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As part of their professionalization training, Chicago-area law students were invited to attend and participate in the What Not to Wear Fashion Show organized by the Chicago Bar Association. This free event (on Wednesday, April 7) "feature[d] a runway walk with law students in professional attire selected from their own wardrobes. Guest judges and fashion industry experts critique[d] the student's selections. . . After the Show, panelists provide[d] attendees with 'Fashion Dos and Don'ts,' including correct suit fit for men." There were also "informative handouts summarizing important pitfalls in dressing for the legal setting." For example, one handout capaciously warns:
This is not the time for self-expression, flamboyance, or eccentricity.
While professionalization events are common elements of graduate schools and professional association conferences, the sartorial sniping that passes for professional mentoring often consolidates and codes under the neutral-sounding terms "professional" and "respectable" normative ideas about gender presentation, homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism. If the nickname of the event – "How To Dress Like A Lawyer As Told By Some Women Haters, Old Men And Random Law Students" (so named by an embedded blogger called Attractive Nuisance) – is any indication of the "professional" culture the Chicago Bar Association is hoping to foment then this runway show is one such example of how "professionalization" is a technology, in Judith Butler's words in Undoing Gender, for "constrain[ing] the sociality of the body in acceptable ways." At this Bar Association event, the production of normative middle-class gender formations is achieved through sartorial-sexual disciplining. (Notice how the comment about the "Express ensemble" and the "tramp stamp" in the first "rule" for women attorneys does double duty as class- and slut-shaming.) Some of the advice included:
- Ditch your Express ensembles: "Maybe you bought your suit at Express or somewhere… and you bent over to get a Danish and I can see your tramp stamp." (There's a tattoo post in Minh-Ha's future but for now read Katy's recent post on Jezebel called, "Painted Ladies: On Tats and Trashiness").
- Microsuede is never okay.
- If you're wearing a skirt, you have to wear tights or pantyhose. Get over it.
- Make sure your suit is not too fitted, wear flats, wear minimal jewelry, wear minimal makeup, do not wear hair in a pony-tail, do not wear hair down in a distracting way, wear pantyhose, do not wear open-toe shoes, do not wear peep-toe shoes, and do not wear dark nail polish.
- Do not wear your engagement ring if it is large because it may anger your women interviewers and cause jealousy (and perhaps rage).
- Never wear boots, never show your arms, NEVER wear pink.
The fashion rules for male attorneys were not as far-ranging and did not require men to consider their (sexualized) bodies, their body art, their emotions, or the bodies, body art, and emotions of other men.
- Wear a suit. No questions.
- Get your suit tailored. There is nothing worse than pants or jackets that are too long/short.
- Polish your shoes
- Microsuede is never okay
- If you're wearing a dark suit, don't wear a dark shirt. Pick a nice tie. Your shirt and tie shouldn't compete, they should compliment [sic].
Minh-Ha's written about the ideological operations of "professional" sartorial advice before, specifically in relation to academia. The similarities between the style guidance offered by the members of the Chicago Bar Association and "Ms. Mentor" (academia's answer to Dear Abby) reflects the expanding corporatization of universities. Ms. Mentor's advice that academic women wear "geeky glasses and frumpy clothes to appear older and more serious" is in line with the Chicago Bar Association's implicit point that professional authority can only be approximated by women who dress in ways that play down their "distracting" femininity. The style rules endorsed by the Chicago Bar Association and Ms. Mentor (who's authorized by the Chronicle of Higher Education) recall 1980s' ideologies of "power-dressing" which demanded that career women maintain their femininity (skirts and pantyhose) at the same time that they contain their sexuality (frumpy jackets that concealed breasts). Joanne Entwistle rightly points out that the sartorial imperatives for career women "[imply] that sexual harassment is something that women can have some control over if they dress appropriately." To read Minh-Ha's original post on this topic, click here.
The most obvious problem with the professionalizing tutorial is the direct activity of disciplining "unprofessional" bodies and subjects via vectors of normality and deviance. Especially in those tutorials that feature a "representative" body to demonstrate both norms and deviations from it –such as the Chicago Bar Association's event– we see how the body is disciplined via ideas about fitness (with particular regard to the popular equation of fatness with sloth), morality (the aforementioned slut-shaming of tattooed women), class (the suit bought at the mall reveals a poverty in both economic terms but also as the absence of "drive"), and capacity (in which the failure to "look" professional becomes an indictment of a person's capacity to "be" professional, with all the evaluations of skills or aptitude this entails), which intersect with the usual suspects — vectors of class, race, gender, able-bodiedness, and sexuality, among them.
As we see from the Chicago Bar Association's advice, "self-expression" is closely policed as undisciplined and self-indulgent. Professionalizing tutorials thus offer tactics for mediating self-expression. (Of course, as Mimi asks elsewhere, before we champion something as tangled as the concept of "self-expression," perhaps we should query: "For whom is 'self-expression' through clothes or style difficult, unavailable, or even undesirable?") Yet we are meant to believe that by incorporating these style rules we actually reveal our "true" professional selves – not only to ourselves but to our potential employers who may now see us for the truly attractive workers we are. So in a twist of makeover logic, our chosen "flamboyant" and "eccentric" clothes are understood as hiding or distracting from our true professional self which is, let's face it, the more "valuable" self from the perspective of employers and colleagues.
Thus in most "professional style" tutorials, self-expression is a subtly, sometimes overtly, policed practice of mirroring back a preapproved and unthreatening self. Most notorious are those institutional and informal efforts to discipline black women's hair via race discourses that consign non-straightened hair to the realm of unruliness, gender disorder, political radicalism, even uncontrollable sexuality. But also troubling are the implications for those who are gender non-normative, and whose presentation is subjected to microtechnologies of sartorial-corporeal policing. (See Mimi's post that begins with Krista Benson's discomfort with professional style blogs that assume a cisgendered feminine presentation.) For instance, "How to Be a Business Butch" (from the wonderful blog How to Be Butch) is not a tutorial at all, but a reflection upon the genre. In this piece, the anonymous author navigates some of the grammars through which others regulate us, and we learn to regulate ourselves. Especially for persons who might stray from a norm, details really are everything.
By non-challenging, I mean that I accept that for many people, butch women are threatening. And I've already got butch happening in the basic fabric of who I am. I think butch runs through my personality and the way I speak, not just the clothes I put on. And in addition to that, my body is butch. I'll probably write a more in depth article regarding what I mean by that statement, but for now, let me just say that I believe that I look butch. My hair is short, my shoulders are broad, and my arms look like piledrivers (well, I'm exaggerating.). But I'm definitely a solid looking woman. So I feel the need to mute my natural presence and energy by not wearing overtly masculine clothes to work.
Business casual for men and women is not that different; at least, not in the way that an average layperson would notice. It's just collared shirts and slacks, right? For me, it's the details that kill. In the morning I get up, throw a purse over my shoulder and walk out the door wearing pumps. I think you understand how that is particularly detrimental to someone who identifies as butch.
I compromise with myself by avoiding some things. I never wear skirts or make-up (I dread that in this meeting tomorrow they will say there is no excuse to not wear make-up everyday. I'm not going to spend $50 on that crap.), and I put my purse in a gym bag that I carry to work every day. I wear men's deodorant. I also let casual Fridays be something of a "free day", usually putting on my motorcycle boots – I love my motorcycle boots, you might have noticed – and trying to wear a collared shirt. But I would never bind or comb my hair back with a side part, like I normally do on the weekends. I know that many people would say "Go for it!" and "Be who you are – never compromise!" – and many people have said these things to me, but this is the way that I work, and this works for me.
Explicit in the professionalizing tutorial is the not-so-gentle imperative to follow directions; to do otherwise is to fail to "optimize" one's professional self as a desirable laborer. And we know that failure to follow such directions or to make such compromises does have real-world consequences for access to rights and resources. We are not arguing against professionalizing or tutorials that offer a "how to;" indeed, we understand that these are survival strategies in a neoliberal age that holds out the expectation that each of us be "entrepreneurs of ourselves." We only observe here that the tutorial can become one symptom of the violence of normalization, when your life may very well depend on your labor –and it is work– to look like a professional. Such sartorial-corporeal labor is both expected to be invisible and at the same time subject to continuous surveillance; and compensation for such labor (employment or promotion, for instance) is more partial and provisional for some than others.


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Graffiti Safety FirstPosted: April 5, 2011 Filed under: lesson plan | Tags: advertisement, art, chunks, images, reading, road safety, speaking, vocabulary, YouTube 1 Comment
This video sequence, which rapidly went viral, is a brilliantly conceived idea with a strong emotional impact. It's perfect for eliciting language – both to describe what's happening and how it makes us feel. It was part of a road safety campaign which also involved graffiti artists, so this lesson plan uses both topics and combines art, article and advert.
Graffiti Safety First Teacher's notes

subset: commoncrawl


text: I am installing a Sirius system in a new car and my wife doesn't want the antenna to show.. I ordered a mini- 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inch Sirius / XM antenna off the INET Auction. The antenna is just the size I wanted, BUT.. the signal strength from it only registers 3 bars whereas the signal strength on the 2 1/4 inch round antenna that came with the Sportster 4 is max... Measurements taken on same receiver with identical antenna location. The smaller antenna says Delphi XM on it but the seller told me it was the same as Sirius and would work the same.. It doesn't.. Is it the smaller size that is causing the reduced signal strength or is it the fact that it is made for XM and I have been sold something that won't work as it should when connected to a Sirius Radio?


