The Hackenblog

If the Yahoo execs really wanted to be on the right side of history, they could have bought lots of time on Yahoo for No on 8 ads like this one.

And they’re jerks. I’m not going near a Yahoo site until after the election because Yahoo is running Yes on 8 ads. I’ve seen some creepy ads on Yahoo, but this is the creepiest.

I think it might finally be time to move to gmail. And if you have any money left, No on Eight could still use it for the good fight.

The PR director at Yahoo is Jill Nash. I’ve called and left a message asking that those ads be removed. The Yahoo Corp number is 408-349-3300, you can either get the operator or try dialing by name. Good luck if you do call.

Yahoo – they’re not just idiots, they’re evil idiots.

Update: So I got a call back from one of the Yahoo flaks and the official line is that they accept any ads that meet their ad criteria. She did go to great pains to tell me that the founders of Yahoo have a full page ad in the San Jose Merc supporting the No on 8 campaign and vote. I think they could have saved their money and just refused the Yes on 8 ads, which claim 96% of California schools teach about marriage. This is not true and Yahoo’s position is that that’s an interpretation. Yahoo’s position is disgraceful and they should be ashamed. All the paid advertising in the world isn’t going to wipe this out. I interpret Yes on 8 ads as hate speech directed against gays and lesbians. Does hate speech meet Yahoo’s ad criteria?

Update 110608: Apparently Google is evil, too.

Update: “…49 percent (voter) turn out in San Francisco county and a 55 percent turnout in Alameda County.”
Lessons from and discussion about the No on Eight campaign failure.

49% voter turn out in San Francisco? What the fuck?

Corporate finance chiefs prefer McCain: survey.

As if anyone needed more proof corporate finance chiefs are blithering idiots, well, there’s a survey now.

Neil Young cancels picketed L.A. concert because he won’t cross the picket line.

Good on Neil.

“Estimates of donations by Mormons to Prop 8 are now up to $10 million, funding all of those lies and distortions on our airwaves. They have been fueling their volunteer base from here in California and across the country, using their church organizing networks to turn out volunteers to phone bank and knock doors. And Mark Jansson, a ‘Yes on 8′ Executive Committee member and self-described LDS member, was one of four signers to the blackmail letter sent to Equality California donors. The Mormon Church is heart of the Prop 8 campaign, but for a long time the scope of their involvement was not known.”
Under Fire, Mormons Are Backing Off (A Bit) on Prop 8, by Julia Rosen, Calitics, October 25, 2008

Utah Mormons, leave California alone. Gay marriage will never ever be legal in Utah. No one is ever going to demand the LDS church sanctify a gay marriage. That should be enough for you, so just calm down. Going to city hall and getting married is very different from what LDS and other churches do to, sorry, with marriage. Y’all can keep your ceremonies (and keep them far away from me, thanks). And, by the way, aren’t churches supposed to be above politicking? Can’t we all just get along?

Thank you for your attention.

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. suicide rates appear to be on the rise, driven mostly by middle-aged white women, researchers reported on Tuesday.

“They found a disturbing increase in suicides between 1999 and 2005 and said the pattern had changed in an unmistakable way — although the reasons behind the change are not clear.

“The overall suicide rate rose 0.7 percent during this time, but the rate for white men aged 40 to 64 rose 2.7 percent and for middle-aged women 3.9 percent, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.

“‘The biggest increase that we have seen between 1999 and 2005 was the increase in poisoning suicide in women — that went up by 57 percent,’ said Susan Baker, a professor in injury prevention with a special expertise in suicide.”
Middle-aged women drive rise in U.S. suicides: study, By Maggie Fox, Reuters, October 21, 2008

Shit. According to this article, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. WTF? I’d put a Bertolt Brecht reference here, but even I think that would be in bad taste.

“I was listening to an interview with Stanford neurologist Robert Sapolsky on NPR a few weeks back and it really struck me. Sapolsky who studies the relation between the neurological and the social in primates told a fascinating story in discussing his latest book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.

“He pointed to the well-known relation between wealth and health. The usual explanation, that more money means more access to health care and higher quality health care, he argued, is belied by the fact that we see the same thing in European countries with socialized health care systems. Everyone has the same access to the same health care, yet it still holds true that the better off financially, the better off physically. Why?”
Stress and Health, by Steve Gimbel, October 20, 2008

Well, yeah, who wouldn’t be stressed to the max trying to live in this Bertolt Brecht play that passes for society. Read Steve’s post, espceically the part about the gorrillas. You’ll be glad you did!

“FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (AFP) — Democrat Barack Obama won the coveted endorsement of former secretary of state Colin Powell Sunday as he entered the final fortnight before election day flush with cash to unleash against Republican John McCain.

“The Illinois senator, who is riding high in the polls ahead of the November 4 election, more than doubled his fundraising record with a mammoth September haul of more than 150 million dollars, aides said.

“The extravaganza of giving enabled Obama to demolish his previous one-month record of 66 million dollars in August, which had already set him fair to hit McCain hard with a nationwide advertising blitz in the closing stages.

“The Republican Powell, on NBC program ‘Meet the Press,’ said Obama had ‘met the standard’ to be commander-in-chief ‘because of his ability to inspire’ Americans of all ages and ethnic and political stripes.

“‘I think he would be a transformational president. For that reason I will be voting for Senator Barack Obama,’ said Powell, who was the first African-American to serve as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Obama wins Powell endorsement and massive cash haul, APF, October 19, 2008

“…because of his (Obama’s) ability to inspire’ Americans of all ages and ethnic and political stripes.”

Bravo, General Powell. You just said something I can agree with you on. Welcome to the side of Truth, Justice and the American Way.

Here is Obama in St. Louis MO on October 18 inspiring Americans of all ages and ethnic and political stripes.

(Oh, by the way, $2,340 of that $150M Obama raised in September was from Mr. Dan Kelly’s Horrorshow fundraiser, which was so divine, it was divune. Just FYI, y’know?)

Wheeeee, lookit him go!

What the hell? you ask. And you can still contribute, too!

“The next potential victims of the nation’s credit crunch: nearly 1.5 million people who ride buses and trains each weekday in Los Angeles County. Transit officials say riders could soon be facing serious service cuts.

“That’s because the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority might have to quickly come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to pay investors, under terms of deals it made involving American International Group, the troubled financial and insurance giant.

“‘I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this,’ said Terry Matsumoto, the chief financial service officer and treasurer for the MTA. He said it was ‘absolutely’ certain the agency would have to cut service if the deals sour.

“The problem, Matsumoto said, could extend beyond the MTA to other large transit agencies that entered into similar deals between the late 1980s and 2003, when tax laws were changed to discourage such transactions. Among those is Metrolink.

“The news comes at a tough time for the MTA. The agency recently lost $133 million in state funds, and declining sales tax revenues mean it will have less money to help keep its buses and trains rolling.
An AIG spokesman declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of deals with its customers.

“Between the late 1980s and 2003, the MTA sold its rail equipment, more than 1,000 buses, a parking garage and maintenance facilities to investors that included Wells Fargo, Comerica and Phillip Morris in separate deals.

“Sale-Lease-back deals are a common way to raise money in the corporate world. A manufacturer, for example, could sell its factory to investors and then lease it back. The manufacturer gets a large chunk of cash and the investors get a steady stream of lease payments, as well as a tax break for their depreciating property.

“‘It’s a great way to get a shot in the arm in terms of cash without actually divesting yourself of your property,’ said Bill Holder, an accounting professor at USC.

“Many of the nation’s largest transit agencies participated in such deals. Among them are the San Francisco Muni system, the BART rail system in the Bay Area, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Washington, D.C., Metro system.

“Metrolink, the Southland’s commuter rail agency, also sold most of its train cars and locomotives in four lease-back deals — three of which involved AIG — and made a $35.5-million profit as a result, said spokesman Francisco Oaxaca. Metrolink, like MTA, must now find another firm to replace AIG.”
Transit services across U.S. threatened by deals with AIG, by Steve Hymon, LAT Bottleneck Blog, October 18, 2008

What a mess. I’d like to call the MTA stupid, because they are, but it appears they’re stupid like a lot of transit agencies. But our own stupid MTA wants a half cent increase in LA County sales tax to do more stupid things with? I think not. I think LA County voters aren’t stupid. Vote No on Measure R.

You think good business practices and common sense and, y’know, laws would keep us all safe from this kind of insanity, but then you turn your back on it and it nearly kills you. Capitalism – it’s like an urban raccoon, never turn your back on it.

