ideas

Happy Halloween

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Geez, this one scares me every time :o)

posted by Leigh Householder

Jonathan Coulton loves Ikea

Who is Jonathan Coulton? Well, apparently he's something of a geeky folksinger. And, in this case, those are each words worn as a badge of honor (not the scathing jabs they might be in another context). Here's a taste of his ballad to Ikea:

Ikea: just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen Ikea: selling furniture for college kids and divorced men Everyone has a home But if you don't have a home you can buy one there

So rent a car or take the bus
Lay your cash down and put your trust
In the land where the furniture folds to a much smaller size
Billy the bookcase says hello
And so does a table whose name is Ingo
And the chair is a ladder-back birch but his friends call him Karl

It's a weirdly catchy song, even with moments of near longing for allen wrenches. Listen here.

Coulton has two CDs for sale - both featuring such quirky geek fare as losers, giant squids and mathematics. And, heck, who wouldn't want to buy a CD where "the song that made it OK to have sex outside again" gets top billing.

Rhapsody subscribers, listen to his first album here.

I do like monkeys and ponies. Come to Columbus, Jonathan!

posted by Leigh Householder

Fall Pets Preview

The ever-enthusiastic Small Brown Bear, shy Willie and curious Bug got to play in the leaves this afternoon - thanks to President Bush for shutting down all of downtown for his little rally. Hooray for pets. And, leaves.

See more of my seemingly endless collection of pet photos here.

Duck and Cover! Blog PR is Coming!

So, you've taken your drug test, complied fully with the dress code (even buying pantyhose in an egg on one desperate occasion), worked weekends and smiled through a thoroughly soul-crushing meeting or two. What else could corporate America possibly have in store for you? Well, now they're out to attack your blog. That little taste of self-expression in your personal time is now the target of public relations, um, management.

The relative success of blogging has wounded the traditional PR machine - no longer is "news" (meaning the topics as much or more than the content) the sole province of professional journalists. Thousands of ordinary people trade ideas and news and opinions online - with no hand-feeding whatsoever. So what now? Well, get ready...

From Dan Gilmore of the San Jose Mercury Sun on his eJournal:

I just got an e-mail PR pitch for a company that's monitoring online discussions on behalf of corporate clients. Here's part of the pitch:

"(PR client) is a market intelligence and media analysis services firm. (PR client) is working with F1000 companies who are using our services to Manage and Monitor Digital Influencers (such as blogs, message boards, user groups, complaint sites, etc.) as an intelligence and threat awareness tool. (Person's name), CEO could talk to you about 'What F1000 Companies are doing to take action against bloggers' and 'How companies are taking steps to protect their corporate reputations from bloggers/digital influencers.'"

Read more of Dan's comments

posted by Leigh Householder

Life in a Swing State

I'm off to the John Kerry rally on campus later today. Bruce Springsteen will be performing. I can only hope the people-watching is half this good.

posted by Leigh Householder

Bush Supporters Believe ... in whateva

I mentioned before that this election has made playing "devils advocate" for the other side almost impossible. Both sides are asking - how could you possibly support the other guy? The University of Maryland conducted research that might help answer that question for Dems. So, how can half the country support Bush despite ... everything!? Here it is:

Poll finds reality gap among Bush supporters
By FRANK DAVIES
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A large majority of President Bush's supporters continue
to believe that Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (47
percent) or a major program to develop them (25 percent), contrary to
official findings, a survey taken this month found.

And three out of four Bush backers believe Saddam Hussein provided
substantial support to al-Qaeda or was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks, while 56 percent said the Sept. 11 Commission found such
ties. In reality, the commission found "no collaborative relationship"
between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

The survey by the University of Maryland's Program on International
Policy Attitudes, released Thursday, shows that the supporters of Bush
and Sen. John Kerry have stark differences and see "separate
realities" about Iraq and other foreign policy issues.

Steven Kull, program director, said that Bush supporters' "resistance
to information" on several fronts reflected a powerful bond with the
president formed after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the perception -
shared by Kerry supporters - that Bush still asserts that Iraq had
WMD.

Read the extension of this post for the full article.

posted by Leigh Householder

Dave Matthews Band - Poooo Monsters?

I'm not sure how I missed this story (which I'm guessing most of you have already seen), but now that I'm up-to-date, I am befuddled by the math.

This week, the Dave Matthews Band made a generous donation of $50,000 to the nonprofit group Friends of the Chicago River and $50,000 to the Chicago Park District. Why the good will?

Well, on Sunday, August 8, their tour bus crossed the Kinzie Street Bridge and emptied its septic tank through the bridge's metal grating, dousing more than 100 people on an architecture tour below with 800 pounds of liquid human waste.

The bus driver has been suspended. No word on what he expected to happen when he opened the gates of poo over a highly-trafficked river in the middle of boating season.

Although the band is trying to make amends with individuals and the City, Illinois Attorney General Lisa “Mad Dog” Madigan’s office says the state will “continue to pursue its civil suit against the band.”

800 pounds of, uh, excrement!