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In the end there were 38 children dead at the school, two teachers and four other adults.
I'm not talking about the horrific shooting in Connecticut today. I'm talking about the worst school murder in American history. It took place in Michigan, in 1927. A school board official, enraged at a tax increase to fund school construction, quietly planted explosives in Bath Township Elementary. Then, the day he was finally ready, he set off an inferno. When crowds rushed in to rescue the children, he drove up his shrapnel-filled car and detonated it, too, killing more people, including himself. And then, something we'd find very strange happened.
No cameras were placed at the front of schools. No school guards started making visitors show identification. No Zero Tolerance laws were passed, nor were background checks required of PTA volunteers—all precautions that many American schools instituted in the wake of the Columbine shootings, in 1999. Americans in 1928—and for the next several generations —continued to send their kids to school without any of these measures. They didn't even drive them there. How did they maintain the kind of confidence my own knees and heart don't feel as I write this?
They had a distance that has disappeared. A distance that helped them keep the rarity and unpredictability of the tragedy in perspective, granting them parental peace.
"In 1928, the odds are that if people in this country read about this tragedy, they read it several days later, in place that was hard to get to," explains Art Markman, author of "Smart Thinking" (Perigee Books, 2012). "You couldn't hop on a plane and be there in an hour. Michigan? If you were living in South Carolina, it would be a three-day drive. It's almost another country. You'd think, 'Those crazy people in Michigan,' same as if a school blows up in one of the breakaway Republics."
Time and space create distance. But today, those have compressed to zero. The Connecticut shooting comes into our homes–even our hands–instantly, no matter where we live. We see the shattered parents in real time. The President can barely maintain composure. This sorrow isn't far away, it's local for every single one of us.
And of course it brings up Columbine. Two horrors, separated by years and miles, are now fused into one. It feels like terrible things are happening to our children all the time, everywhere. Nowhere is safe.
As a result, I expect we will now demand precautions on top of precautions. More guards. More security cameras. More supervision. We will fear more for our kids and let go of them even more reluctantly. Every time we wonder if they can be safe beyond our arms, these shootings will swim into focus.
Will this new layer of fear and security make our children any safer? Probably not, but for a reassuring reason: A tragedy like this is so rare, our kids are already safe. Not perfectly safe. No one ever is. But safe.
That's a truth the folks in 1928 America understood. We just don't feel that way now.
Not when there's no distance between us and the parents in Newtown.


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Aaron Sorkin Says His Steve Jobs Movie Won't Be What You Expect
"Jobs" screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was tight-lipped about Sony's upcoming Steve Jobs film Monday night during a discussion we attended at the Tribeca Film Festival — but he did give a few hints as to what audiences can expect.
First of all, "it's not a biopic," as we had previously been told.
Sorkin explained, "It's not the story of Steve Jobs — it's something much different than that."
"He's a fascinating guy — part hero, part antihero," Sorkin says of the former Apple CEO. "I don't want to say that much tonight. I don't want to make any news or make anyone feel like I approached the movie in a different way. I'm going to make the movie speak for itself. But he's a fascinating guy surrounded by fascinating people, and he had very interesting relationships with the people in his life."
Sorkin, who has finished the script (based on Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography) and handed it into Sony, added that the Jobs movie is the seventh film he's written, but "It's one of the few times I've written what I set out to write."
He added, "It will be up to the audience whether it's good or not." Sorkin says the film will start shooting in the fall.
Just before Monday night's discussion with Sorkin began, news broke that Sony is wooing Leonardo DiCaprio to star as Jobs in the film, with "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle possibly attached to direct. The duo previously worked together on 2000's "The Beach."
"The Social Network" director David Fincher was previously reported to be directing, but that deal allegedly fell apart after Fincher demanded $10 million upfront and control over how the movie would be marketed.
Christian Bale was Fincher's top pick to play Jobs, but the previously rumored casting sounds like a no-go now that Fincher is out — leaving an open spot for "The Wolf of Wall Street" actor.
See Also:
- 9 Movies We Can't Wait To See At The Tribeca Film Festival
- How A Schoolyard Bully Helped Andrew Garfield Become Spider-Man
- David Fincher Won't Direct Steve Jobs Movie After Alleged $10 Million Demand
SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio Could Star In The Next Steve Jobs Movie
SEE ALSO: David Fincher Won't Direct Steve Jobs Movie After Alleged $10 Million Demand


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TOULOUSE, France >> Little has been expected of the United States ahead of its tournament debut at the upcoming rugby league World Cup.
After a remarkable victory in their only warm-up match, however, they could be ready to surprise some people.
The USA Tomahawks pulled off a surprise 22-18 win over fourth-ranked France in Toulouse on Friday, for one of the country's best results.
"This is a real shot in the arm for USA rugby league," U.S. coach Terry Matterson said. "We have traveled far and wide to get here."
The Tomahawks, who will play Wales, the Cook Islands and Scotland in group matches at the World Cup starting Oct. 26 in England and Wales, have players in its 24-man squad that have experience in Australia's NRL and Europe's Super League so will not be the pushovers some had expected.
"I just want the guys to play to the best of their ability in the three World Cup games and if they do that we have a chance at winning each," Matterson added.
The victory in the south of France was even more surprising given the team's build-up to the match.
They only held their first World Cup training session the day before the match. In the week leading up to playing France, the players spent 39 hours travelling in planes, trains, buses and cabs.
Meanwhile, Matterson, an Australian who is an assistant coach at NRL side North Queensland Cowboys, was only appointed to his role 13 days ago after Matthew Elliott and Brian Smith stepped down.
Four key players — Eddy Pettybourne, Ryan McGoldrick, Clint Newton and Joel Luani — were also missing.
However, Mike Garvey, David Marando, Matt Shipway and Kristian Freed scored tries for the 12th-ranked Tomahawks, who held on in the closing stages despite being reduced to 12 players after a yellow card.
"At the end of the day this was a friendly and it served its purpose but it will give us a lot of confidence," Matterson said.
The Tomahawks' first World Cup group match is against the Cook Islands on Oct. 30.


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SYNOPSIS: Newest cult favorite from famed director Herschell Gordon Lewis, known for BloodFeast 1 & 2, 2000 Maniacs, Wizard of Gore, and The Gore Gore Girls. Cameo by Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger, Poultrygeist). Includes behind the scenes featurette. Jill Burton is a reporter who's dead set on getting the scoop behind The Uh-Oh! Show, the gory TV …Read More »
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Manasquan Government Tourism Office
Things to do in Manasquan, NJ
Manasquan, New Jersey, is a great place to visit for various activities and attractions. Manasquan offers something for everyone, whether you are looking for outdoor recreation, cultural experiences or fun in the sun. From its beautiful beaches and boardwalk to its historical sites and unique restaurants, there are plenty of things to do in Manasquan.
Tripadvisor provides a comprehensive list listing the top attractions in Manasquan, based on reviews from travelers. Information about popular activities like fishing charters, kayaking tours and boat rentals can be found on Tripadvisor. There are also plenty of opportunities to explore the area's history with museums and monuments dedicated to local heroes and historical figures. For those who prefer a more relaxed experience, there are plenty of parks and gardens to explore and shopping districts filled with unique boutiques and stores. No matter what type of experience you're looking for, Manasquan has something that will make your trip unforgettable.
Business Name:
Manasquan Government Tourism Office
201 East Main StreetManasquan New Jersey New Jersey 08736United States
About Manasquan
Manasquan (, man-ə-SKWAHN) is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,938, an increase of 41 (+.7%) from the 2010 census count of 5,897, which in turn reflected a decline of 413 (−6.5%) from the 6,310 counted at the 2000 Census.The borough's name is of Lenape Native American origin, deriving from "Mënàskunk" meaning "Place to Gather Grass or Reeds". Manasquan, Maniquan, Mannisquan, Manasquam, Squan, and Squan Village are variations on the original pronunciation and spelling. The borough's name has also been described as deriving from "Man-A-Squaw-Han" meaning "stream of the island of squaws", "an island with enclosure for squans", "island door" or "point" / "top". Manasquan, Maniquan, Mannisquan, Manasquam, Squan, and Squan Village are variations on the original pronunciation and spelling.
Neighborhoods in Manasquan, New Jersey
A's Home Center Inc, ACE Hardware, Ahern Printing, Algers Mills, Algonquin Arts Theatre, Allaire, Allenwood, Arrowhead Village, Atlantic Manor Apartments, Avon, Bay Head, Bradley Park, Brielle, Catherine Weise, Realtor @ Coldwell Banker Realty, Diane Turton, Realtors Wall/Manasquan
Things to do in Manasquan, New Jersey
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Ringing in the New Year ● Palm Springs style
Better late then never!
I previously posted a few photos of the persimmon liqueur I was making at the end of last year. Well, life got in the way of me getting to this specific post, but we did in fact create a New Years Eve cocktail with the persimmon liqueur that was totally inspired by Palm Springs. After spending a mellow Christmas holiday here in Venice we loaded up the car and hit the road for the desert. We checked into the Ace Hotel & Swim Club as per usual, jumped in the pool and then whipped up a little sparkling sunset treat on our patio. It seemed to fit in perfectly in there… it must have been that delicious peachy tone. (see recipe below)
The Sparkling 111
Champagne or Prosecco chilled
Pour about 1 Tablespoon of Persimmon Liqueur into each glass, then fill with Champagne or Prosecco. Serve immediately and repeat when necessary.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Is VMware too close to Linux?
Superstar's legal status questioned
Maybe you've heard of VMware. You know, EMC's baby, huge IPO, Bloomberg called it the hottest tech stock since Google in 2004, drove a member of our staff mad?
Virtualization has clearly become an industry darling, and VMware controls 55 per cent of that market. This kind of monster success tends to paint a big ol' target on a company — and a volley of the slings and arrows that accompany outrageous fortune are already on the way.
Writing on his blog VentureCake, Linux specialist Mike MacCana thinks he might have found a bit of rust on VMware's shining armor. He claims that VMware's ESX server is derived from Linux, and therefore is not legally re-distributable as proprietary software.
McCana's third degree covers the quasi operating system - or rather kernel - behind VMware's flagship ESX Server package.
A kernel is like the nervous system of an OS. It manages the system's resources (such as memory, the CPU, etc,) that an application needs in order to run. VMware uses two kernels that run directly on the hardware; the vmkernel and vmkmod - a Linux kernel.
Because a computer can only run one kernel at a time, the job of VMware's Linux kernel is pretty basic. It's only purpose is to boot the vmkernel. The only way to load vmkernel is through vmkmod, and vmkernel requires Linux — which essentially means that when ESX Server boots, Linux is its kernel. Herein lies the problem.
From VentureCake:
Proprietary drivers for Linux kernel have an interesting licensing situation. Unlike the license for higher level libraries, which allow those libraries to be used by both Open Source and proprietary software, the license for the Linux kernel specifies that software based on the Linux kernel must be licensed under the same license.
If a kernel relies on Linux, it must be open source. The only way such a kernel wouldn't be considered a derivative of Linux and could remain proprietary is if it didn't require Linux to load. MacCana claims this isn't the case with VMware.
VMware, thus far, has remained silent about the issue. Quite surprising, considering the implications and how much money is now involved.
One example of the issue being raised is a post to the Linux kernel mailing list from Linux SCSI storage maintainer, Christopher Helwig. Here, he responds to a post from VMware's Zachary Amsden in August 2006:
Until you stop violating our copyrights with the VMWare ESX support nothing is going to be supported. So could you please stop abusing the Linux code illegally in your projects so I don't have to sue you, or at least piss off and don't expect us to support you in violating our copyrights. I know this isn't your fault, but please get the VMware/EMC legal department to fix it up first.
The post received no reply from Amsden.
So could the issue presented by MacCana blow up in VMware's face? Analyst for Illuminata, Gordon Haff said he'd be "very surprised" if there was a real issue here.
"It's hardly been a secret that VMware has based the console for ESX server (but not the actual hypervisor/VMM) on Linux," wrote Haff in an email. "To be sure, VMware hasn't exactly gone out of its way to play in the Open Source world, and to thoroughly explain exactly how it uses Linux. But it's no secret and therefore, it's really hard to believe that a company of VMware's visibility could be blatantly violating the GPL, and it would never have occurred to anyone to raise the issue until now."
Haff continues that legal issues aside, it would be at least manifestly unfair for such an issue to be realized at this late date when it's been sitting in more-or-less plain sight for years.
Analyst firm Endpoint Technologies president, Roger Kay says that regardless of its merits, the accusation is a result of VMware's success — and the company will doubtlessly continue to draw all sorts of fire.
At the time of this writing, VMware representatives have not responded to our queries. ®


