Getting the Skinny

An interesting new website, ZipSkinny, lets you get basic demographic information on any zip code and to compare up to 20 zip codes. Here's part of the data on mine:

Finnegan's Wake, the Picture

Envisioning works of fiction as images is a challenge (unless they're graphic novels, I suppose). But here is a fascinating attempt by Hungarian Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy to represent Joyce's Finnegan's Wake. I guess Ulysses was too easy.


The Guardian has much more on Moholy-Nagy, a brilliant designer and artist who could also toss off some good lines: "It is not the person ignorant of writing but the one ignorant of photography who will be the illiterate of the future."

I Swear

Linguistic and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker on why swearing matters and why we should care about it. Fucking brilliant.

Why the Modern World Sucks

Things like this are invented with a straight face:

Via Engadget.

Googled to Death

I lovingly use a half-dozen Google products every day (like the one I'm using right now), but this interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan is kind of a buzzkill. Vaidhyanathan is writing an online book, The Googlization of Everything, to analyze the pervasiveness and power of Google, "the most interesting institution in the world right now." He claims that Google

is working its way into our consciousness and daily lives at a remarkable rate that is unmatched by any company in human history. And it is doing so in a fairly novel way through the aggregation of our choices. We are choosing to use Google every day. We are not forced or seduced into using it. It actually means Google is laying out a new model for advertising and communication.

That's interesting, and a bit scary. Wholly scary, and just as interesting, is this:

We can't expect a company to be as transparent as the government is. That doesn't mean we shouldn't push at it to be more responsive to our concerns, especially about user confidentiality and privacy. That is the hot-button issue. Most of us are not Google's customers. We are its content. It sells our attention and our user data to its customers and they are all the businesses that advertise with Google. Google is not necessarily more secretive than Coca-Cola, but the difference is Google knows everything about us.

*gulp*

Bob: A brief recap

Well, I'm confident I made the right choice in shows tonight. Got there early, sat in the front row and enjoyed the Q&A (first topic was the Radiohead release and Bob thought that only Radiohead or U2 could pull that off) and the solo set. Bob autographed a poster and we discussed the merits of my iPhone case vs. his. Never thought I'd talk to him in my life, let alone about a mobile phone.

Bob Mould & Radiohead (and Wilco ran away with the Spoon)

There’s a strange and wonderful convergence of pop culture for me today. To celebrate, I’m posting a double dose of lyrics. As I type this early on Tuesday night (like a kid waiting for his Christmas gifts -- if I go to bed now, when I wake up it will be tomorrow), I’m eagerly awaiting my download instructions for Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows. The industry is a buzz regarding Radiohead’s approach to selling the new album. It’s the 10th in the UK already – let’s get some download codes. So, that’s why I’m including Radiohead on today’s post.

Convergence Exhibit A: Bob Mould talking about the Radiohead release on his blog.
Convergence Exhibit B: Radiohead releases new album on October 10, the same day that Bob Mould will be at the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis.
Convergence Exhibit C: Besides Bob, Wilco (at the Northrop) and Spoon (at First Ave) are in town for shows. Too much. Too much I tell you!!!

Husker Du was one of my favorite bands in high school and college. The first song I ever played on my college radio show was Husker Du’s “59 Times the Pain.” Along with Soul Asylum and The Replacements, Husker Du are a large reason Minneapolis was ever on my radar and some how beat out the Windy City as place to call home. In college (and shortly after) my other favorite bands were Uncle Tupelo/Wilco and Radiohead. Ah favorites, where would we be without lists and a spirit of hierarchy? Without Billboard and half of VH1's programming, that's where!! Perhaps that's why I find this shirt so funny.

Back to Bob at the BLB. He’s doing a solo acoustic set along with a screening of his concert DVD. The BLB holds about 100 people in its theatre (and to add to the convergence, the BLB is about 6 blocks from home). I can’t wait. OK...OK (computer?) enough babble about convergence… What’s that Jesus Christ, George Harrison, Hendrix and Col. Sanders are giving a lecture at the Walker?

So the songs/lyrics I’ve selected for today are Husker Du’s “Chartered Trips” from Zen Arcade and Radiohead’s “Karma Police” From OK Computer. "Chartered Trips," as it’s on the DVD that will be screened and it has one of my favorite post-punk, molar-shaking guitar riff openings. "Karma Police" because it’s one of my favorite songs, the piano riffs evoke elements of The Beatles’ "Sexy Sadie" and OK Computer was released ten years ago.

