn’t come in and then in the end, it doesn’t have to come out. inside this issue:
katie couric and cbs news get creative with social media
Tabitha Hale Talks About THE Meghan McCain GOP
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Health
swine flu 101 By Plug1 | 4/29/09 | What I’m Seeing dot com tpburl.com/yct1rj The current swine flu outbreak is the spread of a new strain of the H1N1 influenza virus that was first detected by public health agencies late last month. Outbreaks of an influenzalike illness were first detected in three areas of Mexico, but the new strain was not clinically identified as such until a month later in Texas and California, whereupon its presence was swiftly confirmed in various Mexican states, the U.S. and several other Northern Hemisphere countries. This week, the new strain was confirmed in Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Israel and suspected in many other nations, including South Korea and Austria, with over 2,500 candidate cases, prompting the WHO to raise their pandemic alert level to 4. By the way, a level 4 warning officially means that the WHO considers that there is “sustained human to human transmission;” whereas levels 5 and 6 represent “widespread human infection.” Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. The current outbreak has shown an increased percentage of patients reporting diarrhea and vomiting. The CDC recommends the use of Tamiflu or Relenza for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with swine influenza viruses, however, the majority of people infected with the virus make a full recovery without requiring medical attention or antiviral drugs. PHOTOS
MExico By Natch Greyes | 4/26/09 | Natch Greyes for Senate 2020 tpburl.com/qs1k9c Mexico, that country south of the United States that most Americans think is a poorer version of Canada with a drug problem. Of course, with the Swine Flu outbreak and subsequent media panic, most Americans now think of Mexico as a massive quarantine area. This post will seek to cover two major topics: Swine Flu and Mexico’s Drug Problem. I’ll also dry to dispel myths about both of those and Mexico itself. First, let’s deal with the irrational media panic over Swine Flu. (Note: Some of this is repetition from a previous post). First, if you’ve never had the (normal) flu, never treated anyone with the (normal) flu, or never heard of the flu you should look at this CDC Post for dealing with the Swine Flu. Note that the advice is the exact same as for the Normal Flu. [Edit: This Section Deleted, please refer to this post instead] Also, watch the video below, see the long lines? That’s the Mexican health care system, it’s no surprise that there is a high death rate (although we won’t know more for sure until we get more data). Further, you need to realize that (generally) the more rapid the spread of a certain strain of the flu, the less deadly is that strain. (Think about it: would the strain spread very far if it killed a high percentage of those who got infected?) Right now, the percentage of deaths for Mexico, which is bound to be higher than in the U.S., is lower than the typical flu in the U.S. And, there have been no deaths in the United States. So, panicking (besides not accomplishing anything anyway) is really, really stupid. But why, you ask, is this disease spreading so rapidly through Mexico and why does it seem to be cropping up in certain places in the United States? Well, the outbreak started in Mexico City, which is a densely packed population. All variants of the flu, like the common cold, are ‘crowd diseases.’ They cannot exist and generally do not spread if originating in isolated, rural populations. That’s why new strains of the flu typically originate in Asia and South America, where 3rd World conditions allow the propagation of the disease. Further, this variant of the Swine Flu most certainly originated in a place where pigs and other farm animals are kept close by humans, i.e. a 3rd World Style Pig Farm, which, as we know from the Avian Flu makes it more likely for a human to catch a variant of a disease affecting primarily some other species. It’s a sad but true fact that since the people who live there don’t understand the concepts of basic sanitation and therefore don’t employ sanitation techniques that theirs is the place where these diseases originate, rather than say, North America or Western Europe. This all relates to the War on Drugs because the effect the Drug Cartels have had on the development of Mexico and the Mexican economy. Half the Mexican economy is made of informal sector (Black Market) jobs. While this is, in large part, street vendors, the Drug Cartels rake in an estimated $30 billion a year. This money is dispersed as payoffs to police officers and other drug enforcement officers, resulting in the military having to be used to combat the drug trade. This, in turn, puts pressure on the Mexican government to fight them as well as find new sources of revenue to help combat both the money and guns of the Cartels. Unfortunately, in most places, the Cartels are more powerful than the government and thus violence breaks out whenever the government tries to wretch back control. This affects the Swine Flu because first, all drugs weaken the immune system (cold medicines simply repress your immune system on purpose) and so the flu can spread more easily. And, since Drug Cartels smuggle people over the border illegally (as side work) they can also assist in the spread of the disease to various places in the United States. Also, since the Mexican government is concerned with fighting the War on Drugs it doesn’t have the extra funds necessary to improve Mexico’s infrastructure, health care or, really, anything else. And, it’s not likely that the Drug Cartels are going to improve anything other than what helps them funnel drugs to North America (primarily the United States). PHOTOS
Michael Rivera | tpburl.com/k68jmv
follow swine flu’s spread using google maps By Nicholas Deleon | 4/27/09 | CrunchGear tpburl.com/wf73td This has been a very exciting year for things-that-could-kill-us. First it was the economy that could kill us all; then it was those Somali pirates who posed a threat to our very way of life; and now we all should fear swine flu. Why should we fear la grippe porcine? Well, it seems to be spreading around the world pretty swiftly, and it’s doing a pretty thorough job of wreaking havoc in Mexico. So, here’s a map! This Google Map shows confirmed and suspected cases of the virus, H1N1 Swine Flu, as well as deaths caused by the virus. As always, Twitter is fairly interesting, watching people freak out in real time. And, if you’d like hype-free news about Swine Flu, may I suggest Science’s blog? Science’s coverage is less alarmist than the likes of AP, Reuters, etc. Advertising
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i tried to make this post gender neutral
Humor
it’s like we’re living on the oregon trail except none of us has dysentery yet By The Bloggess | 4/21/09 | TheBloggess.com tpburl.com/s5tpg4 Yesterday Hailey’s preschool called to tell me that she had a rash on her stomach and back so I picked her up and I figured it was probably just a reaction from new detergent but I thought I’d run her by the Readi-Clinic just in case because it was on the way home and also there’s a pretzel shop right next to it but when I got there the doctor was all “Uh, this kid has scarlet fever” and I’m all “The fuck?! Like what Beth died from in Little Women?” except I said it quietly so Hailey wouldn’t hear me and the doctor was all “It’s very treatable now. Don’t panic” and I’m all “You know, just because I’m at a Readi-Clinic doesn’t mean I don’t have money. We have great insurance. I just came here because I wanted a pretzel” and the doctor was all “No, really. Scarlet Fever isn’t a big deal anymore. It’s basically strep throat with a rash. Calm down” and I’m all “I AM FUCKING CALM” but I just said that in my head because I didn’t want to freak out Hailey. Then Hailey’s all “Can I have a Popsicle?” and I’m like “We are going to set all your stuffed animals on fire when we get home” and then the doctor started laughing and I’m all “I AM DEADLY SERIOUS” and Hailey said we couldn’t throw Donkey on the bonfire because he’s her favorite and I’m all “Donkey is the germiest. We’re going to burn him twice” and then Hailey and the doctor both looked at me like I’m the crazy one and I’m all “Fine. He’s going in the washing machine. Like, for eighteen cycles.” Then the doctor gave us a prescription for amoxicillin which is like the sad, weird kid of the antibiotic family and I’m all “What is this, bush-league? I told you, I have money.” Then he made us leave and I was so upset that I didn’t even remember to get a pretzel, so basically we’re all suffering. PS. Hailey is fine and is running around like normal and everything in the entire house is going in the dishwasher. Then I’m going to burn the dishwasher in an abandoned field. I may be over-reacting.