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Having spent enough time hanging out in the jungle with scheming sociopaths, "Survivor's" Jeff Probst turns to a more positive endeavor with "Live for the Moment," a special (and backdoor series candidate) that works so hard at being inspirational it's tempting to throw used hankies at the screen. Playing like an adult version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the maiden hour focuses on a 41-year-old father of two with Lou Gehrig's disease, treating him to a spectacular week of adventures to demonstrate how precious life is. Although brimming with good intentions, it's a bit like "Queen for a Day" on steroids.
Roger Childs, who was diagnosed with ALS at 38, becomes the program's de facto royalty. A long-time space enthusiast, he gets to visit NASA with his kids, fly in a military jet and reconnect with an old buddy on a lavish ski trip to Telluride.
He seems like a lovely enough guy, so it's terrific that he's getting to do all this. But Probst (who keeps popping up, almost like Rod Serling, to share in the joy) presses him and those around him to find and articulate a larger message in these moments, teaching us all how we should cherish life today.
That's all well and good, I suppose, though Roger's prognosis does alter one's perspective, and all the "This Is Your Life" testimonials from friends and family are just a little too determined to make us cry.
Mostly, the project feels like a chance for Probst to display a softer side (he developed the concept), built around movie cliches of the "Seize the day," "Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'?" variety. (In success, future installments wouldn't necessarily focus on terminal patients, according to CBS, though the criteria sounds a trifle fuzzy.)
Probst's heart certainly appears to be in the right place. Still, in terms of surviving in the rough-and-tumble of reality TV, he ought to be the last guy who needs to be told it's a jungle out there.


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BIS encourages the submission of Voluntary Self Disclosures (VSDs) by parties who believe they may have violated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). VSDs are an excellent indicator of a party's intent to comply with U.S. export control requirements and may provide BIS important information on other ongoing violations. BIS carefully reviews VSDs received from disclosing parties to determine if violations of the EAR have occurred and to determine the appropriate corrective action when violations have taken place. Additional information regarding VSDs can be found in Part 764.5 of the EAR, or the enforcement section of our website www.bis.doc.gov.
Pursuant to Part 764.5 of the EAR, one copy of the information constituting a VSD or any other correspondence pertaining to a VSD may be submitted to:
Director, Office of Export Enforcement
1401 Constitution Ave.
Room H4514
Washington, DC 20230
Tel: (202) 482-5036
Facsimile: (202) 482-5889


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Note: For the 32 days between February 1st and March 4th, I'm adopting a completely vegan lifestyle. Every weekday I'll be updating my progress with a brand new recipe. For past posts, check here!
The Vegan Experience this time 'round has been far easier than it was the first time. I don't get hungry, I haven't been at a loss for what to eat, my fridge is bursting with more fresh vegetables and beans than I know what to do with,* and I've had pretty much zero cravings for non-vegan food.
*my dogs have a pretty good idea of what they want me to be doing with it, and Hambone has enjoyed a ball of falafel or two recently.
Strike that. I have had one major craving. It strikes several times a day as I walk down the streets of New York, its unmistakable aroma wafting out the windows of nearly every corner shop. That elusive combination of crisp, golden-brown bread and Italian herbs. If one food is going to do me in, it's pizza. I grew up eating it; I'll probably die eating it. Heck, I even write an entire monthly column about how to make it at home.
Last year, I came up with a little diagram that I used to chart my cravings. It looked something like this:
My graph this year would look a little different. I don't have intense bacon or Spotted Pig Hamburger cravings anymore (those mostly died out by the end of last year's Vegan Experience and have largely not come back); I have now replaced my regular mapo tofu with a 100% vegan mapo tofu recipe that's better than the real thing; and I can totally do without milk. Indefinitely.
But pizza. My first true love. Light of my life and fire of my loins. It will forever rest in that OMG WANT corner.
Fortunately, as I discussed last year, great pizza is not off-limits to vegans by any means. You just have to realize that great pizza does not require cheese.
To some folks, I know that sounds downright sacrilegious. Pizza without cheese?!? Isn't pizza defined by cheese? Well, I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help to you, so you can turn around right now and walk out the door. And make sure you take that icky Daiya stuff with you.
But the truth is, good pizza is really about good crust and well-balanced toppings, which needn't include cheese. Indeed, many classic pies—the Marinara of Naples, which combines tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and oregano, is one of the most ancient pizzas in existence. Head over to Rome and you'll find pizza bianca, formed into 6-foot long rectangles, dimpled with crevices to catch olive oil and rosemary, and sprinkled with coarse sea salt. No sauce, no cheese, niente, but one of the most delicious things I've ever put in my mouth.
Every pizzeria in New Haven, famed for its coal-fired apizza (the local vernacular for pizza), and perhaps the highest ranking great-pizza-per-capita city in the country, offers 100% vegan tomato pies as their base. In fact, you have to ask to add cheese to it. In New York, Paulie Gee's out in Greenpoint is one of the finest pizzerias in the city, and features a full six pies on their vegan pizza menu. None of them resort to faux cheese to get there.
What do all of these vastly differing, but all 100% vegan, pizzas have in common? Great crust, high-quality ingredients, and balanced flavors.
And if they can do it, we can certainly do it at home, right?
Topping Shopping
I have a number of good pizza dough recipes, but I've recently been loving the incredible ease and foolproofness of my Foolproof Pan Pizza dough, as well as my Basic Square Pan Pizza Dough. Both of them are vegan, require very little effort, and basically spread themselves into the pan; no rolling, tossing, or stretching required.
This leaves plenty of time to focus on toppings. Last year, I wrote a brief manifesto on the subject and called it A Pizza Snob's Approach To Toppings. While veganism may have lowered my cholesterol and increased my moral fiber, it has had just about zero effect on my pizza-topping-snobbishness, so the basic tenet at the core of my approach still applies. Which is:
"Whatever is added to my pizza must be more flavorful than the last thing I put on it, and no single topping shall be so strongly flavored that it masks the flavor of those that come before it."
Now, with a tomato- and cheese-topped pizza, this statement severely limits your choice of toppings. The most common cheese pizza toppings are highly flavorful things like cured meats (think: pepperoni, sausage, anchovies, or bacon) or highly flavorful vegetables (think: olives, pickled peppers, onions). They have to be, in order to compete with creamy, fatty cheese and brightly acidic tomatoes.
Take that cheese and sauce out of the picture, and you've opened yourself up to a whole new world of more delicate, subtle, but still delicious, topping alternatives. Here are a few of my favorites.
Zucchini, Squash, Red Onions, and Pistachios
Considering that a poor summer squash-topped pizza was what prompted my original toppings manifesto, it's ironic that one of my favorite vegan pies is made with that same vegetable. The difference? Mine doesn't include cheese or pesto—two ingredients that completely drown out any chance that the squash has of asserting itself.
In this pie, the layered zucchini and squash are cooked long enough that they lose most of their moisture, either to the dough underneath or to the air of the oven. The dough ends up delightfully chewy, while the slices brown a bit around the edges, adding both flavor and texture to the mix.
To the top, I add sliced red onions and a pinch of thyme leaves. As with the potato pie, the red onion slices caramelize intensely, to the point that they're almost crisp, but don't taste burnt. Finally, after the pie comes out of the oven, I sprinkle on some pistachios. The red onion-pistachio combo is one I ganked from Chris Bianco at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. It's a really great combo.
Sun Dried Tomatoes, Olives, Caramelized Onions, and Breadcrumbs
Having recently gotten back from a trip to Sicily with my wife, I've been playing around with a lot of those regional flavors—intense olives and olive oil-drenched vegetables; sweet, salty, and briny. I already have a recipe for Sfincione, the original Sicilian pizza eaten around New Years, which is made with tomatoes, caramelized onions, anchovies, caciocavallo cheese, and breadcrumbs. That recipe inspired this one, which is a variation on the theme.
It starts out pretty similar, with a layer of crushed tomatoes and richly caramelized onions for sweetness. Rather than anchovies and caciocavallo, I used a mix of chopped olives and sun-dried tomatoes, adding that briny, rich element to the pie.
The whole thing gets topped with breadcrumbs tossed with olive oil (use panko for some extra crunch, though make sure they're a vegan brand—some are made with honey).
What emerges from the oven less than half an hour later is this beaut:
Ain't she purty? That basil is entirely optional, but I happen to have an over-abundant basil plant in my living room. I generally find high productivity to be a good trait in the flora and fauna I choose to enter relations with, but this thing is just ridiculous.


