Outfoxed review, related links

\"Outfoxed\" cover
Just finished watching Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism. (The link goes to Netflix, but I borrowed my copy from the Sacramento Public Library.) If you haven’t seen this show, I strongly recommend it. It totally skewers Fox’s “Fair & Balanced” hype and exposes their organization as right-wing propagandists.

I especially liked the “behind the scenes” featurette on the DVD. This film was made with the help of several volunteers who collectively watched Faux News 24×7, looking for the most egregious examples of yellow journalism. After these volunteers finished their work for Outfoxed, they wanted to continue their efforts; thus was born the News Hounds blog.

Another project associated with this movie is Free Press, a “nonpartisan organization working to involve the public in media policymaking,” which is becoming more and more critical as the centralization of news reporting continues. Please, if you’re an American citizen, do your country a favor–watch this movie, and check out the links above.

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Sony’s DRM infringes copyrights

As if the Sony DRM/rootkit debacle wasn’t bad enough, it now appears that Sony’s DRM software is in violation of copyright. “Delicious irony” is the first phrase that pops into my mind!

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65th Street Transit Village

While I was searching for links to the University Village project, I came across some information on the city’s 65th Street/University Transit Village plan. This was started a few years ago, and parts of the plan are already being implemented e.g. the F-65 development on the southwest corner of Folsom & 65th. Although the city’s plan and the university’s project aren’t directly related, they are more-or-less adjacent and they share some design features and constraints (e.g. light rail, proximity to CSUS, Folsom Blvd). Hopefully the appropriate folks from the city and university are coordinating these projects.

A Nov. 2003 Sacramento Business Journal article covers the city’s plans to transform the area around the 65th Street light rail station into a transit-oriented village:
In the current plan, the two-lane, quarter-mile stretch of Folsom Boulevard that dips under the Union Pacific railroad trestle just south of the university campus is planned to be widened to four lanes. And its rolling curbs will be changed to elevated ones, so bike lanes and planting strips bordering sidewalks can go in.
I work at Modoc Hall, very close to the Folsom Blvd underpass, on the other side of which are several decent places to eat as well as other services I would use. I’d prefer to walk from my office to F/65, but this area is downright creepy even in broad daylight! I look forward to the widening of this underpass, and I hope it will encourage more pedestrian and bicycle travel along this stretch of Folsom Boulevard.

Another plan is to make Redding Avenue an alternate route into and out of the campus via 69th Street, linking the student housing going in on 65th, south of Highway 50. That’s no easy task, however, because the route has to separately cross over light-rail and freight-rail tracks, and some roadway construction is also necessary.
It seems to me that this almost has to be part of Folsom underpass widening. A direct connection to the campus at this location would a huge benefit!

Cox noted that transit-oriented development around light-rail stations in San Diego, San Jose, Portland and Denver have proved successful in their meldings of offices, high-density housing built above retail stores and light rail.
Hopefully the planners of University Village will keep the above point firmly in mind. Build high-density housing above vibrant retail space, with easy access to light rail, and you’ll have a winning project!

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Barb’s awesome deviled eggs

Over on Collective Sigh today, Andante is trying to come up with a recipe for something to bring to the family feast on Thanksgiving. Hopefully this fits the bill. Barb doctored up the standard deviled egg recipe and came up with something recognizably traditional, but with a subtle zing to it.

Barb’s Deviled Eggs
eggs (we usually make about 2 dozen)
mayonnaise
honey mustard
sweet pickle relish
pepper
salt
paprika

The astute observer will notice the lack of measurements on the list above, because I don’t measure anything for this recipe. I just add stuff a little at a time, and adjust everything to taste.

I would never have guessed this, but a lot of my friends and family don’t know how to hard-boil an egg! Nobody ever admits to this, but an egg aficionado (such as myself) can always tell when this is done poorly. So here’s the first step, cooking the eggs:
Put the eggs in a pan of cool water. (If you’re worried about them cracking, stick the big end of each egg with a pin, but be sure not to poke all the way to the yolk!)
Add a tablespoon of white vinegar and a half teaspoon of salt to the water.
Over medium-high heat, bring the water to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let sit for 10 minutes. Cool the eggs — Pour off the hot water and cover with cold water. Repeat whenever the water gets warm, until the eggs are cool.

Remove the egg shells and cut the eggs in half. Put all the yolks in a bowl and all the whites on a serving plate.

Add some mayo to the yolks, maybe about a ¼ cup per dozen eggs. (Go easy! You can always add more, but it’s kind of hard to take it out once you add it!) Add about a tablespoon of pickle relish and a ½ Tbsp honey mustard to the eggs, grind up some pepper and mix everything with a fork. Taste early and often. You should notice the pepper- and mustard taste, without being overwhelmed by them. Add more if needed. Once you get the pickle relish, mustard, and pepper adjusted, add more mayo until the consistency is right. If the mixture is too sweet, sprinkle in a little salt.

Scoop the yolk mixture into the whites. Once all the whites are filled, sprinkle with paprika.

