Shanan Delp's Blog-porium

Good Morning Hong Kong

2009-11-10T15:59:00.001-08:00

Good Morning Hong Kong, originally uploaded by shanan.

Single Subject Blogs

2009-11-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

This is not a single subject blog, if only because I'm not that good at focusing my interests, and for better or worse this blog represents this. Once upon a time I used to write a lot about cars and song lyrics, and I still write a lot about politics, San Francisco and occasionally trends on the Internet, whatever that means.

But sometimes, like this morning, I wonder if I couldn't make a better blog by offering the audience a one-stop shop for sharp analysis on a single subject.
I wonder if I should start a new blog on a more focused subject. Some ideas that I could probably write about every now and then:

* Historical San Francisco (I love it). Sample blog post.

* Maintaining an offline life in an overly web saturated world. Sample blog post.

* Centrist politics 101. I'm sure the world is full of these voices, but perhaps the view from San Francisco's liberalism would be interesting. Kind of sample blog post here.

Health Reform Passes a Big Test, With Obama's Aid - NYT

2009-11-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

But, those present said, he urged them on, saying, "When I sign this in the Rose Garden, each and every one of you will be able to look back and say, 'This was my finest moment in politics.' "

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/health/policy/08health.html?_r=1&hp

Courtside

2009-11-06T16:21:00.001-08:00

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by benagarr.

Sure why not

2009-11-05T12:49:00.001-08:00

View Road Trip in a larger map

Denialism

2009-11-05T12:27:00.000-08:00

is the word that Michael Specter uses to describe a new breed of logic that is being increasingly used in complex policy debates in this country. This book, which takes it's title from the word, sounds interesting in a Times book review this morning.

The term “denialism,” used by Mr. Specter as an all-purpose, pop-sci buzzword, is defined by him as what happens “when an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie.”

In this hotly argued yet data-filled diatribe, Mr. Specter skips past some of the easiest realms of science baiting (i.e., evolution) to address more current issues, from the ethical questions raised by genome research to the furiously fought debate over the safety of childhood vaccinations.

Among the toes on which he stomps: those of Prince Charles (cited for presumption and ignorance in his advocacy of organic farming), Dr. Andrew Weil (whose promotion of vitamin supplements is equated with snake-oil salesmanship), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (accused of writing an antivaccine article “knit together by an almost unimaginable series of misconceptions”) and The Huffington Post, “which has emerged as the most prominent home for cranks of all kinds, particularly people who find scientific research too heavily burdened by facts.”

It's helpful to have a label for this cable-tv and internet-fueled phenomena. Once you're attuned to it, you see it everywhere.

If there's such a thing as love

2009-10-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

Stephin Merritt is such an interesting songwriter.
---

Now the clock is striking one
So we might as well begin it,
As there's dancing to be done
And our time is not infinite.

If there's such a thing as love,
If there's such a thing as love,
I'm in it.

So you claim you love me too,
Lloyd's of London guarantee it.
Gaze into these eyes of blue,
You do love me I decree it.

If there's such a thing as love,
If there's such a thing as love,
Give me it.

When i was two and a half,
My momma said to me:
"Love is funny you will laugh
'Til the day you turn three."

Like a kitten up a tree
Needs a fireman to rescue it,
So your fireman i will be
And i'll really get into it.

If there's such a thing as love,
(such a thing as love)
If there's such a thing as love,
Let's do it.

I thought i'd known love before
That was not it but I thought it
So I thought i'd win the war
Or I never would have fought it

If there's such a thing as love,
(such a thing as love)
If there's such a thing as love,
I've caught it.
if there's such a thing as love,
(such a thing as love)
if there's such a thing as love,
I've caught it.
If there's such a thing as love,
(such a thing as love)
If there's such a thing as love,
Love caught it.

"That upset needs to be directed to Sacramento"

2009-10-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Tuesday that his campus will be admitting as many as 600 fewer "unfunded" California students a year to offset a 20 percent cut from Sacramento. Those slots will instead go to out-of-staters.

The problem is that the state picks up much of the university's cost of educating California students - only it's not paying for as many students as it used to. Nonresidents, on the other hand, pay their own, higher tuitions that actually cover UC's cost of educating them.

Birgeneau said he understands that people will be angry that Berkeley will be freezing out Californians in favor of students from elsewhere. But, he said, "that upset needs to be directed to Sacramento."

UC Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students - Matier and Ross - SF Chronicle

Good Snowe Job!

2009-10-13T15:26:00.000-07:00

“Is this bill all that I would want?” Ms. Snowe asked. “Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”

Senate Panel Clears Health Bill With One G.O.P. Vote

Jetlagged Thoughts from an Airport Lounge in Asia

2009-10-05T04:44:00.000-07:00

They tell me it's 7:45 PM Monday here at Hong Kong Airport, but my computer and body clock both scream "It's 4:45 AM!! What are you doing awake?"