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A real-time chronicle of a seasoned professor embarking on his first massively open online course.
A few days ago, I went into our campus TV studio with the two course assistants for my upcoming MOOC, to record a short video introducing them to the students. The students will see a lot of me, but my two TAs will be working behind the scenes, and the students will encounter them only through their contributions to the forum discussions. The videos were intended to compensate for that lack of human contact.
During the course of recording that video, the three of us got into a discussion about our backgrounds, our motives in giving the MOOC, and our views on mathematics, science, education, and our expectations for the MOOC format. The camera was rolling all the time, and we were able to select a few parts of that discussion and create a second video that I think will help our students understand some of our thinking in putting this course together. I posted copies of both videos on YouTube. (They are much lower resolution than the videos the registered students will see on the course website when it goes live on September 17 — the "first day of classes".) I think the two videos provide an insight into our thinking as we designed this course.
The fact that the current round of MOOCs have a "first day of class" at all has been a matter of some debate. The C in MOOC stands for "course", but is this the best way to go? For example, see this blogpost from a graduate student at Berkeley, who argues for a more open framework of learning resources. He makes some good points that all of us involved in this initiative have thought about and discussed, but I'm not sure the kind of thing he advocates can work for disciplines and subjects that depend heavily on student-faculty and student-student interaction, as mine does.
In fact, I'm not sure the MOOC will work sufficiently well at all in such cases; this is very much an experiment that I anticipate will continue for several years before we get good answers either way. For the first iteration, it makes sense to start with a model we know does work. And important (we think!) elements of that model are, to repeat Sebastian Thrun's list, as quoted in the Berkeley student's blog: admissions, lectures, peer interaction, professor interaction, problem-solving, assignments, exams, deadlines, and certification. To use the mnemonic I coined earlier in this series, our basic design principle is WYSIWOSG: What You See Is What Our Students Get.
Since these courses are free, we can, of course, do a lot of A/B testing in future years, to see which of these truly are crucial, which can be changed and how, and which can be dropped. I suspect the answers we get will vary from discipline to discipline, and possibly from course to course.
All of us involved in this MOOC movement are trying to find out the best way that works for our particular discipline and is consistent with our own style as instructors. As I indicated in Part 4 of this diary, I think it makes sense to begin by trying to implement in a MOOC as much of our tried-and-trusted classroom-based teaching as we can (as Thrun did with Udacity), and then iterating in the light of what we learn.
This is why, instead of hiring a mathematics graduate student to TA my course, which is what I would have done for an on campus class, I brought onto my team two graduate students from Stanford's School of Education with several years of experience in learning design and the use of technology in education. In addition to helping me with the design and running of the course, they will conduct research into the course's efficacy and try to understand how learning occurs in a MOOC. (Other than a brief, non-compulsory questionnaire at the start and finish of the course, all their research will be based on data gathered on the Coursera course platform and human monitoring of the forum discussions. One huge benefit of MOOCs is that they facilitate Big Data research.)
It's live beta, folks.
To be continued …


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Episode #15 is live!
In this week's episode Jon and Dirk discuss two of their favorite tactical combat games: Relic's Company of Heroes, and Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Our hosts discuss what these games did well, poorly and what changes they would make to them.
We've been meaning to do an episode dedicated to these games for a while now, so it was great to finally chat about them. I'm very excited for the impending release of Company of Heroes 2 – although thanks to ATG I may not have much time to play it!
– Jon


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'Ruth Gordon' tag.
The other day I did an entry based on my visit to stopbigmedia.com. I will not rehash all the drama, you can read it here if you want.
It leaves me sad to think about all that stuff….then tired from fighting the propaganda and advertising shoved down my throat while I watch TV, ride the train, walk the streets, listen to music, surf the web. I hear all the people telling me to then just turn it off, but do I really want to disconnect? How then can I fight the good fight to save myself and those who are still plugged in, which is the majority of people in the world? Plus, I am a super nerd and like following the evolution of technology.
Look, I'm not here to save all the unplugged people in the world. These 3 people can take care of themselves. I am here to help people like me who are excited for Season 3 of Workout, can't get enough of Sandra Rinomato of the fantastical show Property Virgins. :D Someone who likes to sing a catchy jingle every now and again, and who has to get places in this supersaturated, advertising conglomerate called America. That is who I write for.
I was fighting with someone earlier in the day who was trying to get me to see the positive in something that was just super annoying and at that moment positivity was the last thing I was searching for, so just to be a jerk I started surfing the web for obnoxious positive quotes and "you-can-do-it", "you-are-good-enough" crap to include in every exchange we had in this "debate". Then a strange thing started to happen, as I read all these quotes and positive news, etc., I started to get in a better mood and feel more…positive.
For some it might be hard getting through the granola-ness of it all, my anger and desire to be annoying is what initially pushed me through it and then the good feeling I got kept me going…not bad.
Here is some of the positive sites I found for when you want to take a break from all the negative stuff surrounding you, but are too lazy to take yoga. ;)
- Mr. Positive has a blog! All good news, all the time! "Mr. Positive" David R. Boufford is the Founder of PNN-Positive News Network, Inc. and also a business coach and consultant.
- Then there is Positive News International, which has a US version as well. Positive News (PN) is a free, not for profit newspaper published four times a year. They report news from around the world in the areas of sustainability, social equality, education and happiness with a clear message that "another world is possible."
- A blog, Only Positive News, who quotes the awesome Maya Angelou, "If you don't like something change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." That's positive!!! Their mission is to "remind you of all that is great in our world!" OK, sounds good.
- Lastly I was going to list some positive quotes sites I went to, but they all have so many banner ads an pop-ups I am afraid it will bring you down. Instead, I will list some positive and/or inspirational quotes I really like and you can come back to The Day After whenever you need a little bit of love!!!"
"Hope is the dream of a soul awake." —French Proverb
"Leap and the net will appear." —Julia Cameron
"I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare; My business is to create." —William Blake
"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." —Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." —Isaac Asimov
"Never give up and never face the facts." —Ruth Gordon
"What we need is to use what we have." —Susan Sontag
"I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way…I can't apologize for that, nor can I change it, nor do I want to… We will never have to be other than who we are in order to be successful…We realize that we are as ourselves unlimited and our experiences valid. It is for the rest of the world to recognize this, if they choose." —Alice Walker, Democracy Now Feb. 13, 2006
Alright, I think that covers a vast amount of positivity. I am going to stop while I am ahead.
Keep it real.
The world's exploding human population, combined with its sagging ability to feed itself, appear to be on a collision course. The Green Revolution, which facilitated much of the recent growth, has clearly stalled out. Indeed, cereal availability per capita has been declining since 1984, and the "promise" of biotech is far from certain or free of risk. Today, 70 percent of grain in the U.S. and 43 percent of grain worldwide lavishly go to feed livestock. And just as the world clamors for more grain to feed to animals, so people can eat them, per-capita world cropland declined by 20 percent in the 1990s alone. The World Health Organization says 800 million people in the world live with chronic hunger. More meat production is definitely not the answer.


