image from cagle.com

If enacted, the legislation would abolish the city’s Board of Police Commissioners, a governing board that includes the mayor and four members appointed by the governor. Instead the department would be run by a locally-appointed police commissioner.

Supporters of the legislation say local control will increase efficiency and accountability in the police department.

Opponents, who include police officers, say the legislation would politicize the police department. They said the legislation is also an attempt to gain control of the police pension fund, which Mayor Francis Slay and other supporters have denied.

from globe-democrat.com

Here is an article describing it all in more detail:

http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/mar/01/bills-local-control-st-louis-police-moving-through/

Dumbfounded citizens from Maine to California gazed helplessly at the frightening chunk of print, unsure of what to do next. Without an illustration, chart, or embedded YouTube video to ease them in, millions were frozen in place, terrified by the sight of one long, unbroken string of English words.

“Why won’t it just tell me what it’s about?” said Boston resident Charlyne Thomson, who was bombarded with the overwhelming mass of black text late Monday afternoon. “There are no bullet points, no highlighted parts. I’ve looked everywhere—there’s nothing here but words.”

“Ow,” Thomson added after reading the first and last lines in an attempt to get the gist of whatever the article, review, or possibly recipe was about.

- from theonion.com

————

This article perfectly describes how I feel when I try to read a book these days. I’ve gotten better about it since I canceled my TV service and have been spending less time online, but I still have a hard time at it. I think the internet has indeed managed to make us all semi-illiterate.

Damn you internet!

German architecture company Vitra has a campus dedicated to exploring and showcasing their innovations in modern architecture.  One of the more amazing buildings there just opened: the VitraHaus.

Located on the northern side of the campus in front of the fenced perimeter of the production premises, the VitraHaus joins two other buildings in this area, the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry (1989) and the Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando (1993).

 

- from DesignMilk.com

The complexity of the interior space arises not only from the angular intersection of the individual houses but also from the integration of a second geometrical concept. All of the staircases are integrated into expansive, winding organic volumes that figuratively eat their way through the various levels of the building like a worm, sometimes revealing fascinating visual relationships between the various houses, at other times blocking the view. The interior walls are finished in white in order to give priority to the furniture displays.

 

- from DesignMilk.com

Simply breathtaking, though perhaps not big on privacy, though I imagine this is not the main point. I just wish the horizon was a little more verdant, but perhaps this is just winter time and they are having a seasonal shortage of foliage.

There has been much talk lately about pediatricians wanting to invent some sort of choke proof hot dog.  Supposedly, it’s a major killer of kids under fourteen.

I can think of a great way to make hot dogs choke proof and it comes from an dumb holiday joke.

“Q:What do you call an empty hot dog?  A: A hollow weenie”

Just hollow out the hot dogs length-wise, providing a tunnel running down the length of the hot dog that would allow the kid to breath through the hot dog even if it became lodged.

Does that sound possible?  Or would the “tunnel” running down the length of the dog collapse under the pressure of the kid’s esophagus?

picture from theonion.com

“Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we…if we…” said Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his head in utter disbelief. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. None of this—this so-called ‘money’—really matters at all.”

“It’s just an illusion,” a wide-eyed Bernanke added as he removed bills from his wallet and slowly spread them out before him. “Just look at it: Meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless.”

from theonion.com

You know, as funny as this Onion article might be, something like this could actually happen some day. I’ve often thought to myself what a society without money would be like. It wouldn’t have to be return to a barter system or the stone age, but the issue of how to get people to do complex and/or dangerous acts that need to be done (like surgery or digging sewer tunnels) without a monetary system or a some form of forced labor.

In the Star Trek universe there is no money (at least not on Earth and the main Federation planets) and it is said that everyone just does what they want to do. That makes some sense. I mean, someone might without a doubt want to be a surgeon and work hard to become such because they want to save lives, but what if not enough people want to do that? Also, who wants to be a garbage man or someone who handles toxic waste? There are many jobs no one would really want to do, unless everyone is ordered to do so under some sort of penalty.

I found this article online about economics in the Star Trek universe: Unofficial Economics of Star Trek

There they mention the concept of Participatory Economics, which is what the author believes the Star Trek economy is based upon.  If you read the wikipedia article on Participatory Economics you find an interesting description of what it is plus of some of the viewed pros and cons of such a system.

picture from nytimes.com

The Flaming Lips frontman, Wayne Coyne, had a house/music studio built for him in the midst of the crack-addled neighborhood he grew up in.  Actually, he bought a several buildings he calls “The Compound”.  Trying to help revitalize the neighborhood in a bizarre gentrification scheme (I suspect his goal is to change each crack-house into an acid-house one by one).

picture from fitzsimmons architects

Living here, he says, gives him freedom. “You can do what you want — when we rehearse, nobody ever complains about the noise.”