I had the most comfortable 13 hour flight* I have ever experienced aboard a big old 747 from San Francisco to Hong Kong. As we came into to a landing here we flew above central Hong Kong, dominated by it's compact downtown and the majestic adjacent mountain.

Victoria harbor, from Victoria Peak - Hong Kong SAR by ttstam on Flickr.

In a few hours me and my colleague will board a flight to Delhi and we'll leave the sleek modernism of Hong Kong's airport for the chaos of India.

I'm going to stay awake until I get on the next flight. Off to check my work email, to read the newspaper.

*- 13 hour flights can't really be comfortable

URDB on Late Night Tonight

2009-10-02T22:06:00.001-07:00

Congratulations DR!

Web Headers: Balancing Customer and Business Interests

2009-10-01T12:34:00.001-07:00

At big web companies, we call the top of the page the "header." The goal of the header is to:

Tell customers where they are, and what product they're using
Give them a common set of tools to help them find their way around your web site (usually a login/username link and maybe a help link and a search box to navigate the site).
Promote other services that drive a company's business goals.

I'd like to call attention to two different companies and their approach to designing standard headers. It should tell us something about the companies and their focus and priorities.

Here's Yahoo! Groups, indicative of headers all over Yahoo.

Yahoo! Groups logo
Account links
Help link
Promo for getting Yahoo! on your phone
Links to other popular Yahoo! products
Big search box for searching the whole web. (Not for searching Yahoo! groups)

Here's Google Reader, indicative of headers all over Google in non-search products.

Link to a list of popular Google products
Google Reader logo
Account links
Link to settings

Which header does a better job of serving the customers of the product? How are the interests of the companies being expressed in these header designs? Which header has the right balance of these interests?

I would argue that Google's header is significantly more focused on the customer and the context. It's related to the Reader product with a search box for searching within reader. There are also a set of links promoting other products, but these don't get in the way. I wonder if Google had considered making the search box a web search box instead of focusing it on the Reader experience?

Yahoo's header is all about driving traffic to other Yahoo! services. In all the space they take up for the header, there is surprisingly little that's of use to me as a consumer of Yahoo! Groups. I wonder if Yahoo! header designers could pull the balance a bit further toward the group context without sacrificing the revenue and traffic driven by the other links?

Fulton and Steiner

2009-09-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

The distinct view from the Western Addition down Fulton Street, toward San Franciso City Hall. City hall from this vantage point (and from the plaza on the opposite side of the building) are some of the few grand Haussmann-like vistas in San Francisco.

Twitter Driving Flickr Galleries

2009-09-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

When we built Flickr Galleries, one of things that we didn't have time to work on was discovery. How would people find a gallery once it was created.

Yesterday Tom Coates put together a Flickr Gallery of the dust storms in Australia and created a web sensation.

And he didn't need a Flickr discovery solution. He just used Twitter to get the word out. His gallery has 90K plus views in less than 24 hours. Wow.

Two Architectural Notes

2009-09-18T08:42:00.001-07:00

The Wall Street Journal published a piece by David Bynre on what makes cities livable. Famous for being the front-man of the Talking Heads, Byrne is more recently known for being an artist and bicycle advocate. His thesis on the ingredients of the world's best cities is both thoughtful and amusing:

Size

A city can't be too small. Size guarantees anonymity—if you make an embarrassing mistake in a large city, and it's not on the cover of the Post, you can probably try again. The generous attitude towards failure that big cities afford is invaluable—it's how things get created. In a small town everyone knows about your failures, so you are more careful about what you might attempt. Every time I visit San Francisco I ask out loud "Why don't I live here? Why do I choose to live in a place that is harder, tougher and, well, not as beautiful?" The locals often reply, "You don't want to live here. It looks like a city, but it's really a small village. Everyone knows what you're doing" Oh, OK. If you say so. It's still beautiful.

Density

If a city doesn't have sufficient density, as in L.A., then strange things happen. It's human nature for us to look at one another— we're social animals after all. But when the urban situation causes the distance between us to increase and our interactions to be less frequent we have to use novel means to attract attention: big hair, skimpy clothes and plastic surgery. We become walking billboards.

And today, the New York Times architectural critic published a extensive review of the brand new Dallas Cowboy's Stadium. What's funny about this is that the high-minded Times is reviewing something that is self-consciously not high-minded at all. That's why it's a good read:

Cowboys Stadium suffers from its own form of nostalgia: its enormous retractable roof, acres of parking and cavernous interiors are straight out of Eisenhower’s America, with its embrace of car culture and a grandiose, bigger-is-better mentality. The result is a somewhat crude reworking of old ideas, one that looks especially unoriginal when compared with the sophisticated and often dazzling stadiums that have been built in Europe and the Far East over the last few years. Worse for fans, its lounges and concourses are so sprawling that I suspect more than a few spectators will get lost and miss the second-half kickoff.