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Birchwood Neighborhood was developed in the 1920's with small bungalows and large yards - up to an acre. Birchwood Victory Gardeners can help to increase our local food supply.
Location: Bellingham, Washington
Members: 33
Latest Activity: Mar 26, 2018
Started by David MacLeod Aug 27, 2013. 0 Replies 0 Likes
Hello All,In response to feedback regarding Bellingham Airport Expansion from our neighborhood events, the Birchwood Neighborhood Association is co-hosting a Town Hall Meeting with Columbia…Continue
Started by Bryan Krueger Aug 26, 2013. 0 Replies 0 Likes
Hi Whatcome Transitioners!We are a family of four, with two little girls (2 yo and 1 mo) and are currently in Spokane. We are heading to resettle in the "better half" of the state ;) very soon and…Continue
Started by David MacLeod. Last reply by David MacLeod Apr 3, 2013. 2 Replies 0 Likes
For your info, here below are some notes from the most recent Birchwood Neighborhood Assoc. meeting, where one item on the agenda was Squalicum Park. I have been the recipient of some emails on this…Continue
Started by David MacLeod Apr 16, 2012. 0 Replies 0 Likes
Birchwood Neighborhood Watershed Walk – May 12 at 10am Are you curious about where the water in your neighborhood flows? Are you motivated to reduce pollution in your local waterways? Did you know…Continue
From: "Barker, April" <email@example.com>
To: "Schlotterback, Rebecca" <email@example.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:13:48 AM
Subject: Work Party NW corner Mcleod and W. Maplewood (for BNA Email list)
Work Party at McLeod Park Tuesday, July 1st, from 6 to 8 pm. Parks staff will bring in a double-load of shredded wood to put on the trail, so if we get enough folks we can finish that job, and who knows, maybe start on something else. Let's make another good showing of support, and have some fun (no blackberries this time).
Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop, March 9, 2014 at 10:00am.
Travis Dickson, formerly with Bakerview Nursery, and now Raindance Landscaping will lead this hands on fruit tree pruning workshop in the orchard of David and Angela MacLeod, in the Birchwood neighborhood.
$5 to $10 suggested donation per person and all the money goes to Transition Whatcom. That's a good cause to prune for. No one turned away for lack of funds - donation is optional. Bring your own tools. Bring a potluck item if you want to participate in a meal after the workshop, or you can head right out afterward to the Great Grafting Gathering at Inspiration Farm.
Please note: Daylight Savings Time begins this day - please remember to set your clocks one hour ahead!
Please call to register, so we can properly plan: 733-3541.
Sponsored by Transition Whatcom
I am building a house at 2930 Birchwood that may be of interest to many of you in the neighborhood. This goal of this house is to be net zero water rainwater catchment, composting toilets and greywater recycling and net zero energy through net metering (panels to come in a year or two).
We are working with Sustainable Connections to host a series of technical workshops on green building practices. Topics will include envelope design (controlling air and water movement), Rainwater Catchment for potable water, Greywater recycling and indoor green house treatment, composting toilets, permeable driveway and fire access, materials (both salvaged and new), and energy.
The first workshop is this wednesday and can be found here: http://sustainableconnections.org/events/building-envelope-by-prosoco
Please RSVP with Rose at sustainable connections and pass the word to anyone outside of the neighborhood that may be interested.
You can follow the progress of the Birch Case Study House on my business website and Facebook page. http://www.bundledesignstudio.com/
Happy Day.
Little Squalicum Creek Restoration Work Party
Time: September 14, 2013 from 9am to 12pm
Location: Bellingham Technical College
Street: 3028 Lindbergh Ave
City/Town: Bellingham
Website or Map: https://maps.google.com/maps?…
Phone: 360-733-8307
Event Type: creek, restoration
Organized By: Wendy Steffensen
Latest Activity: 1 second ago
Join us (RE Sources) in restoring, Little Squalicum Creek, one of our precious water resources. Help ensure its wetlands continue to provide high quality water and habitat for our community. We'll remove invasive weeds, mulch new seedlings, and meet new friends. Meet us at 9:00am in the "Lower Lot" of Bellingham Technical College, which has free parking. Follow work party signs to work site from trail beginning at the lower parking lot of Bellingham Technical College. Dress the weather of the day! Closed toed shoes are required for working with tools, long pants and long sleeves can be helpful to protect you from the more thorny invasive plants. Gloves, tools, and snacks will be provided. Please bring durable water bottles. For more information, contact Wendy Steffensen, email@example.com, or call (360) 733 8307.
Join/share this event on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/events/632847350081775/
Hi Joy
I tried to leave a message at your page but not sure if it got through....
I'll call you today to set up a time to meet.
Do you have a source of manure? I do. We got some last weekend. There's more where we got it. I'd also like to get more.
Welcome to Birchwood neighborhood...Would love to meet you and your garden weather and health permitting. Love the idea of sharing time in garden together and produce sharing. We always have an abundance of raspberries in the summer and yellow Shiro plums etc...647-8654
Hi Angela,
Yes! I would love do an exchange. We are on Firwood. Maybe we could meet for tea and tour each other's gardens. Our first project could be getting and dispersing manure together. (We were hoping to get it this weekend, but wound up with the cruddy cold that's going around. Lots of ginger tea is helping.) Since I am the resiliency "provider" weekdays are filled with work, so weekends are when I have the time. This Saturday, I'm teaching a bread class... 815-6434
Hi Joy,
I like your ideas. We live on Cherrywood. Actually we have plenty of winter squash so don't need any. Yes lets do some garden tours later. Anytime really.
I would also be interested in a friendly work exchange. I could come work with you at your place on what ever project you'd like some help on. And at another time You could come and work with me on a project I'd like help with. Equal time exchange. A big part of it being a chance to get to know each other.
I'm new to Transition Birchwood. I would love to meet others in the hood who are doing similar things and would like exchange ideas with others. Maybe there are others who'd like to swap produce... We have winter squash and great recipes. Anyone up for a tour of homes/gardens, perhaps this spring?
Hi Neighbors,
Our Birchwood Neighborhood Association meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 29th from 6:30-8:00pm. in the Shuksan Middle School cafeteria.
Join us for pizza and conversation.
Our agenda will include:
Lauren Currin, North Sound Baykeepers: presentation on a proposed neighborhood walking tour highlighting methods of managing polluted runoff.
HKP Architects: presentation on the firm's history and its work as Campus Architects on BTC's campus for the past 15 years.
Opportunities to serve on BNA Board are coming soon. We'll explain responsibilities, term limits and time commitment for Board members. An election will be held at the January 17th BNA meeting.
Portable toilet funding for Birchwood Park next year.
Questions and Answer Time with Jack: Our councilman, Jack Weiss, will share information and answer questions from the neighbors concerning City and neighborhood issues.
Hope to see you there.
© 2023 Created by David MacLeod. Powered by


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In the Eye of the Levi Johnston Media Hurricane
At this very moment, Levi Johnston is undressing for a Playgirl photo shoot. But last night he was at The Box accepting an award from Fleshbot while a scrum of reporters poked and probed the Wasilla boy for a story.
He did a remarkable job of not saying much. At 8:15 the party had barely begun at the downtown hotspot, known for its strict velvet rope and the racy performances on its main stage, the gregarious Tank Jones and his brother Marvin (in the role as Levi's trainer) were some of the first people to arrive. They installed the one-time human campaign prop at a table in the corner of the balcony so that several PR people could start the parade of press. The rest of the venue was practically empty, but everyone was clustered around Levi.
As the Observer's John Koblin interviewed Playgirl's spokesman Daniel Nardicio about the future of the magazine, the Levi interviews started. Everyone made way for a camera crew from Entertainment Tonight, which has exclusive access to Levi for all the behind-the-scenes action for the photo shoot that is taking place right now (if everything goes according to schedule). We didn't get close enough to hear what they asked during their ten minutes with Levi.
As they clear out, there were more print interviews to do. Michael Musto came by to say hi, but he interviewed Levi at his hotel earlier. I asked Musto if he was a good interview. He said yes, but agrees that it's hard to get him to say much. Jo Piazza from CNN came in and taped a few second with the Johnston crew. Before she started her interveiew, Tank said he's not answering questions about Sarah Palin or about suing for custody of Tripp, Levi's son with Palin's daughter Bristol. Then he flirted with her a little bit as she squeezed in next to Levi to ask her questions. Most of the questions were the same all night: How is this different from Alaska? What is he going to show? Is he ready for the shoot? Does he know that he's a gay icon? Will he do more porn? What does the future hold?
Levi always answers with the fewest words possible. This may make him appear a bit dim, but it seems a smart move for a guy who's standing around a bunch of people paid to turn any utterance he makes into "news." With the reporters gone, he quietly joked with Tank and Marvin.
When Piazza was done, he joked a bit with Nardicio, teaching him how to tuck a dollop of chew under his lip. "Don't you throw up on this table!" Tank chided. A PR person came by and said there were more interviews to be done. "I know. This isn't my first rodeo," Levi said. Another reporter sat down, this one from People. They knew to send a pretty girl.
When she left, the PR man told Tank that Page Six boss Richard Johnson wanted an introduction. Tank responded, "We're not talking to them. No pictures, nothing." The PR man conveyed the message to Johnson. "He just wants to say hi," Mr. PR pleaded with Tank. But Tank had made up his mind: No Levi for Johnson. "That's fine," said the Page Six editor before heading back downstairs. After he left, Tank complained about a Page Six item accusing Levi having a small dick and thus afraid to do any full-frontal shots: "That's not true!"
There was a break in the action and a PR girl brought by the trophy Levi will receive later in the evening: an 11-inch dildo made of silver. Everyone at the table laughed nervously and made jokes about how Levi isn't going to accept a dildo. Levi returned his trophy to the nice lady and said, "I can't believe I just won a giant silver dildo." He and Tank conferred and decide there can't be any pictures taken of him holding it, so they plan to have Nardicio take the stage with him and hold the award.
Then the photographers arrived. In groups of two, they came by the corner, their flashbulbs blinding in the dark club. Levi knew to look directly into the camera and then occasionally look away to blink. He didn't look like he was having any fun. When all that was over, he passed some time ogling the scantily-clad go-go dancers down below. Tank said, "Those are all real women right? I don't want to look if they're not real women." Another laugh. Nardicio tells them that they're all real women. I pointed out that there were definitely some drag queens in the mix. "That's OK, I didn't want those ones anyway," Levi responded. He told me that he hadn't had any time to go out and party while in New York City. "It's been all work. I'm all about business," he says. "But I like New York more each time I come here." What does he think about this event? "It's different," is all he'll say.
As the show starts, Gawker alum Joshua David Stein showed up asking questions for New York magazine. It was getting loud, the house was full. Tank informed him they'd do an interview later. Levi leaned over the balcony to watching the award ceremony on stage and performances by the likes of boy/boy/girl aerialist trio Mantryx. When the intermission came, the crew decided to go outside for some air.
Out on the sidewalk, it is a whole different scene. Dressed in identical tuxedos like they all went shopping at the same men's store earlier that evening, they moved as a unit. Flanked by two enormous black men, Levi wasn't easy to approach. That didn't stop the reporters. Kelefa Sanneh from the New Yorker came up received a stern lecture from Tank about not asking about Palin or custody. Sanneh started his round of questioning but was cut off by the arrival of two 20-something guys who made up TMZ's camera crew. They'd been tailing Levi and his crew ever since they arrived in New York and seemed almost like old friends. Sanneh backed off, to avoid getting captured by their camera. TMZ doesn't care about restrictions and they began asking about custody and Palin. Tank demurred. "Come on, you know better than that."
While Tank was distracted by dealing with the TMZ mess, Jacob Bernstein from The Daily Beast snuck up and peppered Levi with questions and scribbled furiously in his notebook. A male-female duo from Hollywood Life sidled up and began asking their own questions and with a Flip camera. After the questions, the Hollywood Life crew each took their picture with Levi. With Levi alone again, Sanneh came back for a second attempt at an interview. This time, though, he talked more to Tank that Levi. It's easy to go that direction, since Tank is a gregarious quote machine while Levi answers everything with about three words.
Levi was scheduled to accept his award as soon as the ceremony restarted after the intermission. The PR girl shadowing him told him and Nardicio to go hang out at Nick Denton's table so they'd be right next to the stage. but there isn't any room at the Gawker Media overlord's table. Levi headed instead for socialite Tinsley Mortimer's table where photographers eagerly snapped the unlikely pairing. Joshua David Stein returned for his promised interview, but Levi said he needs clear it with Tank. Stein rebutted that Tank had already cleared it, but Levi — who either didn't remember, didn't care, or simply wanted to protect himself — turned him down again, this time a little more firmly. Marvin stepped in and said they'd talk to Tank and do the interview later.
Levi asked who he needs to thank in his speech which he obviously hasn't thought about until then. Nardicio told him to thank Fleshbot and The Box. Levi added that he should also say something about the upcoming issue of Playgirl and to tell people to buy it. He is all business.
When his award was announced he and Nardicio went on stage where Levi successfully avoided being photographed with a big silver dildo. His speech was exactly what he planned: He thanked Fleshbot and The Box and then told everyone to buy his issue of Playgirl.
After leaving the stage, he meets up with Tank and Marvin and they head out the door. He has to get up early to work out before his big shoot. Our colleague Irin over at Jezebel got her questions answered about the type of ladies Levi likes and JDS eventually got his interview, making poor Richard Johnson the only person denied the chance to exchange banalities with the man of the hour. Levi, like he said, was all about business, and last night his business was spectacle.
Top three photos by Hee Jin Kang, bottom by GuestofaGuest