Now, of course there is water worked in there as well, but, still we're talking about water-conserving mobile restrooms here. One gallon of water weighs ~8 pounds, divided by ... carry the one ...

... that is A LOT of raw sewage to be toting around - and, a really significant capacity for a bus. Plus, one of three other things is happening there: (1) they rarely empty it, (2) they have cataclysmically bad diets or (3) there are waaaay too many people on that bus.

I dedicate my next week of showers to the people on that Chicago Architectural Foundation boat. Yucky!

CNN coverage

posted by Leigh Householder

Hate Crime Laws

Interesting news out of Georgia yesterday. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's four-year-old hate-crimes law, saying it was "unconstitutionally vague."

Justice Carol W. Hunstein wrote the majority opinion and left room for more a more precise law that delineated protected groups. The existing law required harsher sentencing for someone who "intentionally selected any victim or any property of the victim as the object of the offense because of bias or prejudice.”

Interestingly, the reason the law is so vague is that the legislature locked up on a more specific law that included sexual orientation as a protected class. Apparently Georgia is ambivalent about just who deserves protecting.

Nonetheless, I am intrigued by this decision because it opens the door for reconsideration of the constitutionality of hate crimes law.

In 1992 and 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases addressing the constitutionality of statutes directed at bias-motivated intimidation and violence: R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul and Wisconsin v. Mitchell. These well-known cases substantially defined which hate crimes statutes are, and which are not, acceptable under the First Amendment. Still, the decision was very controversial since there remain significant constitutional questions – both the First Amendment concern about punishing thought or words separately from action and a double-jeopardy concern if you’re calling that thought action.

Obviously (from comments above), I think hate crime laws are unconstitutional. And, I think they’re a troubling statement about crime. Frankly, I don’t find random crime more comforting than ideological crime.

There are plenty of laws on the books that give judges and prosecutors leeway to craft an appropriate punishment even for the most heinous crimes. Cherry-picking certain motivations to assign more significant punishments is as arbitrary as the actions the statutes seek to punish.

NYTimes coverage of the Georgia case

posted by Leigh Householder

Rehnquist Hospitalized

Oh my. We've been waiting for the "big surprise" in the weeks running up to the election - something that would change the interest or direction of the nation. I hope, hope this is not it.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been hospitalized with thryoid cancer. Rehnquist underwent a tracheotomy at Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland on Saturday. Amazingly, he expects to be back at work next week when the court will next be in session.

Although I wish the Chief Justice a speedy recover and have high hopes for the upcoming election, the very prospect of a president who believes he's on a mission from god appointing a new chief justice is, well, chilling. No matter what side of the reason v religion debate you come down on, I think we can all agree that a Bush Court appointment, particularly in the CJ spot, could have serious, serious impacts on the division of church and state...

If you haven't already, please read last Sunday's New York Times Magazine article on the role of faith in the Bush administration.

View the continuation of this post for the Rehnquist announcement off the Wire.

posted by Leigh Householder

Circleville Pumpkin Show

Following this weekend’s southern excursion to a certain storied festival, I am left with one question: How much fried cheese can one state eat?

The Circleville Pumpkin Show is billed as, well, a pumpkin show. A 400-pound, 6-ft wide pumpkin pie. Ribbons for giant, mutant pumpkins (this year’s winner? Robert Liggett who somehow transported a 1353-pound pumpkin the midway stage). Crafts and agriculture of all types. Live music, parades, a Pumpkin Princess. Small town contests designed to melt even the most jaded big-city heart: Hog Calling, Egg Tossing, Big Wheel Racing, Pumpkin Toss, and Pie Eating. And, of course, all foods pumpkin.

In reality, this festival is much like the Art Show, the Rib Fest and other Ohio galas. A sprinkling of theme and a lot of the same carnival food booths. Roasted corn on the cob, fried cheese on a stick, corn dogs, fish fry, bbq, cotton candy, fudge, apple dumplings, pizza, sno cones, candy apples, burgers, tacos, elephant ears, fries, pulled pork, sausage, brats, etc., etc.

Local churches and civic groups did come out to put the Pumpkin back in the Show. I sampled five pumpkin products from at least 22 that I saw:

Pumpkin pie (of course)
Pumpkin chip cookies
Pumpkin log (like a flat pumpkin bread spread with cream cheese frosting and rolled)
Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin donuts
Pumpkin ice cream
Pumpkin pizza
Pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin burgers
Pumpkin sauce (on fries, etc.)
Pumpkin waffles
Pumpkin pancakes
Pumpkin elephant ears
Pumpkin cheesecake
Pumpkin brownies
Pumpkin fudge
Pumpkin popcorn
Pumpkin cream puffs
Pumpkin blossoms (deep-fried pumpkin flowers, I think…)
Pumpkin chili
Pumpkin butter
Pumpkin taffy

(I snacked on the first five)

All and all, I was expecting a small town festival and was hit with a carnival runway, full of every type of greasy fair food and questionably-constructed rides. Add the traffic and massive crowds? Well, I’m glad I went ONCE.

posted by Leigh Householder