Rich Mintz

• Excited for tonight's Gujarati feast at Vatan! http://yfrog.com/4a5otcj #
• Vegetarian feast aftermath http://yfrog.com/3220ij #
• oh @mcgregormt, you silly, i can't balance my checkbook with Monarch of the Glen on, I wouldn't be able to follow the plot #
• I just became the mayor of MTA – 23rd St Subway Station (1) on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/dqZmkc #
• cmon @snjacobs – this is your big chance to become Mayor of the Brooklyn DMV #
• On spanking new PATH train w/hi-tech enhancements. Stimulus? (Note: still smells like poo) http://yfrog.com/4eee0rj #
• Oh @joshuaclerner you'll always be the mayor of the Sheepshead Bay/Gravesend DMV in my heart in reply to joshuaclerner #
• @joshuaclerner is that from your Winter in St. Pete photo collection? in reply to joshuaclerner #
• @laurenm great pic tho!! in reply to laurenm #
• So my UK friends can have a laugh (Litigious Americans series, NJ Transit division) http://yfrog.com/1emcspj #
• Another (Litigious Americans, Port Authority of NY & NJ division) http://yfrog.com/3lvusmj #
• Ok, I admit it — here on the Newark AirTrain I'm in an infrastructure swoon http://yfrog.com/3nspncj #
• Texas friend on FB said her niece saw this bumper sticker: HONK IF U LUV JESUS. TEXT WHILE DRIVING IF U WANT 2 MEET HIM. (via @TeriTynes) #
• How to Reduce Complexity In User Interfaces -> http://bit.ly/Cp6Ho (via @diego_s) // detailed & readable #
• Arrived Ottawa airport, which is apparently in Siberia. http://yfrog.com/auzbxjj #
• Pretty spectacular hotel room view! (either Parliament, or a ginormous orphanage) http://yfrog.com/4aeylyj #
• This spiral tower staircase reminds me of high school. (Anyone remember Rugby Tower?) http://yfrog.com/4a4hysj #
• Ottawa may be the Washington, DC of Canada – but DC doesn't have elevator doors like this http://yfrog.com/4idg5xj #
• How you know you're in Canada: oblong sugar packets!! http://yfrog.com/au7divj #
• Coolest thing ever: saw 200 people ice-skating along several miles of the Rideau Canal on a Tuesday afternoon #
• Pianiste in hotel bar singing Goodbye Yellow Brick Road w such passion, she drew me across the lobby http://yfrog.com/aticyj #
• Those polar bears? They're actually koalas in costume. #fakelostspoilers #
• Look at this f*cking hipster. (Just a warning – you cannot unsee this photo.) http://bit.ly/9S3gTA (via @gregpalmer) // yes I lolled #
• Gordon Lightfoot poster under falling snow: a moment of Canadian winter http://yfrog.com/4fu00gj #
• At the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, a grand venue (circa 1978?) on a bluff with panoramic urban vw http://yfrog.com/4fnkfoj #
• Yes, reader, that is my hotel; no, I'm not *actually* royalty http://yfrog.com/4fv9igj #
• Heard at Google Govt summit: Canadians conduct about 40% more online searches than Americans #
• @dcm it's per capita across the whole pop, I have the cite in reply to dcm #
• I'd see this band just for the name http://yfrog.com/1ymqjfzj #
• The Government of Canada logo: one of the most successful visual identities anywhere http://yfrog.com/32givij #
• Ottawa's Sparks Street Mall at lunchtime on a cold day (think it's empty? You shd see adjacent streets) http://yfrog.com/1e49hzj #
• Gov of Canada visual ID not just a logo, but detailed signage standards for public facilities http://yfrog.com/4fnajxj #
• Canada's heroes: d'Iberville http://yfrog.com/3iy20j #
• Canada's heroes: Frontenac http://yfrog.com/35xe7wj #
• Canada's heroes: Georgina Pope http://yfrog.com/1eb09kj #
• Canada's heroes: Thayendanegea, Six Nations war chief http://yfrog.com/3n69noj #
• Could this sign be any scarier? Those points look sharp http://yfrog.com/3n841cmj #
• Is The City Cracking Down On Raw Egg-Infused Cocktails? http://bit.ly/cXooaU (via @Gothamist) #
• Rideau Canal national hist site – conn'g Ottawa R to Lake Ontario, opening up trade http://yfrog.com/atrd1j #
• Look, it's the Govt of Canada logo, all ginormous but still respecting brand standards! http://yfrog.com/3lsjacj #
• Winter festival starts this weekend! http://yfrog.com/3g54952818j #
• Winterfest poster (look, it's the Govt of Canada logo hiding at the bottom!) http://yfrog.com/4aw7dnj #
• Bear eating a fish at the end of Sparks Street http://yfrog.com/1ds3tkj #
• Because when I think of postage, I think of lions. http://yfrog.com/4aiy0srj #
• Great cities memorialize their great citizens in small ways all over town http://yfrog.com/35j1zkj #
• 20 min in Canadian Museum of Civilization on way to airport. Starting w fur trade exhibit… #
• Omg!! The Canadian postal museum!! http://yfrog.com/353icsj #
• Every Canadian postage stamp ever issued http://yfrog.com/3lzccjhj #
• Stick these on your eggs before mailing. I kid you not. http://yfrog.com/33ttgj #
