Yikes!
May 11, 2008
May 10, 2008
The real GI Bill and the fake one
Hey, folks like the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America are pushing a bill to get real educational benefits to the troops. Barack's behind this, and Bush/McCain's against.
The real bill, the "Webb/Hagel" bill, covers the cost of a four-year public school college education anywhere in the country.
It includes National Guardsmen and Reservists.
It's linked to the actual cost of college, which addresses inflation.
The fake bill is the "McCain/Graham/Burr" bill, doesn't address this big issues.
The real bill's supported by all the real veterans' service organizations, and by more than half the Senate and also the House.
There's a difference between saying one supports the troops, and actually doing it.
They shoot me, I shoot them
(papparazzi at Time thing)
May 09, 2008
My black-headed grosbeaks are back!
mmmm! suet sure is tasty!
May 08, 2008
May 07, 2008
The new GI Bill
Hey, returning veterans get very little in the way of educational benefits, but the new GI Bill addresses that.
Please support the bill by checking out this link from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Barack's behind this bill, but Bush and McCain support the troops by denying them higher education.
At Bloomberg tv
Nice people.
Toast! A report from New York
I love the almond brioche toast from Amy's Bread
May 06, 2008
Obama wins the Colbert/DonorsChoose.org Democralypse!
Hey, there was a DonorsChoose.org contest, where people could contribute to classrooms in a way that voted for Obama or Clinton.
The results are here
Give in honor of Barack Obama
$159,347 2327 34446
Give in honor of Hillary Clinton
$29,220 327 10097
I guess there's over two thousand not scammed by the gas tax thing, and over thirty four thousand students helped by them.
I'm using twitter a lot
Not a bad way to get hold of me, try twitter.com/craignewmark
May 05, 2008
Customer service at the Hello Deli
Vote for Barack: here's your real change right here
Let's cut to the chase and get to one real big reason a vote for Obama's really a big deal. This is the short version, since I'm tired of hearing myself talk.
For a long, long time, Washington politics has been run by influence peddlers and predatory lobbyists. There are guys who want special privileges for their clients, like "no-bid contracts" and tax breaks. A few oil companies, military contractors, and phone companies have been real successful with this, and you pay the bill.
(Fairness says I gotta remind you that most lobbyists are just fine, they just look to get a break for their clients, and that's okay with me.)
There are two ways the good guys are fighting the predators. One is to make new rules to promote fairness, the other is to let you see how things work in Washington so you can see for yourself.
The new rules for fair play go under "ethics reform", and Congress has made a good start on this last year. Barack supports this wholeheartedly; Hillary, not so much. In fact, I was at an event recently where a noted Hillary surrogate openly disrepected ethics reform in a big way.
Another way to help fix things is get political stuff out where everyone can see it, and the fancy term for that is "transparency." That includes telling us stuff like how much money lobbyists contribute to what politicians and what they get in return. Barack's heavily behind that, it's a big part of his platform. Hillary's pretty much silent on this, maybe a little lip service.
So that's the deal. You want some "change" that's for real, this is it. Barrack is part of the team who wants to change politics by getting rid of a lot of the bad guys. Hillary, not so much.
I want things to get better. How about you?
May 03, 2008
Robin, outside my home office window
No particular reason other than I miss my birds while traveling.
Mischa's at Joe's!
She worked at Reverie, my favorite coffee house in SF. Now she's at one of my NY faves, Joe's on Waverly.
May 01, 2008
Front groups/swiftboaters and dirty tricks
There are already a few groups damaging the election process, but there are also good investigative reporters exposing these groups. Please take a look at these.
In a new, ongoing report, the Center for Public Integrity compares "Freedom's Watch", a White House front group, with MoveOn. (While I don't agree with everything they say, they're genuinely grassroots.)
The Center for Investigative Reporting just released "Group with Clinton Ties Behind Dubious Robocalls"
For more background, check out good reports from the Center for Media and Democracy, here and here.
April 30, 2008
USC Shoah Foundation Institute: important, not well known
Take a look!
Established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, the USC Shoah Foundation Institute has recorded nearly 52,000 video interviews with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. The Institute’s archive, which contains over 120,000 hours of testimony, can be accessed at universities and other institutions on three continents.The Institute’s mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry—and the suffering they cause—through the educational use of its visual history testimonies. In the near future, the Institute will work
with the Rwandan organization IBUKA to collect the testimonies of survivors of the 1994 Rwandan Tutsi Genocide.
April 29, 2008
Reverend Wright upside: I'm not Obama's craziest uncle
... quite a relief.
UPDATE: for where I'm coming from, check out Joe Klein: Time to Lock the Crazy Uncle in the Attic
"Pentagon Pundit Scandal Broke the Law"
Hey, you probably read about how the White House paid retired generals to deceive people.
Funny story... turns out that it sure looks illegal.
The Pentagon military analyst program unveiled in last week's exposé by David Barstow in the New York Times was not just unethical but illegal. It violates, for starters, specific restrictions that Congress has been placing in its annual appropriation bills every year since 1951. According to those restrictions, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress."
April 28, 2008
Barack wins informal vote among Washington insiders
Ah, I'm not sure what it means, but he gets 43% to McCain 37%, reported by Mediabistro Fishbowl DC here.
Kinda fun to watch.
April 27, 2008
Jane thanks the academy? (was: wins award...)
For best writers' salon?
April 26, 2008
reporting conference
Hearing lots from very committed people about serious investigative reporting while resources are shrinking.
Looks like very impressive work will come fro Propublica, Center for Investigative Reporting, Center for Public Integrity.
Also learning what I should've already known about talking directly to press vs. using s spokesman.