Chartered Trips
Performed by Husker Du
Lyrics by Bob Mould

I picked up my belongings in a nylon carry-all
I hear the porter call
Said "The sky's the limit on this chartered trip away,"
I guess I'd better stay

Out there on the desert, I see trees on every wall
Nothing's ever solved
Said "The sky's the limit on this chartered trip away,"
Guess I'd better stay away

I thought I owed myself a trip away
I wanted to go to places I have never been away
I looked at the pictures, imagine where they lay
Away on a beach by the sand, where their clothes all lay away

Horizon is oblivious, chartered trip away
Said "There's no returning from this chartered trip away

Karma Police
Performed by Radiohead
Lyrics by Thom Yorke

Karma police, arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio

Karma police, arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo is
Making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party

This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us

Karma Police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll

This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us

And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

For for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
For for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

Radiohead In Rainbows

Holy crap: out of nowhere, Radiohead announces that they're releasing a download-only new album - In Rainbows - on October 10, with a physical release of the same album coming in December and also including a bonus disc. I can hear the ticks, whirrs, and moans already. Huh. My hearing-aid batteries must need changing.

Anyhow, I just pre-ordered my download - which seems a bit meta, frankly - and those crazy wankers asked ME - the lowly listener/customer/fan! - to set the price! Are you serious? What a great scheme.

I can't wait to hear the album.

Hack Attack II

A few days ago, I blogged an article in Wired about the cyberattack on Estonia ("eStonia") by Russian hackers. Last week, news emerged about attacks on U.S. and German government websites by hackers who were apparently operating from China. As this piece in the International Herald Tribune shows, the Chinese attackers resemble the Russians in that they may or may not be operating with sanction from their government. Even more troubling than the idea that, in Russia, Putin is using his geeks to probe NATO (as suggested in the Wired piece) is the idea that, in China, the People's Liberation Army may be pursuing military and foreign policy that is not only disconnected from the Communist Party's, but perhaps opposed to it:

Outside the secretive party and government bureaucracy in China, little is known about the ties between the civilian leadership and the sprawling, 2.3 million-strong People's Liberation Army.

As Hu [Jintao, the president of China] attempts to consolidate his power ahead of the important 17th Party Congress expected to be held in October, doubts remain that he exercises the same control over the military as earlier Communist leaders.

These doubts were heightened when the Chinese military shot down an obsolete weather satellite in January, seemingly without informing the civilian bureaucracy in advance of what was clearly a provocative move that drew widespread international protest.

Some foreign analysts suspect that it is difficult for the civilian leadership to keep track of cyber warfare research and development because it is not centralized under a single military or intelligence command.

Great: 2.3 million Chinese troops, answering only to their rogue generals. It's like the obverse of the crazy situation in Washington, where a rogue president is somehow answerable only to a high-ranking general in Iraq.

Hack Attack

Maybe it's just me, but I have been freaked out by this Wired article on how Russian hackers - apparently operating with the Kremlin's authorization and probably its assistance - used a "cyberattack" to nearly destroy Estonia's IT infrastructure. It's an incredible story, seemingly out of science fiction, and yet it just happened a few months ago - and could happen again at any time.

Never before had an entire country been targeted on almost every digital front all at once, and never before had a government itself fought back. "The attacks were aimed at the essential electronic infrastructure of the Republic of Estonia," Aaviksoo tells me later. "All major commercial banks, telcos, media outlets, and name servers — the phone books of the Internet — felt the impact, and this affected the majority of the Estonian population. This was the first time that a botnet threatened the national security of an entire nation."

Welcome to Web War one.

When Old Companies Meet New Technology

This is a fantastic example of what happens when an old company tries to use old methods to manage new technologies:

It’s a minor triumph of Apple’s that all AT&T plans for the iPhone include unlimited data services. After all, Blackberries and Treos alike have spendy access plans that dramatically increase their cost of use.

