Archive: Category: Miscellaneous

Yesterday morning, this tweet popped up in my feed:https://mobile.twitter.com/JoePerticone/status/823656340941897728Which made me think, “It sure would be great if my state’s senior Senator, Chuck Schumer, showed more spine! So far, our other Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, has shown a lot of courage voting against almost all of President Trump*’s nominees. Maybe Chuck just needs some encouragement.”Turns out, if you go on Amazon, spines aren’t really that expensive. This life size Flexible Chiropractic Spine Model is only $79.95, floor stand included.My next thought was, could I crowdfund this? What if a lot of people feel the same way? What tool should I use to make it easy, like one-click easy?Luckily for me, I was at Civic Hall, the collaborative community center for civic...

A woman I had dinner with the other night said to me that the atmosphere in this country since the Persian Gulf war is like that at a party in a beautiful home, with everybody being polite and bubbly. And there is this stink coming from somewhere, getting worse all the time, and nobody wants to be the first to mention it.— KURT VONNEGUT, Letter to the editor, New York Times, March 27, 1991On Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump visited the offices of The New York Times for an on-the-record interview with some of the paper’s top reporters, editors and columnists. The meeting was widely covered, both in the paper and elsewhere, as suggesting that the Trump was “moderating” some of...

This is a long letter, so here’s the short version: It’s time for civic groups to step forward to defend civil society during this election.Here at Civic Hall, we are devoted to the idea of civic tech — the use of tech for the public good. Implicit in that notion of public good is the idea that we are all in this together, that when freedom is threatened for one of us, it’s a threat to all of us; that when we debate questions of public policy we use facts and reason; and that the public record means something solid, that we are accountable for our past words and actions.It’s time we recognize that Donald Trump is not just bad news for...

This can’t waitAre you in this with her, MicahMicah, I can do this if you’re with meYou and me, MicahThe polls are all over the placethis can’t wait, MicahWe’re running out of time, MicahI need you by my side, MicahTime’s running outMicah — so grateful for youWhy I’m emailing you todayWe could make history together tomorrowBefore Iowa, make sure my mom knowsHello, MicahIf you were waiting, now’s the timeHillary needs youIf you’re not with me, MicahMicah, can my mom count on you to help her win?are you by my side, Micah?outraged and outspentmy mom is down in the polls“What are we going to do?”No matter what happens tonightI’m not kidding, Micahright now, MicahI’m counting on you MicahNo intention of losing— Hillary, Bill...

MediaCloud search results for “gun” and “Black Friday” 11/25–12/3It’s been a roller-coaster of a week in America, bookended by mass shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and a social service center in California. Our brains and the media nervous system that feeds (on) them are more on edge than usual, it seems. The news from last Friday, that gun sales on Black Friday broke national one-day sales records, reverberated darkly. But reflecting back on the data, and how the media covered that news, I couldn’t help but notice something else: Giving Tuesday, which was founded just three years ago as a response to the mass consumerism of Black Friday and CyberMonday, has taken off like wildfire. It’s far...

Voting in New York’s multi-party system“This is the most confusing presidential election in my memory,” a young friend of mine said to me the other day. And yes, at first glance, things seem quite unusual, even for a year when both parties are having competitive primaries. After all, neither Donald Trump nor Bernie Sanders, who are each doing remarkably well right now in their respective bids for the Republican and Democratic nominations, seem at home inside those parties.Trump is a nominal Republican who was just forced to sign a pledge to back the Republican nominee (in the event it isn’t him), and the GOP establishment has to hope that he still doesn’t bolt to run as an independent. And Sanders...

Is it weird that both Andrew Golis and Jake Brewer bring up “sexual proclivities” while sharing Paul Ford’s fun New Republic article about Spotify’s long tail? And why can’t I leave comments on This.cm recommendations, Golis?...

At the risk of kicking a dead horse, I want to share a theory I have about how it all went bad at The New Republic between Chris Hughes, Guy Vidra and the staff. Keeping in mind that the staff meltdown may have been destined to happen, I wonder if things couldn’t have turned out differently, but didn’t, because of TNR’s internal culture of deference plus the odd way that email and chat has changed how magazine offices work.Here’s why I think things could have been different. Back in 1987, I was a junior staffer working for The Nation magazine, another journal of opinion, when the entire staff rose in revolt against its new wealthy publisher. The trigger was the...

The Albany capital districtTo my New York friends:If you are like me, you face a strange dilemma this Tuesday.You know our awful governor Andrew Cuomo is a manipulative, lying control freak, who shut down an investigation into corruption in Albany before it could finish its job (and prevented it from looking into anything touching his own administration), and, as The New York Times recently reported, who previously botched and then covered up his own mishandling of the Hurricane Sandy crisis. He’s nothing like his father, having recently declared that liberals are against any raising of taxes on the rich because that would be “confiscation.” I could go on…But I’m going to hold my nose and vote for him on the Working...

A few months ago, Significance Labs was little more than an idea with a beautifully designed home page, a home at Blue Ridge Foundation’s hub in Brooklyn, and the seed funding to back up a daring pitch: Why not build technology aimed directly at addressing the needs of low-income Americans? Now, after picking six fellows from a pool of 150 applicants, the Labs is showcasing some inspiring results: five promising examples of working civic tech tools that can demonstrably help the poorest among us.Unlike other start-up incubators, which seek to attract budding companies and then provide them with business development support aimed at helping entrepreneurs impress high-net-worth investors, Significance Labs focused on helping its fellows zero in on the needs...