• Eau my god! This book title is obvious, but that doesn't make it any less annoying. http://yfrog.com/4fxxlvj #
• "Mosaic" made entirely of postage stamps http://yfrog.com/323ckqj #
• Bottle of liquor hidden in fake loaf of bread, to evade postal restrictions http://yfrog.com/1e6g9wj #
• Canadian mail-order catalog, ca. 1930 http://yfrog.com/atlw8j #
• Mail-delivery sleigh from the frozen north http://yfrog.com/1yfotzj #
• Rideau Canal ice skaters (for @rbseggel) http://yfrog.com/au4wayj #
• I just became the mayor of Zoe's on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/9L7yqJ #
• Oh, Canada, farewell, farewell, it's always such a delight. I know you'll miss me, but fear not — I'll see you soon! #
• @mnacampbell thanks – it was a great group of idealistic people, which made it easy :-) in reply to mnacampbell #
• @simonaioffe thank you – lots of exciting citizen/constituent communications going on by the people in that room in reply to simonaioffe #
• Obvious father and son walking to work together. Seen often in NYC, rarely if ever seen elsewhere in US http://yfrog.com/32zs4rj #
• for first time in life, rescheduled a plane flight to another day due to #snowpocalypse #
• Bus rapid transit (BRT) and protected bike lanes coming to 1st/2nd Aves! yay M15 http://bit.ly/9rQlct #
• @xyzprincess funny, I read that as "defriended" and did a double take in reply to xyzprincess #
• Pittsburgh neighborhood welcomes Google Street View camera with a parade: http://bit.ly/atlbgW #
• Secret photo of construction underway at Fulton St sta http://yfrog.com/1dxcwbj #
• On W 4th St platform, i spy w/my little eye…poo! Ew! #
• New rule: "snOMG" = unfollow unless you actually can't get out of your house until the Marines arrive. Just sayin'. #
• Ok @AllisonRockey: "snomageddon" = instant unfollow unless you are actually looking Satan in the eye, starting…NOW in reply to AllisonRockey #
• @kellnaaah whenever new snowstorm tags start flying around twitter, it's always the usual suspects pimping them in reply to kellnaaah #
• hahahahaha RT @genekoo: The problem with being alone in the office is that there's no one to cannibalize when the #snowpocalypse comes. #
• re Biggie: only person in history of world to call Clinton Hill "Bed-Stuy" (attn world: that's a NYC real estate joke) http://bit.ly/cVAtjJ #
• Via @LetsSaveMich: Monday, PBS, Blueprint America, on Detroit http://bit.ly/9yBTmv #i<3infrastructure #
• The Post is now saying "Snowmageddon." I QUIT. http://bit.ly/cuqicb #
• RT @RyanNewYork: Westboro Baptist Church protests outside of Twitter in SF, gets mocked by better signs. http://bit.ly/dc48T3 #
• Balt weatherman loses mind//RT @dcmichaelrose: um, this forecaster is out of control. http://bit.ly/86uoPO //what is wrong w/everybody? #
• Most interesting composer I never heard of: Bohuslav Martinu (credit Chad Jones): info http://bit.ly/ckcNfb, listen http://bit.ly/c1eXZh #
• @AllisonRockey your tweet isn't the only thing that's gonna be cut off if you keep saying #snomageddon!! grumble in reply to AllisonRockey #
• RT @jeffbercovici: demolition of Bill Kristol's "don't ask, don't tell" apologia is ultra satisfying. http://bit.ly/cAspSL (via @dceiver) #
• (for bsd ny) Yo Flatironers: I'm on @TheTreatsTruck on 5th between 21 and 22. Come over and say "hello Doug!" (via @biggayicecream) #
• @kerrijack lesson: LR too damn small in reply to kerrijack #
• Pearl Paint retrenching, closing Lispenard St (Canal St still open) – NYT http://bit.ly/d1Htdo #
• someone just put on "Eye of the Tiger" upstairs, turned up all the way. #worksinthewrongdepartment #
• via @dailydish: DADT will be a non-event http://bit.ly/bLUXt6 #
• Better brace myself for tonight's #snownoyance … Ok, done #
• Stopping by j&r to git me some Martinu (sorry @agram) #
• got my Martinu, also Berg and a little Mozart… went nuts on the cheapie table – B Manilow, D Warwick, JD Messina, NxNW soundtrack #
• but even I could resist the Neil Diamond Movie Album #
• I may regret this when the Devil calls in my soul, but: I think the new Facebook mini-ui-redesign is an improvement #
• "Snowpocalypse" NYC. Ho hum. http://yfrog.com/35t6tsaj #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Matthew Yglesias thinks that Senators get to wiggle out of responsibility for the disruption they cause through inaction and delay. To place a hold on a nomination, he suggests, a Senator should have to stand on his head in the Senate chamber and formally pronounce words like “I, Senator Richard Mintz of New York, wish to postpone a vote on [name] until tomorrow, February 6, 2010″ — and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that, or else the hold expires. He would graciously allow the Senator “an assist from staff if necessary,” at least on the headstand part. Now that’s a government reform I could get behind!