By Matt | 4/27/09 | A View From 5280Ft tpburl.com/hbnycx I learned something about myself Friday night. I learned that, when I’m in an argument, I go for the kill right away. Meaning, if I am in disagreement with someone and it’s totally obvious that we are going to get into debate, I will deliver my best line first. Before the other person gets a chance to even think about his (or hers, because I believe in equality) first argument, BOOM- I hit him or her with the low blow. A verbal rabbit punch to the back of his or her head. Before they even expected it. And when I say rabbit punch, please don’t picture a little bunny trying to punch someone. Thats not what it means. Example time. Him/Her: Waterboy was by FAR Adam Sandler’s best movie. Me: Get the fuck out of here. Out of all four of Sandler’s movies (I don’t count most of his movies as real movies), an ice skater turned golfer is by far the funniest thing he has thought of. In all of his movies he pretty much takes a guy and turns him into something different. He takes a drunk and turns him into a teacher, he takes a hockey player and turns him into a golfer, he takes a waterboy and turns him into a football player, he takes an asshole and turns him into a lawyer (I know, not much of a difference, right? HEY OH. Sorry lawyers out there… I was just kidding). It’s the same shit over and over so I am going to go with the movie with the most cuss words and call it the best. If there was any nudity, it would trump the cuss words but there’s not. So there you have it. Do you see what I did there? At the first sign of there being a debate ahead, I went in and took care of bid-ness. This strategy is always sure to end an argument before it begins and it is a sure way to win. If this strategy does not work for you, another strategy I use is to talk louder than the other person. It’s pretty simple- whatever they say, just talk louder than him (or her) while he (or she) is saying it. That way, people really only hear you. So there you have it. I hope these strategies work for you as well as they work for me.
I didn’t count but I hope I got in like, at least 5 “him/her’s” in this post.
PHOTOS
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Finance
Tech
investing in your kids’ stuff By Jennifer Openshaw | 3/31/09 | Blogher.com tpburl.com/hcxk51 Where do investment ideas come from? Something you read in the paper? Something your broker, or maybe a friend, recommended? Here’s a thought: What about trying to get some tips from your kids? It can happen. Any parent who drives children around all day has an all-access pass to a special world — the world of young consumers. If you listen, you’ll hear what they want, what they are buying, and — of course — what they want you to buy them. Pay attention to what’s happening in their world, and you might come up with some good investment ideas of your own (for more on this, read Rogers Park Montessori School: New Kids on the Stock). Smells like teen spirit: “Axe — I smell it everywhere,” the mother of a 14-year-old boy told me. “Axe body spray, Axe body wash, Axe deodorant, Axe hair gel… you get the idea. They make everything. And every teenaged boy wears that scent.” Axe is everywhere, but where does it come from? It’s one of the myriad of products made by Dutch consumer products giant Unilever (UL), traded in the U.S. as an ADR. You know Unilever — they’re the same folks who bring you your SlimFast. They wear it well: Under Armour’s (UA) aggressive marketing campaign has apparently caught on with young boys on the field. Under Armour makes “performance apparel” for sports like basketball, football, and soccer, and kids wear it with pride. The company recently entered the running-shoe arena, setting its sights on Nike. Will it succeed? School of Roxy: The girls who are watching the guys who smell like Axe and wear tight Under Armour t-shirts are wearing Roxy t-shirts. Sounds like an eighties band, I know, but it’s one of the many skate/snow board apparel labels owned by surf pioneer Quiksilver (ZQK). Teenaged girls love Roxy’s tiny t-shirts and hoodies. Betwixt and Be Tween: Aeropostale (ARO) is a mall store that mothers of tween girls know all too well. The mother of three young girls told me recently that she’s there so often she’s memorized the layout of the store near them. So the next time you get dragged to the store by your children, think of it as research. Who knows, your next great investment idea might just pop out of one of those shopping bags. It’s a great example of investing in what you know.
katie couric and cbs news get creative with facebook pages By Jennifer Van Grove | 4/22/09 | Mashable tpburl.com/43ymbn Hi there, Facebookers! Katie Couric has a video challenge for you. The CBS Evening News anchor is putting the upgraded Facebook Pages to good use. In a 48 second video clip posted to her page, Couric explains that she’s going to be taking stock of President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office, and she needs your help (and Facebook juice) to do it. The challenge, should you choose to accept, is to create a 20 second video on what Obama’s done wrong or right while in office, and post it to her Facebook Page. The best videos will be included in a live broadcast from CBSNews.com on April 29 at 7pm EST. Even though Couric acknowledges that she’s crossing into trendier territories by stating “my daughters think it’s really funny I have a Facebook Page…funny weird,” we still think that she’s doing a fantastic job combining her star power with social media savvy to raise her profile on Facebook and grow the CBS audience through potentially viral channels. The power of massive comments, likes, and user-created Facebook videos, is that the CBS message gets dispersed to new audiences (friends of friends) with every act of sharing. Oddly enough, we’re unable to share the video with you here due to Facebook’s archaic video sharing limitations (you can only share videos with your Facebook network on Facebook). But, should you be interested in participating in the challenge, you can watch the video and participate here. She’s already hip to YouTube and Digg, now Facebook, so what’s next Couric? A 140 character Twitter challenge (she’s already tweeting as @katiecouric) perhaps? That sounds fun.
I do not understand these words By Michelle Woo | 4/23/09 | Michelle Woo
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jennifer openshaw www.weseed.com www.themillionairezone.com
A passionate advocate for working Americans, Jennifer Openshaw is cofounder of stock education site WeSeed (www.weseed.com), author of a new book, The Millionaire Zone, and a seasoned expert in finance and investing. She appears regularly on Oprah, Good Morning America and CNN and has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today and Business Week. Jennifer has lived her own “rags to riches” story, getting her first job as a maid in a motel when she was 14 years old to help support her family. From these humble but determined beginnings, she launched and propelled her career in financial services, with an MBA from UCLA and a job as press secretary for California’s State Treasurer.
PHOTOS
Jennifer has since worked as vice president at Bank of America, senior vice president of corporate marketing at Bank One, head of marketing for investment firm Wilshire Associates, and chief executive of Family Financial Network. She has gone on to start several successful ventures. In 1999, Jennifer founded Women’s Financial Network, a financial services company created for women. She now serves as president of WeSeed, designed to help people use their passions and professions to make better investment decisions. Jennifer also is host of ABC Radio’s “Winning Advice,” AOL’s Family Financial Editor and a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization. The Governor of California has appointed her to the prestigious Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy. As a proven entrepreneur and powerful voice for “the little guy,” Jennifer knows that ordinary people often have limited resources but unlimited aspirations. Her life’s mission is to share her secrets of how successful people get ahead and empower middle-income Americans to reach their financial dreams.
recession gaming: two hyper-addictive free games
Politics
google’s ceo gets an official seat at president obama’s table By Adam Ostrow | 4/27/09 | Mashable tpburl.com/8zc3js The close ties between Google CEO Eric Schmidt and President Barack Obama are welldocumented. Schmidt endorsed Obama’s Presidential campaign, and in the months since he has taken office, the leader of the world’s most popular search engine has also been a guest at the White House to discuss policy alongside some of the country’s top economists and financiers. Although Schmidt quickly took his name out of the running to become CTO of the USA after Obama was elected, today, he’s been officially named to a new role: that of a member of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. That group, according to a statement issued today by The White House, will advise the President on “[formulating] policy in the many areas where understanding of science, technology, and innovation is key to strengthening our economy and forming policy that works for the American people.” It’s worth noting that Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft, is also on the list of advisers, so fear of Google getting unfair sway with the nation’s Chief Executive are probably a bit unfounded. Nonetheless, it probably doesn’t sit well with those that think Google already has just a bit too much power that the company’s CEO will now have a seat at the President’s table in a role that will clearly help define tech policy going forward.