But as Justine Ezarik (a designer based in Pittsburgh known as iJustine who is also a “lifecaster” on Justin.tv) learned recently, AT&T still has a very old-world view of billing for data services. The company broke out as a line item every data transfer her iPhone made, including 30,000 texts, most of which come up as a huge series of $0.00 transactions. The total heft to the package? 300 pages. And it shipped in a box, which can’t have been cheap, even leaving aside the environmental impact of a few hundred thousand folks getting extra-big bills printed on paper.

Late '80s Zeitgeist & Narcissism, High School Style

My parents were in town recently to hangout with their granddaughter. As they have moved into a new house, they continue to give me things from my past that I thought were long gone (and probably should remain so). A recent item is one of my campaign shirts from my senior class presidential election. My campaign team and I made a number of one of a kind t-shirts. My mother thought I should go into politics because as a true scoundrel, as I made money on my election, instead I lead a sexy life as a project manager and consultant. Anyway, this particular shirt has a top ten list on it – I was a huge Letterman fan and a political junkie in high school. Please enjoy the totally ‘80s vibe from the top ten reasons to vote for yours truly:

10. You want to have fun.
9. He has a dog.
8. Does not enjoy algebra.
7. Finished his term paper.
6. The stupid t-shirts.
5. To prove iron lungs work.
4. He’s running.
3. Goes to East (that’s the high school)
2. Has not met Donna Rice
1. Voted down Contra spending.

Just wait until I get my scanner working again. My folks brought up a copy of the local paper that had an article about prom styles for 1989. I’m the male “model” showing off the latest in rental formalwear.

Nerd Alert: Tour de France

If you haven't been paying attention to the Tour de France this year, today's the day to tune in. Without a clear favorite in the race, the last few stages have been knock-down, drag-out affairs. Cumulatively, these stages have pared the field down to a half-dozen possible winners - a group which will likely be reduced to two or three by Stage 15, a 196-kilometer race that will include five killer climbs of Pyrenean mountains (see above). You can follow the live action (or read a good-as-live recap) via Velonews.

It's been utterly engrossing to see how the race has reached the point of finally - possibly - determining who will be on the podium in Paris on Sunday. In some ways, it's been the cycling equivalent of a 12-round heavyweight fight or maybe a 15-inning baseball game that started as a pitcher's duel and seems likely to end with exchanged homers. In Stage 11, late last week, the tour's strongest team, Astana, brutally knocked France's top racer, Christopher Moreau, out of contention by accelerating in unison while he was unawares, then using a strong wind to prevent his team from towing him back up. Moreau fell from sixth, within shouting distance of the lead of the race, to fourteenth and out of it. Astana's attack was revenge for Moreau's leading attacks in the Alps that had pushed Astana's team leader, Alexandre Vinokourov, out of the top echelon of the race.

After an uneventful Stage 12, the riders faced the first individual time trial of the tour in Stage 13 on Saturday. All of the top racers were expected to vie for the win, except for the man wearing the yellow jersey, Michael Rasmussen, who was expected to ride poorly, lose time and maybe the jersey, and get ready for the Pyrénées. Not only is Rasmussen known as a bad time-trial rider, but he had just been accused by a former teammate of using blood-doping products in the recent past and had been kicked off Denmark's world championships and Olympics cycling teams for having skipped drug tests. Instead, Rasmussen rode well, not ceding too much time (or the jersey) and letting the time-trail experts duke it out - and crash like cymbals at a junior-high band concert. Vinokourov rode best, sneaking back toward the top of the standings; other contenders, including American Levi Leipheimer, maintained their positions; and newcomers like Alberto Contador (a teammate of Leipheimer's on the American Discovery Channel team, for which Lance Armstrong used to ride) vaulted into contention. Fully ten riders were within 5:30 of Rasmussen - a big gap to reduce, but one which could be reduced with aggressive riding in the Pyrénées.

Thus Sunday's Stage 14, the first day in the Pyrénées, was critical. And it was Rasmussen who showed the field how to race. He rode the last climb, the Plateau de Beille, without the company of any teammates, yet still fended off Leipheimer - who was paced by both Contador and another Disco rider - and a half-dozen other excellent climbers. The attacks and counterattacks up the slope were great theatre and great competition, with various riders surging ahead then intentionally falling back, with the shrinking lead group swerving across the jam-packed roads as riders tried to shake each other, and with Rasmussen finally taking over. Into the last five kilometers of the grueling ride up to the plateau, only Contador could keep up, finally taking the stage win just ahead of Rasmussen and jumping into second place in the Tour, 2:23 down to the Dane.

