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LIVERMORE — Ross Dmochowski lives online, where he engages in sometimes serious, sometimes juvenile, sometimes offensive political discussions about President Barack Obama.
But Dmochowski, a 42-year-old tech professional, was unprepared when his online chats resulted in a bomb threat under his name that brought FBI agents to his Livermore home — and contributed to his getting fired in September from his $120,000-a-year job at Yahoo.
While online harassment is hardly rare, what's surprising about Dmochowski's experience is that even a savvy denizen of the Web world can underestimate how Internet conversations can quickly upend life both at home and at work.
"Online interactions that turn sour can be life-changing," said Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor and director of the university's High Tech Law Institute. "Negative online encounters can happen to anyone, just like the most skilled professional driver can have a car accident on the roads due to other people's driving mistakes."
In fact, despite his tech background, Dmochowski did little to protect himself, other than blocking some of the more offensive posters.
He uses his real name on his Google+ account, which has nearly 10,000 followers. And, despite pleas from his fiancee and his recent experience, Dmochowski still refuses to temper his opinions or step away from nasty exchanges.
"The Internet is my home," he defiantly told this newspaper. "This is me standing my ground."
But several of Dmochowski's online friends have limited their Google+ interactions because of harassment from the same people who apparently linked Dmochowski to the bomb threat.
The aggressors, Dmochowski and his online friends said, are all white men from various states. Among other things, the men turned on a couple of black women, repeatedly calling them the "N-word" online and using harsh sexual terms. They also attacked a gay African-American man with both racist and homophobic comments.
Dmochowski and others said he became the primary target in early September when he objected to attacks against one friend that included a threat to use Photoshop to put porn on images of the man's wife and children and a post that said, "I know your kids' bus route and I know where you live."
The attacks on Dmochowski included a photo of his face behind cross-hairs and a picture of him holding hands with his then-2-year-old daughter, whose face was doctored with a Ku Klux Klan hood and the letters "KKK" on her dress.
Dmochowski, an unapologetic liberal Democrat and Obama supporter, insists that he never threatened or harassed anyone. But he does acknowledge name-calling, such as "your mother's a hillbilly whore." A review by this newspaper of his Google+ posts also showed Dmochowski sometimes uses a homophobic slur, which the people he engages with also use regularly.
Dmochowski said he only uses the slur to highlight the "hypocrisy" of his attackers.
Less than three weeks after objecting to the threats to his friend, on Sept. 23, Dmochowski was fired from his job as a senior engineer revamping Yahoo's home page. He said one of his online antagonists had doctored a Google+ post to create an online bomb threat in Dmochowski's name that was directed at Fox News.
The threat caused the FBI to contact Yahoo, then send a pair of agents to Dmochowski's home. The FBI declined to comment.
While he has not been arrested or charged, Dmochowski said that Yahoo told him he was fired for using social media on his Yahoo laptop.
Yahoo spokeswoman Sarah Meron confirmed that Dmochowski no longer works for the company.
Yahoo does not prohibit employees from using social media, Meron said, declining to specifically discuss his firing. She instead referred a reporter to Yahoo policy language that states: "If you decide to post complaints or criticism, avoid using statements, photographs, video or audio that reasonably could be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that might constitute harassment or bullying, or are slanderous or detrimental to Yahoo."
In February, Dmochowski filed a Livermore police report asserting that a man named W. James Hamel claimed online that he had photos of Dmochowski sexually abusing his daughter and posted that Dmochowski "seriously needs a lead pipe buried in his skull."
Hamel, a database administrator from Navarre, Fla., said in a brief interview that Dmochowski "was stalking me and a number of other people for about a year."
Hamel then hung up and did not respond to messages seeking further comment. Hamel did write a profanity-filled post about the interview on his Google+ account, which is dominated by a photo of Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler and other German officers walking past an emaciated soldier inside a World War II prison camp.
"These guys use all kinds of tactics on social media to silence people," Dmochowski said. "But I won't back down. That's what really bugs them."
Google declined to discuss Dmochowski's claims but said it takes reports of impersonation and harassment "very seriously. We have strict policies in place to remove this type of content and ban users we find in violation of our policies. We encourage the Google+ community to help identify and flag inappropriate content."
While Livermore police detectives regularly get reports of social media bullying among teenagers who know one another, Sgt. Paul Mayer called Dmochowski's police report, involving accusations from an adult victim with an adult suspect across state lines, "a first for us."
Mayer, who is in charge of the Livermore Police Department's detectives, said his department does not have the staff to investigate Dmochowski's accusations out of state. But Mayer forwarded the case to local sheriff's deputies in Florida and to the FBI.
Law enforcement agencies have become much more aware of online harassment, but victims' complaints rarely lead to an arrest, Goldman said.
To make an arrest, police and prosecutors have to distinguish between a credible, "actionable threat" and "innocuous comments" that are protected by the First Amendment, Goldman said.
"Just because it sounds threatening doesn't mean it's actually criminally threatening," he said.
Dmochowski has since gotten a new tech job in Silicon Valley — and continues to post political comments on Google+.
"My fiancee wants me to just walk away," he said. "If I did that, I would have problems looking at myself in the mirror. Free speech is not absolute. And eventually they're going to pick a fight with the wrong guy."
Contact Dan Nakaso at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/dannakaso.


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Top Items:
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
How Did Egypt Kill the Internet? Possibly With a Few Phone Calls — UPDATE: This post has been updated with more detailed information on the timing of the shutdown. — How do you turn off the Internet in an entire country? — In the case of Egypt, it was probably done with a few phone calls …
Declan McCullagh / CNET News: Egypt's Internet disconnect reaches 24 hours
Jim Duffy / Computerworld: Anatomy of an Internet blackout
Rik Ferguson / CounterMeasures: Egypt: The Plague of Darkness
Ryan Singel / Threat Level: Egypt Shut Down Its Net With a Series of Phone Calls
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog: Egypt shuts down the Internet, some phone service as protests …
Charles Arthur / Guardian: Egypt cuts off internet access
Quin Street Corporation / Datamation: Internet, Telecom Networks Shut Down in Egypt
David Knowles / AOL News: Turn it off, quick! — As was witnessed Thursday in Egypt …
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNet: The Internet goes dark in Egypt
Amar Toor / Switched: Egypt Shuts Down Internet As Protests Intensify
Sean Bonner / Boing Boing:
Egypt turns off internet, Lieberman wants same option for US — On Thursday Jan 27th at 22:34 UTC the Egyptian Government effectively removed Egypt from the internet. Nearly all inbound and outbound connections to the web were shut down. The internet intelligence authority Renesys explains …
Discussion: Salon, Computerworld, GMSV, PC World, PE Hub Blog, PC Magazine, Techland, MarketingVOX, Forbes, Black Web 2.0, @anonyops, @beregond, @cscotta and @jeff419
Dan Gillmor / Salon: Egypt's communications 'kill switch'
Levi Sumagaysay / GMSV: Technology and the revolt in Egypt
Luisa Beltran / PE Hub Blog: peHUB Second Opinion
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine: After Egypt, Will U.S. Get 'Internet Kill Switch'?
Parmy Olson / Forbes: Egypt Goes Dark, Cuts Off Internet And Mobile Networks
@anonyops: The Internet kill switch: A means by which to stop a society of people from crying out to the world for help. #Egypt
@beregond: Fox News reporting all Internet access in Egypt has been shut down. Remind me again why an Internet Kill Switch is a good thing? #tlot #tcot
C. Scott Andreas / @cscotta: Egypt's Internet Kill Switch demonstrates why the US should not have one. Pulling the plug on your country is incompatible with democracy.
Timothy Karr / The Huffington Post:
One U.S. Corporation's Role in Egypt's Brutal Crackdown … The open Internet's role in popular uprising is now undisputed. Look no further than Egypt, where the Mubarak regime today reportedly shut down Internet and cell phone communications — a troubling predictor of the fierce crackdown that has followed.
Discussion: Tom Foremski, Techland, CircleID, Free Press and Light Reading
Allie Townsend / Techland: Internet Rallies Behind Egypt In An Attempt To Restore Communication
Khaled Fattal / CircleID: Egypt's Internet Blocked …
Craig Matsumoto / Light Reading: Egypt Unplugs From the Internet
Wilson Rothman / Technolog:
Net-less Egypt may face economic doom Monday
Net-less Egypt may face economic doom Monday
Sarah Kessler / Mashable!: Internet Reportedly Down in Syria
M. Alex Johnson / msnbc.com: 'This is about social networks that are beyond the reach of Mubarak'
Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:
How Egypt Switched Off the Internet
How Egypt Switched Off the Internet
Discussion: PC World, TechCrunch, BetaNews, InfoWorld, SAI, Computerworld, CNN, ReadWriteWeb, CircleID, ONI, The Firewall, The Register, New York Times, NetworkEffect, TechEye, Chatter, Telegraph, Geek News Central, I4U News, Krebs on Security, SlashGear, Ars Technica, internetnews.com, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, DomainIncite.com, BBC, Renesys Blog, The Huffington Post and SmoothSpan Blog, more at Mediagazer »
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch: OPENMESH Is Seeking Alternatives To Egypt-Style Internet Blackouts
Tim Conneally / BetaNews: Egypt's telecommunications blackout crushes citizen journalism
Robert X. Cringely / InfoWorld: Cairo mania: Egypt cuts off the Net
Steve Kovach / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider: How To Get Online After The Government Shuts Down The Internet
Juan Carlos Perez / Computerworld: Egypt's Internet block aims at social media
Mark Milian / CNN: Reports say Egypt Web shutdown is coordinated, extensive
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall: WikiLeaks Exposes New Egypt Docs Amid Protests. Will Anyone There See Them?