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Lessons from Cancer columnist Joyce Rothman dies at 64
Living with lung cancer gracefully was a feat in itself, but chronicling every step of the disease and inspiring others was a courageous act.
Joyce (Lippa) Rothman, who wrote Lessons from Cancer — a column that was published by The Herald News in Fall River, Mass., and distributed through GateHouse Media — died July 25.
Rothman, 64, wrote articles that appeared on about 400 Gatehouse Media websites and in newspapers around the country.
Rothman, who worked in the nursing field for four decades, was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago. Soon after, cancer was also discovered in her pancreas. She began writing a blog about her experience in October 2010.
The blog was poignant, reflective, heartbreaking, cheerful, hopeful and informative. It took readers on a journey through Rothman's life interrupted by cancer, through her good days and bad days, to doctor's appointments, radiation treatments and family gatherings.
Herald News Associate Publisher and Editor Lisa Strattan said she was a reader of Rothman's column and found her to be "remarkably candid" and "courageous."
"She was one determined lady, both in the way she approached her disease and the way she approached life," Strattan said. "I never met Joyce, but I still felt a connection with her. I know it was one shared with all of her readers. You just felt as if you really knew her after reading her column."
Lessons from Cancer gave Rothman hope while stirring the emotions of many readers.
In Rothman's own words: "By writing about the raw experience of coping with lung and pancreas cancer, I find the answers and guidance I need to help me find courage, lose fear and keep hope. It has made my days so much easier, and my sincerest wish is that, in sharing what I learn, I might also help someone else going through a difficult life challenge."
Reader Angela Foley said she would miss Rothman's column.
"She was very strong and very brave," Foley said. "She taught people about what she was going through and offset it with her hope and faith."
Another fan of Lessons from Cancer, Ellie Leite, said she and her prayer group, Prayer Net Team from Calvary Temple in Fall River, had been praying for Rothman for about a year.
"We didn't know her personally, but we were very sad," Leite said. "She fought a gallant fight. She was an inspiration to everyone. She touched our lives, thousands of lives."
Rothman — a mother, grandmother, sister and friend — was probably closest to her daughter Karen Robinson.
In Rothman's June 8, blog, "Cherish friends and family," Rothman seemed to be writing a thank you and farewell letter to her only child.
"My daughter has been absolutely incredible, and this is the hardest thing that she's ever had to do," Rothman wrote. "Everything pretty much falls on her shoulders, and not having any siblings or first cousins makes it even harder. She deserves incredible credit and a standing ovation. I am so grateful and proud to call her my daughter."
"I'm so proud of my mother," Robinson said. "She just always believed. She didn't give up. She was incredibly strong. I never saw anything like it."
Robinson said her mother fought with "dignity and grace" and felt love from her readers who sent her comments from all over the country.
"I don't think she would have lasted as long as she did if she didn't have her blog," Robinson said. "She inspired people. She really held onto her hope."
Email Deborah Allard at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Batman rights wrongs
This is part two of a parody of the 1960s Batman TV series. The story began here.
"We have already seen…
A charity premiere
But the movie's not here!
The mayor's been taken
All dogs love bacon!
The pirate plays a game
The batcomputer's aflame!
Our heroes brave and bold…
Can Batman and Robin escape the certain doom of being crushed by a giant log? It looks hopeless…but have you seen this show?"
Batman and Robin are straining against the log, but it's still rolling unstoppably, while Rick Astley cowers against the wall. They step away dramatically.
Robin: "Holy Sisyphus, Batman!"
Batman: "Don't give up hope, old chum. Fortunately, I have something that might just do the trick!"
Batman pulls a tube out of his utility belt. It's labeled "Bat-Termite".
Batman: "Mastotermes darwiniensis, or rather, my own genetically-modified mutant strain…Mastotermes darwiniensis chiroptera…the Bat-Termite!"
Rick Astley; "A termite? Seriously?"
Batman: "I am always serious when lives are at stake! Chew, little termite, chew!"
Batman shakes the termite on to the log. Sawdust begins to fly, as the log rolls forward. When the log rolls far enough and the bat-termite reaches the floor, though, we see the termite chew through the floor and disappear through a hole it has made.
Robin: "Holy Hogan's Heroes! It escaped through a tunnel!"
Batman: "Holy hole indeed, Robin!"
Robin: "Actually, I said 'Holy Hogan's Heroes'."
Batman. "Really? I just assumed–"
Rick Astley: "Don't you have a bat-chainsaw or a bat-axe or something?"
Batman: "They would spoil the line of my utility belt."
Robin: "Fashion is a powerful weapon against the criminal mind!"
Batman: "If only there was some way we could remotely contact Alfred! Some device that could transmit our voices across a distance without the use of wires!"
Rick Astley: "I have a cellphone."
Batman: "Is it a bat-cellphone?"
Rick Astley: "Um…no."
Robin: "Holy rotten luck!"
Batman: "The Boy Wonder is right! I appreciate your offer of assistance, citizen, but it would go against everything in which I believe to use a non-bat-item to save us. It's unfortunate that you will also come to an untimely demise, bones snapping and being ground into dust, excrutiatingly squashed into unrecognizable jelly, but better to die than to live an unbranded life."
Robin: "Gosh, that was deep!"
Batman: "Perhaps if I recalibrate my batarang, I can turn it into a bat-tuning fork! There's one chance in a billion that I can hit the right frequency, which should dissolve the molecular bonds in the Pirate's lethal log!"
Rick Astley: "Or you could just tell me the number, and I could dial it! That way, you wouldn't be the one to use the device…and I wouldn't die!"
Robin: "What do you think, Batman?"
Batman: "I still like the tuning fork idea."
Robin: "A billion to one is pretty long odds."
Batman: "You see, Robin! Math does serve a useful purpose. Your use of a statistical argument has convinced me."
Robin: "Gosh yes, Batman. I'll hit those math books twice as hard when we get home."
Rick Astley: "What's the number?!"
Batman: "Gotham City 5-5555."
Rick Astley dials the number. We hear Alfred: "Batcave: Alfred speaking." There is a bit of awkwardness as Rick Astley tries to hand the phone to Batman, who won't take it. Rick Astley ends up holding the phone up to Batman's cowl.
Batman: "Alfred, this is Batman, the caped crusader."
Alfred: "Yes, sir. I'm sorry it took me so long to answer the phone. I was regrouting the bat-hot tub. How may I be of service?"
Batman: "Is the laser-equipped Earth-circling Batellite still in geosynchronous position over Gotham City?'
Alfred: "I believe so, sir."
Batman: "I need you to program it to project a Robin-shaped beam precisely 375 centimeters from my current position, adjusting for a downward rotational rate of three degrees per second."
Alfred: "Very good, sir."
Alfred walks over to a machine labeled "Laser-equipped Bat-satellite", and pushes a single, large red button shaped like a bat.
We see a red beam cut a Robin-shaped hole in the log. Robin dashes through.
Robin: "Holy square peg! What now, Batman?"
Batman: "Look for some way to halt the progress of this fiendish mechanism!"
Robin finds a handle labeled: "Stop the fiendish mechanism." The boy wonder throws the lever! The log stops, and begins reversing.
Alfred: "Will there be anything else, sir?"
Batman: "That should be sufficient for now…you may return to your grouting."
Alfred: "Thank you, sir. I consider it a privilege."
Rick Astley: "We're saved! Thank you, Batman!"
Batman: "I was simply doing what any citizen with a geosynchronous laser-equipped satellite would have done."
Rick Astley: "Um, right. By the way, I meant to say…I'm actually not a citizen, I'm from England."
Batman: "We are all citizens of the world."
The log has retracted. We can see Robin, and a stairway with a sign that says, "Exit from Deathtrap".
Batman: "You may return to playing your music, Britizen. Let's go, Robin…we have a pirate to pursue!"
Batman and Robin run up the stairs.
We bat-cut to Commissioner Gordon's office. Mayor Judi Rooleeani is there, with Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara.
Commission Gordon: "Your Honor, it is fortunate indeed to see you back in command of this fair city. Chief O'Hara, I commend you and your men for your valiant action."
Mayor Rooleeanee: "Actually, the Pirate dropped me off outside. The officers just rode up with me in the elevator."
Chief O'Hara: "If only me and me boys had been there when the blackhearted scoundrel was here! I'd have shuddered his rudder."
Commissioner Gordon: "I share your sentiment, Chief, but there will be no rudder shuddering without a court order…or a positive assessment of probable cause."
Chief O'Hara: "I'd cause his probable!"
Mayor Rooleeani: "Listen, you two. Neither of you were there or were a part of this, so that doesn't matter. In fact, I can't think of the last time either of you were involved in anything more than a parking ticket! What do I pay you for?"
Commissioner Gordon: "It's a mystery…and one I'm sure I can't solve. However, there is one person who can…do you concur, Chief O'Hara?"
Commissioner Gordon reaches for the bat-phone…
Mayor Rooleeani: "Stop that!"
We bat-cut to the street outside a swanky restaurant named "The Crow's Nest". The Batmobile roars up (trailing bat-shaped bubbles). Batman and Robin unfasten their seatbelts and leap out. A uniformed parking attendant (Jay Leno) approaches them.
Attendant: "Valet parking?"
Batman: "No thank you, citizen. We are here to capture a major offender against the city's civil code. It shouldn't take long; we'll just park at the meter. Besides, the Batmobile isn't your average vehicle: not just anyone can drive it."
