economists agree with krugman (nyt)
That Paul Krugman op-ed piece I linked to a couple days ago? Here's the follow-up: a bunch of economists agree that the administration is going to be forced to break their promise not to dip into Social Security's funds to pay government bills.

Dubya's father at least waited a year to break his "no new taxes" pledge.

n.b. Did you see that news item where the Washington Post calculated that 40% of Dubya's time in office has been spent on vacation or en route to said vacations? Telling.
(Wednesday, August 29, 2001)

the legacy of clyfford still (nyt)
"His will decreed that the estate should be given to 'an American city' that would house it in perpetuity for exhibition and study. This phrasing prevents the estate from being given to an existing museum. Still was not tempted by the idea even of a new wing in a museum that already had its own identity. Nor did he want to be first among equals because he did not really see any equals around. He wanted Status with a big S, and on his terms."

Sounds a lot like Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation to me. Except that Judd bought the land and set up his one-man museum himself. Which, if you're going to gun for that sort of self-lionization, is the way to do it. I'm hoping that Still gets his posthumous museum, just because his work is really good.
(Wednesday, August 29, 2001)

the ultimate cubicle (ideo)
If cubicles were this nice, they wouldn't have such a negative connotation. I think I'm going to steal some of these ideas for my next apartment.

IDEO kicks Karim Rashid's ass, by the way.
(Wednesday, August 29, 2001)

krugman: bush lied (nyt op-ed)
"The New Republic cover [headlined "He's Lying"] caused much tut-tutting; the magazine's editors were accused of hyperbole, of rabble-rousing. But the headline was a simple statement of fact. Mr. Bush was lying. It was obvious from the start that the administration's numbers didn't add up."

Krugman explains exactly how the number don't add up. Don't you think this is slightly more important than the Gary Condit sideshow? (The Condit thing reminds me a bit of Network.)
(Tuesday, August 28, 2001)

condit = spectacle = opiate (newsday)
"It is now common in political circles to refer to the United States as an imperial power. It's getting increasingly difficult not to think of the media - journalistic and entertainment - as the provider of the circus that distracts the people, the modern home of our gladiators. And it makes one wonder how long our empire has to run."
(Tuesday, August 28, 2001)

david ross leaves sfmoma "to make some money" (chron)
"David is an entrepreneur -- he comes up with 15 ideas an hour -- and it's hard for nonprofits to deal with that," [SFMOMA board chair Richard L. Greene] said. "Now he has come to a point where there is an opportunity to go to a for-profit and benefit financially from his ideas. We understand. When you tell someone like David to stop, you destroy him."

SFMOMA's fundraising is going to suffer with the region's economic downturn, but one suspects that now is not the time to be trying to make money on the intersection of art and technology (Ross is a director of Eyestorm.com). It's too bad $393,000 a year wasn't enough for Ross; he's a good museum director.
(Tuesday, August 21, 2001)

california builds its last freeway. hooray! (nyt)
"The bottom line here is that transit use is not increasing nearly as fast as transit expenditures," said Brian Taylor, director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. "We haven't seen any big shift in travel because we don't ask drivers to pay the costs of their driving. Things like gas and parking are actually getting cheaper in inflation-adjusted terms, so it's no surprise people are driving more and more."

It was proven long ago that increasing freeway supply only increases demand. It's about time for California to go back to Caltrans' mandate when they started instituting diamond lanes: get people out of their cars. Now.

(I'm reminded of something I read in the Merc when I was in grade school: people in Silicon Valley buy Ferraris so other people can be impressed when they sit next to you in the freeway traffic jam.)
(Tuesday, August 21, 2001)

kalkan, turkey (nyt)
another small place is turning into a tourist destination.
(Tuesday, August 21, 2001)

more layoffs, where you'd least expect them (nyt)
"'When they say the crime rate is down, it's just a political thing,' scoffed Mr. Ada, one of several officers who questioned whether the rates are actually dropping. 'I think it's just something for the politicians to make them look good.' Mr. Ada, who is also the local fire chief, complained that proposed changes in the so-called Rockefeller drug laws would further reduce the prison population, and he was convinced that crime continues unabated downstate."