Dan Goodin / The Register: With net unplugged, Egypt cracks down on journos
Matt Richtel / New York Times: Egypt Cuts Off Most Internet and Cell Service
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect: The Internet Dies in Egypt, in Pictures
Chris Alexander / TechEye: Almost all 20 million Egyptian internet users disappear from the internet
Lori Kozlowski / Chatter: Egypt with no Internet: Is Web access a human right?
Christopher Williams / Telegraph: How Egypt shut down the internet
Robert Evans / I4U News: Egypt Has Been Kicked off the Internet
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: Egypt Unplugged from the Internet
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Egypt offline as government cuts comms over protest promise
Peter Bright / Ars Technica: Amidst chaos and riots, Egypt turns off the Internet
Quin Street Corporation / internetnews.com: Egypt Unplugs Internet, Wireless Networks
Peter / Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check: BBC News - Egypt severs internet connection amid growing unrest
Kevin Murphy / DomainIncite.com: DNS not to blame for Egypt blackout
James Cowie / Renesys Blog: Egypt Leaves the Internet
Danny O'Brien / @danny_at_cpj:
This is what Egypt's cutoff from the Net looks like: http://j.mp/egypt_arbor (HT @labovit - it's from a global set of traffic points)
This is what Egypt's cutoff from the Net looks like: http://j.mp/egypt_arbor (HT @labovit - it's from a global set of traffic points)
Discussion: Examiner, The Huffington Post, @quepol, Reuters, Laughing Squid and @aveltens
Michael Santo / Examiner: How did Egypt block the Internet? By flipping a few switches
Hillary Hartley / @quepol: Three days ago, Lieberman vowed to reintroduce his internet "kill switch" bill. We'll see how well it worked for Egypt. http://j.mp/hgeUvA
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters: Facebook says has seen drop in traffic from Egypt
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid: Egypt Blocks Access To The Internet
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Algorithm change launched — I just wanted to give a quick update on one thing I mentioned in my search engine spam post. — My post mentioned that "we're evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites …
Discussion: Computerworld, Googling Google Blog, SAI, Hacker News, MediaPost, Search Engine Land, The Next Web, The Register, Search Engine Watch, Epicenter, Mashable!, Fortune, Bruce Clay Blog, Techie Buzz, parislemon, Adotas, MediaMemo, Stack Overflow and Domain Name Wire, Thanks:blogsdna
John P. Mello Jr / Computerworld: Webmasters Howl Over Google's Antispam Campaign
Sam Diaz / Googling Google Blog: Google launches algorithm change to tackle content copying. Will it help?
Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost: Google Tweaks Tackle Spam
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land: Google Launches Algorithm To Fight Content Spam
Martin Bryant / The Next Web: Google takes action against spam content with code tweak
Danny Goodwin / Search Engine Watch: Google's War on Spam Begins: New Algorithm Live
Sam Gustin / Epicenter: Google Cracks Down on Spammers and Scrapers
Christina Warren / Mashable!: Google Changes Algorithm To Penalize Site Scrapers
Seth Weintraub / Fortune: Google changes algorithm to reduce spammy sites
Jessica Lee / Bruce Clay Blog: Friday Recap: Hindsight Edition
Amit Banerjee / Techie Buzz: Matt Cutts: New Algorithm Will Reduce Google Search Spam, Expect Better Results Soon
Gavin Dunaway / Adotas: We'll Make Great Google Pets
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo: Google Tweaks Search Results To Punish "Scrapers"
Jeff Atwood / Stack Overflow: Stack Overflow Search — Now 81% Less Crappy
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire: Google Changes Algorithm to Address Sites with Unoriginal Content
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable: Google's Content Spam Penalties Rolled Out Today
Twitter Blog:
The Tweets Must Flow — Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them. For this to happen, freedom of expression is essential. Some Tweets may facilitate positive change in a repressed country, some make us laugh, some make us think, some downright anger a vast majority of users.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web and The Daily What
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb: Twitter Speaks Up for Free Speech: "The Tweets Must Flow"
Courtney Boyd Myers / The Next Web: Amid oppression in Egypt, Twitter's founder stands up for freedom of expression
Jeff Yang / San Francisco Chronicle:
How Steve Jobs 'out-Japanned' Japan — The better part of a month has gone by, and most pundits have already weighed in on this year's CES — the global gadget extravaganza that makes Las Vegas the gravitational center of the geek universe every January. The consensus? Meh.
Discussion: SAI and MacDailyNews
Zach Epstein / BGR:
ZTE displaces Apple as No. 4 phone maker; RIM bumped from top 5 — Chinese consumer electronics company ZTE exploded from the "other" category in the fourth quarter of 2010 to displace Apple as the No. 4 cell phone maker in the world. In doing so, the Chinese manufacturer also bumped RIM off …
Ted Samson / InfoWorld: China's ZTE outselling Apple in mobile phone wars
Lance Whitney / CNET News: Report: Apple slips in mobile market, remains in top five
Amit Chowdhry / Pulse2: ZTE Becomes Number 4 Phone Maker, Knocks RIM Out Of Top 5
Chris Davies / SlashGear: Apple loses to ZTE in Global phone rankings for Q4 2010
Charles Starrett / iLounge: IDC: Apple slips to fifth among mobile vendors in Q4 2010
Edward Berridge / Inquirer: IDC hails the rise of ZTE
Chris Vogel / The Informer:
Donald LeBuhn Files Class Action Lawsuit in LA Against Apple: Says iPhone 4 Glass Casing Sucks and is Not as Strong as Apple Advertises — If you own an iPhone 4 and the glass casing has broken, you are not alone. — So many people have complained, in fact, that the phenomenon has even earned the nickname, "Glassgate."
Discussion: Examiner, Computerworld, Ars Technica, Pulse2, MacNN, MacRumors, Faster Forward, TUAW, Softpedia News, everythingiCafe, NBC Bay Area, iLounge, 9 to 5 Mac, The Next Web, PalmAddicts, Apple Bitch, IntoMobile, AppleInsider, SlashGear, Phones Review and Macgasm
Michael Santo / Examiner: Lawsuit filed over iPhone 4's 'flawed' glass casing
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica: iPhone 4 "Glassgate" finally generates a lawsuit
Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over iPhone 4 Glass Breakage
Hayley Tsukayama / Faster Forward: iPhone 4 owner sues Apple over cracked glass case
Kelly Hodgkins / TUAW: iPhone 4 glass spawns class action lawsuit
Tim Barribeau / everythingiCafe: Apple Sued Over Shattered iPhone Back
Jason Middleton / NBC Bay Area: iPhone 4: 'Glassgate' Garners Class-Action Suit
Charles Starrett / iLounge: Apple sued over iPhone 4 glass breakage
Sammual James McLoughlin / PalmAddicts: Class-action lawsuit filed over iPhone 4 glass strength
Marc Flores / IntoMobile: L.A. man sues Apple for broken iPhone 4 glass
Slash Lane / AppleInsider: Apple hit with class-action suit after girl drops, breaks iPhone 4's glass
Joshua Schnell / Macgasm: Yawn* Glassgate gets a class action lawsuit
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Microsoft: Consumers Should Think Twice Before Broadcasting Location — As more and more services tap into location-based data, consumers need to take steps to make sure they are aware just how broadly they are sharing that information. — That was one of several points stressed …
Discussion: internetnews.com, MediaPost, ReadWriteWeb, Tech Daily Dose, The Windows Blog, Faster Forward and @timcohn
Quin Street Corporation / internetnews.com: Data Privacy Survey Has Some Surprising Results
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb: How 5 Big Companies Are Marking Data Privacy Day
Juliana Gruenwald / Tech Daily Dose: Groups, Firms Weigh In On Privacy Report
Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog: Data security and privacy in Windows Live
Sarah Halzack / Faster Forward: It's National Data Privacy Day
Curt Hopkins / ReadWriteWeb:
Al Jazeera Releases Egypt Coverage Under Creative Commons (UPDATED) — Qatar-based news service Al Jazeera has a long relationship with Creative Commons licensing. Now, for its coverage of the Egyptian uprising, it has released photographs via Flickr and video on a CC license.
Discussion: GigaOM, Lost Remote and Technolog, more at Mediagazer »
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM: Why Al-Jazeera Owns Internet TV's Egypt Coverage
Cory Bergman / Lost Remote: Al Jazeera English shines as communications cut in Egypt
Petra Cahill / Technolog: Watching Egypt's protests
SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
CHART OF THE DAY: Microsoft Incinerates ANOTHER $543 Million Online — Every quarter Microsoft reports earnings, and every quarter it reports a massive loss in its online operations. Today it reported a $543 million loss for its December quarter. — This gives Microsoft a trailing-four-quarter loss of $2.5 billion.
Discussion: PC World, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Technologizer, Reuters, Adotas, The Windows Blog, LiveSide.net, Microsoft, Mobilized and VentureBeat
Ed Oswald / PC World: Microsoft's Still Losing Money Online
Harry McCracken / Technologizer: Windows 7 Seems to be Selling Well
Kenneth Li / Reuters: Tablets won't steamroll Microsoft, top exec says
Gavin Dunaway / Adotas: Microsoft Boasts Great Profit While Shouldering Huge Online Loss
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog: Windows 7: 300 Million Licenses Sold
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide.net: Microsoft posted its earnings report early (who knew?)
Ina Fried / Mobilized: Still Strong: Microsoft Beats Estimates as Quarterly Sales Neared $20 Billion
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Microsoft's Kinectified game business grows 55 percent …
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Adobe prepping "Creative Suite 5.5 Digital Publishing" for iOS, Android development — Adobe appears poised to rush to market a new bundle of Creative Suite applications ahead of CS6 that it hopes will solidify its Flash and Air technology as an alternative platform for developers looking …
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, MacStories, PadGadget, TiPb, MacGazette.net, jd/adobe, MacNN, iClarified and MacDailyNews
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac: Adobe to update Packager for iPhone with iPad support
Federico Viticci / MacStories: Adobe Packager To Support iPad Apps Soon?
