It is important that the mayor reassure citizens about the capability of Boston to efficiently respond to real emergencies. Recent statements indicting Turner Broadcasting and local artists for their part in a guerilla marketing campaign gone awry do little to ease our fears.

In this “Post 9/11 World,” as the Mayor puts it, it is important that we know authorities are trained and prepared to respond appropriately and proportionally to potential terrorist threats. That the city was shut down yesterday by a marketing gimmick that had been in place for 2-3 weeks speaks more to problems with local disaster preparedness and emergency management than it does to the any miscalculation on the part of Turner Broadcasting.

I am heartened to hear that police called to the scene of a hospital where one of the devices was found chose wisely not to evacuate the area — a highly disruptive act — based on a cool-headed assessment of the situation at the scene and the determination that the potential threat posted to patients and workers was minimal. But that such restraint could have been exercised elsewhere in the city where small circuit boards with some flashing lights were found, we wouldn’t have a $500,000 police bill to contend with.

If a terrorist wanted to blow up a bridge, or a T stop, or a hospital, there are far more inconspicuous and devastating ways to do it than to use flashing lights and D-cell batteries. A bomb in a cardboard box or garbage bag or a motor vehicle would be disastrous, yet we do not live in fear of every lumpy trash bag or ugly Vespa be see around the city. If we did, we would not be able to live our lives at all.

The last thing we, as a neurotic and on-edge society need is fear-mongering by our public officials. In this Post 9/11 World, to once again resort to hyperbole, the terrorists have truly won when we can’t go about our lives without an irrational paranoia of little magnetic signs with wires sticking out. Mr. Menino, please grow up. Please react rationally. Please don’t get caught up in the ridiculousness of this situation — use it as an opportunity to re-evaluate city response and tactics, not to prosecute hapless bystanders who happened to participate in one of the many “guerilla marketing” campaigns to which this city has been subject in recent years.

A cool, measured, and introspective response is what would best serve your citizens. Yelling will do no good to anyone, except, perhaps, the terrorists themselves, who see their handiwork of five years ago in New York continuing to pay dividends across American each and every day.

I did that thing where you start reading something and you can’t stop until you finish it six hours later. And by the way, the last five pages or so of _The Prestige_ can be counted as among the scariest things I’ve ever read before bedtime.

I watched the premiere of the new SciFi show _The Dresden Files_ last Sunday and thought it was fairly awful. Then I learn (from Wikipedia among others) that what I was watching was actually episode 3, and the two hour pilot has been condensed to one hour and shifted to episode 5. Now I don’t know if the pilot is any good, but I generally like to start watching a show by being introduced to the characters, environment, and, ya know, central conceits of the show (i.e. I’m a detective, but I’m also a wizard, and here are some of the things I can do and some of the limitations, and here is what “being a wizard” means in this universe). The new “first” episode didn’t really establish much of anything, and so didn’t hook me, and so SciFi (and the show) lost a viewer. Sucks, cause for all I know it might actually be a good show. Or not.

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Rumour has it [ _sic._ — they’re Brits] that the excellent 70s cop drama _Life on Mars_ will begin transmitting its second and final series sometime next month. I’ve dropped _Studio 60_ like a rotten watermelon to make some room in my schedule for my favorite British time-travel cop drama. I have mixed feelings about the Beeb’s decision to keep the show to a two season run (for a total of 16 episodes). I’m happy that they’re willing to try interesting new things, see them through to a logical conclusion, and not keep them on well past the expiry date. And I understand that the particular gimmick used in this show just can’t go on and on forever without resolution. But I’m sad because the show is so well done and I’m sure there are more good stories that could be told if the show were to stick around for another season. Plus 16 episodes isn’t even one full American season! (In fairness they *are* full hour episodes, rather than the 40-45 minute shows we air here).

On a related note, does the BBC understand that, given the opportunity, I would gladly pay the full UK television license fee if it meant I could download all of their television content from bbc.co.uk? I’m sure I’m not alone.

I’ve been hearing good things about this show _My Name is Earl_, maybe I should buy the first season DVDs. Before I do I want to make sure I’ll like it.

I know! I’ll buy the pilot episode on iTunes.

Oh, the pilot episode isn’t on iTunes. Guess I’ll just download the whole thing from BitTorrent.