You might think that reducing the prison population was a good thing, but it isn't for the people who work in them. So much for the greater good.
(Tuesday, August 21, 2001)

ohio is "about to be the next Texas" (nyt)
"Thus is the capital punishment debate gaining energy in Ohio, as elsewhere in the nation, but with a twist about how, more than whether, the justice system should dispatch Mr. Byrd. 'I find this ghoulish and ironic — proponents trying to clean up the form of execution so they can keep their death penalty,' said Michael Manley, an Amnesty International volunteer."

Byrd wants to be dispatched in the electric chair, to highlight the cruelty of capital punishment. Somone else has admitted to comitting the crime Byrd was convicted of. So not only is Ohio about to become "the next Texas" in terms of the number of inmates being executed (202 are currently on death row), but in terms of exectuing the innocent, too.
(Monday, August 20, 2001)

hong kong residents flee to the mainland suburbs (nyt)
"Mr. Kam, a businessman who commutes to the former British colony every day, said he decided to settle here 18 months ago to live with his mainland Chinese girlfriend. But he also revels in his three- bedroom apartment, which costs him $387 a month to rent. His old place, on one of Hong Kong's outlying islands, was one-quarter the size and three times the price."

In almost every metropolis, it seems, are people who opt out in favor of that greatest of luxuries, space. (I just want to move to a cheaper metropolis.)
(Sunday, August 19, 2001)

brett cook-dizney at harvard (feb 2001)
his work is really good, and has a solid conceptual underpinning. i want to see more. more more more! of course, he had work in the hip-hop show at yerba buena, which i never got around to going to see. oops.
(Sunday, August 19, 2001)

the downtowning of harlem (nyt mag)
"Yet, in some ways, the art settlers may be more socially significant than the chain stores: art is the gilded arrow of capitalism, promising to turn vacant lots into gold. The truth is that a few good galleries can help a neighborhood in ways that 40 years' worth of poverty programs cannot. The middle class wants to live near art, open stores near art. The search for affordable studio space by American artists that began a century ago in Greenwich Village has proved that where art goes, money follows, and the ending is always the same: the neighborhood booms and the artists go bust, driven out by skyrocketing rents and their own restlessness, their desire for Something New."

This applies to urban locales, but not so much to the suburbs, where there is precious little art to be found.
(Sunday, August 19, 2001)

post tglo blowup, paternot talks (smart money)
"You may be asking why the erstwhile $100 million man didn't sell more of his stock when he still had a chance. Unfortunately, it's not always that easy. After the IPO, Paternot and Krizelman were both bound to six-month lockup agreements that prevented them from flipping their stock in the company's frothy early days. And by the time six months passed, the secondary offering (which sold for $20 a pop after the split) locked insiders in for another three months. On top of those agreements, Paternot was restricted by Securities and Exchange Commission rules governing insider transactions. And, anyway, Paternot felt he couldn't cash out without worrying investors, who often perceive insider selling as a no-confidence vote in the company."

which is why most of the young dot-bombers, as they've been dubbed, were mere paper millionaires, and are now much more financially constrained. though they still have way more money than i do, though.
(link via ditherati)
(Saturday, August 18, 2001)

burnout (biz2)
"Throughout my career, I've noted that the most authentically motivated employees are the ones who will get in your face and get angry. I always counsel managers that the yes-man/yes-woman is the most pernicious force in organizational life because they're the ones who are whoring, who are mercenary, who are talking behind your back."

Amen, brother.
(Friday, August 17, 2001)

how the standard went under (inside)
"With near-future prospects bleak, IDG chose to force the company into bankruptcy rather than recapitalize it, in the process severing the company's long-term debt obligations in the form of leases, computer equipment, and other expenses. As majority owner, IDG can now try to sell the magazine or restart it without its original management team."