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
What you should know about LinkedIn's IPO — You've probably seen that professional networking site LinkedIn filed for its initial public offering today. Now that the first wave of excitement has died down, let's take a look at the most relevant facts about the company and its IPO plans, drawn primarily from the filing:
Discussion: William Carleton, Counselor, alarm:clock, Reuters, Reuters and TechCrunch
William Carleton / William Carleton, Counselor: My Favorite Risk Factors in the LinkedIn Registration Statement
Brenton Cordeiro / Reuters: LinkedIn plans to raise up to $175 million in IPO
Leena Rao / TechCrunch: LinkedIn Files For IPO; Revenue $161 Million For The First Nine Months Of 2010
Accel's Jim Breyer Says Now Not Best Time for LinkedIn Initial Share Sale
Accel's Jim Breyer Says Now Not Best Time for LinkedIn Initial Share Sale
Discussion: VentureBeat
Andrew Blum / The Atlantic Online:
Tunisia, Egypt, Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points — The news Thursday evening that Egypt had severed itself from the global Internet came at the same time as an ostensibly far less inflammatory announcement closer to home. Verizon, the telecom giant, would acquire "cloud computing company" Terremark for $1.4 billion.
Discussion: Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Data Center Knowledge and Faster Forward
Scott Woolley / Fortune: Egypt disconnects the Internet
Hayley Tsukayama / Faster Forward: How Egypt pulled out of the Internet
Naked Security / Sophos:
Facebook awarded over $360 million damages against spammer — Facebook's security team have reason to celebrate as they have claimed another scalp in the ongoing fight against spammers on the social network. — A post on Facebook's Security page announced that this week a federal court …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Slashdot
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb: Facebook Wins $360 Million in Anti-Spam Lawsuit
Soulskill / Slashdot: Facebook Spammer Fined $360 Million
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
MPAA Takes A Dozen Torrent Sites Offline — The MPAA has managed to take a dozen torrent sites offline in the United States, with help from Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN. The 12 torrent sites - which remain anonymous - were pulled offline by their hosting companies following complaints from the two organizations.
Discussion: Ars Technica, Mashable!, Download Squad, SiliconANGLE, TG Daily and FT tech hub
Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!: MPAA Shuts Down 50+ Torrent Sites in Global Sting
Jay Hathaway / Download Squad: MPAA and BREIN take down over 50 torrent sites, but nobody knows which ones
Trent Nouveau / TG Daily: MPAA downs at least 12 torrent sites
Tim Weber / BBC:
Can Leo Apotheker make Hewlett Packard a cool company? — Four months ago, Leo Apotheker took charge of troubled computer giant Hewlett Packard. But is he the man to turn things around? — On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Apotheker gave an exclusive interview to the BBC.
Discussion: Technologizer, Between the Lines Blog, Electronista, Engadget, MacDailyNews, 901am, Geek.com, IntoMobile, PreCentral.net, Liliputing and Gizmodo
Jared Newman / Technologizer: HP's New Plan: No More Worthless Hype
Darnell / 901am: HP Launching "iPad Killer" Soon?
Marin Perez / IntoMobile: HP webOS tablets will ship in a few weeks
Brian Barrett / Gizmodo: HP's webOS Products Will Be Here Sooner Than We Thought
Horace Dediu / asymco:
Summary view of Apple's cash flows — Since reporting on the 18th, I've mostly finished going over the the fourth quarter Apple data. Here is a quick summary of the articles that covered the financial and product performance: … Cash — Having added $20 billion last year …
Discussion: Fortune and MacGazette.net
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune: The ebb and flow of Apple's cash
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Windows Phone 7 devs get long-awaited pay day — Microsoft this week began the process of paying Windows Phone 7 developers for their work. For some, this comes three months after their apps appeared on Microsoft's new mobile applications marketplace. — According to some of the top downloaded game …
Discussion: WinRumors, ITworld.com and Electronista
Tim Bradshaw / FT tech hub:
Tweetdeck busts the 140-character limit with Deck.ly — Tweetdeck, the software for social-media 'power users', is today unveiling Deck.ly, the latest strand of its plan to ease its dependence on Twitter and become a greater platform in itself. — At a basic level, Deck.ly allows Tweetdeck users …
Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost: Tweetdeck Breaks 140-Character Ceiling
Graeme McMillan / Techland: TweetDeck Launches Deck.ly For Longwinded Users
Amit Chowdhry / Pulse2: TweetDeck Working On Making Tweets Longer Through Deck.ly Service
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider: POW! TweetDeck Fills A Hole In Twitter With New Deck.ly Service
Courtney Boyd Myers / The Next Web: Tweetdeck to unveil Deck.ly, its new platform to take on Twitter
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Apple: World's 'most desired' brand — But it comes in behind BMW in China, Trader Joe's in the U.S., Singapore Airlines in Singapore and the World Wildlife Fund in Germany, according to M&C Saatchi — Click to enlarge. Source: M&C Saatchi Clear — There's a wealth of information in the 56-page …
Discussion: CNET News
Chris Matyszczyk / CNET News: World desires Apple more than animals, Microsoft
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Groupon May Invest in Chinese Competitor at Billion-Dollar Valuation — Groupon, which is still trying to figure out how to break into China, is close to investing in one of the largest group-buying sites there, we have learned. — The daily deal site is mulling a strategic relationship with Lashou …
Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch
Cade Metz / The Register:
Intel gifts world open source FCoE — Vows to save 400,000,000 feet of cable — Intel has officially introduced its Open FCoE software stack, based on the native OS Fibre Channel Over Ethernet project it first open sourced in 2007. — Intel Open FCoE is free for use with Intel's X520 family of 10 GbE …
Discussion: Enterprise Storage Forum, Computerworld, Data Center Knowledge, eWeek and TechEye
Sean Michael Kerner / Enterprise Storage Forum: Intel Opens Up FCoE , Offers Free Upgrades
Maxwell Cooter / Computerworld: New Intel technology set to reduce data centre cabling
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge: Intel Offers Unified Networking Technology
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek: Intel Eases Data Center Complexity with Free FCoE Stack
Dean Wilson / TechEye: Intel launches free Open FCoE software stack upgrade
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Samsung hits all-time record revenue in 2010; dual-core Galaxy S2 & multiple Galaxy Tabs incoming — Samsung has announced its 2010 financial figures, and there are strong results for the company's mobile business. Mobile device sales in Q4 2010 topped 80.7m, up 17-percent compared to Q4 2009, with 280m sales for the whole of 2010.
Discussion: SAMSUNG, english.yonhapnews.co.kr, Android Community, Android Phone Fans, PhoneArena, CNET News, Android Community, Geek.com and MacNN
Chris Davies / Android Community: Samsung sells 2m Galaxy Tab slates in 3 months
Don Reisinger / CNET News: Samsung's revenue, profits rise in 4th quarter
Chris Davies / Android Community: Samsung promises dual-core Galaxy S2 & new Galaxy Tab range for 2011
John Brownlee / Geek.com: Samsung promises dual-core Galaxy S, new Galaxy Tabs

subset: commoncrawl


text:
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE | August 28, 2011
New skin test determines age of wild animals to help control nuisance animals
Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
DENVER, Aug. 28, 2011 — A new skin test can determine the age of wild animals while they are still alive, providing information needed to control population explosions among nuisance animals, according to a report here today at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
ACS, the world largest scientific society with more than 163,000 members, is holding the meeting through Thursday at the Colorado Convention Center and downtown hotels. With 7,500 reports on new advances in science and more than 12,000 scientists and others expected in attendance, it will be one of 2011's largest scientific gatherings.
Randal Stahl, Ph.D., said that the improved method will provide important information about the health and stability of herds, flocks and other populations of wild animals, which lack the established birthdates of prized cattle, horses, and many household pets.
Media Contact
During the meeting, Aug. 25-Sept. 1, the contacts can be reached at: 303-228-8532
"Determining the age of wild animals is important for a number of reasons," Stahl explained. "We are in the midst of population explosions of some animals that have negative impacts on people, property and other animals. Wildlife management programs have been established to cope with the situation. Some of these programs, for instance, seek to maintain healthy numbers of breeding pairs. The new skin test will help us tell how many animals in a wild population are of breeding age."
Stahl is a scientist with the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) in Fort Collins, CO. The center is the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services program.
The test detects pentosidine, a biomarker for so-called advanced glycation end products (AGEs), substances that form in the body as a result of aging; the amounts can indicate an animal's age. Those substances also form in humans, and have been linked to a range of chronic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
Tests for AGEs already exist and have been used in both animals and humans. At the ACS meeting, Stahl and colleagues described development of a more sensitive version of the animal test. That test involves taking a biopsy, or sample, of the animal's skin. In the past, scientists needed such a large skin sample — about the size of a postage stamp — that scientists usually could do the test only on dead animals. The new version of the test requires a skin sample only the size of a pea.
"We improved the sensitivity of the pentosidine test so we can detect very small amounts of it," Stahl said. "The advance will enable scientists to capture a few individuals, take a small skin sample without harming the animal and then release it back into the wild. With this approach, we can sample a population repeatedly over time without having an effect on the size of the population."
Stahl's group is currently studying double-crested cormorants, large fish-eating birds that have become a nuisance due to population explosions. Federal and state agencies in the Great Lakes region, and other areas, are trying to manage cormorant populations to reduce the birds' adverse impacts on vegetation, other water birds, private property, fish farming, sports fishing and risks of collisions with aircraft. Those efforts involve maintaining the number of breeding pairs of cormorants at environmentally healthy levels. And the new skin test will enable scientists to gauge the number of birds that are of breeding age.