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J. Cook Photography | tpburl.com/f67ngz
By Danielle Riendeau | 4/16/09 | Gamertell tpburl.com/3n48vx There’s nothing sweeter than finding fun on the cheap - or better - for free, especially when it comes to videogames. Now that everyone is weary about spending (yes, the economy is ruining everything, and no one is immune), finding good, free web-based games has become a hobby for many. I’m here to point you in the direction of two that are particularly compelling - for entirely different reasons. The first, I have to admit, is something I stumbled on while reading Kotaku. ScaryGirl, as it’s called is a robust, gorgeous platformer/ adventure game that looks and plays as if Psychonauts had a baby with Super Mario Brothers and the old Beetlejuice cartoon was somehow involved. It’s as full-featured (and beautifully animated) as a good full-priced game, so the fact that you can play it for free - and in your browser - is pretty fantastic. On the other end of the spectrum is the juvenile, hilarious Don’t Sh*t Your Pants, which is a text-based adventure game (though the creators have dubbed it “survival horror”). It centers on a very simple - and nasty - premise (don’t do number two in your pants) and stars a crudely drawn dude who looks like he started out life in MS Paint, but no matter - the fact that there are about nine “achievements” to earn will have you playing until you figure them all out. I seriously could not stop playing this last night - though I’m not sure what that says about me. I dare you to try these games and not feel gratified - and if you hate them, well, it didn’t cost you a penny.
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PHOTOS
Culture
the wall project By Joshua Karp | 4/30/09 | The Printed Blog tpburl.com/bp3w29 It’s no secret that communication technologies are bridging geographical and cultural gaps. With a little creativity, they are also proving they have the power to do much more. In the Phillipines, for example, large-scale demonstrations organized via cell phones and SMS helped force President Joseph Estrada’s resignation, thus bringing about major political change without violence. At the Northwood School in London, students use video conferencing technology to interact with pupils at primary schools in the U.S. and China. The children are quickly able to develop more intimate levels of cultural appreciation as a result, learning about Thanksgiving from children in Texas, and practicing Tai Chi with children in Hong Kong. The service Videoletters.net captures video messages from former neighbors and friends throughout the war-torn countries of the Former Yugoslavia, broadcasting them via public access channels so those who lost contact during conflict can reconnect. While remarkable and inspiring, these innovative examples lack the power and appeal of firsthand, personal experience. We do not live in a world of avatars. Our facial expressions are not emoticons. Existing interfaces for navigating the virtual world continue to evolve, but they are no substitute for real world interaction. But what if technology could be harnessed to bend the rules? What if there was an innovative communications solution that could blur the line between virtual and real world interaction? What if there was a way to enable large-scale, face-to-face interactions between citizens all over the world…in real-time? It would be like opening a window into another part of the world. Well, that window exists. And that window is a wall. The Wall is a groundbreaking new project that aims to tear down geographic and cultural barriers like never before via the construction of monumental “smart” walls in locations around the globe. Designed to serve as audio-visual gateways, citizens of the world will be able to see, hear, and interact with their international ‘neighbors’ in an open forum that promotes empathy, dialogue, and unprecedented human collaboration. Sound like a lofty goal? The Wall’s inspiring and ambitious mission is founded upon concrete, achievable pillars set forth by Joshua Karp – entrepreneur, optimist and founder of The Printed Blog. Joshua believes that the greatest opportunities to change the world start with one person, a single idea, and the belief that anything is possible. In 50 cities around the world, 50 interactive video walls will be constructed in large, open and accessible urban hubs. The walls will be approximately 1000 feet long by 50 feet tall by 15 feet thick. They will be built using high definition monitors, video cameras, speakers, and microphones. They will be constructed to be impervious to weather and vandalism, and designed with respect to each individual city’s unique heritage and urban plan. How will these walls work? They will interface in tandem with sister walls in other cities according to a rotation of eight-hour intervals, with schedules made public through a predetermined schedule. A man in Chicago will meet face-to-face and interact in real-time with a woman in New Delhi. A boy in Mosul will play rock, paper, scissors with a girl in Amsterdam. Speeches, lectures, rallies, protests, discussions, concerts, classes, field trips, commerce, games, love affairs, arguments and more will occur across the wall…and across the world. The Wall will inevitably bear witness to horrors and atrocities as well. Thus, it will ensure we do not turn a blind eye to murder, theft, persecution and injustice. Imagine how much faster violence would end and peace would come if people stopped averting their eyes. The Wall presents an opportunity to dissolve barriers between cultures and create an environment of global discourse on an unprecedented scale. A strong global community begins with citizens capable of facing realities honestly – and those realities can only be fully understood through real world interaction. Where the Internet has facilitated virtual world interaction on a global scale, the Wall will encourage real world interaction on the same scale. Something remarkable and inspiring, indeed.
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Went to New York to look for a job as a copywriter, came back to Chicago a few months later due to the economic recession. Now working out thanks to my P90x routine but would rather write copy for advertising agency. Check out my work/ resume at www.timyuenportfolio.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/timyuen
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My photography and writing has been published in The New York Times, Star magazine, Newsday, TimeOut/NY, The New York Resident, Playbill.com and more. My photos also have been featured on ABC’s The View and TMZ. I am seeking a position that will combine my photography, writing and video skills so that I can continue to follow my passions in life. http://www.linkedin.com/in/bittenbyazebra
note to readers
Cover Photo Correction The Printed Blog mislabeled the cover photograph credit in the Chicago Loop edition of Vol1 No13. The correct photographer’s name is Michal Czerwonka. We regret the error. Tagline Credit “Like the internet, only flammable.” This tagline was submitted by Marc Muszynski, a runner-up in our tagline contest.
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Environmental Technology
it’s your spot in the universe
catch a green flick at a solar powered movie theater By Stephanie Rogers | 4/26/09 | EarthFirst.com tpburl.com/v4fwsx Next time you’re heading out to see the latest eco flick (hey, there’s a really Oscar-worthy looking Val Kilmer movie due sometime this year!), you could see it in a solar-powered movie theater. At least, you can if you live in Livermore, California. Livermore Cinemas has installed an 18,000 square foot solar installation that will reportedly provide 35% of the theater’s energy needs, and cut its electric bill by 45%. Alternative Consumer reports that the system will provide about 190,000 kilowatts of electricity over the course of a year, and that installation of the system isn’t expected to impact ticket prices. But even if it did – would you pay extra? I think the willingness of consumers to spend an extra fifty cents or so per ticket would encourage more theater owners across the country to install their own renewable energy systems. I’d definitely go out of my way to patronize a movie theater that cares enough to install such an impressive solar array. Featured Photographer
The Easy Guide To Making Your Tweets Soar to Popularity By: granolajoe tpburl.com/1q35r6 Twitter is about self expression and person-to-person communication, but its power lies in its capacity as a broadcasting tool. A single tweet carrying the right message can make huge waves across the Twitterverse, and also spread to other social channels on the Web. However, just because a random tweet can go viral every once in a while, doesn't mean you can expect everyone on Twitter to go nuts about everything that you tweet. By following these easy recommendations, you can ensure that your tweets are of the highest quality and get the best shot at going popular.
Make Your Tweet Count If you want to see a story go popular, choose your tweets wisely. Be a leader and be the first to tweet breaking news that will soon be heard around the world, and go on to make history. Find a story, website or resource with a funny or unique angle that no one else has spread around yet. Or, find interesting images that are sure to captivate and inspire your audience.
Laurel Dailey floatfasthummingbird.blogspot.com www.laureldailey.com Right off the bat, allow me to completely alienate 75% of our readers by stating that I’m a West Coast girl, born and raised: Long Beach by way of Oregon. I’ll probably die out here, in Keruoac’s “ragged promised land,” buried under a pile of unread books, taxidermied antlers and camera equipment. Death by The Big One – an earthquake, that is. I think about earthquakes at least three times a day, but come hell or high water, I’m sticking to my guns. There’s no better place to explore wild unknowns than here: the conquered desert, embittered metropolitan constellations under a starless sky.
Whatever the type of content that you choose to tweet about, just make sure that it’s so awesome that it makes your followers feel they absolutely have to share it with their friends too, which brings us to the next point…
Get ReTweeted
I was raised in the wild suburbs of Oregon and picked up a Pentax K1000 in high school. Once I got my proverbial first taste of the stench that developer chemicals leave on your skin, I was hooked. A pile of debt and a few years of education later, I’m still shooting every day. Wim Wenders refers to photography as “an act in two directions.” As the shutter releases, an image is created that contains not only the subject, but also a vague shadow of the photographer. As The Printed Blog’s Photo Editor, it has been my pleasure to cull the depths of the Interwebs to bring you the very best acts in two directions; both the images and the artists who created them. An act of defiance in the face of a whimpering economy deserves to be applauded, and so I’m giving you a standing ovation, TPB, as well as you, the readers, who’ve made this venture a success thus far. While I’m taking my final bow as Photo Editor, I’m confident that The Printed Blog will blaze right on ahead, exploring those ragged promised lands we all long for.