Like Business 2.0.
(Friday, August 17, 2001)

from liquid gold to liquidation (nyt)
"With nobody seeming to notice, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, 48, favorite brother of the sultan of Brunei, shoveled away at the cash reserves of this tiny, oil-blessed sultanate for years until, two years ago, he got to the bottom."

That pile was $15 billion. With a B. Now the prince is living on "only" $300,000 a month. He says he needs $500,000 to maintain his lifestyle. Which partially explains how someone can fritter away $15 billion.
(Friday, August 17, 2001)

a telesymphony
I read about this in Thursday's NYT. A composer calling people in the audience in a preset sequence, turning that annoying cell phone ring into a piece of music. The three short sample MP3s are surprisingly beautiful.
(Thursday, August 16, 2001)

fear of flying (new york magazine)
"That was January 23, 1998, at 6:19 p.m. Three months later, practically the same thing happened -- with just twenty feet of wiggle room -- apparently because of a spilled cup of coffee in the control tower. It happened eight months after that, too, during a light rain -- and it happened again twice last year, the worst year ever for La Guardia air traffic."

"It," in this case, is a near-miss. As in, "two planes coming within feet of each other and narrowly missing."

The first rule of flying is you do not fly into LaGuardia.
The second rule of flying is you do not fly into LaGuardia.
The third rule of flying is that if you do fly into LaGuardia, you have to read the safety card in the seat pocket in front of you.
(Thursday, August 16, 2001)

the clift hotel and other new sf buildings (nyt)
This is really a puff piece on Ian Schrager's addition to his empire, though the print version had photos of some new very good architectural works in progress: Stanley Saitowitz' Yerba Buena Lofts, Libeskind's Jewish Museum, OMA's Prada store, Herzog and de Meuron's new de Young Museum, and a new federal building by Thom Mayne.

Stanley's lofts are the only ones that are well-built, with any sort of defining aesthetic; OMA's Prada store would add a sizable jolt of energy to a district that desparately needs one; and the copper of the new de Young will be fabulous: the entire building is covered with it, and it will be allowed to patina. I wasn't aware of the Thom Mayne building; it looks imposing, like Richard Meier's federal courthouse on Long Island.

This city is finally getting architecture worthy of the architectural talent conatined herein. Too bad they didn't cover Peter Pfau's gorgeous LBGT Center, which is just down the street and makes me happy every time I see its multicolored glass façade.
(Thursday, August 16, 2001)

the standard ceases publication (the standard)
it's pretty weird to read a publication telling you that it has ceased operating. add it to the list of ancillary casualties: inside, business 2.0, consulting firms, ad agencies, and cheap san francisco apartments.

i won't miss the standard so much; their redesign made the magazine look like a cut-rate version of newsweek. inside, on the other hand, was well-designed and a fascinating read. i wish i'd kept my copies of it.
(Thursday, August 16, 2001)

rangers get lindros? (nyt)
What a stupid thing to do: trade away a bunch of young players for a crybaby whose career is likely to end the next time Scott Stevens is anywhere near him on the ice.

The powers that be at Madison Square Garden really need a major shift in m.o. The Knicks will suck again this year, and so will the Rangers. At least the latter will have Lindros-watching for entertainment.
(Tuesday, August 14, 2001)

krugman on the economy (nyt op-ed)
"Still, as former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says, you don't have to refill a flat tire through the puncture. To reflate the economy, the Fed doesn't have to restore business investment; any kind of increase in demand will do."

Krugman argues that optimism about the economy is actually hurting its prospects for recovery. How ironic!
(Tuesday, August 14, 2001)

dotcom memorabilia on ebay (nyt)
People are paying hundreds of dollars for defunct company stuff? Wow.