Attendant: "I have some experience with exotic cars."
Robin: "Holy in-joke!"
Batman: "Be that as it may, it won't be necessary."
Batman leaps to the meter, and we see a closeup of the utility belt as he pumps a little lever and it drops out quarters one at a time. We see a "bike rack" with the surfboards parked in it. There is a sign: "Amphibian surfboard parking only".
Robin: "This looks like the right place, Batman! Gosh, it was smart of you to put bat-tracking devices on the Pirate's surfboards! How did you know which ones to do?"
Batman: "Simple, Robin..I put bat-tracking devices on every surfboard in Gotham City."
Robin: "Holy Big Bat-Brother!"
Batman: "It was a small matter to calculate the tracks of the surfboards which left the water, and led us here…to the Crow's Nest."
Robin: "Holy appropos!"
Batman: "I think it's safe to assume that the Pirate and his high seas henchmen are using this newly established eatery as a front. To the batropes!"
Batman whirls a batarang and releases it! It sails up…and up…two stories…five stories…ten stories…twenty stories…now we're getting bored! It wraps around a railing. Batman jerks it so it tightens. We cut to Batman and Robin doing a
Robin: "Gosh, Batman, why do we always use the batropes? Why don't we ever go up the elevator?"
Batman: "For the element of surprise, old chum!"
Robin: "But if we always do it the same way, why is it a surprise? Why aren't the criminals just waiting for us at the window?"
A window pops open in the wall they are climbing. Lady Gaga leans out.
Lady Gaga: "Hello, Batman and Robin."
Batman: "Good evening, citizen. What brings you to our city?"
Lady Gaga: "I'm doing a show at Gotham Square Garden."
Robin: "Holy Little Monsters!"
Batman: "I hope your preparations are going well."
Lady Gaga: "We're all set. Although, say, I like the way you are climbing up the walls…maybe I could use that as my entrance."
Robin: "Bat climbing isn't for amateurs, miss. It takes years of practice."
Lady Gaga: "Oh, I thought maybe you were born that way."
Lady Gaga shrugs and closes the window. Batman and Robin continue their climb.
Voiceover: "Meanwhile…inside the Crow's Nest restaurant…"
Hacker: "I'm still confused, Captain Boss. Why did we kidnap the Mayor, and then return her to police headquarters?"
The Pirate: "It be all part of a clever plan, you seagoing simpleton! While we had the Mayor at the abandoned Pirate Bay attraction, I scanned her."
Malware: "What for, Captain Boss?"
The Pirate: "So I can feed her statistics into this, what be me greatest invention…The Infringer! Then, we'll be able to make all the unauthorized copies we want…hahr hahr hahr!"
We see Batman and Robin have arrived on a ledge outside the window.
Robin: "Let's get 'em, Batman!"
Batman: "Ready when you are, old chum! Those batclimbs are a good warm-up before a strenuous bout of batfighting!"
They are about to dash through the window when Batman pauses.
Batman: "Great Scott! Look who is being led to a table!"
We see Aunt Harriet and Alfred following a waitress in a pirate outfit.
Aunt Harriet: "Thank you for driving me, Alfred! I've heard that this restaurant has the most amazing seafood."
Alfred: "I live to serve, madam."
Batman is waving his hands wildly at the window. Alfred sees him. Batman points to Aunt Harriet, and makes a little walking motion with his fingers, to show Alfred he wants Aunt Harriet taken out of harm's way. Alfred nods.
Alfred: "Madam, shall we go?"
Aunt Harriet: "Whatever for?"
Alfred: "Well, since we've finished dinner…"
Aunt Harriet: "Finished? But we haven't started yet."
Alfred: "Oh, but we have, madam. Don't you remember? You said the mahi-mahi was delicious."
Aunt Harriet: "Did I? I don't recall."
Alfred: "Yes, madam."
Aunt Harriet; "Well, we must come here again some time, when I'm not quite so forgetful."
Alfred: "As you wish, madam."
Alfred winks at Batman, and ushers Aunt Harriet out of the restaurant. Batman and Robin bound into the dining room.
Batman: "Hold it right there, Pirate! Your sinister sailing days are through!"
Robin: "Yeah, you'll be landlocked all right…landlocked in a jail cell!"
The Pirate: "Sink em, boys!"
The batfight breaks out…WOOT! LOL! BRB!
Batman and Robin are leaping off tables and smashing them over Hacker, Malware, and Trojan. Each of the henchmen goes down. Batman and Robin shake hands, and look from side to side for the Pirate. They spot him…next to the window! There is a plank sticking out of it, and on the plank is Katy Perry, in a leg-revealing leotard covered in feathers.
The Pirate: "I demand safe passage, Batman, or I'll make her walk the plank!"
Robin: "Holy hostage!"
Batman: "Who are you, young lady?"
Katy: "I'm Katy Parrot. The Pirate hired me to replace his mechanical macaw."
Batman: "Pirate, you fiend! Why did you do that?"
The Pirate: "I figured more people would pay attention to me this way."
Robin: "Holy Yvonne Craig ratings desperation!"
Batman: "Now, Robin, don't be sexist. Women can do anything that men can do…they just can't be paid the same for it."
Robin: "Gosh, Batman, you're right…how insensitive of me."
We hear a commotion, and Aunt Harriet enters quickly, followed by Alfred, who is trying to dissuade her."
Aunt Harriet: "I'm sure I must have left my purse here in the restaurant, Alfred. Perhaps it's in this cloakroom…"
Aunt Harriet enters The Infringer through a door. Lights begin to flash and we hear the sounds of a modem! A progress bar quickly moves to 100%, and "Item Scanned" flashes in neon lights on the side.
The Pirate: "Hahr, hahr, hahr! It works!"
The Pirate dances a jig, moving away from Katy Parrot. Batman hits him with a decorative treasure chest, and he sinks to the floor.
Batman: "Alfred, help Miss Parrot! Robin, to The Infringer!"
Batman and Robin leap towards The Infringer. They open the door, and Aunt Harriet stumbles out…and then another Aunt Harriet…and another…
Robin: "Holy duplication!"
Batman: "The Pirate's sinister server has created a herd of Harriets!"
Robin: "Holy stripped DRM!"
Alfred: "Sir, I've noticed that there is another door labeled 'Delete'. If you were to entice the copies to enter it, I should think that would dispose of them."
Batman: "Good work, Alfred!"
Robin: "But how do we know which one is the real Aunt Harriet?"
Batman: "Simple, chum. Alfred, the fire alarm!"
Alfred: "Very good, sir."
The alarm goes off and the overhead sprinklers engage. Everyone is getting wet, and on one Aunt Harriet, we can see the words "Harriet Cooper" appearing on her arm.
Robin: "Holy watermark!"
Batman: "Precisely, Robin. Some time ago, I took the precaution of marking everyone I know with a special invisible bat-tattoo. The chemicals in the ink interact with the hydrogen and oxygen in the water, becoming briefly visible, thus enabling me to verify their identities!"
Robin: "Why didn't The Infringer duplicate the tattoo?"
Batman: "A scanner can't scan what a scanner can't see."
Robin: "Holy tongue twister!"
Alfred has been feeding the duplicated Aunt Harriets into the delete door, and they've been disappearing. As the last one goes in, The Pirate recovers consciousness.
The Pirate: "What…what happened? Where are all the duplicates?"
Alfred: "What duplicates, sir?"
The Pirate: "You mean…you mean it didn't work? I don't understand…the programming was perfect."
Batman: "No programming is perfect, Pirate…not even television."
Robin: "Holy mixed metaphors!"
The Pirate: "Ahhhhrrr-choo! Ahhhhhhrrr-choo!"
Batman: "Caught a cold, Pirate?"
The Pirate: "I think I'm allergic to her feathers."
Robin: "Well, there'll be plenty more feathers where you are going…from the jailbirds!"
Commissioner Gordon, Police Chief O'Hara, and some uniformed officers enter the dining room.
Robin: "Holy obsolescence!"
Chief O'Hara: "Take 'em away, boys!"
The uniforms and O'hara drag out The Pirate, Malware, Hacker, and Trojan.
Commissioner Gordon: "What about her, Batman? Evil moll or innocent bystander?"
Batman: "She's not one of the boys, Commissioner."
Katy Parrot: "That's right. This whole thing has just been a bad teenage dream. Thank you for rescuing me, Batman!"
Batman: "No thanks are necessary, citizen. Alfred, will you see that Miss Cooper, the aunt of Bruce Wayne's ward, Dick Grayson, gets home safely to stately Wayne Manor?"
Alfred: "Certainly, sir. Miss Parrot, may we offer you a ride?"
Katy Parrot: "No, I'd better start looking for a job, now that I've lost this one."
Robin: "Say, Batman, do you think that nice singer we passed on the way up here could use her?"
Batman: "No way to know for certain, Robin, but you can tell her Batman sent you, Miss Parrot. My friend, millionaire Bruce Wayne, owns a talent agency. I'll have him send someone over to look after your interests."
Katy Parrot: "That's swell! Would he do that for me?"
Robin: "He's a philanthropist, Miss Parrot. Just another rich guy helping out society."
Batman: "Let's go, Robin!"
Batman and Robin dash to the window.
The final scene, in the sitting room at stately Wayne Manor.
Aunt Harriet: "Well, that was quite an evening!"
Alfred: "Indeed it was, Miss Cooper. I've taken the liberty of drawing you a warm bath upstairs."
Aunt Harriet: "I still don't understand what happened. At one point, I think I was seeing double!"
Bruce Wayne: "Fatigue can do that, Aunt Harriet. You'll feel better in the morning."
Alfred leads Aunt Harriet upstairs.
Dick Grayson: "Bruce, look!"
Another Aunt Harriet enters from the library.
Dick: "Holy viral video! I thought we got rid of all the duplicates!"
Bruce; "Unfortunately, Dick, once an illegal copy has been made, there is no way to eradicate it completely. I'm afraid these counterfeit Coopers will continue to pop up from time to time."
Dick: "Isn't there anything we can do?"
Bruce: "Not us this time, old chum. It's up to the public, the good people of Gotham City. As long as they keep downloading unauthorized songs, videos, and e-books, the demand will exist. Until they stop, these criminals will keep infringing on the rights of law-abiding corporations and artists."
Dick: "Holy futility!"
Bruce: "Never give up hope, Robin…never give up hope."
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.