Collaborating with the NWRC field station in Mississippi, the researchers also developed a technique of handling cormorants to obtain samples with little harm to the birds. They place a small hollow metal cylinder called a biopsy punch on the bird's skin to remove the sample and then put an adhesive on the wound to prevent infection and promote healing, just like a Band-Aid. No anesthesia is needed.
Stahl plans to use the skin analysis method to study other wild populations, such as invasive species of snakes and lizards in Florida. And because of recent coyote attacks on humans in populated areas, such as the suburbs of New York City and in California, Stahl's team also will use the method to determine the demographics of these urban coyote populations during management activities.


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One day, years ago, I was taking a walk with my mother and my beloved Golden Retriever. I always carry around a fear about how long my dogs are going to live and I asked my mother, "How long do you think Brandy will live?"
"Oh, 11 or 12, how old is she now?" my mother asked.
"She's 14," I replied.
That dog lived until 17 years old and those were the days before I knew what designer dog food was and her entire life I fed her "Skippy" from the grocery store.


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When I learned that one of my favorite blogs, Classic Film and TV Cafe was hosting a blogathon on Hammer Studio's films, specifically their horror films, I quickly volunteered to write a piece. I chose 1961's The Curse of the Werewolf because it was the first Hammer horror film I ever saw, and I saw it purely by accident. I was 7 or 8 years old and rambling around the house on a weekday afternoon. I noticed that the tv was on and a movie was playing and yes, you guessed it, The Curse of the Werewolf was that movie. I only saw the first part of the movie, but those images have stayed with me.
Hammer Studios, in England, had been in the movie making business as far back as 1934, but in 1957, when they received permission from Universal Studios to remake Frankenstein, as The Curse of Frankenstein, in full color, it proved to be a box office smash hit and the studio found their niche in horror films. In 1961, they decided to make a new werewolf movie but their movie's plot followed the 1933 novel, The Werewolf of Paris, written by Guy Endore, not Universal's 1941 film, The Wolf Man, which starred Lon Chaney Jr.
Curse of the Werewolf was directed by Terence Fisher, produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Hinds, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym John Elder. The cast included: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson, Richard Wordsworth,Hira Talfrey, John Gabriel, Michael Ripper, David Conville, and Justin Walters.
Set in Spain in the 1700s, the story opens with a beggar(Richard Wordsworth) entering a town where no one is about. He is curious about this absence of townsfolk walking around so he enters a cantina and inside he sees most of the men from the town. The beggar asks why is no one about? Is it a holiday? One man answers his questions. It is the local Marquis's wedding day and in fear of him, the town has decided to stay indoors. The Marquis(Anthony Dawson) is a man known for his bad temper and unfair punishments. The beggar vows to go to the Marquis's palatial home to beg for money. The men in the cantina laugh at the beggar's plan and try to warn him to stay away from the Marquis.
The beggar is allowed to enter the Marquis's home and is shown to the banquet hall where the wedding reception is underway. The beggar is desperate for food so he agrees to perform silly dances in order to receive food from the Marquis. When the Marquis escorts his new bride from the reception to the stairway of the home, the beggar, over the din of the guests cheers and applause, says loudly, "Have a good night!" and winks at the Marquis. This angers the Marquis and he orders the beggar to be thrown into the dungeon! Years go by and the beggar is forgotten in the dungeon. His only contact with humans is the jailer and his daughter, who is a mute. The beggar slowly goes mad. Eventually, the jailer dies and it is his mute daughter, who is now a beauty(Yvonne Romain) who makes sure that the beggar is fed each day. The mute maid also has household duties and one day, as she is cleaning up the ashes from the fireplace in the Marquis's bedroom, he decides to make a grab for her and force his attentions on her. (We are told that the Marquis's wife died some years ago.) The mute maid fights back and bites the Marquis's hand. She is able to run away but the Marquis has his guards find her and throw her in the dungeon. The crazed beggar sees the beautiful maid in his cell and he attacks her, raping her. She manages to convince the guards to let her out the next morning and they do so. The beggar is shown in the cell, with unusual amounts of hair growth on his arms, and he is dead! Before the maid flees from the Marquis, she is taken to his room and as he prepares to grab her once again, she stabs him and runs for her life.
The mute maid wanders the countryside living in the woods for months. One morning, as she is clinging to a log in a stream, Don Alfredo Corledo(Clifford Evans) out for a hike sees the maid. He quickly pulls her from the stream, takes her to his home, and cares for her with the help of his trusted housekeeper Teresa(Hira Talfrey). Teresa informs Don Alfredo that the young lady he found is with child and that she hopes it will not be born on Christmas Day. Don Alfredo listens as Teresa explains an old superstition, that a baby conceived in a bad way, and born on Christmas Day, will have an evil in its soul. As the story continues, the maid does indeed give birth to a baby boy on Christmas Day and then she quickly dies! Don Alfredo raises the baby as his own son, naming him Leon, and Teresa is looked upon by the child as an Aunt, not just as a housekeeper. At baby Leon's baptism, the priest(John Gabriel), Don Alfredo, and Teresa can't ignore the sudden flashes of lightening and the baptismal waters in the font being stirred up and bubbling!
8 years go by and Leon(Justin Walters) is having a nightmare. Don Alfredo goes to the boy to comfort him and help him go back to sleep. Leon tells his father about his nightmare, that he was remembering a recent hunting trip with local hunter and cantina owner Pepe. Leon goes on to share that Pepe shot a squirrel even though Leon had begged him not to shoot it. Leon decided to examine the dead squirrel and tasted some of its blood and it tasted so sweet to him that he wanted to kill something to get more of that blood. Don Alfredo is horrified by Leon's account of the hunting trip. A couple nights later, with a full moon out, there is noise coming from Leon's bedroom and when Don Alfredo and Teresa go there, they see Leon clinging to the window bars, acting crazy, trying to get outside, and the boy's canine teeth have turned into fangs! Bewildered, knowing that the area shepherds have been having unexplained attacks at night on their sheep and goats, and with Teresa reminding him of the curse about a child born on Christmas Day, possibly a child conceived via a bad deed, Don Alfredo goes to see the priest. The priest is concerned about Leon and tells Don Alfredo that unconditional love and the continued good care that he and Teresa give to Leon should drive the evil out of his soul.
Raising Leon as the priest suggested proves successful and soon, Leon has reached adulthood. Leon(Oliver Reed) has decided to make his own way in the world and is about to embark to a neighboring village where he has been hired on by a local vintner, to work in the wine bottling business at the vineyards. After fond farewells to Don Alfredo and Teresa, Leon is soon on his journey. He arrives at the job site, is shown where he'll live, and meets his bunk mate, Rico(David Conville.) Leon also sees from afar the daughter of the vintner, Cristina(Catherine Feller) and it is love at first sight. She is unfortunately engaged to someone else but that doesn't stop Leon from meeting her and soon she has fallen in love with him. Seeking her hand in marriage, she tells Leon that her father will be against them as he wants her to marry her fiance, a wealthy man from the village. She agrees to run away with Leon and they can then be wed. In the meantime, Rico, a fun-loving guy, suggests they visit a place he knows of in town where there will be music, dancing, drinking, and girls! It is at this place, that Leon has the attack that turns him into a werewolf and he kills one of the establishment's girls and Rico!
The next morning, Leon is found by Don Alfredo, in his old bedroom. There is dried blood on Leon's hands, and he has no memory of what he did the night before. He soon dresses and goes back to the vineyard where the local police are asking questions about the murdered Rico. Leon admits to the police that he and Rico had been at the business in town where a girl was also murdered and that he cannot remember what he did last night, other than being at the business and having a drink or two. After the police leave, Leon goes back to his father to have a meeting with the priest. Leon begs to be put into jail and begs them to burn him alive so that the evil inside him can be destroyed once and for all. Don Alfredo doesn't want to do this and the priest suggests that Leon be taken away to a monastery for the rest of his life. Leon is put into a cell and Cristina is sent for, as perhaps her love for Leon and his love for her can destroy the evil inside of his soul. The Mayor is brought in about this werewolf matter and he wants Leon to remain in jail, to stand trial for the two recent murders. The Mayor scoffs at the werewolf notion and sends Cristina, Don Alfredo, and the priest out of the jail. A full moon is rising, noticed by the unfortunate drunk (Michael Ripper)sharing Leon's cell and, well, the werewolf curse rises in Leon again. He escapes from the jail to run amok in the village, climb to the roof of the church, and with the villagers throwing flaming hay bales at him, he has to know that they want his death. Don Alfredo had been told earlier by Teresa to get the silver bullet Pepe, the hunter, had made from his wife's silver crucifix, as a shot with such a bullet can kill a werewolf. With his gun at his side, Don Alfredo has to do what no parent would ever want to do, and the curse is ended with Leon's death.
As I watched this version of the werewolf saga, I was struck with how well the cast did, and especially Oliver Reed. It was his first role in a movie where he received credit in the cast list. His performance carries the movie from the moment he enters in it to the very end. I actually felt very sorry for his character, who is so despondent over his errant, violent nature which he can't control, and he is willing to be put to death to stop it and its evil consequences.