Whether you’re a user with a moderate following or a power user with many thousands of followers, your tweets depend on the community to go popular. When you get retweeted, your story is exposed to the networks of your friends, gaining more potential to go popular as more users retweet it. Not all users will be reading their timelines at once, but it increases the chance of your tweet being seen and clicked through. Keep a steady flow of high quality and interesting tweets and users will take notice. You’ll gain a reputation for making great tweets, get retweeted more often, and you’ll also gain more followers.
Get Help From Your Followers and Friends In High Places You may be a user with a solid following who has no problem getting retweeted, but you would still like your content to get more traction than 6-7 retweets and a few hundred clicks. That’s where friends come into play.
PHOTOS
Don’t make it a habit, but if there is something that you are really passionate about, ask your friends for some help. Also, if you have a friend with a huge following and your tweet fits their audience, ask if they would consider a retweet. Occasionally you may get lucky and won’t even have to ask, especially if they follow you and take notice. Read more from this guide and others at guidespot.com Tech
strangely, the man in this electrifying photo is not dead today
Janka Mudrakova | tpburl.com/tf07rj
By Jack Loftus | 4/19/09 | Gizmodo tpburl.com/kpbz94 Meet Peter Terren. Inspired by The Thinker, he set out to recreate that classic sculpture using electricity, wire caging, a conductive foil suit, and a death wish. Can’t forget the death wish. Now, we’ve seen Terren and Tesla Down Under’s work before here at Gizmodo, most notably when he put his son in a car and zapped it with electricity. This little project, however, put him in the hot seat. Note the electricity shooting out of his sneaker. Lucky for us all, Terren meticulously documented the entire project with photos and safety-related commentary (“The wig is not ideal and really needs a haircut. I couldn’t light it with sparks so fire risk Dr. Peter Terren seems low”). Terren also outfitted some of the tests with a pentagram boundary, which had nothing to do with Tesla coils or electricity, of course, but certainly heightened the sense of batshit insanity surrounding this little venture.
quick blub: stake your social media name now By Jack Peterson | 4/27/09 | Marketing Juice tpburl.com/7wmyqv Remember the circus of cyber squatting domain names back in the day? Everyone was scrambling to own their domain names before cyber squatters owned them and held them for ransom $$$. A new service called “knowem?” checks and registers your brand name, username or vanity URL in the Social Media space (websites). I just registered my company. Register before the Social Media land grab comes of age. Do it now or someone will hold you and your company hostage. It’s a great service that will do all the time consuming username registering for you.
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PHOTOS
Politics
the torture path
Brandon Showers | tpburl.com/b5cr3p
John Parli | tpburl.com/v27zkb Lifestyle
organ donor dolls are more gory than cute By Simon Crisp | 4/27/09 | NewsLite tpburl.com/06g2rp An artist has created a set of vinyl figures which he hopes will encourage more people to donate their organs. David Foox came up with the idea for his ‘Organ Donors’ collection - dolls which have hearts, lungs, eyeballs and brains for heads - after a family member had a double lung transplant. While ‘Uncle Ken’ survived the op, David wanted to use his art to draw attention to organ donation and started work on the 24 doll collection. The £10 figures come in ‘blind boxes’ meaning the buyer does not know what they have got until they open it ... and their gory nature could leave surprised heart attack victims needing a transplant. “Human body parts are interchangeable and as much as we know about the body, there is so much more to learn,” said Foox from Denver. “It is a conceptual way of dealing with our humanity - whether physical or spiritual. It is also supposed to be a lighthearted approach to a serious, bloody, and gory issue.” He says most people have reacted positively to seeing the figures though sometimes people think they are “spooky” or “freaky.” The collection can be ordered online.
By Hunter | 4/21/09 | The Daily Kos tpburl.com/1yz8n6 I can only fathom that we are supposed to beg. I think we are supposed to get down on our knees, even grovel for it, and beg that our nation act in accordance with its own laws, with international laws, and with basic decency. We among the more expendable classes are supposed to write passionate editorials; we are supposed to form grass roots movements; we are supposed to make the usual dozens of phone calls, and be ashamed, and debase ourselves - and then, perhaps, if we are very lucky, and if we beg enough and with the right arguments and place enough pressure in the right, most uncomfortable spots, then our own government will relent, and our laws will be followed, and investigations conducted, and if warranted, those responsible will be prosecuted. And we will finally as a nation, at long last, reject torture in practice as well as in words. But they will not do it, unless they are bowed to it by the collective weight of their own citizens. That seems to be, still, the message: they will not acquiesce unless bludgeoned into doing it. It is ceded to us to decide if America will have the smallest shard of conscience, and once again the voices of basic decency will be cast as the unreasonable ones, the foolish ones, the troublemaking rabble pestering those that know better, and we shall have to rise above it yet another time. That is the only conclusion I can come to. It seems transparently obvious to Washington, to the Obama administration and its allies, to the Republicans and the Democrats of Congress, to all the very important people working very serious jobs, that while we can with great fanfare and self-satisfaction no longer torture prisoners in our care -- a war crime, in any context not involving ourselves -- it is far more challenging a proposition to think that we would actually take steps to enforce the myriad laws and conventions against it. And in that sense, torture by the United States of America is as good as legalized, because we have all but declared that it will never be that illegal, the kind of illegal that leads to investigations and punishment. It will merely remain a deplorable act -- a war crime, in any context not involving us doing the torture -- that we will never, ever use, except when we do, and without consequence. We will not condone it but, like in Serbia, or Guatemala, or Cambodia, or the thugs of any one of a hundred pissant groups and countries that used the practice to vicious effect, when to their advantage, we will ignore the laws, the treaties and conventions, and we will not prosecute our torturers. Or, God forbid, those that specifically ordered the practice. Or those that sought to legalize it, on pen and paper, with arguments comprehensible only to sociopaths or monsters. It apparently needs to be stated, yet again, that this is not a case of seeking vengeance. When powerful people are caught in illegal acts, it is nearly always the case that they claim prosecuting them would be “vengeance:” it never enters the minds of our leaders, whether they be in government or in business, that perhaps the law should be applied to them simply because it is the law. There always needs to be additional motive attributed; it goes nearly without saying that, without the additional motives of vengeance, or revenge, or punishment then naturally those in power are not held to the laws required of the rest of us. You know you have arrived, in America, when you can break a law at will and have the government itself argue against your prosecution on the grounds that doing so would be controversial or divisive. Whether or not any of the parties involved are actually convicted, whether even a single one of them see a day of jail time is not the question. Whether we preclude that possibility, as policy of government, is the more damaging question. For in precluding even the possibility of justice, we immunize the act, and if we immunize the act then it is not, in any meaningful sense, actually illegal. It is not about revenge: it is about demonstrating that even for the most powerful among us, even for our own government, there are laws, and they are not optional. It is about demonstrating that we are a country in which law has a substance that overrides the credentials of the person breaking it. It is the brightest shining example of what we as a nation are or are not: it is our moral measure. Knowing that torture was condoned in our names is an abominable thing. This parlor game of moving forward, not backward, of letting bygones be bygones, admitting error, and just getting the hell on with our days is just as dismal, because this, finally, internalizes the message that we citizens, our government, and other nations will take from this sorry affair, which is that while we begrudgingly acquiesce to stopping, we will, even now, refuse to recognize the act itself as truly criminal. There is absolutely no pride to be gained in no longer torturing, but blocking justice in those instances in which we have. It is no act of courage; it is no enlightened position. It is merely the easiest path, and the one followed in nearly every instance by nations proven to have committed foul acts. Sorry, but we’re not about to do anything about it. We’ll stop, but in exchange for stopping we expect the episode to be forgotten. What would count as a war crime for you other countries counts for us as an internal matter, and we consider it closed. I do not feel like begging. After years of railing against the practice (to be largely ignored, because in those days the majority of voices presumed torture to have positive effects, and therefore be justified), after years of government denial that any such thing was happening (in spite of clear and demonstrable evidence that it did), the last thing in the world that I feel like doing is once again begging, at long last, and to the supposed reasonable people that replaced the last reasonable people, that we actually follow our own goddamn laws, or treat crimes by our powerful with the same grave manner as we do crimes by anyone else in the nation. I am fucking sick of it, and I am fucking sick of hearing how we have entered a new age of enlightenment merely because we have stopped a transparently abominable practice, one that we condemn with vigor when undertaken by any other nation. I am fucking sick of myself, my compatriots and the rest of the public having to act as collective conscience for all those in power that, apparently, have long since evolved past even common sense, much less common shame. I know by tomorrow or next week I will relent, and I will start the cause anew, and I will join all the others in penning yet another fervent message explaining why, at long last -- at long fucking last -- we cannot simultaneously condemn torture and yet declare a casual, dismissive amnesty for all those that ordered it, and planned it, and justified it, and executed it, under the usual theory of the powerful that crimes by the powerful simply cannot be prosecuted lest chaos or embarrassment ensue. But for today, I can only say damn you all to hell. Damn you all for making us -- us, of all people, average citizens with no positions of power, with no power at all save whatever we can wring out of the thin air, and with nothing at stake but a sense of shared, basic, foundational morality -- yet again rail for our own country to exercise a shred of the morality, the justice, the national greatness that it professes for all to hear. I was once outraged; I was, after that, ashamed; now I am only incredulous. With every passing day my nation acts less like a guiding beacon, and more like a crook. PHOTOS
Views expressed in Content do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the printed blog inc.