If you make these ahead of time, keep them in the frig. They travel fine, as long as you’re only driving up to an hour or so. Otherwise leave the yolk mixture in a bowl, and put it in an ice chest along with the egg whites. Then fill the eggs when you arrive. (Don’t forget to bring the paprika with you!)

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Who needs Blockbuster when Netflix is available?

Well, we finally got around to joining Netflix yesterday, and we’ve already got 60 movies in our queue! Initially we signed up for the 3-at-a-time plan, but we’ll probably change to the cheapest plan once the novelty wears off.

Several of our friends already use Netflix, and they all had good things to say about the service. The only words of caution I received had to do with “throttling” of the movie pipe. This is spelled out in the terms of service, and basically says that if you burn through your queue they reserve the right to take their time sending your next movie. Fair enough, I guess.

Of course, this gives me another feature to hack/play with here on the blog: displaying our Netflix queue and/or recent activity. I was initially thinking of using Jimbo’s mynetflix 1.5 plugin, but he’s been pretty busy lately. It looks like development work has been taken over by Herichon, who recently released mynetflix2. I’ll be fiddling with this plugin and squeezing it into my page somewhere. Of course, this is going to be another customization that needs to be maintained for each theme, sigh.

If you’re a Netflix user reading this blog, feel free to add us (my wife and I) to your friends list. Our Netflix address is
netflix@this_blogs_name.net
(In case that’s not clear enough, you’ll need to replace this_blogs_name with SonicChicken.) My wife and I also have personal profiles to cover movies that we disagree about, for example I like Dr. Strangelove and she doesn’t. If you want to add us individually use our name instead of “netflix” in the account, e.g. jim@this_blogs_name.net.

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CSUS Bulletin article on University Village

I dug up a bit more on the CSUS “housing village” project in the Oct. 24 CSUS Bulletin: University Village planning. Be sure to check out the concept plan — I found the text on the plan difficult to read, but well worth the effort!
Plans could also include a University House which could be used as a banquet and meeting space and possibly a residence.[B]
The size of the University House isn’t given, but appears to be approximately 6,000 square feet (each floor). The plan shows “first story entertainment, second story residence.”[P] Gee, I wonder whose residence that might be?President Alexander Gonzalez

According to the Bulletin article, “…priority will probably go to faculty first because faculty are recruited nationally and internationally and therefore are more likely to be deterred when they see Sacramento Region housing prices.” Looks like the staff members’ comments on my earlier post are partially correct, partly not: staff won’t be priced out of University Village, they’ll be excluded due to their occupations! Granted, that is the worst possible interpretation of the Bulletin text. Hopefully there’ll be some reasonable balance between faculty and staff (including CSUS Foundation staff)!

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Hey, Van Zant, watch out for the clue stick!

In an earlier post I lamented the fact that Van Zant was becoming a poster child for some of the most abusive DRM practices to date. In the few days since I posted the Get Right With Your Man rootkitalbum review statistics, they have gotten even worse — 51 more reviews, all but 3 of them rated 1-star (the lowest rating):
5 stars: 18 / 249 (7%)
4 stars: 2 / 249 (1%)
3 stars: 2 / 249 (1%)
2 stars: 5 / 249 (2%)
1 star: 222 / 249 (89%)

I encouraged the band to make a statement denouncing Sony’s rootkit. I found a couple of things on the band’s website. Here’s one from VZ’s management:
The management for Van Zant is continuing to gather more facts concerning this and will be posting these links and other details on the website once they get in all the facts surrounding this issue.
I wonder how many facts they feel are needed before they ditch the weasel words and make a clear statement?

Here’s Donnie Van Zant on DRM:
“Look, what we do is write music; we make music,” said Donnie Van Zant, who like most artists had no had no idea what sort of security features, if any, his label would place on the album. “I really don’t even know what D.R.M. means, to be honest with you.”
Well, Donnie, you may be only a musician, but you’re recording label is tarnishing your reputation. You’d better get wise to DRM, especially Sony’s crappy implementation. Make a stand for your fans, quick, because that whoosing sound you hear behind you is the clue stick swinging for the back of your head!

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Tinfoil hat research

On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets

Tinfoil hat researcher

Is this really satirical, or clever government-sponsored research to discredit the tinfoil-hat-wearing populace?

Tip of the tinfoil hat to Matt for sending this!

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Looking for terrorist sympathizers? Google knows the answer…

Got a minute to waste and need a good laugh? Go to Google, enter the search phrase “terrorist sympathizer” and hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button!
Continue reading

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Chow for Sgt. Goetz

Thai Kitchen lemon grass chili noodle bowl

I got 12 bowls of Thai Kitchen sent off to Sgt. Goetz today. According to Holly these aren’t readily available in Florida, but I’ve found them at both stores I checked — Bel Air in Carmichael ($1.95 ea) as well as the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op ($1.45 ea).

Priority shipping via USPS cost me about $12, should hit the east cost APO in about 3 days. (I could have saved about $3 by sending it regular mail, but it would have added a week for the domestic leg.) According to the postal clerk, the Army handles Priority Mail faster than regular mail.

I can’t restore Daniel’s rights, but at least I can help keep his spirits up (and his food down)!

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