Full disclosure - I volunteered for the Mike McGinn campaign. So did a shitload of other Seattleites. When I went into the office to offer up some of my time, their volunteer coordinator, Sol, took me into a back office and ran a quick mini-interview to get to know me and my strengths. He then told me about his background working in the Obama campaign and why he cared for McGinn.
Within minutes, I was working alongside fellow twenty-somethings with time to give and a penchant for McGinn’s grasp of the issues, care for the city, and electric biking.
In contrast, Joe Mallahan’s campaign has been run by high-paid staffers who protect him from the media and try to prevent as many blunders as possible (e.g. “Africans endorse me”, “Hello my Brothers and Sisters”, and of course, everything he’s said during his multiple debates).
McGinn threw multiple town halls throughout the city (I attended three). During each, he was able to charm Seattle’s citizens with ease (he’s got a killer wink) and show that he really understands the issues at hand during this election.
The viaduct replacement, a $4.2 billion dollar tunnel that won’t even have any exits in downtown Seattle, has been a contentious issue throughout this entire campaign.
Many Seattleites (rightly) fear the viaduct will end up falling down before our local government acts. Washington State Department of Transportation released a video of what would happen to the viaduct if a strong enough earthquake hit us.
And McGinn’s protests about the tunnel stoked some of those fears. At the same time, the current tunnel budget leaves Seattle paying nearly a billion dollars for a state highway that runs through it, AND leaves the city on the hook for all overruns.
After the city council entered into an agreement with the current wayward Mayor Nickels, McGinn has signaled he would no longer oppose the tunnel (what’s done is done) but will continue to fight the provision leaving Seattle on the hook for overruns.
Deep bore tunnels don’t have the best track record for coming in under budget (few government projects do), but some estimates show the tunnel coming in another $2 billion over. This would (according to McGinn) saddle Seattle taxpayers with potentially $15,000 in taxes for the average family of four. At a time when we’re already heavily hit, that money could instead be invested in things that I (and I’d say most of Seattle) cares for.
Like:
Expanded Light Rail: While neither candidate is against Light Rail, McGinn wants to put Light Rail expansion up to the citizens for a vote within two years, and connect our high density neighborhoods: Wallingford, Fremont, Ballard, Queen Anne, Belltown, and West Seattle.
Offer a Publicly Owned Fiber Optic Network for Internet: Some people see him as a crazy dreamer for trying to offer such a “luxury” as a public utility. The Internet is not a luxury, any more than roads or running water is. In this day and age, the Internet is an economic engine of it’s own. At the same time, local Cable companies have shown no interest in upgrading their services despite a desire to continue to increase prices. A public option (as in health care) would create a stronger infrastructure, and be offered to Seattleites for less money. This is a good idea. Period. Send.
The University of Washington’s Masters in Communication held an hour long discussion about the future of Journalism. I’m about half way through now, but thought it was worth promoting.
If you care enough about journalism. If not, scroll down and watch Jon Stewart.
“In a microwave oven, energy excites the water inside popcorn kernels until it turns into highly pressurized gas, causing the kernels to pop. If mobile phones emitted that much energy, the water in the fingers of people holding them would heat up.”
My best guess is the video is part of some new viral marketing campaign. Maybe Orville Redenbacher is developing mobile-pop?
I skipped this year’s Superbowl, as I’ve never been one to take an interest in watching sports. Or eating nacho dip and drinking Bud Light.
But apparently this year I missed out. Viewers in Tucson, Arizona were given a brief intermission from the normal ball-play shortly after “Larry Fitzgerald’s heroic comeback(ish) touchdown for the Cardinals” (reports i.gizmodo… I’m not even going to try to report on the actual football).
The video feed cut directly to the Club Jenna channel, and showed porn star Evan Stone bouncing his junk back and forth across his thighs like a game of pong.
Comcast has yet to give a concrete reason for the err, although their poor Call Center employees are likely never going to hear the end of it.
I was looking through my stats (that’s right audience, I know about you…) and one of the nifty things that is tracked is what Google searches have led people to your page.
Thanks to my amazing reporting on this teenage crazy of Sexting, my page is the first thing to show up if someone Google searches for “bombastic sex girl pictures”. I’m not sure if this is really the type of site they are looking for.
On another side note, apparently someone can have “bombastic tits”. That doesn’t really make sense to me. Are they pretentious? Or perhaps they are simply over-inflated.
The more you know.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 1:33 pm. Add a comment
The drugs were hidden from sight by large corn stalks, but when the officers looked at the farmer’s address on Google Earth, they were able to easily distinguish the marijuana plants. The farmers have allegedly sold at least 7.7 tons of marijuana since 2004.
On a side note: Google employees have their own public Picasa web album (another free service hosted by Google). Their pics around the office make me a little jealous. They look like the happiest nerds I’ve ever seen.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 1:25 pm. Add a comment
For those of you who have been following the story, as Obama transitions into office, he’s been told time and again that day 1, he’d have to hand over his coveted device.