Bridge & Cranes

2009-09-16T11:12:00.001-07:00

Bridge & Cranes, originally uploaded by Kevin.

Unlocking Curation on Flickr

2009-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Flickr Team -- Heather, Aaron, Adrienne, Jude, Eric, Kellan and a few others-- on the launch of the Galleries feature. Heather has spent a lot of time thinking about the feature:

Galleries give our members an opportunity to curate their view of Flickr, to bring together up to 18 photos or videos. The features of a gallery will give you more opportunity to share your view about what makes your selection interesting.

We spent a lot of time thinking about this feature as part of what we used to call out media stratey (whatever that means). We hope that Galleries will be the start of an entirely new way of people sharing photos and videos on Flickr, one that will allow curators (not just the original photographer) to tell the story of a ritual, a dream, a news event, or something entirely different.

Congratulations Flickr team! Here's a link to the explore galleries page.

On Journalism

2009-09-09T13:10:00.001-07:00

President Obama speaking at today's Walter Cronkite memorial service in New York.

And too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed. “What happened today?” is replaced with “Who won today?” The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters. We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should –- and that has real consequences in our own lives and in the life of our nation. We seem stuck with a choice between what cuts to our bottom line and what harms us as a society. Which price is higher to pay? Which cost is harder to bear?

Naturally, we find ourselves wondering how he would have covered the monumental stories of our time. In an era where the news that city hall is on fire can sweep around the world at the speed of the Internet, would he still have called to double-check? Would he have been able to cut through the murky noise of the blogs and the tweets and the sound bites to shine the bright light on substance? Would he still offer the perspective that we value? Would he have been able to remain a singular figure in an age of dwindling attention spans and omnipresent media?

And somehow, we know that the answer is yes. The simple values Walter Cronkite set out in pursuit of — to seek the truth, to keep us honest, to explore our world the best he could — they are as vital today as they ever were.

The Times has a fuller excerpt.

Watching the US Open This Weekend

2009-09-07T09:48:00.001-07:00

Picture 050, originally uploaded by skoopsidaisy.

As a fairly new tennis player, I'm watching the US Open with extra interest this year. I understand the game, the scoring! Hooray!

I remember going out to Flushing Meadows for the Open a few times back when I lived in New York. Even as a casual tennis observer, it was quite exciting-- a true world class event.

I'd like to go back.

Teddy

2009-08-25T22:40:00.001-07:00

Ted Kennedy Pumps You Up!, originally uploaded by SanMan.

He was a Rabelaisian figure in the Senate and in life, instantly recognizable by his shock of white hair, his florid, oversize face, his booming Boston brogue, his powerful but pained stride. He was a celebrity, sometimes a self-parody, a hearty friend, an implacable foe, a man of large faith and large flaws, a melancholy character who persevered, drank deeply and sang loudly. He was a Kennedy.

Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies - New York Times

Potrero Power Station

2009-08-24T19:28:00.001-07:00

Potrero Power Station, originally uploaded by shanan.

2009-08-23T17:43:00.001-07:00

Don Hewitt Dies

2009-08-20T13:28:00.001-07:00

Don Hewitt, legendary newsman and creator of much of what we know of 20th Century Television Journalism, dies at 86. The Times has a comprehensive obituary of this legend.

It was as creator and executive producer of “60 Minutes” that he had his biggest impact — imagining, in effect, what an electronic version of “Life” magazine would be like, and then bringing that confection to the screen with a mix of hard-hitting investigative pieces and celebrity profiles. As tour guides, Mr. Hewitt recruited a cast of reporters that included Mike Wallace and Dan Rather, and later Lesley Stahl, who were soon as recognizable as the politicians they confronted and the entertainers they interviewed. Whatever their line-up in a particular television season, they were presented to their Sunday night audience as equals.

As in a general-interest magazine, Mr. Hewitt reasoned, “60 Minutes” — named for the hour of prime time the network would give him each week — would toggle between hard news and soft. “We could look into Marilyn Monroe’s closet, so long as we looked into Robert Oppenheimer’s laboratory, too,” he wrote in his 2001 memoir, “Tell Me a Story.” “We could make the news entertaining, without compromising our integrity.”

Behind the scenes, where he could be a stern, hyperkinetic taskmaster, Mr. Hewitt embossed the program with the fundamental elements that would become its calling cards: a relentless emphasis on compelling narrative; interviews in which the questions (and questioners) were often more interesting than the subjects themselves; occasional gotcha moments that snared wrongdoers like Watergate co-conspirators or cigarette manufacturers; and, in respites as welcome as an elementary-school recess, revealing conversations with figures like Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Robin Williams and Bruce Springsteen.

San Francisco, 1941

2009-08-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

Says marlewis: "These were all taken by my father on a trip to San Francisco in 1941."

Ferry Building

2009-08-14T13:41:00.001-07:00

Ferry Building, originally uploaded by Lee Sutton.