- from nytimes.com

picture from fitzsimmons architects

…the living situation has been difficult at times, especially with the area’s high crime rate. “If we hadn’t been able to expand” and create a buffer zone, Mr. Coyne said, “we’d have been in trouble.” Seven years ago, they purchased the home that belonged to their next-door neighbors and demolished it; the three other houses and two other lots have since expanded their property to about two acres.

- from nytimes.com

from fitzsimmons-arch.com

Personally, my favorite part of this whole house is the bathroom, which looks like something from a David Lynch movie.

picture from fitzsimmons-arch.com

Yeah, if I won the lottery and got millions of dollars I could see myself buying a bunch of buildings in St. Louis and making something like this in South City.  Or maybe just buy a tall building in Downtown West and put a weird cafe at the bottom of it.  Well, I guess money can’t buy you happiness, but it can add a lot of variety to your life, like missing a dinner date because you got lost in your own shower.

This following movie poster is, of course, a fake though:

On NPR I heard them talk about the Taqwacore movement, which is a genre of Islamic punk and hip-hop music.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Here is the NPR article.

Rolling Stones has an article here.

Engadget made a post about a product Lenovo has been working on, the IdeaPad (name sounds a little familiar, now doesn’t it?).

It runs Windows 7 when docked and runs the SkyLight OS when removed from its base, which sounds a little weird to me.  Why not just run Windows 7 the whole time?

Looks pretty neat, but I do wonder what its cost will be in comparison to the Apple’s iPad.  Either way, its good to see other companies keeping Apple on its toes and not letting them just push out iCrap that they know their die-hard fans will buy.

Here’s an interesting invention: the Dunk Mug.  It includes a slot where cookies can be stored.  It could be cool to have, but it looks like said cookies could easily slide on out and ruin your day.

Featured Sandwich: Italian

Featured Sandwich: Meatloaf

Featured Sandwich: Panini

See more here

Ever hear of poutine?  It’s a Canadian treat that consists of french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy.

Well check these taste treats out you can find on thisiswhyyourefat.com:

Poutine Cupcake

Eggs Benedict Poutine

Poutine Rolls

Bacon Poutine

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Edit:  They just added another Poutine monstrosity!

Canadian Calzone

DARPA has gone an created a real working version of the chronically obstinate, endlessly useful M.U.L.E. from old Atari gaming days.

Here are the key requirements that the robo-mule must stand up to:

• It must be capable of carrying sufficient payload capacity, range, endurance, and low noise signature for dismounted squad support, while keeping weight and volume scaled to the squad level.
• The robot must support all manner of walking, trotting, and running/ bounding and capabilities to jump obstacles, cross ditches, recover from disturbances and other discrete mobility features. The LS3 must be able to follow a leader between 5m and 100m ahead, in dynamic, cluttered environments with other moving soldiers in close proximity.
• It must have the ability to perceive and traverse its immediate terrain environment autonomously with simple methods of control.
• The robot must understand simple soldier-to-LS3 interaction with minimal direct control of the platform’s speed and heading (joy-sticking and tele-operating are examples of direct control). The vehicle must require minimal oversight or direct control (e.g. joystick control) from an operator.  Direct control modes should only be used for error recovery, and should not be needed more than 3 times per 24-hour operational period, for no more than 5 minutes at a time.
• The robot must be able to follow a leader between 5m and 100m ahead, in dynamic, cluttered environments with other moving soldiers in close proximity.
• The robot must be able to operate for arbitrarily long periods without GPS as well as be able to negotiate slopes up to 30 degrees fully loaded and go up steps up to 12 inches high.
• The robot must be able to wade through 36 inches of water.

from networkworld.com

Okay, it’s not quite the hunk o’ junk the autonomous beasts of burden were in the classic game, but it seems to me to be something that can be retrofitted to fulfill a wide variety of purposes, not just hauling cargo.  Farming?  Mining? Hunting wumpuses?  (wumpi?)  Only the future will tell.

For those of you who just gotta hear that theme song, here you go:

I dig that synthy music they’re playing in the background… oh yeah, and the 3D desktop fabrication process is pretty darn neat too.