Berkeley symposium on investigative reporting
networks. Guy on right is Lowell Bergman, as in tv movie The Insider,
played by Pacino.
First panel includes Len Downie, Bill Keller.
Using twitter a lot now
as user "craignewmark".
However, I can see a bunch of people much more talented than me, doing lots of writing, like Ellen Miller, Dave Winer, Joe Trippi, many others.
April 23, 2008
Anthony Batt: why it's called "craigslist"
Butterball the hawk is back!
Maybe she'll make more babies in our backyard.
April 22, 2008
I am a "hnun"
Yes, that's Hebrew for nerd.
You should say it with the hard "ch" sound, an "h" with an edge, as in Hanukah or Chanukah.
More precisely, one should spray it, not just say it.
April 21, 2008
Meeting OneVoice students in Tel Aviv via Susan Mernit
Well, Susan Mernit is one of those "traveling geek" bloggers who write much better than myself:
It's a weekend morning, in Tel Aviv and Craig Newmark, JD Lasica and I are meeting with the director and a group of student leaders from One Voice , a powerful, grassroots peace movement that has engaged Israelis, especially college students, from all over Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Gaza, as well as drawn in members from the US, the UK, Canada, and other parts of the world. The group is bright, committed, and right now, engaged in making sure this group of American bloggers and funders (Craig is on their board), understands how they work and what they have to offer.
April 20, 2008
Clay Shirky discusses professional media, more from "Here Comes Everyone"
Clay's book is very good, as previously described. In this clip, he talks about how the constraints of the printing press, like high cost of entry, helped create the professions of media.
April 19, 2008
Good recap site for our trip to Israel
The Traveling Geeks group blog helps remind me that these folks are really good writers and photographers, check out the slideshow.
American Public Media's Center for Innovation in Journalism
Hey, the folks at American Public Media are doing some really good new stuff:
American Public Media's Center for Innovation in Journalism is spreading a new model that turns newsrooms and the audience into partners. Public Insight Journalism means: Stories that matter because they come from those living the news; Reporters relying on sources from unheard-from communities (poor, immigrant, youth); and News that empowers people by engaging them. Currently, 52,000 people have agreed to share their knowledge and insight to make our reporting deeper and more relevant, with 2,000 people signing up every moth to join our citizen network. PIJ helps to develop public partnerships to bring stories and voices that would not otherwise be covered in the news.
check it out here.
At dusk, the robin sings
I can also hear a Steller's Jay, and an aggravated squirrel.
April 18, 2008
Ish and Shuly at Newark
April 15, 2008
Best chance for "Jerusalem Syndrome" today
That's usually where an American visitor starts thinking he's some Biblical figure. We'll be getting a tour of the old city of Jerusalem.
For reasons unknown, I'm considering John the Baptist, though I hope not to lose my head.
Solar energy innovations
Hey, yesterday we visited a coupla groups doing some realistic new stuff regarding energy production.
We visited Xjet Solar, whose innovations involve new ways to do solar cells very cheaply, which is a big deal... using some new proprietary tech. This is a photovoltaic solution, wherein light is converted directly into electricity. The focus is on small applications, like powering a home. While promising, it's a future.
We also visited Solel which uses existing tech to use thermal energy. That is, this uses the sun's heat to create electricity using turbines. It's another way to generate steam to get power. It can be used at power stations, like one that might be at the Mojave Desert.
This tech is here and now, and power stations are being built.
It uses arrays of parabolic mirrors which follow the sun, focusing on glass/steel tubes wherein the hot water is generated. The first photo shows a mirror, with the black line being the tube which concentrates heat. The second photo shows a stack of those tubes close up.
craigslist blog now has RSS and comments
Hey, check it out here.
Of particular interest:
ConsumerAffairs.com on Connecticut AG
Jim Buckmaster's the guy who really runs CL, does a great job here.
My first rocket attack, and I eat algae
Well, after getting lost in the wilds of Israel, we arrive at Ashkelon. We're going to see a proof of concept where Seambiotic uses algae to produce biofuel.
I didn't quite get how close it is to Gaza. While waiting for security to clear we hear a siren, and the guards rush us to a wall. The siren alerted them to a rocket attack which probably landed far south of us. They ushered us up against a wall, which presumably protects against shrapnel from one side.
(first time I've ever needed to write "shrapnel.")
For your own rocket attacks, I recommend the Qassam.
Anyway, they showed us the processes used to grow algae used to produce biofuel on a possibly industrial basis.
The resulting dust is also an excellent source of Omega-3 nutrients.
April 14, 2008
JD Lasica on OneVoice meeting
As I feared, he does a much better job describing OneVoice than me, in his report here
This is not a traditional peace movement based on hopes and idealism, but it is a collection of people (every one of the seven representatives was between 20 and 35) who accept the fact that there needs to be a transition period -- "the divorce," Shamy put it -- before the two sides can realistically hope to come to an accord that ends the fighting over land, that accommodates all the religions' holy places, that holds out hope "for the kids."
New craigslist cities
Well, we just added what looks like 120 new cities, bringing it to 570, I think. (gotta confirm)
This includes Ramallah
April 13, 2008
Bloggers meet with OneVoice leaders in Tel Aviv
Here's JD Lasica and Susan Mernit (back to us) with a bunch of people from the Tel Aviv office of OneVoice
(I expect to post links to real blogging by both, and by contrast with this, it'll show why I kinda suck as a blogger.)
April 12, 2008
Okay, just started twittering
As if sharing a room with Robert Scoble isn't frightening enough, he's persuaded me to sign up with Twitter as craignewmark
Not sure how active I can be, still doing lotsa customer service, that's how I earn a living, even while traveling.