There were only 2 flaws that I picked out of the plot: One, Don Alfredo is the film's narrator for the beginning third of the movie. Seeing as he doesn't enter the film until he rescues the mute maid in the stream, and since she is mute, how would he know of the Marquis, the beggar, and all that the maid has suffered, since she can't talk?? Two, Leon and Cristina fall in love extremely fast. One shot, Leon is seeing her for the first time and in the next scene they are pledging their love to each other-whoa! That Leon is a quick worker on romance! Other than those two bits, the movie flowed well. Besides Reed's excellent portrayal of Leon, the rest of the cast does well too. Anthony Dawson must have had a field day getting to play such an icky persona as the Marquis, Yvonne Romain conveys a lot through her eyes as her character cannot speak, Clifford Evans is kind and caring as Don Alfredo, and that can also be said for Hira Talfrey as housekeeper Teresa. Justin Walters, who plays Leon as a child, looks uncannily like Oliver Reed so my hats are off to the casting personnel for this movie for finding Walters for that role. My only other quibble with the movie is that Yvonne Romain is so beautiful, that perhaps she would have been better cast as Cristina and Catherine Feller should have played the mute maid?
The Curse of the Werewolf has been put on Youtube in its entirety, in 10 parts. It is also available through Amazon,com and TCM Shop. For a fresh look at the werewolf story, catch Curse of the Werewolf by Hammer Studios!


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Deloitte advises shareholders of leading nursery group in Dubai, Blossom Nursery on merger with Babilou, Europe's largest early years education provider has been saved
Press releases
Deloitte advises shareholders of leading nursery group in Dubai, Blossom Nursery on merger with Babilou, Europe's largest early years education provider
18 September, 2017 – Deloitte has successfully advised the shareholders of Blossom Nurseries, the largest provider of early years education services in Dubai, on a merger with Babilou MENA, the Middle East operations of Babilou Group, the largest early years education and nurseries group in Europe.
Founded in Dubai in 2009 by Zahra Hamirani and Rahim Sajan, Blossom Nurseries has rapidly grown from one site to six centers across Dubai, with a number of expansion sites identified in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. They have been recognized with over 20 industry and community awards underlining the quality behind it's offering, and are consistently identified by the local business community as a best in class provider of childcare education solutions in Dubai. Blossom Nurseries combines a top quality academic approach; a secure and stimulating learning environment, highly qualified and trained staff, and a flexible enrolment structure, brought together with a unique offering that is consistent across all its locations.
Babilou was founded in Paris in 2003 by Rodolphe and Edouard Carle, and is France's largest private daycare operator. Babilou welcomes more than 25,000 children each week and supports more than 1,200 clients of all sizes, with more than 520 childcare centers which includes day-care centers, nursery clubs and nursery schools, with more than 6,000 professionals dedicated to the highest quality educational standard worldwide. Babilou is the recipient of numerous industry awards including 'Best Childhood Project Award' from Fondation de France (2004), 'Best Promising Company Prize' from EY (2009), ISO certification for 'Family Relationship Management' (2012), and 'French Champion of Growth' from L'Express L'Entreprise (2014).
Deloitte were appointed to advise the Blossom Nurseries Shareholders on their regional growth plans and to deliver an optimal funding structure to support this business strategy.
Blossom Nurseries, after experiencing a period of strong growth, and given the significant opportunities in the regional early years education sector, concluded that it needed to bring on board a strong partner to realize it's expansion plans. Deloitte identified a number of potential investors that fit the criteria and ran a structured process to evaluate the attractiveness of these investors as partners for the company.
"This merger between Blossom's best in class local early years education expertise and Babilou's market leading international capabilities is the ideal combination of two complimentary businesses that are leaders in their fields. Ultimately, it is the parents and their children who will benefit from the award winning range of early years education services and solutions." said Aziz Ul-Haq, Partner, Financial Advisory, Deloitte, Middle East. "This merger clearly demonstrates the strength of the local economy and the ability of successful local businesses to attract interest from international groups that are pursuing expansion opportunities across growth markets."
"In seeking a strategic partner for Blossom, our preference was for an international group with a track record of delivering the highest quality early years education and a strong vision for growth," said Zahra Hamirani, Founder and CEO of Blossom Nurseries. "It was important for me to find a partner that shared our company values and would present the ideal platform to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity in the regional early years education segment. I believe we have found that partner in Babilou and can't wait to get started on our combined business plan. I want to thank all parties for their exemplary approach to this transaction, and to the team at Deloitte for its commitment and efforts in delivering a successful solution for Blossom."
"The Shareholders have built a highly successful business in a short period of time and we wish them every success as they embark on their journey alongside Babilou", said Mark Taylor, Director, Financial Advisory, Deloitte, Middle East. "All parties were exceptional in their approach to conclude this deal in an abbreviated timeframe. This transaction is a fantastic endorsement of the UAE mid-market economy, for which we continue to see significant investor appetite, both from local and international groups".
The merger between Blossom and Babilou MENA is expected to create the market leading platform in the UAE early years education space.
Press contact
Nadine El Hassan
Middle East Public Relations
Deloitte & Touche (M.E.)
Tel: +961 (0) 1 748444
Fax: +961 (0) 1 748999
About Deloitte:
Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a more detailed description of DTTL and its member firms.
Deloitte provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's more than 220,000 professionals are committed to making an impact that matters.
About Deloitte & Touche (M.E.):
Deloitte & Touche (M.E.) is a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) and is a leading professional services firm established in the Middle East region with uninterrupted presence since 1926.
Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services through 26 offices in 15 countries with more than 3,300 partners, directors and staff. It is a Tier 1 Tax advisor in the GCC region since 2010 (according to the International Tax Review World Tax Rankings). It has also received numerous awards in the last few years which include best employer in the Middle East, best consulting firm, the Middle East Training & Development Excellence Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), as well as the best CSR integrated organization.


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The Origins Of Infamous
Amidst our coverage of the upcoming Infamous Second Son, we thought that it would be interesting to look back on the creation of the original game in the ongoing series. As a stand-out new IP on the Playstation 3 and a studio-changing game for the talented team at Sucker Punch Productions, Infamous' three years of development is a lot to cover in one video. The team shed light on their other pitches to Sony after they finished the Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (one of which has a familiar name), the challenges of development, and what the studio learned from its release.
Watch the video below to learn from studio co-founder Brian Fleming and game director Nate Fox about the spark behind the Infamous franchise.
To learn more about the future of the Infamous series, click on the banner below to learn more about Infamous Second Son.


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Eric Krotkov
Program Manager, DARPA
Senior Research Scientist, CMU
DARPA Contact Information
CMU Contact Information
Mobile Robot Research
Machine Perception Research
Current Activities
Journal Articles
Downloadable Gzipped Postscript
Planetary Rover Workshop 1996
EK Bookmarks
Thanks for the visit. You are visitor
since September 17, 1996.
DARPA Contact Information
3701 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1714
Tel: (703) 696-4464
Fax: (703) 696-2204
CMU Contact Information
Robotics Institute, Smith Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891
Tel: (412) 268-3058
Fax: (412) 268-5570
Plan file
I am a member of the
research group, which is a part of the
Robotics Institute
, which in turn is part of the
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
. I am affiliated with the
National Robotics Engineering Consortium
. I also work closely with the
Field Robotics Center
Wes Huang
(co-advised by Matt Mason) completed his dissertation in 1997 on impulsive manipulation.
Fabio Cozman
is developing quasi-Bayesian estimation techniques and applying them to problems in outdoor localization and graphical inference.
Liam Pedersen
is working on sensing and perceiving meteorites.
Matthew Deans
is working on natural landmark navigation.
Mobile Robot Research
Meteorite Search (1996-present)
Atacama Desert Trek (1996-97)
Dead reckoning with an Inertial Measurement Unit.
Lunar Rover Navigation (1994-1996)
This project developed and field tested a "safeguarded teleoperation" system for a prototype lunar rover. Co-investigators are Red Whittaker and
Reid Simmons
Lunar Telescope Deployment (1996)
User Interface for Rover Control in Java (1996)
Machine Perception Research
Augmented Reality for Supervisory Control of Rovers (1995-present)
One-page postscript writeup [99 KB]
Perception of Material (1995-present)
The emphasis is on identifying shape-invariant acoustic features of materials.
Synthesis of Contact Sounds (1996-present)
The goal of this work is to synthesize realistic contact sounds using physics-based models.
Digital Sextant (1995)
One-page postscript writeup [121 KB]
Stereo Vision for Planetary Rovers (1994-97)
One-page postscript writeup [278 KB]
Current Activities
Interactive Multimedia Robotics Exhibit at Carnegie Science Center
Educational Affairs & Enrollment Committee of the Board of Trustees
Space Automation and Robotics Technical Committee
Journal Articles
Last updated 3 November 1997.
"Fractal Modeling of Natural Terrain: Analysis and Surface Reconstruction with Range Data" , K. Arakawa and E. Krotkov, Graphical Models and Image Processing, vol. 58, no. 5, September 1996, pp. 413-436.
"Perception, Planning, and Control for Autonomous Walking with the Ambler Planetary Rover," E. Krotkov, R. Simmons, Intl. Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 15, no. 2, April 1996, pp. 155-180.
"Robotics Laboratory Exercises," E. Krotkov, IEEE Trans. Education, vol. 39, no. 1, February 1996, pp. 94-97.
Stereo Perception and Dead Reckoning for a Prototype Lunar Rover [8.9 MB]
, E. Krotkov, M. Hebert, and R. Simmons, Autonomous Robots, vol. 2, no. 4, December 1995, pp. 313-331.
"Ambler: Performance of a Six-Legged Planetary Rover," E. Krotkov, R. Simmons, W. Whittaker, Acta Astonautica, vol. 35, no. 1, 1995, pp. 75-81.
"Terrain Mapping for a Walking Planetary Rover," E. Krotkov, R. Hoffman, IEEE Trans. Robotics and Automation, vol. 6, no. 10, December 1994, pp. 728-739.
"Active Vision for Reliable Ranging: Cooperating Focus, Stereo, and Vergence," E. Krotkov, R. Bajcsy, Intl. Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 11, no. 2, October 1993, pp. 187-203.
