3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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New from Robot Co-op. creators of the 43 Things social goal management web application, 43 Places lets users note the places they’ve been, the places they want to go, and their experiences around the globe. Currently, 43 Places reports that 1,958 people in 762 cities are going to 1,780 places (by contrast, over at 43 Things, 34,403 people in 4,006 cities are doing 125,094 things). The site also integrates with the Fickr API, so tag a photo with “Louisville” and it automatically shows up on the 43 Places Louisville page. The Wanderlust page lists the newest places. 43 Places even has an RSS feed for new places.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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The Chairman of Equifax says that allowing consumers free access to their credit reports to correct mistakes is unconstitutional and un-American
“Our company felt, and still does … that it’s unconstitutional to cause a public company who has a fiduciary responsibility to return profit to shareholders to give away the product,” Chapman said to reporters following a speech at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco on Monday. “Most of my shareholder group did not think that giving away our product was the American way.”
Chapman was referring to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which since last December has required credit agencies to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit report every 12 months to check for inaccuracies and fraudulent activity. Chapman said that viewing a credit report once a year wouldn’t protect consumers against fraud.
I’m not as down on the credit bureaus and the power they wield as are many others (some of the companies’ other activities, like ChoicePoint, are another matter entirely). Consumers willingly disclose information to those they seek credit from with the knowledge that the creditor will both use information from and contribute information to the consumer’s credit report. In exchange for this, the consumer receives something in return, such as a line of credit or access to goods and services. This is a perfectly defendable exchange for value. The credit agency gets to do what they like with the information, but it seems reasonable to expect that they would allow consumers to see what is in the report and correct inaccuracies in return. Equifax just appears to be acting petty, as it is likely that only an infinetesimal portion of their annual profit comes from selling consumers their own credit reports. It looks particularly bad, given security breaches at the agencies and the heat their affiliated data brokers are currently under.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Not surprisingly, the New York Times architecture critic and Reason’s Hit and Run differ on their opinions regarding the new Freedom Tower to be constructed on the WTC site.
Here’s the Times’ Nicolai Ouroussoff:
The darkness at ground zero just got a little darker. If there are people still clinging to the expectation that the Freedom Tower will become a monument to the highest American ideals, the current design should finally shake them out of that delusion. Somber, oppressive and clumsily conceived, the project suggests a monument to a society that has turned its back on any notion of cultural openness. It is exactly the kind of nightmare that government officials repeatedly asserted would never happen here: an impregnable tower braced against the outside world.
Architecture critics are, of course, elitist snobs when it comes to their area of expertise, so it’s not surprising that a building that people find less grandiose and more accessible (Reason’s Ronald Bailey praises the new design for replacing “the hideous Libeskind design with its stupid windmillsâ€). There’s also quite a tone of sneering about the unwashed masses’ insufficient devotion to “cultural openness†and willingness to accept an edifice that blends with, rather than creating “tension†with, surrounding structures:
The effort fails on almost every level. As an urban object, the tower’s static form and square base finally brush aside the last remnants of Mr. Libeskind’s master plan, whose only real strength was the potential tension it created among the site’s structures. In the tower’s earlier incarnation, for example, its eastern wall formed part of a pedestrian alley that became a significant entry to the memorial site, leading directly between the proposed International Freedom Center and the memorial’s north pool. The alley, flanked on its other side by a performing arts center to be designed by Frank Gehry, was fraught with tension; it is now a formless park littered with trees.
I suspect a lot of New Yorkers, particularly those spending a lot of time in Lower Manhattan, might prefer a park littered with trees to an alley fraught with tension. Further, the Times’ reference to the much-reviled so-called International Freedom Center (aka the Blame America First Center) is telling. Clearly what the Times would like to see is a grand statement at Ground Zero about our place in the global village, with tension-fraught alleyways and places to ponder the imponderable. A better message is to turn it back into what it what was, a center of American commerce that shows the glories of free market commerce (not to say that criticism of the security-driven changes is misplaced, as clearly there should be some middle ground between unsecured and a fortress).
I like the new design. It seems like something that Howard Roark would have been proud of.
UPDATE: The Anchoress didn’t like the NYT piece either. Ann Althouse thinks we critics are too hard on the Times, but I think she’s missing the point that it’s mainly the politics, not the aesthetics, we object to. The Times’ sneering dismissal of shapeless parks littered with trees is still beyond the pale, however. What do they think of Central park?
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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James Lileks has finally recognized that he needs RSS feeds. Hopefully someone will help him figure it out. I do almost all of my blog-browsing through the Bloglines RSS reader, so I often miss reading his site. I imagine I’m not alone in that.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
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Walter Mossberg is is impressed by Sling Media’s new Slingbox, designed to allow “place shiftng” of televised content to any device with a broadband connection:
The Slingbox gives you full control of your home TV and digital recorder even if you are thousands of miles away. You can change channels, use the program guide, and perform any action on the menus of your TV or recorder just as if you were sitting in front of your set. The home TV doesn’t even have to be on at the time.