Johnny Daigneault | tpburl.com/mhqcp2
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playlist
we are hunted
COVER ARTISTS PLAYLIST In the spirit of recycling, this week’s playlist features a selection of some excellent and surprising covers. Everything old is new again! For more song covers, check out www. coversproject.com. And don’t forget to email your favorite song(s) to TPB’s Music Editor Amanda Nyren at anyren@theprintedblog.
We Are Hunted aggregates social networks, P2P networks, music forums and blogs to compile a chart of the most popular songs in the blogosphere based on sentiment, expression and advocacy rather than a mere download count. It’s a smart and highly addictive way to discover new music. Here, this week’s top nine emerging songs. (As of April 29, 2009)
“Act Nice and Gentle” - Black Keys Black Keys do the Kinks’ “Act Nice and Gentle” justice, adding a little southern rock twang to the mix. http://www.tpburl.com/9fr16y
“Borderline” - The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips’ cover of my favorite 80s Madonna hit is just as good, if not better, than the original. http://www.tpburl.com/7gy4st
MOTH’S WINGS
“I Poke Her Face” - Kid Cudi w Kanye West Okay so this Kid Cudi/Kanye West rehash of Lady Gaga’s acoustic “Poker Face” is really more of a sample than a cover. But when the track is this good, why quibble? http://www.tpburl.com/3m2s95
PASSION PIT
GIVIN’ UP (DON DIABLO REMIX
RAVEN (CROOKERS REMIX)
tpburl.com/62g5bv
ONE ESKIMO tpburl.com/16gt0r
THE PROXY tpburl.com/qfn6dg
YELLOWSTONE JOE AND WILL ASK?
LET LOVE RULE 2009 (JUSTICE REMIX)
BLOC PARTY tpburl.com/m86j7c
tpburl.com/4b2869
LENNY KRAVITZ tpburl.com/1mbzjk
THANK YOU GOD FOR FIXING THE TAPE...
HEAVY CROSS
YOUR WAY
THE GOSSIP
XU XU FANG
INTELLIGENCE tpburl.com/kdp9xw
tpburl.com/zxn7gc
tpburl.com/yrfzvj
“Rave On” - M. Ward M. Ward has covered David Bowie, Daniel Johnston and Billie Holiday, but his fresh take on Buddy Holly’s classic “Rave On” is easily his best adaptation. http://www.tpburl.com/vc0fn2 “20 Dollar” - M.I.A. M.I.A. puts her electropunk warrior princess spin on The Pixies’ cult classic “Where Is My Mind.” http://www.tpburl.com/6n0y53
ARES (VILLAINS REMIX)
“Nobody Does It Better” - Radiohead Thom Yorke’s whiny vocals seem made for this yearning Carly Simon hit. Plus, the song choice reassures us that Radiohead is not too elitist to enjoy 70s soft rock. http://www.tpburl.com/kym58j “Superstar” - Sonic Youth Featured in the lovable indie flick Juno, Sonic Youth’s rendition of The Carpenters’ “Superstar” is a haunting twist on a saccharine power ballad. http://www.tpburl.com/v9fqz7
“Take Me to the River” - Talking Heads Talking Heads’ version of “Take Me to the River” is arguably more famous than the original, done by soul man Al Green. Just try singing this song without picturing David Byrne in his boxy spongebob squarepants suit. http://www.tpburl.com/y1578f
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PHOTOS
Politics
the meghan mccain gop By Tabitha Hale | 4/21/09 | Pink Elephant Pundit tpburl.com/c8zqs6 So if we learned one thing from Meghan McCain it’s that the GOP is like, so not relevant. Her dad showed us that moderates are wholly ineffective because they never really know who they are appealing to. What ends up happening is that they appeal to no one. When your platform is murky, your ideals are blurry, AND you are uncool, you just don’t stand a chance. People will choose the real thing over Democrat Lite. Meghan McCain is the DEFINITION of a moderate. What she DOES do well is embody the typical uninvolved voter. The masses thrive on superficiality, no matter how much those that are paying attention bemoan the ignorance. Melissa Clouthier says it well: Republicans need to do better. They need to be more principled and more defined and also appeal to people who find smooth talking, fine suits, fabulous mascara and superficial trappings important. To ignore either part of this puzzle will cause us to lose again.