Yes! End the tyranny of Moleskine notebooks. Reviews of Moleskine Alternatives and the search for the perfect little black notebook.

(Okay, it’s a contest to win Piccadilly notebooks, just please click on the link and help a girl out. Thanks, as always. Oh, and this link goes to the main Black Cover page. They do review some cool stuff there.)

And make a lot of someones happy.

Disclaimer: The pictures of Ann-Margaret came with the song, but they seemed appropriate…somehow.

But while I’m sort of on the subject…

Mmmmm, here she is with Fred and Barney.

And some guy from Tupelo, Mississippi.

For God’s sake, just Vote NO on Prop 8 so I can stop posting these videos!

“Philanthropist Steve Bing and Equality California are offering a ONE MILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE GRANT so our new ad can reach California’s undecided voters.

“The ad gives voice to the broad coalition of organizations and newspapers that oppose Prop. 8—from the Los Angeles Times and La Opinión to the League of Women Voters, the California Nurses Association and the California Teachers Association.”
Double the Impact of this Ad, October 16, 2008

What a guy! Now, go find some money!

If Barack Obama is Assassinated The Blood is on John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s Hands, Fablog, October 10, 2008

“While other major companies, like Google, Levi Strauss and PG&E are taking stands for equality, Knobbe Martens is taking a stand for writing discrimination into our state constitution, and for affirmatively limiting the rights of a minority.

“I should point out that many of the attorneys that I worked with at Knobbe were phenomenal people. Extremely friendly and all that. And, as far as I can tell, nobody from the San Francisco office has given any money to the Yes on 8 campaign, the money seems to come only from the mothership in Orange County and the smaller San Diego office.

“However, the firm does have a sizable group of Mormon attorneys who are dedicated to ending my marriage, and thousands of lifelong commitments like mine. Dedicated to the tune of over $25,000 in the third quarter alone. You can find a chart of third quarter to Yes on 8 from Knobbe Martens attorneys here. I’ve not taken the time to include spouses, but I did see a couple of them in the list. Further, it is possible I missed a few donations due to misspellings in the firm name on the Form 460.

“So, if you are looking for an intellectual property attorney who shares your values of equality for all, I’d keep walking right past the Knobbe Martens offices in San Diego and Orange County.”
Prop 8: Marriage Discrimination has a law firm, by Brian Leubitz, Calitics, October 14, 2008

For Intellectual Property lawyers, they certainly don’t like progress.

Here’re the names and amounts:

Brent Dougal $500
Douglas Espenchied $1,500
Nathan Smith $1,000
Marc Morley $1,000
Ted Cannon $5,000
Philip Nelson $1,100
Glen Nutall $150
Curstis (sic) Huffmire $1,000
Paul Conover $500
Christian Fox $1,500
William Bunker $5,000
Ned Israelsen $3,000
Jason Jardine $500
Michael Erickson $5,000
Total = $26,750

Tsk, tsk, tsk. All that money just to deprive one group of productive members of society the rights you enjoy and as a bonus, make them unhappy. What a waste. I don’t know how you people sleep at night or look yourselves in the eye. Shame on you. Shame on all of you.

Equality for All still needs money and all the help it can get. I’ve donated, please donate. Don’t let the meanies win this one. Thanks.

“STOCKHOLM (AFP) — US economist Paul Krugman, a prolific New York Times columnist and fierce critic of Washington’s economic policies, won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday, the Nobel jury said.

“Krugman, 55, a Princeton University professor, has formulated a new trade analysis theory which determines the effects of free trade and globalisation, as well as the driving forces behind worldwide urbanisation, the citation said.”
US economist Paul Krugman wins Nobel Economics Prize, APF, October 13, 2008

Of course it was only a matter of time. Congratulations, Dr. Krugman!

“He said bank CEOs would not want to ‘gravitate toward fast recognition of losses’ by prematurely going to the government without trying to solve problems on their own. Getting capital from the government might undermine the financial company’s management and make shareholders nervous.”
Investors seeking a bottom brace for more uncertainty as government moves to shore up banks, Courant.com, October 12, 2008

Shareholders shouldn’t be nervous or feel a lack of confidence in the clown management that made this mess. Shareholders should be fucking freaking out.

“Eighteen months into our own financial crisis, Cursor is suspending publication.”
Cursor, October 10, 2008

Damn, the best link blogger ever has gone away. I signed up for a email if they ever get funded again. Hope springs eternal, eh?