Sounds like a nice gadget that could help me avoid things like my DirecTiVo deleting Season Pass programming before I get around to watching it. I could have watched the finale of Alias from the laptop, thus avoiding entirely the question of whether BitTorrent directory sites run afoul of the Court’s recent Grokster decision. The next logical step would be set-top boxes that can take the content and put it on a TV, eliminating the need for another DSS receiver.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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I and 80 of my close friends have pledged to spend seven nights at the “Lost Liberty Hotel” just as soon as Weare, NH uses eminent domain to take the property from Justice Souter. You can sign the pledge, too. Here’s your commitment:
By signing this pledge, you agree to pay for lodging in the “Lost Liberty Hotel”, once it is built at 34 Cilley Hill Road, Weare, NH.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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If you’re one of those who think that the Kelo case was no big deal and that those of us worried about it are engaged in a bit of slippery slope hysterics, look at what happens when you officially open the floodgates to private owner-to-private owner eminent domain. You should read the whole list in Radley Balko’s post, but here are the most egregious in my opinion:
- Arnold, Mo. — “Arnold Mayor Mark Powell applauded the decision,” reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The City of Arnold wants to raze 30 homes and 15 small businesses, including the Arnold VFW, for a Lowe’s Home Improvement store and a strip mall–a $55 million project for which developer THF Realty will receive $21 million in tax-increment financing. Powell said that for “cash-strapped” cities like Arnold, enticing commercial development is just as important as other public improvements.
- Newark, N.J. — Newark officials want to raze 14 downtown acres in the Mulberry Street area to build 2,000 upscale condo units and retail space. The Municipal Council voted against the plan in 2003, but then reversed its decision eight months later following re-election campaigns in which developers donated thousands of dollars. Officials told the Associated Press that the Mulberry Street project could have been killed if the U.S. Supreme Court had sided with the homeowners in Kelo.
- Lodi, N.J. — Save Our Homes, a coalition of 200 residents in a Lodi trailer park targeted by the City for private retail development and a senior-living community, goes to court on July 18 to try to prevent a private developer from taking their homes. Lodi Mayor Gary Paparozzi called the Kelo ruling a “shot in the arm” for the town. He told the Bergen County Record, “The trailer park is like a poster child for redevelopment. That’s the best-case scenario for using eminent domain.”
The Kelo defenders said that the decision would only be used for the massive economic development plans like the one at issue in the case, that it wouldn’t be used to build a Wal-Mart. They said fears that the politically well-connected would use private eminent domain actions to railroad the poor and less connected were so much hysteric bloviating. Here we have a developer seeking to use eminent domain to clear the way for a Lowe’s store, a developer that only received the go-ahead for luxur condos by fattening the wallets of the members of the city council, a mayor who says flattening a trailer park is the best-case scenario for using eminent domain. Not roads, not utility lines, not even government buildngs. The highest and best use for the government’s right to take property from a private citizen, a power great enough that the Constitution treats it on par with the right against self-incrimination, is to drive a bunch of lower-class workers from their trailer homes so the park won’t offend the delicate sensibilities of the ruling class?
Defenders of Kelo and the other abominations emanating from the Court this term like to claim that the decisions set a floor for government action. Any case with facts worse than those before the Court would be “tied up in litigation.” Well, here’s your chance. If the eminent domain actions go forward in Arnold and Lodi and Newark, then we’ll all know that Justice Thomas was right all along.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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Lisa Binder has put some t-shirts and mugs featuring the dissents of Justice Thomas and Justice O’Connor on Cafe Press. The Thomas dissent is shorter and makes for better apparel/caffeinated beverage container(s):
Something has gone seriously awry with this Court’s interpretation of the Constitution.
An undefined portion of the profits goes to the Institute for Justice. I ordered the mug.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
by Fred (,
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The all-new Sesame Street
The show tackles the horrors of domestic abuse as several cast members try and convince Ernie to leave Bert.
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3 years, 5 months ago,,
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Investigative Satirist (whatever the hell that is) Paul Krassner at The Huffington Post updates the BusHitler meme for the 21st century:
There was something about Bush that reminded me of another president, a man I’d seen on the news the previous evening. It was the former president of his church, the BTK terrorist, justifying his project. Of course, to my knowledge, Bush hasn’t personally bound, tortured and killed anybody. Rather, his destiny was determined by that for which he was trained in college. Bush is our Cheerleader-in-Chief.
Sure thing, Paul – Bush hasn’t personally tortured and killed anyone “to your knowledge.” Moron.
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The all-new Sesame Street