Anna Donlan | tpburl.com/pcr8s3 City Life
unslumming By Vmichael | 4/13/09 | Time Tells tpburl.com/twvpdc I am reading Michael Meyer’s The Last Days of Old Beijing which is an excellent journal about the death and life of a traditional Beijing hutong, which is a narrow lane of courtyard houses. I was reading about how the planners and developers considered these areas slums even though they functioned extremely well and served more as incubators of improvement and socialization than harbingers of decay. Yet crime statistics that “proved” the area was overcrowded were enough to mark it for demolition. As Meyer described it, I thought immediately of Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities and the story of Boston’s North End, which was statistically a slum but visibly NOT. I only had to turn the page and Meyer told of Herbert Gans’ 1959 article on Boston’s North End and Jacobs’ coverage of the same subject and her wonderful term for what was happening in these traditional “stable, low-rent areas:” Unslumming. Wow. There it is. For the last quarter century we have had only the term “gentrification” but the problem with that term is that it describes something that can happen with old buildings - like much of the near north side of Chicago or Wicker Park - OR with new buildings, like those unprotected areas near Old Town and Wicker Park where the values rise so fast and high that the developers are putting up $2 million Lollapallazzos on spec. Like this one on Burling. Which is probably $5 million. But “unslumming” DOESN’T happen with new buildings. It only happens with old buildings. I had forgotten Jacobs’ term, but it exactly describes what happened in North Kenwood and Oakland in the early 1990s, which I chronicled in Future Anterior four years ago ( http:// www.arch.columbia.edu/futureanterior/past_issues/vol_2_2_2005.htm). In Meyers’ Dazhalan hutong in Beijing, as in the 1950s North End and 1990s North Kenwood, people with middle-class aspirations were unslumming their neighborhoods by rebuilding them bit by bit and little by little and with the existing buildings. But - as Meyers quotes Jacobs - such neighborhoods are doomed because no one is making a fortune on them. No fortunes, no big plans, no developers, just tons and tons of incremental improvements in safety, in socialization, in economic strength, in morality and education. A brilliant story of reclaimed humanity and human progress, but one with no place in our limited, clumsy economy. It’s funny. In politics this Spring, the LOSERS are whining about socialism but when it comes to real estate development, it works the same under socialism and capitalism. I noticed it when I first went to China in 2003: In communist China huge skyscrapers were built not because they were needed but because there were pension funds that needed to invest in real estate, whereas in capitalist USA huge skyscrapers were built not because they were needed but because there were pension funds that needed to invest in real estate. Neither country makes room for the aspiring middle class that wants to do what Jacobs counseled: Save the people and fix the buildings. But in socialist China, that approach doesn’t show enough progress fast enough for government officials and it doesn’t show enough profit for wealthy developers. In capitalist USA, that approach doesn’t show enough progress fast enough for government officials and it doesn’t show enough profit for wealthy developers. So you see the difference, right? Right? Preservation as we know it today derives from a postwar effort to rebuild with what was already there. It was opposed to centralized planning in the form of urban renewal and it was opposed to catastrophic development in the form of big projects. Preservation actually points the way toward a third economics, a democratic economics that frees us from the clumsy hands of the cadres and the equally clumsy hands of the hedge fund managers, from the destructive tendencies of two outdated approaches to city building. PHOTOS
That hurts, doesn’t it? However, the problem we’re running into is that we tried to appeal to the superficial crowd without making sure they were prepared for the national spotlight. Republicans have a propensity to devour their own - if they’re good at nothing else, they’re good at self-destruction. Which is what they’ve effectively done. I’m a conservative first. I ended up with the GOP simply because, like most conservatives, I tend to vote with a lesser of two evils mentality. I think a lot of us are fed up with voting AGAINST people. It’s high time we had someone to vote FOR. A GOP that represents McCain style “big tent” Republicans does nothing but turn us into Democrats… and further alienate the base. What the GOP seems to forget is that liberty is NOT a partisan issue. It is NOT something that belongs to Conservatives - it transcends race, gender, sexuality, and politics. What we’re seeing is the buy-in to the Democratic lie that liberty is a government issue, when it is truly a human issue that the government in its current form infringes upon. Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House posted what should have been a depressing article. Oddly enough, I was slightly energized by the end of it. The depressing part was that even under the most conservative American President in history, government did not shrink. Reagan said that once government is there, it never goes away. And it’s entirely too true. This is not a new problem - this has been a long time coming. Pure logic - when something keeps growing, and never shrinks, it is eventually going to get too big. And the GOP can stand around preaching small government all day long, but the hard truth is that they have not EVER been able to make it happen. The fact that their credibility has been completely blown away is not going to help win elections. Moran refers to the GOP hope that Obama will in effect win the next election for them the “illusion of opportunity”… and I have to admit that I don’t think he’s all wrong. The reason I’m inspired? It kind of chased away my sense of fear. Why should our principles be tied to a party? There is little logic to our fear of a GOP failure. As conservatives, we should understand that no insitution is ever “too big” to fail. We’re willing to let bankers, the auto industry, and everyone else fail in the name of capitalism… why are we any different? Do we TRULY believe that in the absence of the GOP another would not rise up? The majority of our country is center right. The hole left in the absence of the GOP WILL be filled - our country is not going to just hand itself over to a one party system. I had someone on Twitter tell me that if the GOP dies “America will be consumed by neoleft darkness. The world will be a jungle. Civilization will be finished!” Can we say dramatic much? It’s exactly this kind of fear that keeps us voting for McCains in the hope of hanging on by a thread instead of starting over. It happened with the Whigs, and it can happen again. I’m not saying that we should throw the GOP out the window. I’m not saying we should all put on tin foil hats and start running around trying to run for Congress. All I’m saying is that the death of the GOP does NOT mean the death of America - that if the recent conservative/ libertarian movements are any indicator, there will be a quick rise of another party. Maybe it would be nice to have the GOP out of the way to give someone else a chance. Just hypothesizing here folks. Liberty is non-partisan. I think that we should strive to be as well… why would you hang on to a sinking ship when you can jump off and build a new one? Thoughts? PHOTOS
Chris Kitahara | tpburl.com/7z0tw6 Featured Blogger
tabitha hale http://pinkelephantpundit.com http://smartgirlpolitics.org http://twitter.com/pinkelephantpun Tabitha Hale is a new face on the political scene. A 25-year-old college grad, she is a recent addition to the conservative political blogosphere. Since returning to her home state of North Carolina, she has made her voice heard as the Pink Elephant Pundit and gained exposure for her unapologetic approach to political commentary as well as for her self-proclaimed obsession with social media. She holds a special affection for Twitter, where roughly 20,000 followers check her updates daily. Although serious about her beliefs, Tabitha makes light of her addiction to all things political. “I refer to myself as a future recovering political junkie,” she says. Some of her current projects include writing for Pink Elephant Pundit and American Issues Project and working as a board member of Smart Girl Politics, an active grassroots organization supporting conservative women. Her most recent undertaking is an Internet radio show launching this week on RFC Radio, aptly titled “Raisin’ Hale.” Despite the rapid growth of Smart Girl Politics and the buzz surrounding Hale, grassroots politics doesn’t pay the bills just yet. She still juggles a 40 hour-aweek job and active church life in addition to what she refers to as her “political alter ego.”
Kari Otero | tpburl.com/qrz1sh
“There’s life outside of politics. That’s how I plan to keep it,” she says. This is just the beginning for Hale, who doesn’t plan on going anywhere. “I’m trying to be a voice and say things that need to be said – it’s a passion. I’ll be around for a while.”
Views expressed in Content do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the printed blog inc.
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Lifestyle
big in japan: environmentally friendly bikinis made of plastic bottles By Serkan Toto | 4/17/09 | CrunchGear tpburl.com/4wn1c7 Tokyo-based chemical company Asahi Kasei, a corporate giant with 25,000 employees, has announced an environmentally friendly product of the very special kind: swimsuits [JP]. The lovely ladies you can see on the picture (Ayumi Kura, 20, on the left and eighteen-year-old Shi Weng Lu on the right) are wearing bikinis made of polyethylene tephthalate. Polyethylene tephthalate (PET) is the stuff they use to make plastic bottles. Asahi Kasei claims the swimsuits they make from PET (marketed under the brand name Sunplay ECO) are very quick to dry and offer a high level of elasticity. I bet they do. The company also says that compared to conventional swimwear, Sunplay products have a better environmental footprint by using less oil and releasing less carbon dioxide in the production process. Unfortunately, Asahi Kasei hasn’t said yet when the new swimwear will be sold and if it will find its way outside Japan, too. PHOTOS
google kind of love or why tbid and i are going to the shooting range By Amanda | 4/27/09 | Noisiest Passenger tpburl.com/xrpf3w I’m really good at beginning relationships - open, adventurous, and unavailable enough to stay interesting. The problem begins when I start to like the guy. Because people who really like and grow to love each other tend to want to spend time together. Sometimes they want to hear each other’s voices before they drift off to sleep or share the most banal details of their days and feel captivating and supported. Occasionally, they just want to be around with no purpose but to say, “I could do nothing with you all day, and it would be something.” Over a year into dating TBID, I’m starting to get itchy. Some article I once read talked about how new love is intoxicating, but lovers develop a tolerance over time. That explains those moments when the person who made your heart skip a beat starts raising your blood pressure. You realize your significant other has the potential to be significantly annoying. “If he says ‘initiative’ in five syllables one more time,” you tell yourself, “I am so outta here.” Still, TBID rarely annoys me. (We’ll give that a few more months). What does bother me is that I worry that we don’t spend enough time together. Then again, that may be why this relationship is working. Is that a problem? Do two committed people who live five express stops from each other normally talk everyday? TBID and I don’t always. Because we both have our own creative and professional pursuits outside of our jobs, we often spend one weekend day apart and one together. During the work-week, we’ll generally see each other once. This wasn’t the case in my previous relationship. Giddy goo-ga in the beginning, the ex-boyfriend and I spent a ridiculous amount of time together. The fall I began tutoring and freelancing, he started to complain that I always seemed distracted and that we didn’t spend as much time together. But my new pursuits thrilled me. The relationship, for various reasons, slowly gathered dust and eventually became something I used to be in. Alone time is a godsend and a necessity, even more so for me than TBID. Yet I wish I could demarcate what time is his, mine, and ours with ours somehow growing at the same time as our creative output. It’s not balancing the national budget or anything, but it’s hard. The latest initiative (that’s “initiative” in four syllables) in our relationship is a shared Google calendar and list of stuff to do. This way, neither TBID nor I can ever shrug and resolve that, “Nope. There’s absolutely nothing to do in NYC today.” The list includes boxes for who thought of the idea, where it is, when it is, price, and why on Earth you’d want to do this activity as a couple. No one has used, “Because we’re dating, so you just have to” in that last box yet, though I’m certainly considering it for this Make Your Own Yarn Animals workshop I heard about. Events go on the calendar after we’ve officially IMed, emailed, or mentioned them to each other and received a yes. This new system has been successful so far. The best part of this is that TBID came up with the system - not me, the control freak. No wonder he’s always toward the top of my to-do list. TWITTER IS THE NEW FACEBOOK. FOLLOW OUR TWEETS AT TWITTER.COM/THEPRINTEDBLOG.