I'll give you a tip: I dropped off a bunch of dotcom t-shirts (among other, much better, pieces of clothing) at the Salvation Army on Valencia Street a couple weeks ago. You might be able to flip some of those Shawn Wolfe Listen.com shirts at a tidy profit.
(Monday, August 13, 2001)

energy grid vulnerable to hackers (la times)
"Veridian Inc., another security firm based in Alexandria, Va., has tested the network security of many large electric utilities and has penetrated all of them. Other security companies report similar experiences, suggesting there has been scant progress since 1997, when Defense Department engineers successfully hacked into control systems for the nation's electrical grid in a security trial. Once inside a power-control network, hackers could find diagrams of switches and power supplies that could enable widespread sabotage. 'You can black out whole cities,' said Anjan Bose, a power-grid expert and dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture at Washington State University."

More scary stuff. See where this is going?
(Monday, August 13, 2001)

water shortages looming (nyt)
"Some major American cities in the Southwest, including El Paso, San Antonio and Albuquerque, could go dry in 10 to 20 years. But a number of towns in New England and the well- watered half of the Midwest are also facing the prospect of running out of water in a generation's time... The federal government, which controls water to 31 million people in the West but has far less control elsewhere, has offered little guidance for struggling regions. In the absence of single power broker, a veritable free-for-all has emerged, with private companies and individual states and cities cutting their own deals."

If the prospect of water being privatized doesn't scare you, it should. We're heading either towards a massive change in the nature of American development, towards a more sustainable way of life, or we're plunging headlong into a real revolution.
(Sunday, August 12, 2001)

iran moves slowly towards reform (nyt)
"Any problems in Iran, [Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the head of the judiciary] intoned, could be traced to a turn away from Islam, he said. 'We must declare to the authorities, people, and especially the young people, that the reason for the existence of poverty and discrimination is that Islamic teachings have not been implemented.'"

Thankfully, President Mohammad Khatami won reelection with 77% of the vote. That, Mr. Bush, is a "mandate."
(Wednesday, August 8, 2001)

boomers discover self-loathing (nyt)
"Betsy Carter, the editor in chief of My Generation, the boomer magazine published by AARP, said that boomer-bashing literature was the outgrowth of unprecedented navel- gazing. 'You have never had a group that is so primed to be analytical and examine themselves,' she said. 'And we're also the first generation to be so vocal and so public about our failures and our misgivings.'"

Just wait until the web generation hits 50. Oh lord, will that be entertaining for the kids.
(Monday, August 6, 2001)

blacks leaving san francisco in droves (nyt)
"Other cities have had notable declines in their black populations over the last decade — Washington, for example. But blacks in other cities appear to be migrating to the suburbs in a pattern of upward mobility. In San Francisco, many are leaving because they have no choice. Gentrification during the dot-com boom gave the city the distinction as the most expensive in the country. Landlords in black neighborhoods, much like others, cashed in, raising rents and evicting long-term tenants. The recent technology bust has had little effect in lowering housing prices, real estate experts say."

Everybody's leaving.
(Thursday, August 2, 2001)

soccer-playing robots (nyt)
"The long-term goal of the competition is to create a team of fully autonomous robots by 2050 that can defeat the human team that wins soccer's World Cup. But RoboCup has a more serious, and immediate, side as well: to advance research in robots and artificial intelligence. What is learned through robots working with one another on the soccer field may help foster the development of robot teams that could perform surgery, fight large fires or lead search and rescue missions after natural disasters, researchers said."
(Thursday, August 2, 2001)

how to reduce post-layoff employee sabotage (nyt)
"As the economy continues to stagnate and layoffs proliferate, workplace experts say, it is becoming more important than ever for employers to display vigilance against possible retaliation by the people they are letting go."

Not mentioned in this article is the easiest way for employers to avoid theft and sabotage: treat people with respect and honesty. Also not mentioned is that smart employees should always have a copy of what they've been working on backed-up off-site. This is one programmer habit it's very good to be in.
(Wednesday, August 1, 2001)