“WASHINGTON – A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“While the treatment of prisoners at detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how two American citizens and a legal U.S. resident were treated in military jails inside the United States.

“The Bush administration ordered the men to be held in military jails as “enemy combatants” for years of interrogations without criminal charges, which would not have been allowed in civilian jails.”

~snip~

“The 91 pages of e-mails and documents produced by U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which runs the military brigs in Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S.C., detail daily decisions made about the treatment of Hamdi and Padilla, then both American citizens, and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal resident. All were designated as by the White House as ‘illegal enemy combatants.’

The White House just threw these men in jail forever, tortured them, and took away their legal rights and the White House got away with it. What country do we live in now?

“The paperwork show uniformed officials at the military brigs growing increasingly uncomfortable and then alarmed that they were being directed to handle their prisoners under the rules that governed Guantanamo.

“The authors and recipients of the e-mails are censored from the documents. They appear to be going to either military or Pentagon legal counsel and policy offices.

“The documents show that some officials at the Charleston brig were deeply skeptical about the mandate that Guantanamo rules should apply in the United States, a decision made by the defense secretary’s office, according to the documents.

“‘You have every right to question the “lash-up” between GTMO and Charleston — it was the first thing I ask (sic) about a year ago when I checked on board,” wrote one official to another in 2006. “In a nutshell, they gave the Charleston detainee mission to (Joint Forces Command) who promptly gave it to (Fleet Forces Command) with a ‘lots of luck’ and nothing else.’”
Documents say detainee pushed near insanity. Light shed on how prisoners were treated in military brigs inside U.S., MSNBC, October 7, 2008

We are better than the past eight years. At least I hope so. Let’s prove it in November by electing Barack Obama President of the United States.

Get your attention?

“None of that is to say that we shouldn’t be worried. The article quotes the campaign as blaming two reasons here. First is the massive spending of the Yes campaign, with most of that being from the Mormon community. It seems the Mormons liked persecution so much that they want to inflict it upon others. At any rate, Yes is outraising No by about $10 million. That’s Bad. Very Bad.

“Which leads us to the ‘complacency’ reason. Specifically, the No on 8 campaign is saying that queer and queer-friendly communities are now expecting to win and are not working and contributing enough to see this thing through. So people, let’s get on this.”
Prop 8: Is Complacency Our Worst Enemy? Pessimistic Polls Emerge, by Brian Leubitz, Calitics, October 7, 2008

Get registered, vote no on Prop 8, and if you can spare it, contribute to the Equality for All because the other side is raising way more money. Eeeek!

Also: Prop 8: $6 million down. Time to step it up.

In case anyone was wondering if S Palin always talks/talked like that:

(via)

Man, the RIAA have really lost their tiny minds now:

“The Recording Industry Association of America is declaring attorney-blogger Ray Beckerman a “vexatious” litigator. The association is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions to punish him in his defense of a New York woman accused of making copyrighted music available on the Kazaa file sharing system.

“The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation’s few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, ‘has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs,’ the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. ‘Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions.’”
RIAA Decries Attorney-Blogger as ‘Vexatious’ Litigator, Wired, By David Kravets, September 17, 2008

Ray’s one of the good guys. But otherwise, words, they fail me. Except: fucking RIAA. Jerks.

When this woman runs for re-election or President or anything, I’m sending her money.

Rep. Kaptur is magnificent! Is she always like this? Or is she rising to the occasion?

“1. The worst provision of the bailout bill was the cap on executive compensation. Many of these executives are already underpaid and they are suffering terribly as their stock options become worthless. One reason why some companies have not performed as well as they should have was that their executives were too distracted trying to make ends meet to focus on their jobs and they were worried about what will happen to them if they become unemployed. They are no doubt chilled by what happened to AIG CEO Martin J Sullivan when he resigned in July after AIG wrote down $20 billion in losses on assets linked to subprime mortgages. He got a measly severance package that only amounted to $47 million, which will be worth even less in 2009 dollars if the economy continues in the direction it’s headed. What incentive are executives going to have to work hard and pull their companies out of debt if we cap their compensation and how are we going to convince some poorly performing executives to resign if we don’t promise them hefty golden parachutes?