"Progress Towards Robotic Exploration of Extreme Terrain," R. Simmons, E. Krotkov, W. Whittaker, Journal of Applied Intelligence, vol. 2, Spring 1992, pp. 163-180.
"3-D Measurements from Imaging Laser Radars: How Good Are They?" M. Hebert, E. Krotkov, Intl. Journal of Image and Vision Computing, vol. 10, no. 3, April 1992, pp. 170-178.
"Stereo Ranging with Verging Cameras," E. Krotkov, K. Henriksen, R. Kories, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 12, no. 12, December 1990, pp. 1200-1205.
"Ambler: An Autonomous Rover for Planetary Exploration," J. Bares, M. Hebert, T. Kanade, E. Krotkov, T. Mitchell, R. Simmons, W. Whittaker, IEEE Computer, vol. 22, no. 6, June 1989, pp. 18-26.
"An Agile Stereo Camera System for Flexible Image Acquisition," E. Krotkov, J. Summers, F. Fuma, IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation, vol. 4, no. 1, February 1988, pp. 108-113.
"Focusing," E. Krotkov, Intl. Journal of Computer Vision, vol. 1, no. 3, October 1987, pp. 223-237. (Reprinted in Physics-Based Vision, Jones and Bartlett, 1992.
"Visual Hyperacuity," E. Krotkov, Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing, vol. 33, no. 1, January 1986, pp. 99-115.
Downloadable Gzipped Postscript
Experience with Rover Navigation for Lunar-Like Terrains [5.7 MB]
, R. Simmons, E. Krotkov, M. Hebert and L. Katragadda, International Lunar Exploration Conference, San Diego CA, November, 1994.
Perception of Material Properties by Robotic Probing: Preliminary Investigations [1.0 MB]
, E. Krotkov, Proc. Intl. Joint Conf. Artifical Intelligence, Montreal, August 1995, pp. 88-94.
Robotic Perception of Material: Experiments with Shape-Invariant Acoustic Measures of Material Type [0.9 MB]
, E. Krotkov, R. Klatzky, N. Zumel, in Experimental Robotics IV, Edited by O. Khatib and K. Salisbury, Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences 200, Springer-Verlag, 1996. Symposium held at Stanford, July 1995.
Updated 3 November, 1997.


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What is the Background and History of Initiatives?
Background History of Initiatives and Referendums in Ancient Times
The background history of initiatives and direct democracy voting for initiatives and referendums by the citizens on important issues started around two thousand five hundred years ago In Athens, the cradle of democracy. About 590 B.C. power was granted to all the propertied classes, thus establishing a limited democracy. About 500 B.C., democracy was extended to the freemen of Athens (women and slaves who made up more than half of the population, and others were excluded). At that time, the city of Athens' population was approximately 100,000 (Polopolus) with possibly 300,000 including surrounding areas. Of these, about 100,000 were citizens and about 30,000 were males entitled to vote. The voters were called the Ecclesia or Ekklesia—i.e., the Electorate. A quorum of the Ecclesia consisted of 6,000 citizens.
[Note Translation issue: The Athenian word Ecclesia is often translated to mean an Assembly of Voters, i.e., the Electorate. However, in this web site, the word Assembly is an abbreviation for the Citizens' Initiatives Assembly. This double meaning of the word "Assembly" can sometimes be confusing when hyper-linking and reading a text on ancient Greece. To minimize confusion here, in the very few cases when the meaning of "assembly" is the Ecclesia, the word Assembly is italicized. Similarly, our Initiatives Qualifying Assembly or Assembly is called the Council of 500 or Boule by the Athenians.]
The Council of Five Hundred (or Boule) was introduced, with important preliminary jurisdiction to deputize when the regular meeting of all the Voters was not in session and to select the agenda (i.e., select Candidate Direct Initiatives) for the Ecclesia (i.e., the Voters). The Ecclesia met near the Agora on the Pnyx hill, which could seat about 6,000 on its slopes. It is shown below with the Parthenon on the Acropolis in the background (photo courtesy of Adam Carr via Wikipedia under GNU License). The selection of Council of Five Hundred members was usually by lot and for only one year to prevent the monopoly of the office of deputy by professional politicians.
The Athenians had citizen initiators (Ho boulomenos—he who wishes). These were citizens who exerted their right to propose an issue, which they called a probouleumata, for consideration by the Boule and potential consideration by the Ecclesia. The Athenian probouleumata effectively corresponds with our initiative. Citizen initiators could be called to account for their actions, so abuse of their right had constraints.
By about 460 B.C., the transfer of power to the People who made all important decisions, the Council of the Five Hundred, and the jury courts had been completed. The city retained a substantial degree of direct democracy for 180 years—surviving even its final defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian Wars—until its conquest by Macedonia (Carey).
Athenian contribution to culture and politics around the world has been profound—arguably more important than that of any other society in the world's history. However, the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution in 1787, a hundred years before the discovery of Aristotle's "Constitution of Athens", which had been lost in the 7th Century and not rediscovered until 1880-1891.
Texts possessed by the Fathers quoted Greeks who were critical of democracy—especially Socrates who advocated a republic led by philosophers. Madison was particularly critical, writing in Federalist Papers No. 55 "In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob." Despite 140 years of direct democracy in New England town meetings starting as early as the 1640's, there was no evidence in 1787 that these small democracies could be scaled up for nationwide benefit.
To the Founding Fathers, it seemed necessary that in a democracy all voters should assemble at a single location. The methodology of a statistical random sample of the People for polling or to select and qualify candidate initiatives developed over the period 1850-1930. The Founding Fathers seemed unaware that the ancient Athenians considered their city too large to assemble in one place. Their key democratic assembly—The Council of Five Hundred—and juries were chosen by random selection of citizens. The Council of Five Hundred managed everyday affairs and set the agenda for much larger meetings of the citizens. It seems extraordinary that the Athenians intuitively chose the right statistical minimum number of 500 for a good random sample!
Initiatives and Referendums in Modern Democracies
The earliest use of a referendum in modern democracies was in 1793 in France when a new constitution was submitted for popular vote. France, however, seldom used referendums until around the mid-1900s.
Some Swiss Cantons adopted referendums between 1831 and 1890 for both legislative measures and constitutional proposals (Magleby p.31). Switzerland's constitution was drafted in 1848 (loosely modeled after the U.S. Constitution, but incorporating direct democracy as well as federalism) and was revised in 1874 and again in 1999. Since 1891(Fossedal p 90), Switzerland included the right of initiative for changes to the federal constitution. Switzerland is a relatively small country with a population today of 7,300,000, which speak four native languages though many are multi-lingual. It is divided into 26 relatively autonomous Cantons with an average population of 280,000, though this varies widely among Cantons. Only 100,000 signatures (about two percent of the voters) are required to petition a popular vote on new federal legislation. Switzerland has four elections per year and is by far the greatest user of initiatives and referendums that the world has ever known. In fact, Switzerland is the only modern democracy that currently permits citizens to propose laws in the form of [direct] initiatives (Long) (though The Netherlands introduced national indirect initiatives—"consultative corrective referendum" nor "non-binding rejection referendum"—in 2006). The key to the Swiss approach is to make decisions at the lowest appropriate level—sometimes called subsidiarity or devolution.
It is unlikely to be a coincidence that over the last one-hundred years, despite being in the middle of wars collectively resulting in over 70 million deaths from all causes, Switzerland has been amongst the most peaceful countries in the world, has amongst the highest per-capita income, is universally trusted (even if some believe Swiss financial privacy laws excessive), and has a quality of life consistently among the top ten countries in the world. Some current trends are lower voter turnout and excessive numbers of initiatives by special interests that may result in future adjustments to the system.
Many other more recent democracies have used binding national referendums during the last fifty years, some extensively and to great benefit. They include: Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, and most recently in 2005 The Netherlands. (Belgium, Britain, and Finland use primarily consultative or advisory referendums). In the past 200 years, there have been a little over 800 referendums held at national level; over 400 of them in Switzerland (Butler & Ranney). Following The Netherlands' 2005 consultative referendum rejecting the EU Charter, there remain only four major established democracies that have never held a national referendum: India, Israel, Japan, and the United States.
There has been some less positive referendum usage. In 1934, Hitler used a state-sponsored national referendum to consolidate his power (Polhill). The transition from a functioning democracy to a total dictatorship was rapid:
- January 1933: President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor.
- March 1933: The Reichstag passed the Enabling Law granting Adolf Hitler dictatorial power.
- August 2, 1934: Hindenburg died.
- August 19, 1934: A plebiscite (i.e., referendum) of the German people ratified Hitler's dictatorship as Der Führer and Chancellor.
In 1991, the Soviet Union under the leadership of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, used several state-sponsored national referendums that must be blamed in part for the chaos of the following ten years. State-sponsored national referendums tend to be conducted with highly-charged emotion, state propaganda, and military coercion.
Direct Democracy started well before the U.S. Constitution in New England town meetings and school district meetings involving lawmaking by assembled voters. However, this does not involve use of initiatives.
A Brief History of Initiatives and Referendums in the U.S.
There has never been a nationwide Initiative or Referendum in the U.S. The absence of a U.S. Initiative is a possible consequence of the early date (1787) of our Constitution. Subsequent constitutions in other countries, including the Swiss, were modeled on the U.S. Constitution and often include them.
Major U.S. support for Initiatives and Referendums came in the late 19th Century with the Populist and Progressive movements, and were adopted by the first State (South Dakota) in 1898. Modern U.S. systems of initiative and referendum originated in the state of Oregon in 1902. The "Oregon System", as it was at first known, was widely adopted by the other states.
In 1911, the State of Wisconsin submitted applications for a Federal constitutional convention, a constitutional amendment to permit Federal constitutional amendments by initiative, and a constitutional amendment to permit Federal initiative, referendum, and recall. However, nothing came of this effort.