Janka Mudrakova | tpburl.com/tf07rj
WE WERE JUST KIDDING, FACEBOOK. NO AMOUNT OF TWEETS CAN EVER REPLACE YOU. BECOME A FAN OF THE PRINTED BLOG BY SEARCHING FOR US ON THE BEST SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE ON THE PLANET. PHOTOS
LIFE WITHOUT EVENTS IS LIKE A COOKIE WITHOUT CHOCOLATE CHIPS. SO SHARE YOUR EVENTS WITH THE WORLD, BE THEY LECTURES, CONCERTS, PLAYS, SPORTING EVENTS, ZEPHYR LAUNCHES, OR MARTY MCFLY FAN CLUB MEETINGS BY SENDING AN EMAIL TO EVENTS@ THEPRINTEDBLOG.COM.
too fat to fly (but not too tall?) By Harriet | 4/18/09 | Feed Me! tpburl.com/ntxh4q My daughter took a flight recently and sat next to a man who she guessed was over seven feet tall. No lie. And because there was no elbow rest between their seats, she spent the flight hunched into a corner of her seat. You can be damn sure this gentleman was not charged for two seats. And yet anyone who now flies United who takes up more than his or her allotted seat centimeters due to weight will be charged for two seats. So flying fat will cost you double, but flying tall won’t. I find United’s new policy offensive and discriminatory on many levels. If you do too, consider following the directions in the form letter below, which was created by Marilyn Wann, to protest. Because you better believe that if United gets away with this, all the major carriers will start imposing a fat flyers’ penalty. And who’s to say what’s “too fat” to fly with a single ticket? Down the line, could ticket agents be whipping out BMI charts when you get your boarding pass? I put nothing past this fatphobic society (and the airlines’ desperation to turn a profit). Hi: United Airlines is the last of the major carriers to announce proudly a policy of charging fat passengers double. They say they received 700 complaints last year (out of 80 million passengers carried) from thin people who did not like having a fat person sit next to them and perhaps take up some of their seat space. I am convinced that the 700 fat seatmates who didn’t complain were not too happy about the situation, either. People in the fat pride community have decided to try and beat that 700 complaints statistic. I’m writing to ask you and the people you know to complain at United.com about this costly and discriminatory targeting of one demographic group. If this policy stands, it means fat people have less right to interstate air travel than other people. Everybody deserves a safe and comfortable chair on an airplane, at an affordable price! Here’s the link for Customer Relations. Expect to be asked to fill in some irksome required fields: - If you don’t have a United frequent flier number, you can use mine: 00229870823. - For flight info, I just put 4/15/2009 (the day United announced its policy). - For departure and return cities, I put San Francisco in both slots. Please copy your complaint letter to my e-mail address, so we can keep count as we approach and pass 700. Thanks tons! - [insert your name and e-mail address]
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Kaisern Chen | tpburl.com/dkpsqg
kim shows off her sunburn! By Liz | 4/17/09 | TheseBootsAreMadeForStalking.com tpburl.com/mdfby8 Kim Kardashian needs some aloe vera asap! The reality-TV star posted photos on her blog of her extreme sunburn from falling asleep in the sun in Mexico. “PLEASE HELP ME! I am so sunburned!” Kardashian wrote on her Twitter page. “I fell asleep with huge glasses on yesterday! This tan line is not ok!!!” She added, “I’m going to have to hide from cameras for days. I usually never get red, I always get dark. It hurts!” She then asks for some post-burning advice, “Do u guys have any remedies I can try to help ease the pain and get rid of the redness? … I will never wear sunglasses when sunbathing again!” Go with the spray tan next time Kim! PHOTOS
“i tell my husband i’m going to the gym & instead go to a pole dancing class.” By Brandy | 4/27/09 | It’s like I’m... mmmagic! tpburl.com/jhtsdg It’s Monday, so you know the drill. Read past Monday (or Sunday!) posts in January, February and March to get caught up. Also remember to keep the secrets coming and let other people know about the project. I thought it was interesting that this week there were TWO submissions (sent within hours of each other) both relating to the Vegas meet up! 1. I am secretly married. My family has no idea. They do not like my husband. We have a child together. I have no idea how to break the news to them. I cannot live this lie anymore…. 2. I’ve been having some gynaecological issues the past couple of years. I wouldn’t mind if it turned out I was infertile, because then I would have a valid reason for not ever giving birth to something without being judged for it. The whole pregnancy thing terrifies me. 3. I’m at a point in life where I feel like I have no friends. So many have moved away or simply moved on. I’m lonely for girlfriends, and I wish I remembered how to make them. 4. I’d like to go to the Bloggers in Sin City meetup, but don’t think I’m cool enough. 5. In all my friendships, I am always the better friend. The one who tries harder, gives more, listens longer. Telling someone they need to be a better friend makes me sound like I’m in primary school but I’m exhausted. 6. I read the secret last week about someone admitting they had a blog crush. I have one too. I’m 100% male with a crush on a female blogger and am not sure I should tell her. I wonder if the girl from last week was talking about me? 7. I totally want to go to the blogging meet up in Vegas but I feel like everyone already is friends and I’m the odd man (well, okay woman) out. 8. I never masturbate. Ever. I always hear about girls being shy about how much they get off, but unless I’m having actual sex with someone else- it just doesn’t happen. I feel like such a freak for admitting this but I have no idea how to make myself “happy”. 9. I’ve been blogging for six years and my blogroll is out of control. I want to delete it but feel like I will hurt a lot of people’s feelings if I do. And I know someone will tell me that people really won’t care if they are deleted if you explain why- and I have to say (here’s my second secret!!), I’m always sort of bummed out when I’m deleted from someone else’s blogroll so I’m trying to avoid making people feel how I felt. 10. I sometimes buy clothes, wear them (with the tags hidden!) and return them for cash. PHOTOS
Zoltan Fodor | tpburl.com/rfzk0x
Andreas de Lara | tpburl.com/8r4063
Kaisern Chen | tpburl.com/dkpsqg
Chirp Off
wind-up vibrator gives greener orgasms By Simon Crisp | 4/27/09 | NewLite tpburl.com/k35604 A vibrator powered by a hand crank (no pun intended) has gone on sale as the world’s first wind-up sex toy. Makers say the ‘Earth Angel Vibrator’ is made from recycled materials and can give an hour of eco-gasmic power for 8 minutes of cranking. Users wind a built-in handle to charge the £65 device and can select from 4 speeds of vibration or store the energy for another time. One user said: “It feels good to be doing my bit for the environment and now my husband doesn’t keep asking what we need all the batteries for when we are at the supermarket.” Bonny Hall of sex toy website LoveHoney added: “It may sound like a wind-up, but going green has never been this sexy.”