Once my TiVo got properly programmed by Comcast I discovered that I have BBC America, on which I’ve found a little guilty pleasure called _Hex_ which is sorta a crappy British version of Buffy, only with demony angel things instead of vampires, and a telekinetic but silly quasi-witch as the heroine (well, until they kill her off because the actor wanted to do other things after the absolutely *grueling* pace of filming a modern, 5 episode drama for television, thus screwing up the series and forcing the writers to make things even more non-sensical, but that’s another blog entry entirely). Anyway, Defenestration Magazine (what?) offers a fun (if a bit lengthy) synopsis of the entire series if you want to enjoy a bit of British TV without actually having to watch it:

bq. We meet Cassie. She’s beautiful, but shy–which translates to her wearing neutrals and being boring as hell. She says things like “Why?” and “I don’t understand.” and sometimes she tempestuously tosses her head and says “You don’t understand!” Oh, she’s so fiery!

They spend a lot of time summarizing season 1 (the five episodes) and then, once things get silly(-er), devote much less ink to the 13 episodes of season 2, which, although I haven’t yet seen them, I gather is what they deserve.

Ha, cause I have some deep insights and inside info, right? Not so much. Just a few thoughts:
* No iPhone, or if there is, it’ll be VoIP only (there are about 100 reasons why Apple can’t just poof into existence a new phone network, and while its possible they’ll just release a handset that cell carriers can market, doing that while still maintaining the Steve Jobs “perfection” seems difficult/unlikely.
* Lots of fun new home-networking gear. Pre-N routers will replace AirPort Extreme, Express may receive an update as well, the “iTV” product will launch and have Pre-N support as well.
* HD content in the iTunes store and playable on the iTV.
* Perhaps another piece of “Apple in your living room” kit.
* New features for the video on the iTunes store, such as closed captioning and alternative-language tracks and menus and chapters (hope, hope).

That’s about all I can think of. Maybe a ultra-portable, but that’s unlikely. We’ll see in a few days. If there is an amazing “one more thing” I feel like its most likely going to center around digital media in the home, although I suppose Apple could boldly surge into some as-yet-identified new market. Really don’t think it’ll be phones, though (he says, preparing to eat his words).

*Edit 8 Jan 11:54pm*: If the _WSJ_ says there is going to be a phone, then I guess there is going to be a phone.

I’ve been playing and tweaking and refactoring and have come up with version 7 of the AgBlog design, and I’m pretty happy with it. It solves a few problems and works better on larger monitors. But now I have to code it, and that is something I’m dreading. I’m almost inclined to switch to the beautiful and clean WordPress Hemingway theme instead (with a few tweaks) and save myself all the headaches of writing good cross-platform standards-compliant XHTML, something I haven’t done in over a year. Check out the Hemingway theme and tell me what you think.

Dr. House on _House_ tells us that everyone lies. I doubt that applies to animals. But also, they don’t talk.

Is it weird that we expect any well-trained veterinarian to be able to diagnose and treat a broad gamut of ailments across dozens (hundreds?) of different species? I noticed Jake exhibiting some mild muscle spasms on his back and near his right rear leg and Googled for it, coming up with this interesting clinical question about another cat exhibiting similar (but more advanced) symptoms, along with ten responses suggestion methods of diagnosis and treatment. Many of the things they discuss sound very familiar — tox screen, MRI, thyroid test, urinalysis, etc.

The lay person who occasionally watches medical TV shows has some basic understanding of the range of expertise and stored knowledge necessary to be a good doctor, not to mention the insane amount of specialization necessary in modern human health care. Does the same level of specialization exist in animal care? I really doubt it. And it is clear from the discussion at that link that treating an animal like a cat can be just as complicated as a human.

Then again, the amount of money we are willing to spend on animal care pales compared to human care, so maybe it doesn’t really matter — the cat may have some very complicated and specialized disease, but in the end its most likely just going to be euthanized anyway, I doubt in animal medicine there is any concept of “heroic measures.”

*Addendum:* Wikipedia tells us there is some degree of specialization.