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Selena Gomez has taken a break from music ever since she cancelled the remainder of her tour last fall to focus on getting healthy. Now she's ready to throw herself into her work again, and may finally address those #Jelena rumors at the same time.
On his radio show yesterday morning, Ryan Seacrest talked about a music video Selena showed him the other night and said it is going to get people talking about Selena and Justin...even more.
"I saw Selena the other night and she's got a big new song coming out and a really cool video she shot," the host revealed. "The video will get people talking about whether or not it is about she and Justin, that's for sure! I watched it, and I looked at her and listened to the lyrics, and I was like, 'Okay. This is gonna have people talking!'"
More From Seventeen
Could this possibly be the music video for a song they recorded when Selena visited Justin at the recording studio recently? Or maybe that steamy Insta video of the two dancing was really them practicing for Sel's next music vid? While Selena and Justin have been spotted together on a number of occasions, most recently at Biebs' surprise performance at Coachella, neither one has confirmed or denied rumors that Jelena is back on. Hopefully we won't have to wait long for Selena's next video to find out what's really going on!
What do you think about a possible Selena-Justin collab? Do you think the two should get back together? Comment below!


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Center for Women's History
Explore women's history through exhibitions, programs, scholarship, and immersive multimedia.
About the center
Our Center for Women's History is the first of its kind in the nation within the walls of a major museum. At the Center, we explore the lives and legacies of women who have shaped and continue to shape the American experience. As a hub for scholarship and education, the Center demonstrates how women across the spectrum of race, class, and sexuality exercised power and effected change. Guided by a committee of distinguished historians and informed by the latest research, the Center features permanent installations, temporary exhibitions, and a vibrant array of talks and programs, enriching the cultural landscape of New York City and creating new opportunities for historical discovery.
"Miss Rose Bower of North Dakota" Woman playing trumpet, wearing "Votes for Women" sash. Gelatin Silver Photograph, New-York Historical Society.
Major funding for the Center for Women's History programs provided by
The Estate of Jean Dubinsky Appleton
Claudine and Fred Bacher
James Basker and Angela Vallot
Joyce B. Cowin
Deutsche Bank
Diana and Joseph DiMenna
Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation
Richard Gilder and Lois Chiles
Susan and Roger Hertog
Susan and Robert Klein
The Leonard & Judy Lauder Fund
Diane and Adam E. Max
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Jennifer and John Monsky
Amanda and Neal Moszkowski
Jean Margo Reid
Pam and Scott Schafler
Michelle Smith
Eric J. and Daria L. Wallach
Susan Waterfall
Leah and Michael R. Weisberg
Public funding for the Center for Women's History
provided by
The New York City Council
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Empire State Development and I Love New York under
Governor Andrew Cuomo's Regional Development Council Initiative
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Photo by Michael Cole
Named one of Life magazine's "100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century" and the first member of the LGBT community to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Billie Jean King carries a legacy far beyond her 39 Grand Slam titles. Over her long career, she leveraged her role as a public figure to champion human rights, challenge discrimination, and fight for gender equality. In 2016, Billie Jean King donated her archive to the New-York Historical Society, as part of its Center for Women's History.


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Google attempted to introduce a new approach to computing when it first launched Chrome OS in 2010. The operating system consists of little more than a fullscreen Web browser perched atop a rigorously-hardened Linux environment. The platform makes some unusual trade-offs, eschewing conventional native applications in exchange for bulletproof security and low-maintenance stateless computing.
Although the unique approach that Google is pursuing with Chrome OS offers some intriguing benefits, the platform hasn't inspired enthusiasm in consumers. It offers limited functionality and a poor user experience compared to more conventional alternatives. Chrome OS in its current state is simply too alien and too restrictive to appeal to a mainstream audience. But that's about to change in a major way.
Google is readying the next iteration of Chrome OS, which promises to remedy the deepest deficiencies of the wayward Web-centric software platform. A new user interface layer called Aura, which offers many improvements over the current Chrome OS software environment, has reached the testing stage.
Although Aura is still a work in progress, Google recently made it available through the Chrome OS developer channel, making it possible for advanced users to obtain it on Samsung's Series 5 Chromebooks. That particular laptop is the model that Google and Samsung gifted to Google I/O attendees (including me) last year.
I decided to put Aura to the test on my Series 5 and see if the changes are comprehensive enough to boost the product's viability for day-to-day use. After several days of testing, I've found it to be a significant improvement. Chrome OS still has some serious limitations that are intrinsic to its Web-only focus, but Aura has gracefully corrected the most significant problems with Chrome OS usability.
The Chrome OS platform and Web browser are updated over the air with Chrome's standard update mechanism. Much like the Chrome Web browser on conventional desktop computers, Chrome OS uses a channel system that gives advanced users the option of using prerelease builds. This feature is accessible through the About dialog in the Web browser.
Aura is currently only available through the developer channel, which provides unstable builds for testing experimental features. When I enabled the developer channel, the system performed a full update and prompted me to reboot. After the reboot completed and I logged back in, I was treated to my first hands-on experience with Aura.
Window management
Chrome OS was originally designed to be nothing but a fullscreen browser window. The user could create multiple windows and switch between them, but only one window was visible at a time. Some critical Web browsing features, such as the ability to snap off tabs and drag tabs between windows, were not supported.
Google has abandoned the single-window model in favor of a conventional window management system that behaves similarly to the ones found in existing desktop computing platforms. The user gets the traditional stack of overlapping windows that can be moved and resized as desired. In addition to the window manager, the Aura desktop environment also includes a task management panel at the bottom of the screen.
The environment is pleasantly predictable and offers few surprises. Existing computer users will find it intuitive and easy to grasp. During the first hour of use, I rarely found myself wondering how to take advantage of its features. It seems to pose a much less jarring transition for new users than the previous iteration.
The window titlebars are semitransparent with a slight blur. The bottom panel is completely invisible unless the user drags a window behind it, at which point it gains a translucent tint. The general design is reminiscent of Microsoft Aero Glass.
Individual windows can be resized by dragging any of their borders or corners. When your cursor hovers over a window edge, a shaded line appears and the cursor changes to indicate that resizing is possible. You can move a window by clicking and dragging the titlebar. I was a bit disappointed to find that it doesn't let you drag by holding alt and clicking anywhere in the window, a feature that can be found in the vast majority of Linux window managers.
In addition to borrowing the Aero aesthetic, the Aura window manager also supports Aero snap. Dragging a window to the left or right edge of the screen will cause it to snap into place and fill the associated half the screen. This feature is convenient when you want to view two browser windows side-by-side.
In a nod to tiling window managers, Google has implemented a nice feature that lets you resize two snapped windows together. When you have two windows on the screen positioned next to each other, hovering the cursor over the border between them will cause a special dragging handle to appear.
When you drag that handle to the left or right, it will simultaneously increase the width of one window while reducing the width of the other in a way that corresponds. It's sort of like having two windows that are joined together with a single splitter between them, as you would have in a tiling window manager such as Ion.
Every window has two buttons in the titlebar: an X button that closes the window and a square that can be clicked to cause the window to maximize. The maximize button has a few other tricks up its sleeve, however. If you click and hold the maximize button, you can drag it to the left or right to snap the window to one edge of the screen or the other. You can also click and drag the maximize button down, which will cause the window to minimize.


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When EVE Online began selling premium vanity items this summer, everyone lost their minds and rioted. Granted, these were $68 virtual monocles and such, but they didn't offer any kind of performance advantage. Another space-based MMO, Dark Orbit decided to offer a rare spacecraft with a value of €1.000 (roughly $1,300) and found more than 2,000 takers. Willing seller, willing buyer and all that.
The item in question is some kind of level 10 drone—player spacecraft in the game can be supported in combat by drones. They have ranks spanning 1 through 10. No. 10, aka Zeus, is a real bitch to earn in the game. So Dark Orbit's maker, Bigpoint Games, said what the hell and offered them for sale.
[Update] Bigpoint Games has written Kotaku to say that the Drones in question may be bought with in-world currency. One must acquire all of the lower-ranking drones first, though. To buy this drone without acquiring any of the others first, one would need in-world currency equal to €1.000 to buy the full set. Players can acquire that much cash in-world, but it takes quite a bit of effort and time. Players may also acquire that currency in a real-world cash transaction; Bigpoint Games sometimes holds "sales"—basically a more favorable exchange rate. So while Bigpoint Games has "sold" 2,000 of the Level 10 drones this month, it has no idea how much money it has actually made from those sales. In any event, it is inaccurate to say they've made €2 million off the sale of 2,000 virtual items.
The original post follows.
VentureBeat notes that Germany-based Bigpoint, which specializes in free-to-play browser-based games, is looking at €200 million in virtual goods revenue for the year. Not hard to see why the free-to-play gold rush, which has seen major titles like Team Fortress 2 and DC Universe Online convert to the model this year, is such a popular strategy.
Over $1K for a virtual spaceship? 2000 Dark Orbit players say 'yes' [VentureBeat]
You can contact Owen Good, the author of this post, at firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.