And so the Tour's hardest stage on Monday will determine if Contador can ride as well on Monday, if Rasmussen has nothing left to give, or if another rider - like Leipheimer, who has seteadily climbed up the general classification to a present fourth place - can find legs good enough to attack Rasmussen and narrow or eliminate his lead.

Chickens Come Home to Roost

The Tour de France, the world's biggest spectator sporting event and not a bad little bike race, is now well underway. It's been a topsy-turvy first few days, what with (as last year) several of the world's best riders unable to race due to doping-related suspensions and, on the roads, a lack of a clear favorite who can dictate the stages. The hallowed yellow jersey has changed hands several times already, but is now on the shoulders of Michael Rasmussen, a Dane who may have the experience and climbing power to keep it for a while. Rasmussen attacked the field on Sunday's big mountain stage to leap from 39th place in the general classification to first. And as is de rigeur aujourd'hui, he immediately talked at length about how he's clean as a whistle. No doping here! Certainly, one look at the sticklike arms of "the Chicken" will show you he probably isn't sharing a dealer and a weight room with the hulks in the WWE.

The drug saga will play out over the rest of the Tour, and on into the future. After all, it's still not been determined whether Floyd Landis, who finished first in last year's Tour, will be allowed to keep the win or be disqualified for doping. Nonetheless, the Tour will be at least as interesting and gripping an event as ever, with at least a half-dozen racers capable of winning.

If you're interested in following the Tour, VeloNews' coverage is top-notch, and includes everything from stage previews, as-it-happens live accounts, and summaries to a truly staggering number of video highlights and interviews. Naturally, the coverage also include graphics likes this profile of Monday's ninth stage, a killer 159.5 kilometer (99 mile) race in the Alps that includes two "hors categorie" climbs and should shake out the general classification before the field heads across the south of France to the Pyrenees for next weekend's decisive mountain stages. (And if straight-on coverage isn't your thing, maybe this first-person account of trying to ride a bike up the Tour's most famous climb, L'Alpe d'Huez, will appeal.

Tour de France

The 2007 Tour de France starts on Saturday, July 7, in London. Which isn't part of France, but so what. The race is as messy and convoluted as ever. Last year's race still doesn't have an official winner, with American Floyd Landis, who finished in the yellow jersey last July, still being investigated for doping. Multiple overlapping "scandals du dopage" have driven many of the would-be favorites away from the race or even out of cycling altogether. (And the race has the dubious quality of being held forty years after the death of British rider Tom Simpson, who collapsed and died during a hard mountain stage in 1967 and was found to have been doped to the gills.)

Still and all, I think it'll still be a great race. According to VeloNews' excellent overview of the race (available through VeloNews' Tour site, where you can find a positively ridiculous amount of coverage) the course is one of the most difficult in recent years, with relatively few long, flat "sprinter's stages;" two long individual time trials; and six mountain stages, all ending at or just after a big climb. In other words, no one-shot wonders will be able to capture a key stage and take the whole thing. On the other hand, the increasing difficulty of the Tour is itself one of the reasons riders dope in the first place: it's just too hard to do without chemical help.

That aside, American Levi Leipheimer has a shot a winning, or at least finishing on the podium, and a couple other Americans might win a stage or two. Besides Leipheimer, possible winners come from all over: Russia (Denis Menchov), Kazakhstan (Alexander Vinokourov), Germany (Andreas Kloeden), Spain (Alejandro Valverde), and Australia (Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers). Maybe the most interesting situation is that of Oscar Pereiro, the Spaniard who finished second last year but might still win that race if Landis is disqualified. Indeed, with a ruling in Landis' doping case due any day, Pereiro could be in the strange and unprecedented position of assuming the defense of last year's title midway through this year's race. Yellow jersey on the road, indeed.

Concert Review: The Police

Here’s my brief review of The Police concert at the X this week.

Overall, I was very happy that I went and thought it was a good show. The reviews from the Pioneer Press and the Strib seemed a bit harsh and I will not link to them…not out of spite, but out of laziness.