I’m finding myself becoming a big fan of Neil Gaiman after reading (and being enthralled by) _American Gods_ a little while back and now having finished his freshman novel _Neverwhere_. Both are a sort of fantasy exploration written in oddly placid yet quirky styles, the first dealing with the gods of our past abandoned to roam American unworshipped after having been brought here by settlers and then forgotten by their offspring, and the second exploring a mysterious “London Below” horror world made up of bits and pieces of London trapped throughout time and coexisting in a strange magical fantasy realm. In both stories (and, I gather, his next work, _Anansi Boys_) the protagonist is an average joe drawn into a dark underworld he neither knew existed nor finds easy to accept.

I’m pondering whether I’m enjoying the fantasy genre in general or only Gaiman in particular, as well as which of his works I should pick up next (probably the aforementioned _Anansi Boys_), as my occasional dippings into his _Smoke and Mirrors_ short story collection have not always left me fulfilled.

Currently listening to: The Fountain soundtrack. It’s pretty.

Currently watching: Nothing! Battlestar Galactica just finished for the year.

Currently reading: I…err…keep meaning to pick up one of the several books I have scattered around my room that I want to read, but keep not doing it. I finished Rainbows End a few weeks ago and it was pretty good and interesting, although it took me a while to get into it.

Currently adventuring: Hiked part of the Mt. Holyoke Range on Saturday, see the pictures below.

Currently traveling: Leaving for California on the 22nd. Staying through the 2nd. Part of that time spent in Palm Desert. Should be fun.

What are you up to?

I’m decorating my home in what I like to think of as a retro-futurist motif. (In truth I have little experience with home decorating and am just as liable to make a mess of things as to create a unified vision.) I’m trying (within a modest budget) for a combination of contemporary sleek styling with touches of the imagined future of the 30s and 40s, things like posters that extol the wonders of air travel and magazine clippings from the 1939 World’s Fair and a clock shaped like an old metal oscillating fan.

I chose this style because I want to live in an environment full of promise and excitement about the future, about the wonders of technology, about progress and a better life and amazing advances just around the future. It is with interest, then, that I read an article I discovered in _Technology Review_ by Henry Jenkins titled The Tomorrow That Never Was. “Science fiction, post 9/11,” he writes, “has offered little by way of alternative visions of the future beyond more of the same. Perhaps the only way forward is to retrace our steps.” He looks at the graphic novel _In the Shadow of No Towers_ and the movie _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_ as two examples of societal yearning for a different sort of future.

Nostalgia is the powerful yearning to return to a more idyllic time. Most nostalgia focuses on times that never really existed in the first place. Is it so wrong, then, to yearn for a future that never came to pass derived from a past that is itself steeped in nostalgia? Can those of us looking for such things find a happy refuge in this doubly-imagined, meta-nostalgic, retro-future?

In 1948 a couple folk singers composed a song about the plight of poor Charlie, who got stuck on the Boston trolley system forever because he didn’t anticipate the complex new fare system that required a 5 cent exit fee to disembark. Ironic, then, that on January 1, 2007 the MBTA will be rolling out its new CharlieCard system and bringing additional confusion and complexity to an already difficult to understand system.

The new system incorporates Automated Fair Collection, a fancy name for fancy new turnstyles that confuse the heck out of people, make it harder for fare evaders, and allow the MBTA to charge variable fares and change them easily at any time. The system is networked (via fiber optics in the tunnels, and radio on busses) so that computers can centrally track who is riding where and when, ostensibly to allow things like free transfers, but at the same time allowing for sophisticated tracking and data gathering for the government agency.

Anonymous fares can still be purchased on a CharlieTicket, a paper card with a magnetic stripe that comes in two varieties, one that can act as a declining balance account (load up $5 and use it for 4 rides, for example), and another that works for monthly and other pass programs. The tickets are sucked into the turnstyles, read, and then spat back out prior to the gate opening. CharlieTickets expire, unlike the previous token system. The new fare vending machines that dispense the tickets use touch screen interfaces to give users various options (in an incredibly unintiutive way) and allow for payment with cash, credit, or ATM cards. A word to the paranoid: if you buy your CharlieTicket with a credit card, you have already lost.

The new CharlieCard is a contactless RFID-enabled plastic card that can “store” declining balances, fare programs, or a combination of both. Thus your CharlieCard can be “loaded” with money as well as, say, a 7 day LinkPass. The “Pass,” then, is no longer a physical object, but an authorization placed on the “Card” or “Ticket”. Straightforward, right?