The new Progressive party was formed in 1911 through 1912 by President (1901-1909) Theodore Roosevelt. Its platform called for the direct election of U.S. Senators, the initiative, referendum, and recall, woman suffrage, reduction of the tariff, and many social reforms. It failed to elect a President in 1912, and was disbanded in 1916.
A war referendum plan was popular within the United States from 1914 and especially in the 1920s and 1930s, and later in the 1970s. Representative Louis Ludlow (D – Indianapolis, Indiana) introduced the Ludlow Amendment several times from 1935 to 1941; despite strong support in national opinion polls it was returned to committee.
The issued reappeared again during the Vietnam war and a proposed constitutional amendment was introduced in the House on April 1, 1971, using the exact text of the earlier Ludlow Amendment. Again, it failed to pass.
At the Subcommittee Hearings on the Constitution, S.J. Res 67 in December 1977, the case was argued by Ms. Koupal for a Voter Initiatives Constitutional Amendment. The major conceptual differences between their approach and that taken here are:
- They proposed the State petition rather than the Citizens' Initiatives Assembly method of qualifying Initiatives.
- They supposed that Congress would take action without considerable voter pressure.
- Their approach dealt in generalities rather than forcing the issue by a detailed plan that could be discussed and analyzed, put to a vote, and implemented.
The matter was dropped by Congress after the hearings. However, this attempt and its outcome are illuminating.
There is also more recent evidence that the U.S. citizens want their right to vote on United States Initiatives. The Washington Post (Merida) reported a 1994 poll showing 64 percent of those interviewed favored a national referendum. The record of the 103rd Congress in 1994 shows considerable interest in the subject, especially in regard to term limits, balanced budget, and line item veto issues. These issues had been supported by many respected public policy organizations such as Citizens Against Government Waste, Heritage Foundation, National Tax Limitation Committee, United We Stand America, etc. However, Congress as a whole was disinclined to pursue these matters at that time.
There are many recent and current members of Congress who have expressed strong support for various forms of nationwide Initiatives and Referendum. The efforts by Senator Mike Gravel (Alaska 1969-1981) are in progress. He founded Philadelphia II and Direct Democracy, the nonprofit entities leading the effort. A Democracy Amendment is currently proposed for electronic voting using People's rights inferred from Article VII of the Constitution. The scope of the Democracy Amendment is more far-reaching than this Solution but is administered by an organization of elected representatives.
See I&R Factsheet for more details.
State Initiatives and Referendums
In the U.S., all the States submit legislatively-derived State constitutional amendment referendums to a vote of the people except for Delaware, which has used legislative but not constitutional referendums.
24 States have an initiative process whereby if citizens can collect sufficient signatures they may place a question or referendum for popular vote. In many cases this covers constitutional rather than law issues, and in others the initiative is indirect because it must go to the legislature before it is put to the people. However, in 14 States, direct initiative statutes permit laws proposed by signature petition of the people to be directly placed on the ballot as a referendum for voter approval or rejection (I&R Institute).
The number of signatures needed to qualify the petition averages about eight percent of the votes cast for governor in the preceding election, but varies widely up to 15 percent of the gubernatorial vote and down to two percent of the voting-age population. In California, with a population of about 35 million people, the number of signature required for a direct initiative on a law is about 420,000; for a State, constitutional amendment about 670,000; and 890,000 signatures were required for Governor Davis' recall.
Signature gatherers were paid .75 to 1.00 dollars per signature, and the cost of the signature drive pro and con was estimated at four million dollars. As the recall gathered momentum, the GOP supporters privately funded an aggressive media promotion, the cost of which is probably unknowable. For reference, $90 million was spent on the gubernatorial race in 2002; the candidates spent about $90 million; the special recall election cost to the State was about $30 million. When the final numbers become available, the expenditures will probably turn out to have been larger. For the 2004 elections, about $400 million was spent on 59 state initiatives in 18 states and on average is cost about $12 million to qualify and advance an initiative and $6 million to oppose it.
Some General Observations
- The most frequent use of initiatives and referendums has been in ancient Athens (city population 100,000) and modern Switzerland (population 7,300,000), both small democracies by today's standards. In both cases, they were largely drafted by the participants. In both cases the countries achieved extreme prosperity despite modest natural resources and, considering the extraordinary chaos going on around them, relative peace.
- A referendum initiated solely by a Government in a highly-charged emotional crisis can be dangerous, and is subject to manipulation and propaganda by the Government. It is desirable to have a deliberative process to review any rash decisions.
- In most countries and many States, Government is closely involved with drafting the referendums, and exerts much influence on the results.
- The U.S. Congress has not allowed even Government-initiated referendums.
- Direct initiatives in all cases except Athens involve obtaining a large number of signatures, investing much time and effort, and financing substantial expenditures before an initiative can be put on the ballot.


text:
- Description:
Real-time and machine learning-based deep analytics are becoming important in Big data analytics. Jubatus is the first OSS platform for scale-out deep analytics with distributed computation. It uses a unique architecture for distributed and online machine learning based on three fundamental operations, UPDATE, MIX, and ANALYZE, for efficient model training, sharing, and applying. The point is to share not data samples but only trained models by MIX to achieve both high scalability and fast convergence. Jubatus currently supports most of machine learning tasks including classification, regression, recommendation, and outlier detection.
- Changes to previous version:
0.5.0 add new supports for clustering and nearest neighbors. For more detail, see http://t.co/flMcTcYZVs
- BibTeX Entry: Download
- Corresponding Paper BibTeX Entry: Download
- Supported Operating Systems: Linux
- Data Formats: Any
- Tags: Online Learning, Distributed Machine Learning
- Archive: download here
- Shohei Hido (on November 18, 2013, 11:33:53)
- Initial post on mloss.org.
- Shohei Hido (on November 18, 2013, 11:39:11)
- Fix supported os.
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by Carl Wilson
[With a debt of gratitude to Greil Marcus's Real Life Rock Top 10, the Back to the World team is reviewing 2010 on a free-associative, nerve-impulsive basis. I've confined myself to things I haven't already written about at length on this site this year, and discarded all critical-game rules of rank, comprehensiveness or balance. Another week it might be another 10.]
1. Collective redemptions: Auto-Tune the Meme
I don't know how long it will last but for now it's a blessing to live when whatever nonsense goes viral will be remixed with Auto-Tune, usually by the reliably silly Gregory Brothers. What was the sonic signature of high-end rap/R&B (and Asian and Caribbean pop) in the '00s becomes the crazed sound of the inside-out unconscious of the Internet digesting fetishes in the '10s. Which comes with a disturbing side, of course: What seems fair game for politicians and newscasters on the Bros.' great, long-running Auto-Tune the News series, and unimportant when it's Double Rainbow Guy, becomes more complex when it comes to Antoine Dodson losing his shit about a rapist in the Huntsville projects on a local news report.
Without music, it seemed nauseatingly clear people were mocking the way a gay, black man in a poor neighbourhood of Alabama spoke in a state of distress. But the music, I'd argue, really did transform that into a celebration of Dodson's flair and sincerity, into a tune so distinctive that it can be played without words by a marching band (at a historically black university, fwiw) and still hit the same sweet divot in the brain pain. And the Dodson family was able to buy a house on the spinoff proceeds, inverting the usual consciencelessness of that Internet unconscious.
Would it be too treacly to say that it's a reminder of how rhythm, melody and harmony are ancient technologies to mediate alienation and generate human connection? Definitely, but grant me an Xmas pass.
2. Candid-camera delusions of grandeur/grotesquery: Destroyer ft. Loscil, "Grief Point" (Archer on the Beach EP)
Another angle on the music/reality blur zone comes from Dan Bejar: This song is how it would be if songs or albums regularly came with the commentary tracks we're used to on DVDs of movies and television, presuming that the commentaries were written by self-excoriating poets of course. (There's precedent in the Dr. Horrible musical's musical commentary tracks, though to more blatantly comic effect.)
Dan voices notebook entries seemingly written while recording last year's "Bay of Pigs," the "ambient-disco" song apparently originally titled "Grief Point" (or "May Day," or "Christine White") that reappears as the closing highlight of the upcoming Kaputt album, about which much more in the New Year. The way this track keeps up the links in this three-year chain of significance/striptease is part of the pleasure.
I prefer the denser EP version to the superminimal "Making of Grief Point" that Loscil (Vancouver electronic composer Scott Morgan) released earlier in the year: This one better fulfills and thus escapes what Dan calls "the same old shit. A potential, complete ignorance of ambience, real ambience, in that: Can you really construct it, every last bit of it, and just let the listener feel its effects? And is this the right treatment? Always the same question."
The paradox of the ambient, which is Loscil's genre, has percolated since Brian Eno coined it: How to listen to music not designed to be listened to, only heard? This track revisits that issue as the life/art problem (blah blah John Cage blah) etched in blood: Trust Destroyer to come up with a genre one could call Brian Emo.
As Dan considers whether to quit music or to be happy that he hates what he's recording because "it means I've changed," he flirts with the lines between social-media-panoptical self-indulgence and self-celebritizing and the substantive mental torment inherent to making meaning.
That's what many of the most vital artists' work currently does – such as B2TW intimate Sheila Heti's 2010 novel How Should a Person Be?, which found a surprising champion in The New York Observer this week; but then the Observer, name down, has always been the cultural voyeur's broadsheet.
Yet Destroyer was in this territory well ahead of the pack – "your backlash was right where I wanted you/ yes, that's right, I wanted you," he sang, before having enough recognition to get backlash. And he approaches it with a half-careless swagger but also a wolfish hunger to make the risks count, this fucking time at last at last.