The Pros:
- Stuart Copeland is still a great drummer. After the show, I tried to decide who’s a better drummer live – Stuart or Bun E. Carlos. My vote goes to Bun.
- They all sounded great, even though they looked uncomfortable (fighting bunions, gout or gas). Sting’s vocals were strong. Andy’s guitar work was solid, especially for a 64-year-old.
- Rearranging and improvising on the hits was refreshing. If I wanted to hear them note for note, I’d listen to my iPod (and saved some dough).
- The sweaty fan in front of us. This dude was so fired up every time a new song started. It was like “holy shit, I can’t believe they’re playing this hit – I better pump my fists, scream and jump up and down until it ends, or I won’t believe that they played it...or worse they'll stop playing all together.” Jump my sweaty concert goer, JUMP!!! In my younger days that would annoy me. Now, I’m happy for those that can find peace and joy in their life.
- People watching and snarky commentary with Pam and Elise.

The Cons:
- Blinkies, Rock Rags & Other Arena Show Trappings. It was an arena show, and I have a lot of concert nerd/elitist baggage when it comes to large shows, but some of the concert SWAG was ridiculous. Topping the list were blinkies (small buttons with multi-colored lights) and rock rags (“tea towels” with printed album logos).
- The Set List. The song selection was fine, but don’t let me know about it in advance.
- Sting forgetting his lyrics. Sting mussed up a few times. It’s less forgivable if you haven’t been playing the same songs for the past few months (let along writing them 20 – 30 years ago).
- The video media. Most of the time the three video screens were used to show live shots of each member of the band. However there were a few times when some half-baked video would creep in (the skeleton of dinosaur, a Ridiculousaurus, would stroll across the screen during “Walking in Your Footsteps” and briefly during “Can’t Stand Losing You.” Another was a series of black and white photos of kids from various third world nations. Um, OK…I’d give them some money, but I just spent $90 on a ticket and $20 on parking...)
- Fiction Plane. The opening act might be a good bar band, but not appropriate for this type of gig. For those wondering, Joe Sumner plays bass and sings for Fiction Plane. His dad Gordon may have pulled a few strings.

All in all, I’m glad that I went. I got to see one of my favorite bands from my youth and was reminded of how much entertainment I get from music. I was also reminded of my age, while clearly on the younger side of the crowd at the show, I’m now the old fart I used to curse at shows in my youth (even if I can still scope out great vantage points at GA shows).

University Library Google-licious

From today's StarTribune:

On Wednesday, the U was one of 12 Midwestern universities that announced they are joining Google's project to put every book in the world online. Google will scan up to 1 million books from the U and up to 10 million books from Big Ten institutions and the University of Chicago, digitizing them at secret locations around the nation with technology that's fast but doesn't damage old and brittle pages.

The idea itself seems very cool to me. The fact that digitizing will take place at secret loctions makes it seem cooler.

Mapping Relations

Concerned that the guests at their wedding reception wouldn't have much to talk about, a bride and groom researched the relationships between the guests and then developed a fascinating (and beautiful) "map" of the links between virtually everyone. It's an excellent conversation piece, as well as a fantastic example of how even a relatively simple visual style (words, circles, and arcs) can convey a huge amount of information. A slice of the map appears below; click here to see the whole thing at "original size.")

(The map was developed by Andrew Coulter Enright and Heather Samples, the happy couple; read more on their Flickr page.)

Lolcats R Funning

In another egregious example of my behind-the-timeness (I haven't seen any episodes of American Idol, much less any this year; I have the new Wilco disk but haven't listened to it yet), I had not heard of "lolcats" until today. But I found this Slate photo essay - as well-written as it is well-illustrated - freaking hilarious. I won't even ruin the surprise by showing one of the photos; click through for the thing in all its glory.

Hell by the Dashboard

I don't use my Mac's "Dashboard" application much since ye olde PowerBooke is too slow for the app to work well. But the "Corporate Ipsum" widget for the Dashboard makes me feel like it might be time to upgrade. All it does is generate corporate-speak that's nonsense but at least as smart of what was in that last PowerPoint:

Synergistically engage cross-media human capital for out-of-the-box convergence. Objectively generate fully tested meta-services via market-driven sources. Interactively underwhelm long-term high-impact convergence rather than future-proof convergence.

(Link and text via 43 Folders.)