“2. Even worse, the bailout bill contained no provisions guaranteeing Christmas bonuses for Wall Street workers. Doesn’t anyone in Congress understand how Wall Street works? Telling Wall Street workers that Santa Claus might not come this year would be devastating for our economy, which depends on the infusion of cash it gets each Christmas as investment bankers spend their bonus checks buying condominiums and boats and indulging in lavish meals in luxury restaurants. How can we hope to get out of this economic slump if we do not guarantee the Christmas bonuses that keep our economy going?”
Can Happy Days be Here Again?, Jon Swift, September 30, 2008

No bail-out for the bozos.

“Americans, both young and old, play video games at an ever-growing rate. Today’s adults, unlike those who dropped game play in the 1980s due to public shame (Williams, 2006a), play more than previous generations. 40% of adults are now regular players, compared to 83% of teenagers. The average player age is now 33, propelling the industry to $7.4 billion in U.S. sales in 2006 (Entertainment Software Association, 2007). The result is a population engaging in this medium as an acceptable mainstream activity. And as the Internet has become a larger part of everyday life (Wellman & Haythornthwaite, 2002), so too have networked games. 67% of teens now regularly play some game online (Rideout, Roberts, & Foehr, 2005). Online games bring people together as they use their cell phones, their computers and their gaming consoles to access not only games, but other people. The most social and high-profile of these spaces are persistent virtual worlds—games that are always on, in which players maintain a regular character who grows and changes, and in which many players participate in long-term social groups (Griffiths, Davies, & Chappell, 2003; Yee, 2006). These worlds, called “massively multiplayer online games,” or MMOs, are vibrant sites of community (Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). Yet even as participation in them rises to several million players in North America alone, research on their players and their impact has remained relatively scant. Ethnographic and experimental investigations of player ‘guilds’ and communities have explored the social dynamics and relationships that exist (Taylor, 2003, 2006; Williams, Caplan, & Xiong, 2007), but systematic and generalizable research has remained elusive, largely due to the difficulties of securing access to players within the walled gardens of for-profit companies. The current investigation represents the first case of access to proprietary in-game player data. With the active cooperation of a major game operator, the current study surveyed players and unobtrusively collected in-game data on their behaviors. This combination of demographic, attitudinal and behavioral data generated a true player census of a virtual world. The paper presented here explicates players’ demographics, their playing patterns as related to those demographics, and their motivations for play. Many of the results defy both stereotype and theoretical predictions.”
Who plays, how much, and why? A player census of a virtual world, Dmitri Williams, Nick Yee, Scott E. Caplan. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages 993-1018, Published Online: 2 Sep 2008 (via Gamers Play Against Type, USC news, which has this in it: “In addition, while women made up only 20 percent of players, they logged more time in the game than their male counterparts. ‘The hardcore players are the women,” Williams said. “They play more hours, they’re less likely to quit.’” Take that, fanboys. )

“The transportation of goods and children through an urban landscape is a universal need. In Copenhagen many our of citizens choose the self-propelled transport option and cycle to work, school and on errands.

“On any given day you’ll see people moving things about on their bikes. A ladder, a newly-purchased bean bag for the living room, heavy bags of groceries dangling from the handlebars. It’s what we do.

“In Copenhagen, however, we have our own version of the SUV. We call it ‘ladcyklen’ or ‘the cargo bike’. Often there are goods too large or cumbersome for convenient bicycle transport and if you have a child or two or three, they have places to go and things to do and you are the one who has to get them there.

“In Denmark the three-wheeled cargo bike is the vehicle of choice for moving things about and the cargo bike market here continues to enjoy steady growth. A cargo bike is a generic term for any bicycle that is designed to carry ‘stuff,’ whether it has two wheels or three.”
Carrying Copenhagen: the wonders of the cargo bike, by Mikael Colville-Andersen, guest-blogger, LAT Bottleneck Blog, September 30, 2008

It would be nice if Los Angeles could have this kind of bike culture. The SUV drivers would have to give up their road rage at cyclists, though, so I don’t see this bicycle utopia anytime soon, alas.

I have seen bike trailers sometimes with cargo, sometimes with kids in them, but I think the last time I saw that was when I lived in Portland Oregon in 1996. I don’t think I’ve seen it in the parts of LA I hang out in. I mean, if I had kids, I would not subject them to LA traffic, so that’s probably why I haven’t seen any kid-towing bike trailers in LA.