3. Sex is so much more than sex: You Can Have It All, a performance by Mammalian Diving Reflex, Feb. 12-13, Toronto
Perhaps Ontario, the home of the old-lady sex Yoda, Sue Johanson, may inevitably eventually have generated something like this performance, but we're lucky to have artist Darren O'Donnell to nudge it along.
Having advertised on telephone poles and bulletin boards for people "over 65 and still thinking about sex," he gathered an incredible panel of women and men to first workshop and then publicly talk about their erotic lives in intimate, funny and often wrenching detail.
I can't reproduce the effect here, except to say how exhilarating it was to hear how recent the participants' greatest sexual experiences (in their opinions) often were. And conversely how intense it is to talk about great sex with someone now dead. … Funeral speeches that never were.
For all their universality it's also a very local conversation; every community should bring in O'Donnell to root out these words stirring unspoken among them.
But the thing I was left thinking about most was that all the straight men on the panel dropped out before the performances: Was this just a generational blip or does it reveal something deep and hard to uproot about gender, power and vulnerability? (Including O'Donnell's own power dynamic as a director, though that seems too simple.)
4. Past, unpassed: Richard Harrow (played by Jack Huston) on Boardwalk Empire
The best TV show I watched in 2010 was no doubt the third season of Breaking Bad, but the best thing on TV was this extraordinary character on an otherwise mediocre series.
Sniper-turned-hit-man Richard Harrow is a veteran of World War 1 whose face was so maimed in battle so that he wears a painted tin mask in public – a historically accurate representation inspired by this Smithsonian Magazine article. He befriends one of the central characters, fellow vet Jimmy Darmody (the anemic Michael Pitt), whose mutilation is less visible but similarly soul-obstructing. Together they use their skills to make themselves other-than-disposable to men in power the one way they know: murder at someone else's command.
Yet Harrow (despite his wince-worthy, typically Boardwalk Empire-showboating name), as image, and in Jack Huston's physical and vocal dance (he is the mess of tics we all would be in his place, but never a cartoon), more than even Steve Buscemi's ever-virtuosic lead, inspires a sympathetic vibration very near love. At one point, to soothe spooked children, he jokingly calls himself the Tin Man (referring to the book, not the yet-unmade film). Huston (grandson of John, nephew of Angelica) earns the parallel.
Boardwalk Empire's fatal flaw is its jones to emulate its media-gangster icons, from The Sopranos (on which its creators worked) to The Godfather and the best films of producer Martin Scorsese. But to do something memorable with the dawn-of-Prohibition lawlessness it aimed at, it needed someone more like David Lynch, who could capture the uncapturability of those silent-film years: the way its sensibility is just out of reach of an audience for whom history really begins with the talky mass-cultural connection that's come to spell "20th century."
That there was a 20th century before the 20th century is a fact the tapes in our cathode-ray lizard-brain stems don't readily disclose. (As a music guy, I'm sad their takes on Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker don't gel, though the Hardini-Houdini's-brother riff had legs.)
Thus the series can't give us the uncanniness, the unheimlich feeling of meeting Freud's day on its own terms. Except with Richard Harrow. In his face we get a time before medicine was anything we'd see as fit for the title, when the compromises had other stakes – the spasms that pushed the modern out its birth canal. Upheavals still felt like phantom pains in today's post-everything pathologies. What a story that could have been.
5. Mantler, Monody
There were days this year I wanted to live in a ditch. I wanted rats to nibble at my shoelaces and beetles to replace the pupils of my eyes. Too often I got right down in that culvert and dug my elbows into the grime and let the parasites feast on my shit, then come back up and spit it in my ears.
If I knew a little better any given Sunday, though, I'd put on Toronto singer-songwriter Mantler's record and then the goat-footed balloon man would come laughing, "Have you forgotten the word 'mudluscious'? What's wrong, fetish not got your tongue? Displace a little up-up-and-away into me, and wrap your troubles in dreams till they're helium-drunk and far and wee."
That most hospitals were never told about this miracle cure is one of the true scandals of 2010. That it had been six years since the last release of the absintheian elixir that Mantler (Chris Cummings) pours generously out of a cauldron full of white suits and colour organs and herbs that taste like bells is the occasion of every party you should have been invited to when some sad bastard forgot your name.
6. Not ready to make nice: Bernie Sanders' 8-hour semi-filibuster
What I don't really want to talk about, despite how much it weighed through 2010, is how hard it was to keep supporting Barack Obama (if Canadian support counts). Especially after November, when the tax deal, in particular, seemed to squander a vital "lame duck" opportunity to counterbalance the upcoming bullying of liberty, logic and economic justice by the Republican House.
But then there was this bit of performance art in opposition to tax cuts for millionaires at the expense of the vanishing middle class (and not just in America) by the only avowed democratic socialist in federal American politics, and nearly the only mensch (well, along with Barney Frank). It was just what I wanted for Christmas and Hanukah. This shit is the gelt.
Sometimes you speak truth even knowing power is deaf. And abusive. And would rather look good at basketball than take, to revisit a theme, a goddamn risk.
7. Stretching for substance: Taylor Swift, "A careless man's careful daughter" in "Mine" (Speak Now LP)
This year Taylor Swift fell into a tabloid-tell-all mode that's warped the naturalism that served her so well, not to mention overmilking the princessy crap. And where her nemesis Kanye at least freaked out creatively about their encounter of the 2009th kind, making it the sub-theme of his fine (if overpraised) new record, she was all too level and dull on the topic, on an album that marks her predictably awkward transition from teen songwriting prodigy to young-adult celebrity.
Notwithstanding, a key line in the record's lead single has followed me through the months: "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter." It may be the most writerly moment in her career, at least in a chorus, with its un-Nashvilley cram of syllables. You can tell how proud she is of it because she puts it in the repeated pivot point of the song. You almost want to come back with the old saw of writing-advice, "Kill your darlings." But a songwriter in her position might need her darlings in a way a poet or novelist wouldn't, as a creative love-rival to fame's blandishments.
In "Mine," we never hear anything more about the father, but the line tells us enough about who the protagonist is, and who the boyfriend is (his version: "I fell in love with a careless man's careful daughter") to double the narrative's heft.
That reversal of P.O.V. when the boyfriend assuages her fears could seem rote as craftsmanship, but in pop, rote narrative moves that sync up just right are the ones that get you teary-eyed. Hell, it's not that dissimilar to the move Stephin Merritt makes in one of my favourite songs, "Papa Was a Rodeo" – it just lacks the knowingness about itself as a move.
I'm not sure why it's so effective at lumping my throat. Maybe it's that I'm a careful man's more careless son. I'll keep mulling the question in 2011. But I hope that in the next few years, Swift stays proud of it and fills more of her songs with lines like it, till they become adult stories. She's a country songwriter, after all, and she's got examples like Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard to show that if you hold true to your craft, hang your heart on those pivot points, they can take you anywhere. It's not about being as fancy a syllable crammer as Elvis Costello, who just as often is hoist on that petard. There's so much that suggests Swift could get there, and so many reasons to fear that she won't. Grant me another Xmas pass here while I bet against the house.
8. The medium isn't such a mess-age: The San Francisco Panorama
After years when there's been nothing but gloating and/or despairing obits for the print media in which I mostly make my living, I want to give thanks to McSweeneys/The Believer for demonstrating that death isn't the only possible future.
Their one-shot example of what a glorious print newspaper could look like (it came out in late 2009 but was widely available in 2010) may be starry-eyed, but it makes concrete what I often say to my peers: Losing the position of first choice for news every weekday morning doesn't doom newspapers. Play to strengths: weekend features, investigative reporting, physical scale and, well, "eye-feel" (the way foodies talk about mouth-feel). And – well, maybe not a 96-page books section, where the publishers played too aggressively to their strengths, but a books section, because those other people of words are allies. I think people would pay, and they'd stay.
My paper took baby steps this direction this year but those booties need a harder sole (soul).
9. Chatty Kathy
Has any cultural source made me regularly happier than Kathleen Phillips' video blog in 2010? Her live character comedy came close, particularly when I got to help program her (playing a deluded actress-turned-writer) as part of the Scream in High Park this summer. But can that compete with The Ballad of Four Feet Joe? With her other animations of the inanimate? Oh, world, you will never look quite the same and thank Heaven or whatever department is in charge. Even if Virgin Mobile ripped it off in the name of Christ.
10. Sex is so much sexer than sex: The collected works of Tonetta; Good Intentions Paving Company by Joanna Newsom, 4:35 to end.
It's been a long year. Remember when all we could talk about was Lady Gaga? But finally some serious sensual competition came along in the struggle to make humans delirious, delusional, demented by delight. Toronto's own Tonetta might have occupied my whole year if I were still writing a locally centred music blog (good thing there was someone around to fill in). You could shorthand it as Jandek meets Gaga meets Iggy in your pervert uncle's basement, but the catchy hooks and obscenity and freak-flag-fluttering come with a poignant sense of a man finding himself in the act of losing himself (this is his post-divorce project). Social-media-voyeurism comes in for a lot of bashing, but Tonetta suggests one of its graces: Helping us discover what in us is worth gawking at.
Joanna Newsom has had that kind of gnosis for a long time, even too much so – she's less sharp about what to leave out. Still, there are also great grasshopper artistic leaps on her 2010 album Have One on Me, including a verse that leaves me dizzy with desire – not for its singer (however deserving, vide the lascivious montage above), but with thoughts of people in my life who can reliably and relentlessly render me this way:
But it can make you feel over and old, Lord, you know it's a shame / When I only want for you to pull over and hold me/ Till I can't remember my own name.
And as she casts this invocation, horns and strings rise restless from every corner as if to redecorate the room for their sex-magickal rites. (RIP Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson.) May that be your benediction in the gloaming of 2010, and as 2011 rises, aroused.