For each issue we post a question on our Twitter feed and these are your answers. Post your opinion to our questions and you might be featured in our next issue at twitter.com/theprintedblog.
@theprintedblog asked: If you could name Susan Boyle’s first album, what would you call it? @breeanelyse Songs From Behind the Paper Bag @tjwrighter “Swan Song” @EdwardDomain @danielcollins
Susan's 1st album: "I told you fu**ers I was good!” “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”
@rushbomb “Like a Fine Wine” @JayFerris @BraxtonMedia
Boyle Poppin’: Susan re-imagines 13 Britney Spears classics. Susan Boyle: Hag to Riches
@msdarkstar The Melody of True Beauty @hollywoodjane
Scotch & Soda.
@clevelandsaplum “this record better get me bloody laid”
Views expressed in Content do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the printed blog inc.
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book review: “root for the cubs”
PHOTOS
By Al | 4/27/09 | Bleed Cubbie Blue tpburl.com/vqgshx Charlie Root is the Cubs’ all-time leader in wins (201), games pitched (605) and innings pitched (3137.1), nearly 70 years after he threw his last pitch for the ballclub. This new biography, cleverly titled with a play on words “Root For The Cubs”, brings this nearly-forgotten figure back to the forefront. And rather than focus on the one event that made Root famous -- an event he despised and in his later years as a pitching coach, would throw at any one of his players who would mention it -- this book is mostly about the 1929 Cub pennant-winning season, which was Root’s second-best as a Cub (second only to his breakout year, 1927, when he was 28 years old and won 26 games, which is the most wins for a Cubs pitcher since 1912), when he helped lead the team to their first pennant since 1918. (The Ruth “called shot” is discussed in detail in the book’s epilogue.) The book’s charm comes mainly from its primary source, Root’s 90-year-old daughter, Della Root Arnold, still living in California (where a family car bears the license plate “BABEWHO”), who sat down for long interviews with the book’s author, Roger Snell. She gave Snell many clear recollections of events eight decades past, and apparently kept a journal through many years of her father’s career. There’s quite a bit of detail about Cubs spring training on California’s Catalina Island, where the team trained from 1921-51 (with interruptions during World War II). They trained there primarily because the team’s owner, William Wrigley Jr., had bought the island for a song not long before. The book also goes into quite a bit of detail on how Wrigley wrested full control of the team from “Lucky” Charlie Weeghman. The parallels to today’s situation aren’t exact, but like Tom Ricketts, Wrigley was a huge baseball and Cubs fan, spent many days at the ballpark and was always looking for ways to improve his team both on and off the field; he was one of the first owners to realize the promotional potential of radio broadcasts. Of baseball, Wrigley said: No man is qualified to make a genuine success of owning a big league ball team who isn’t in it because of his love for the game. He’s sure to weaken in his support at some critical point of its development if his heart isn’t in the sport. On the other hand, it is no undertaking for a man who hasn’t practically unlimited financial resources at his command, regardless of how much he loves the game. If he regards it merely as a means of making money, he’d much better invest his time and capital in an enterprise strictly commercial in character. Operating a successful big-league ball team is radically different from running any commmercial or industrial business, because you are dealing, 100 percent, in and with human nature -- and that’s always a variable quantity. There’s a catch in this business at every turn, because you’re playing with tricky, variable human nature, not inert physical commodities and mechanical methods.
Sven Brogren Daniel Kelleghan | tpburl.com/km50wq Chicago
male book readers this time outnumber the gals By Kevin | 4/16/09 | CTA Tattler tpburl.com/1mtzk8 The CTA reader guys have rallied and overtaken the women in the latest CTA Tattler UNscientific poll on who’s reading what on their commute. Last month, you may recall I reported seeing 21 El readers, and 17 of them were women. I encouraged guys to put down their RedEyes and Blackberry devices and show the women that they know how to read. And boy did they ever. This time, 17 out of 29 people I observed reading in the last month were men. Here’s what they all were reading: • A People’s History of the United States - man in his early 30s • The Ball is Round; A Global History of Soccer guy in his early 30s • The Bible - guy in his late 30s • Rabbit, Run - woman late 20s • Super Crunchers - woman in her late 50s • Identity Crisis - guy in his 30s (alternating reading with CTA map) • Crime and Punishment - guy in his 50s • The AA Blue Book - guy in his 20s • The Life of Elizabeth I - woman in her 30s • No title - guy in upper 20s • No title - woman in mid-20s • Kindle Reader (no title) - guy in his mid-40s • No title - gal in her mid-20s • Twelfth Night - guy in his 30s • The Women - gal in her 30s, sitting next to guy in his 50s I mentioned last time reading the same book
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
No title - guy in his late 30s Desire - woman in her 60s Work and Love - woman in her early 30s The Bible - guy in his mid-30s Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - girl in late teens The Collector - woman in her mid-20s A Portrait of the Artist - guy in his early 30s The Overlook - woman in her early 30s The Savage Detectives - guy in his late 30s The Shack - guy in his late 20s Ghost Train to the Eastern Star - guy in his late 50s A Year in Provence - woman early 30s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - guy in late 20s Engaging the Muslim World - guy in his upper 30s
bring may (or late april flowers) By Allie | 4/27/09 | Allie & Jeff
tpburl.com/rk04q3
Words, I think, for Tom Ricketts to live by as he takes over the team sometime later this year. Wrigley also hired Joe McCarthy as manager and, like Lou Piniella today, McCarthy managed to change the team’s culture. But Wrigley also fired McCarthy after blaming him (wrongly, I think) for the team’s loss in the ‘29 World Series, where they executed what is still the biggest blown lead in a World Series game, an 8-0 seventh-inning lead in Game Four, when they could have tied the series (a game in which Root had pitched brilliantly up to that time), and a oneout, nobody-on, 2-0 lead in the ninth inning of Game Five. The Cubs had been favored to win despite the Athletics’ better regular-season record. McCarthy, who never played in the majors, went on to win seven World Series with the Yankees, and although the Cubs and Root would be in three more Fall Classics... well, you know the end of that story. This book tells about a part of Cubs history that is largely forgotten today. With only the possible exception of Mordecai Brown, Charlie Root is the greatest pitcher in the history of the Cubs. Read this biography and you’ll know him better, and you’ll also know more about the 1929 Cubs, one of the franchise’s greatest teams.
THE LOOP Frontera Fresco Categories: Restaurants Location: 111 N. State Street, Chicago, IL 60602 tpburl.com/ftqzw5 Martha C. says, “Tortilla Soup! Tortilla Soup! Tortilla Soup!! Wow, I love this place, and there tortilla soup. Rick is obviously a master at his trade, because the food here is amazing. Who would have thought that this masterful restaurant can be found on the 7th floor of Macy's, instead of in a hot downtown location?!”
See all Chicago reviews at www.yelp.com/chicago
CHICAGO EVENTS MAY
The Joffrey Ballet Spring Program Auditorium Theatre tpburl.com/brkh79
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Chicago Opera Theatre/ Bizet: Carmen Harris Theatre for Music and Dance tpburl.com/9bgnh2
MAY
Plain White T’s Metro tpburl.com/8qjmcp
MAY
Kevin Williams Zanies Comedy Club tpburl.com/jbdzv5
MAY
Fall Out Boy All-State Arena tpburl.com/49zrft
MAY
Frank Lloyd Wright by bus 224 South Michigan tpburl.com/ndc6xy
MAY
Cursive/P.O.S./The Berg Sans Nipple Bottom Lounge tpburl.com/63bh91
MAY
An Evening of Beauty and Business Chicago-NFP Networking Event Juvenesse Spa tpburl.com/2kr5db
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See what is happening in Chicago at eventful.com/Chicago Advertising
I’d like to preface this post with a brief apology to Jeff—I’ve taken this blog over to some extent, and in doing so I’ve tied his name to cupcakes, kittens and other girl things. Well, now that that’s out of the way, check out these pretty spring flowers around the loop. They make for easy subjects for my aperture assignments in photography class.
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