Phones

Soo. Sometimes when people say they're blowing up they actually are.

Exploding Cell Phones a Growing Problem

By ELIZABETH WOLFE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Curtis Sathre said it was like a bomb going off. His 13-year-old son Michael stood stunned, ears ringing, hand gushing blood after his cell phone exploded. Safety officials have received 83 reports of cell phones exploding or catching fire in the past two years, usually because of bad batteries or chargers.

Read on:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&e=1&u=/ap/exploding_phones

Bushbot

Bush reveals little of 9/11 testimony given, distracts press corps with robot dance

(AP) - President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney spent more than three hours behind closed doors Thursday with the Sept. 11 commission charged with finding ways to prevent a repeat of the worst terrorist attack in American history. "I answered every question they asked," Bush said. Bush declined to disclose details of the Oval Office discussion, instead, the president mesmerized the press corps by performing the 1980s dance commonly referred to as "The Robot," slowly shuffling his way back into the White House before anyone realized what was happening.

from www.americanidle.net

Links galore

I haven't blogged in a week, citing (in my head) an investigative project to start, internship applications to finish, news to read and sleep to get. But two people replied to my last post, which made me so happy I figured it wouldn't hurt to post some more. Besides, Mike Mitchell just sent me a funny, sick link that I want to share with the world: www.furnitureporn.com.

The main reason I haven't been blogging, I think, is the post-traumatic election disorder I have. Going to Tuesday night's panel discussion didn't help --- Thomas Fitzgerald from the Philly Inquirer practically told the two bloggers on the panel, one of whom was the Wonkette (www.wonkette.com) that they should go for beers instead of, say, post exit poll results next election. He looked so far down his nose at them that he grew a double-chin.

What also didn't help was talking to Tim Green on the phone last night. His page, www.livejournal.com/users/timiathan, is a good hub for information on what he thinks "really" happened Nov. 2. He recommends www.blackboxvoting.org for studies of voter fraud and Republican-sponsored election theft. I recommend www.sorryeverybody.com for giggles if you've lost the energy to conspiracy-theorize.

Ever notice how the far right has a way with words? Its cronies will weaken pollution controls and call it Clear Skies, kiss logger's rear ends and call it Healthy Forests and give words like "conspiracy theory" the credibility of a deck of Tarot cards. Tim pointed out that the word "liberal" has been hijacked, too --- it now carries with it a connotation of craziness. Hoity toity author Anne Coulter helped the cause when her book came out earlier this year.

I have my first mini-photo skills class tomorrow. I can't wait to learn photography.

Russians wait for a bus to shuttle them home on Election Day

Two sisters, Tamara and Lidia, sit innocently after voting for Bush

Brighton Beach poll worker Yelena Kozodoy on Election Day

Ashcroft and I like to sing

In honor of Ashcroft's resignation today, one of the best stories to come out of his tenure: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1788845.stm

And, of course, his Let the Eagle Soar performance in Charlotte, NC:
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html

I'd comment on Charlotte here if not for Matt Goad, who provided me with my first-ever clip... about me. He was beyond kind, and seeing it today made me so giddy I'm posting it:

Sing us a song, Ms. Piano Lady
From Columbia's J-School Journal

Could a budding superstar singer be killing time at J-School?

If the reaction to Jen Weiss's open mic performance at Paddy Reilly's on Second Avenue on Saturday was any indication, the answer is yes. Weiss played piano and sang to a supportive crowd. The men in the audience were especially appreciative, making a point to crowd around her after the gig to say how great she was.

Weiss, who has studied piano for a long time, was playing in public for the third time. All of her performances have been at open mic nights at New York City bars.

One song included at least one word that would not be suitable to print in a family newspaper.

I certainly didn't feel I was all that and a bag of chips, but I had fun and was grateful that people came. Paddy Reilly's is a great little joint on 29th and 2nd, with a Guinness tap for every letter of the beer's name. I didn't even have time to drink one, because I arrived late and had to set up as soon as I got there. I think I'll test-drive two new songs Sunday night at The C Note this weekend, and then play at PR's again next Saturday (before Caitlin's gala karaoke-night birthday party.) Rick Johnson, the booking dude, invited me back --- but I'm unsure whether it was because I'm talented, because I drew a crowd of people who bought drinks, or because I was ruthless and flirty when I walked around with the tip bucket later that evening and raked in a sizeable amount of dough.

How much did Rick let me keep? Enough to buy 20 coffees from the J-School's 6th-floor vending machine.

Clog

I have so much to do I don't have paper big enough for the to-do list. The most popular internship application deadline, 11/15, is days away --- one day, to be exact, if I don't want to spend hundreds on postage. I have an article to finish and pitch, and a master's project to morph from think to print. On top of this, the bathroom sink is clogged and the plastic fish soapdish is submerged beyond reach in the primordial soup.

Red v. Blue

"Liberal, quiche-eating, Kerry-supporting" northeast? Why is the left being perceived as more elitist and rich than the right? http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_opinion?id=45220369

I was talking to Moises today about secession along red and blue lines, which Gwynne Dyer of the Trinidad & Tobago Express suggests in that article. If the northeast and a few western states break away, I asked Moises, what will we call ourselves? He brought up a good point: there’s no copyright out for "United States." Let the other guys worry about finding a new name.

While I think Dyer’s labels of "proto-Canadian" and "pseudo-Iranian" for blue and red residents are oversimplified, I agree with him that moving the U.S.-Canada border is a far better idea than dealing with the repercussions of a pro-Kerry move north. As Dyer rightly points out, Canada is cold, and we’ll all quickly run out of elbow-room.

From The Onion: God puts His tool back into office. http://theonion.com/index.php?issue=4044

e-Day

It's 1:30 a.m. and we're all still here at school. No one has been declared the winner yet, but it looks like it'll be Bush. The middle of the country is so red it looks like it's been punched in the gut. In terms of telling contests, it looks like the first lady cookie competition trumped the Nickelodeon endorsement after all.

Our class website is here: http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/election/2004/e-Day-News.asp. More articles and photos will get posted as they come in.

Ash art

Claire Anderson and I walked around Union Square tonight with heavy, bazillion-dollar camera equipment slung on our backs. We needed a story for our TV skills class. In two hours, we found more than we could ever do in a night: a group of GLBT homeless teenagers that gathers nightly in the square; a clearly insane man playing a guitar he “got for free”; a late-night recruiter from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and a Puerto Rican, 9/11-inspired artist named Edwin Class.

We picked Class. He was a gem of an interview subject. It didn’t matter to him that Claire and I were bozos with the camera and tripod --- once we got the camera rolling, he talked with the ease of someone married to Barbara Walters.

The best part of the interview began when he took out a pair of scissors and a book of matches. In less than a minute, he’d snipped off the heads of most of the matches. After a few more cuts in slants and jags, only two matches were standing tall. We were looking at the New York City skyline, he said, as it was before the towers fell.

Class scraped the skyline against another matchbook and the towers ignited in a tiny puff of flame. Two black marks were left behind the charred matchheads. Those are called the footprints, Class said. He explained how people became ash that day; how the buildings fell seven floors below ground level.

For someone who said his favorite artistic medium is people, he worked well with a matchbook. And I got to keep it --- it’s tucked away for now, in my purse.