Barack Obama has already proven to the electorate that he is the most tech savvy president to date. His campaign used innovative new methods of communication to get out the vote, solicit donations, and keep his constituents apprised of his actions and thoughts.
A poll on Wired.com (which granted, targets technophiles), indicated that 76% of readers thought that Obama should have the right to maintain his Blackberry, while only 11% thought it would compromise national security.
But the transition hasn’t been easy, and it was unclear he’d get his way. According to the Washington Post, Obama’s aides arrived at the White House to find themselves impeded by the federal bureaucracy of disconnected computers, non-working phones, and PCs still running Windows XP. Eugh. (Obama’s campaign used Macs).
“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton told the Washington Post.
So when I woke up today, I did what I do most mornings: grab my iPhone and load up the most recent Associated Press feeds. Before my cup of coffee, my morning shower and even before I put on my glasses, I read through the news of the day. And the tops news today was “Spokesman says Obama is keeping his BlackBerry”.
After a drawn-out battle of wills, Obama has reached a compromise allowing him to use the device to stay in touch with his close senior staff and personal friends. Security will be amped up on the device to protect national security, and the e-mails will likely be subject to the Presidential Records act, meaning he’d better be careful which forwards he receives. But he’s staying keyed in.
A San Francisco-based investment banker learned the hard-way not to post-meditate his crimes. After accidentally killing 55-year-old Gurdeep Kaur during a drunken hit-and-run, Lee Harbert went home and Googled himself guilty.
Although Harbert told the police he believed he hit a deer (in San Francisco?), police were able to prove otherwise by searching his PC. His Google search history showed search terms such as “auto parts, auto dealers out-of-state; auto glass, Las Vegas; auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement, auto theft,” among other incriminating inquiries.
The gem that makes this perfect for an Encyclopedia Brown novel? Harpert searched for the term “hit-and-run” and then followed the link to a story about the crime he had committed.
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 4:51 pm. Add a comment
As a follow up to my earlier story, I’ve been watching out for any other news about these poor kids who were charged with child-pornography for taking self-portraits. It’s really breaking my heart and I just feel for these kids. Here’s the local news’ varying reactions to the tale:
Apparently Yuma County, Arizona is quick to pat itself on the back for youth-well-raised. In an article titled “Teen ’sexting’ not seen as trend in Yuma,” Sun writer William Roller was quick to point out…
“The provocative practice of teenagers sending nude photographs of themselves via text messages - or “sexting” - is a growing phenomenon elsewhere in the country but has not surfaced locally, according to law enforcement officials.
The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office also reports no occurrences of sexting by Yuma teens or any involved with posting inappropriate images online, according to Capt. Eben Bratcher, YCSO spokesman.”
“Now, Colorado state lawmakers are looking at a bill that would expand Internet luring and distribution of child pornography laws to include cell phones in an effort to curtail sexting.
“It happened at Castle Rock Middle School. Six students took nude photos of themselves and forwarded them to classmates. One of the photos ended up being circulated in California.
At least one parent said the law should also apply to the kids themselves. “It’s wrong and they know it. It’s not like they’re 5-year-old kids that took a match to something and had to learn. These kids know better,” said parent Shannon Marx. Lawmakers said the courts will decide how to prosecute a case if a teenager were to be charged, but the law is truly intended to target predators.”
“Alex Phillips, a ‘wise guy’ who wanted to get revenge on his 16-year-old girlfriend by posting photos of her most private parts on MySpace, now faces felony child pornography charges in Wisconsin.
“When the girl discovered the photos had been posted on the Internet with explicit captions, she contacted police, who asked Phillips to take them down or face jail time. Police said the boy refused, saying, ‘Fuck that, I am keeping them up.’”
While I’ll admit, this one doesn’t get my sympathies, it’s still a scary precedent.
Nothing sells products better than fear. Parents who are afraid their children will be forever tainted by the Sexting epidemic are able to purchase special sim cards from Houston based Spygadgets.com. The sim cards allow parents to spy on their kids every text.
“‘Our phones have been ringing off the hook,’ says Jon Marshall, CEO of SpyGadgets.com in Houston, TX. ‘Parents just want to protect their kids and they are scared. Nobody wants to see their child end up in prison or have their future ruined just because of something like this.’ Marshall sells a cell phone spy device that is used to recover data from the SIM card found in some cell phones on the market. It can let you view text messages stored to the SIM card, even deleted text messages. While it won’t recover pictures from the phone, reading the messages will give a parent an idea of what their teen is texting.”
Sucks to be young….
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 6:57 pm. Add a comment
The associated press has a story (hosted by Google) indicating that Google is going to be laying off 100 recruiters and closing down engineering studios that could affect another 70 employees.
Google has up until now been an unstoppable force on the web. It’s a little terrifying to see your superheros fall. I guess even the business model of offering up everything for free may not be recession proof.