Users of CharlieTickets (or cash) pay an additional surcharge, although why this is the case has never been adequately explained. A CharlieCard holder pays $1.70 for a subway ride, while a CharlieTicket purchaser must pay $2.00. Because the CharlieCard and CharlieTicket are both free, and because all stations are already setup to handle the Tickets as well as the Cards, I can’t think of any cost savings justification, so the only other possibility that occurs to me is that the MBTA wants users to use the Cards so that they can better track our behavior and usage patterns. And because they’re giving us a discount, it is difficult to not comply.

There are additional problems and exceptions. People who take the commuter rail in Zone 1A or 1B (which have no been combined) need to keep a CharlieTicket rather than a CharlieCard, becase there are no Card readers on the trains, whereas the conductors can simply read the text printed on the Ticket. These commuters, then, probably need a CharlieCard as well to avoid surcharges elsewhere, but this is unclear from the literature I’ve read. Additionally, the LinkPass, which includes both subway and bus passage, does not include Commuter Rail Zone 1A coverage, a seperate pass is required for that which costs the exact same amount. Why is it not given by default on normal LinkPass accounts? Probably because of the T’s desire to force users to have the CharlieCards.

Finally, all toll booths have been shut down, replaced instead with the occasional customer service station, where people have reported mixed results getting help. And while the transition is ongoing, there are various exceptions to the rules, not helped by the many T employees who seem just as befuddled as the pasengers. It is interesting to note that, while the MBTA has installed $6 million $89 million or more in new infrastructure to support the new fare collection system, it has not done anything to actually change or expand the transport services it is offering. But I’m sure they’ll get around to that just as soon as they finish raising rates.

Or maybe they’ll decide to actually publish a comprehensive guide to the changes that explains what is happening, how it affects people, and what benefit justifies how all of our lives are being so disrupted. Nah.

bq. “The fascinating thing about Torchwood is that they’ve skipped the messy business of making the original show, and jumped straight to the slash fiction.” — Someone on a message board

A follow-up on my Torchwood review. I’m increasingly of the opinion, now that I’ve watched through episode 6, that the show was sold under false pretenses. Instead of being an edgy drama about an alien investigative force anchored by time traveler Jack Harkness, it is a cheap thrill show about the meandering moral journies of crappy cop Gwen Cooper.

The most recent episode, “Countrycide,” really turned me off to the show. Jack, lacking in all leadership skills, can’t control his team, most notably young upstart Gwen, who, between retching every time she sees another dead body, goes running off without full posession of the facts after an enemy that she knows nothing about. In the end the twist is that there aren’t any aliens involved at all — merely a crazy cannibal family — and, her worldview shaken, Gwen takes refuge, not in her loving boyfriend of several years, but in her jackass teammate.

After being completely unlikable throughout the entire episode, Gwen goes and cheats on her boyfriend because she feels that she can’t confide in him all of the terrible things she sees, even though there is *no evidence of this*. I mean, you say you’re “special ops,” this is clearly a “special op,” there were no aliens involved and so no need to fudge the story, so what’s the problem with telling Rhys about your crappy day? I won’t even get into the ridiculous plot, ridiculous cannibals, ridiculous interrogation scene, ridiculous behavior by Jack, ridiculous behavior by Owen…good grief. Not the show’s shining hour, I’ll tell you that.

Last year Greg Maletic defended Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom against criticism from Disneyland fans who think the Florida attraction is a corruption of Walt’s dream. Soon after, he published a more interesting and better essay about the meaining of Disneyland as a cultural landmark. In it he explores Walt’s original vision, not of “the happiest place on Earth,” but as a tribute to American ideals. He points out that a close reading of the Disneyland dedication plaque gives a lot of insight into what Walt was trying to achieve and how that vision has strayed over time:

bq. To all who come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.

Think about the attractions: Main Street USA, an idealized version of small-town America; the Disneyland Railroad, a historic train ride from the dawn of man to the future; Frontierland, a celebration fo the American West; and of course Tomorrowland, a joyous look at a future of 50’s progress and limitless possibility.

