how now brownpau
(The Union Water Tower uploaded by brownpau.)
I spent the Labor Day holiday up in New Jersey with Amy, soaking in all that the town of Union, NJ had to offer — which mostly consisted of dollar stores and thrift shops. But there was a very nice little Filipino food market and restaurant, and of course, the famous Union Water Tower (photo above), still the tallest spherical water tower in the world.
More photos in the Labor Day in NJ photoset.
(NewYork.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
Went to New York today. Rode the Staten Island Ferry, ate noodles at South Street Seaport, watched kids bounce around on bungies, bought a few art and design books at The Strand, checked out an exhibit at MoBiA, and saw one of those living statues on break, eating a hot dog.
Update: Here are the photos: Staten Island Ferry photoset.
(Sunset.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
(Trenton.jpg uploaded by brownpau.)
I’m up in NJ for the long weekend. Check my Flickr photostream for mobile updates. Happy Labor Day.
Spamhuntress points to a Guardian story about an unapologetic referrer spammer. The last quote is absolutely precious:
“Why would it be unethical, any more than it is unethical to wear a highly visible company logo on a piece of clothing?”
My response is in the comments:
“Someone tell him to make highly visible red and pink stickers which say TEXAS HOLDEM POKER PHENTERMINE VIAGRA MILF RAPE SEX, then walk around Oslo, randomly slapping those stickers onto people’s clothing without permission, then claim that it’s all perfectly ethical when the mob comes with pitchforks and tazers.”
…Because that’s what referrer and weblog spam is more analogous to. Joe at Spam Chongqing has the shirt.
(By the way, I refuse to use the word splog, any more than I refuse to use words like podcasting, folksonomy, or blog. Okay?)
Update: This entry is now a regular target for revenge spam attacks, which is great, because each spam comes with a bunch of URLs and an IP, all data which help me build a distributed blacklist. At the same time, I regularly delete the spam after using the information supplied, so they get no search engine value out of it. (Not that they get anything anyway, since rel=nofollow has been implemented on my comments.) Just goes to show, spamming might make money, but money can’t buy morals. Or brains.
Massive relief is finally arriving in New Orleans. It’s been four days. Government was just far too slow to respond, both locally and federally, and I’m sorely disappointed at the delayed deer-in-headlights reaction we’ve been seeing from FEMA, Homeland Security, and President Bush. It took two days just to get the President to a token Air Force One flyover, while DHS Chief Chertoff denied reports of chaos, State Secretary Rice shopped for shoes and watched Broadway plays, and FEMA Chief Brown implicitly blamed the victims.
To those who say it’s the non-evacuees’ fault for not getting out, remember that NOLA isn’t a wealthy town where everyone has an SUV, ATM card, and family in other cities. Accordion Guy has several sobering questions for those of us who claim we would respond differently in such a situation: “Are we who weren’t in Katrina’s path laughing at the speck in others’ eyes while ignoring the log in our own?” I think what we’re seeing is not just a discrepancy between what government knows about a situation and what’s really going on, but a real disconnect in the way government understands the plight of the urban poor in America.
But enough of politics; I’m glad that relief has come. As for the lawless, the looters, the gangs who roam flooded streets firing their stolen Walmart guns at rescue workers and preying on tourists and helpess New Orleaners, they represent the absolute worst side of humanity that can come out of a disaster, and I hope the National Guard repays them bullet for bullet.
Update: “The cavalry is and will continue to arrive,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, commander of the National Guard. “Is and will continue…” Um, what?
In the News:
In Weblogs:
In Aerial and Satellite Imagery:
I was quoted in yesterday’s Express , in the “Blog Log” section. Unfortunately, they picked a premature sigh of relief about New Orleans being spared, from before the aftermath became more dire.
Get the PDF here. My quote in Blog Log is on page 29.
I was quoted in yesterday’s Express, in the “Blog Log” section. Unfortunately, they picked a premature sigh of relief about New Orleans being spared, from before the aftermath became more dire.
Get the PDF here. My quote in Blog Log is on page 29. (Oh, and thanks to Jeff for pointing it out!)
Check out the National Doppler Radar Loop and the Geostationary Satellite Northwest Atlantic Visible Loop to watch the remnants of Hurricane Katrina heading north, now a mere tropical depression.
We thought it would be a disaster, then we thought it was oversensationalized media hype, and after a bit of a delay, it turned out to be a disaster after all. Levees have broken, pumps and sandbags have failed, New Orleans is flooded, the water is rising, looters run rampant, martial law has been declared, and the city is being completely evacuated. The water will not stop rising until it is at level with Lake Pontchartrain.
Here in DC, all is quiet but for a strong wind and a few isolated tornado warnings. More weblog entries on the aftermath:
Update: “Why the Westboro Baptist Church is a Scam” — interesting insight from a SomethingAwful Forums thread, surmising that the “Church” is actually a litigatory racket whose modus operandi is provocation aimed at collecting income from free speech settlements.
Most people assume that Fred Phelps (of Westboro Baptist Church/”God Hates Fags” infamy) is an over-zealous anti-gay Baptist, but it looks more like he and his kin are in the process of starting a homegrown cult. They’re not “Christians” or “Baptists”; apparently they refer to themselves as “Tachmonites.” So Phelps is the “last prophet” with power over his followers’ souls, and the members of his church believe that they are essentially God on Earth, with sole authority to condemn and forgive others. They seem to be developing their own invective-filled scriptural addenda derived from references to homosexuality in the Bible, complete with epistles soundly insulting any who write to them. (No wimpy gay sola fide or sola scriptura for these true chosen ones of God, eh?)
For more info, Wikipedia has an entry on Writings from Westboro, and of course on Westboro Baptist Church itself. Funny part is, the more that they show the standard trappings of a spinoff cult, the less inflammatory I find them, since it becomes much easier to dismiss them as kooks. (Not that it wasn’t already easy to begin with.)
(Links found via rhesagirl.)
Washingtonians can see the Phelps spectacle for themselves when he comes to DC on September 11th to protest the “America Supports You” Freedom Walk. (Not that there’s much to see — some old guy with his folks carrying “God hates fags” signs and acting weird.)
Translation Note: The word “Tachmonites” is derived from an alternate transliteration of the proper name “Hachmoni” or “Hachmonite” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:11 and 27:32, also spelled “Tahchemonite” in 2 Sam 23:8.