Ta-Nehisi Coates put in a plug recently for Yale Professor David W. Blight’s lectures on the Civil War, available free on video. Putting these on my to-watch list…

Regarding Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto — not much to say except it’s very much worth reading. Part of the reason I let the blog go for over a week and backed off from social media is that I finished this book, and was reminded thereby that the human encounters I was putting off in order to spend time online are the whole point.

Technology can enhance human contact and creative expression, or can deflect the one and stifle the other, which is what Lanier fears is happening in various ways acknowledged and unacknowledged. In particular, enthusiasm for the technological future, Lanier says, encourages us to reduce ourselves in order to comply with the inherent limits and non-continuousness of technology, rather than envisioning smarter and better technology that can keep up with us. I can’t say he’s wrong.

Via PaidContent.org — Apple has warned developers that if they use location-based content, they must use it primarily in “beneficial” ways, not primarily for ad targeting. Not clear how this will be enforced or even checked.

• Coming soon: "Urban umbrellas" to replace NYC sidewalk sheds http://bit.ly/6ZpUu2 #
• pieces of the Gehry tower are apparently falling in the street near my apartment http://bit.ly/843TMi #
• @jddc dumb question: why are there movies at jury duty? isn't there supposed to be, like, court? in reply to jddc #
• This bridge needs a big sign reading HAVRE DE GRACE MAKES, THE WORLD PAYS NO ATTENTION #
• I'm at Blue State Digital (734 15th St NW, Washington). http://4sq.com/bSXpq1 #
• @laurenm oh, you know you'll be the mayor by Friday! :) in reply to laurenm #
• Foursquare Land Rush alert (confidential to @BSDwire) – the Starbucks at 14th and G has no mayor! Hurry… #
• @jddc yes, "we're sorry for selling you $11 billion worth of garbage for 25 years, but really, it was an accident" in reply to jddc #
• my fav 2010 tweet so far: RT @mcgregormt: @richmintz @laurenm M McGregor just became the mayor of not liking foursqaure messages on twitter #
• uh oh, now it's a movement (via @dcm): RT @dangillmor: Starting tmw, I'm going to stop following ppl who update Twitter from Foursquare #
• "If [Travolta} really wants to do something to help, he can text HAITI to 90999 a few hundred thousand times." http://bit.ly/a9JBOY #
• Court upholds prison rule forbidding Dungeons & Dragons (via @dailydish): http://bit.ly/85qu1r #
• Transnational urbanism in the Americas: http://bit.ly/aq9uJR #
• Secrets of Farmville's/Zynga's success http://bit.ly/EaCxt #
• Okay, you know what? I don't need an iPad, but you know I'm going to buy one anyway. And I'm fine with that. #
• thanks to @snjacobs 4sq, i am in the mood for Asian chicken wings. (note to @mcgregormt: am I allowed to *say* "4sq" on twitter?) #
• @snjacobs I think *you're* missing an apostrophe #
• RT @phillamb168: The #iPad seems to me to just be an iPhone for old people. //hey, I resemble that remark (can't read my own biz cards etc.) #
• Join the call for a Constitutional amendment to protect our democracy #changecongress #lessig http://bit.ly/dj4E9O #
• Nicholas Carr/TNR on iPad: tablets attractive now bec nature of computing has evolved http://bit.ly/9sijeh #
• @dcmichaelrose did you say "taxation without representation!" over and over until they hung up? in reply to dcmichaelrose #
• "Magic Highway USA" from Disneyland (ABC), 1958 (8 min animated video). I want that house with the private motor port at 3:15! #
• RT @dcmichaelrose: Weird, but also awesome. // RT @ezraklein This is, by far, the weirdest web site I have ever seen. http://bit.ly/6R88Bs #
• (I might like this one even better than http://selleckwaterfallsandwich.tumblr.com/) http://unhappyhipsters.com/ (tx @JuliaEvins) #
• Live United poster went up right outside our office! @live_united http://yfrog.com/3lojfzj #
• Forest Hills State of Mind (with Billy Eichner and Rachel Dratch) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nS5QyNC24w (via @tjhelm84) #
• OK, I saw something and said something. If Chambers St Sta is still here in the morning, you have me to thank. #
• what I hate more than anything in the whole wide world? balancing my checkbook (although 1995 Sense & Sensibility is on, so there's that) #
• I just ousted @lordtrilink as the mayor of Chase bank on Broadway on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/cRp9k2 #
• I just ousted @adinasonia as the mayor of US Post Office – Church Street Station on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/5iJMRi #

Powered by Twitter Tools