I first visited Disneyland in the late 80s or early 90s, and back then a lot of the original vision was still there. Over time the creep of time and corporate planning has subtly but fundamentally altered the Disney experience, turning it into a mish-mash of competing ideas centered around “fun” more than any sense of shared values.

Like Greg, I can’t come out and say this progress is inherently bad, or inherently good. It is change, change that reflects how our culture has changed, that reflects a fundamentally different America, a different world. Disneyland has become muddled because the world is a lot more complicated, what it means to be American is more complicated, and notions of how we fit into the world are in flux. And of course many of the starring attractions of the original Disneyland experience would today be considered kitschy or starry-eyed over-the-top ridiculousness.

But despite this all Disneyland still draws me in. Shaina and I are planning a visit when we’re back in California. The place is still amazing and fascinating, even if it isn’t what its founder intended.

And, seperately, I’ve found out that I have some old frequent flyer miles that will expire soon, enough to take a trip somewhere in the continental US. I could go anywhere, some place I’ve never been before, but I’m really leaning towards the idea of going down to Florida and seeing Disneyworld again for the first time in ten years. That said, I’m not really thrilled about the idea of going alone. Anyone want to come along for an adventure?

Have you ever had a dream that just goes on and on, and gets more and more disturbing? And then, at some point, something clicks in your mind after what feels like forever and you realize it is all a dream and you force yourself awake and it takes you a while to sort out what is real and what is not? That just happened to me for the first time. I won’t go into the dream except to say that it vaguely resembes aspects of A Simple Plan, and it was pretty weird.

I thought walking to and from work each day (2 mi) would be a decent baseline exercise program, all things being equal, for maintaining my weight. Boy was that wrong. Sedentary lifestyle plus lack of kitchen (more eating out and take-away), among other things, is taking its toll. I got on the scale tonight and found out that I weighed five pounds (2.3 kg) more than last time I checked. And last time I checked I weighed five pounds more than the time before!

I’ve had a target weight in mind for years, and never been able to achive it, even when I was eating better and exercising frequently. If I start now and lose a pound a week for six months (a fairly conservative plan), I can maybe get there.

I’ll keep you posted.

Aaron Swartz, whom I’ve talked about before, is one of the people involved with Reddit, which just got bought by Conde Nast. He reflects on the strangeness of it all, especially when viewed from outside the tech bubble:

At non-tech parties, I’d have trouble explaining what it was I did. (“So you, uh, have a web site?”) Once I went far outside the city to have lunch with an author I respected. He asked about what I did, wanted me to explain it in great detail. He asked how many visitors we had. I told him and he sputtered. “I’ve spent fifteen years building an audience, and you’re telling me in a year you have a million visitors?” I assented.

Puzzled, he insisted I show him the site on his own computer, but he found it was just a simple as I described. (Simpler, even.) “So it’s just a list of links?” he said. “And you don’t even write them yourselves?” I nodded. “But there’s nothing to it!” he insisted. “Why is it so popular?”

Inside the bubble, nobody asks this inconvenient question. We just mumble things like “democratic news” or “social bookmarking” and everybody just assumes it all makes sense. But looking at this guy, I realized I had no actual justification. It was just a list of links. And we didn’t even write them ourselves.

Where I work, I’m surrounded by people who believe deeply in a lot of this stuff, this — how do you describe it — democratization, socialization, personalization, whatever, that the web is doing to our society. I’m generally more wary, slower to accept, less willing to get behind the “new” than the people around me. It’s not that I don’t see the promise and the potential, its just that I’m a bit more the wry observer.

If my American Studies education taught me anything, it is that one can strive for great ideals and fail spectacularily in the implementation. You see something like Reddit and you think, huh, that’s interesting, its an interesting concept, its a clear framework, it seems like a good idea. But where is it leading us, how does it think to shape us, and how well will it succeed?

Yesterday on The Show Ze Frank talked about his step-father teaching him the lesson that if you’re going to do something, you should do it well. Apparently Cambridge traffic officer #T61 took this lesson to heart. I parked my car on Everett street and dashed inside to print off my parking permit so I could move into a Harvard garage. Three minutes after I left the officer wrote the ticket. It took me a further eight minutes after that (damn broken printers) to get back outside and see another $30 down the tube. Touche, #T61, touche.