Baslow's Electric OmniumGatherum

Revive?

2011-06-04T17:36:00.001-04:00

The time may have come to revive this blog. I'm testing this possibility right now sitting on a park bench at the edge of Inwood Hill Park. I'm dictating this entry using a Posterous app on my Android tablet. After a little experimentation it seems to be working, albeit slowly. That I am sitting outside and dictating bespeaks an intention to blog differently. I guess we'll see how it all

Northern Manhattan Parks Master Plan

2010-12-12T11:09:00.001-05:00

A tip of the hat to Osi Kaminer, who pointed us in the direction of this web page pertaining to the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation's master plan for parks in northern Manhattan. The page includes an interactive map which allows you to vote on existing proposals or to submit your own: via nycgovparks.org

On Chess: Players were pawns for overzealous cops

2010-12-11T13:12:00.001-05:00

Peaceful play can be hazardous - at least at the chess tables of Inwood Hill Park in New York. Several weeks ago, seven men were levied with $50 tickets for playing chess in a park area restricted to adults accompanied by kids. Nearby was a playground - empty of children at the time. A police spokesman offered an explanation: "It's the broken-windows theory: Small things can turn

Marijuana Lab Discovered at Inwood Building Torched by Fire

2010-12-10T15:51:00.001-05:00

By Carla Zanoni DNAinfo Reporter/ProducerINWOOD — A sophisticated marijuana lab was discovered by firefighters investigating a fast-moving blaze that tore through a six-story apartment building Thursday morning. Homegrown plants amounting to an "aggregate weight of several pounds of marijuana" were recovered in an apartment at 510 West 218th St., according to 34th Precinct Capt. Jose Navarro.

Net Zero Energy Buildings

2010-12-10T12:10:00.001-05:00

The New York Academy of Sciences presents a panel discussion on net zero energy buildings on January 25, 2011. Net Zero Energy Buildings: Moving from Demonstration Projects to the Mainstream Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM The New York Academy of Sciences Presented by the Green Buildings Discussion Group Since the

Net Zero Energy Buildings | The New York Academy of Sciences

2010-12-10T12:01:00.001-05:00

The Green Buildings Discussion Group of the New York Academy of Sciences will be presenting a discussion of net zero energy buildings on January 15, 2011: Net Zero Energy Buildings: Moving from Demonstration Projects to the Mainstream Tuesday, January 25, 2011 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM The New York Academy of Sciences

Inwood Fire Kills Dog, Forces Dozens From Their Homes

2010-12-10T10:08:00.001-05:00

By Carla ZanoniDNAinfo Reporter/ProducerINWOOD — A dog named Murphy and a cat named Kelly were killed in a fast moving fire that tore through two stories of an Inwood apartment building Thursday morning and sent four people to the hospital for smoke inhalation. The Red Cross said 46 residents of a 6-story building at 510 West 218th St. — 31 adults and 15 children — were forced out of their

Latest Cause Celebre

2010-12-08T10:15:00.001-05:00

My wife tells me that Fox NY and WCBS both had reporters on Beak Street this morning, apparently preparing reports... Granny's $100 ticket - for throwing out newspaper By JESSICA SIMEONE, AMBER SUTHERLAND and JEANE MacINTOSH Posted: 1:24 AM, December 8, 2010 EXCLUSIVE What a bunch of garbage! An elderly Manhattan woman living on Social Security was slapped with a

Required Viewing - the Maccabeats make Chanukah cool

2010-12-05T11:05:00.001-05:00

via manhattantimesnews.com As per Manhattan Times (http://www.manhattantimesnews.com/2010/required-viewing-the-maccabeats-make-c...: Just in time for Chanukah, Yeshiva University’s a cappella group the Maccabeats have scored an international YouTube hit with their video “Candlelight,” sung to the tune of Taio Cruz's "Dynamite." Part of the video was filmed in Ft. Tryon Park. Check it

Hey, NPR, your "Inappropriate Language" filter needs work!

2010-12-02T21:02:00.001-05:00

Okay, folks, a little puzzle for you. Why did this comment lead to an "inappropriate language" warning from NPR's filters when I tried to submit it? If it is the authors (and not just you) who claim that they have established that current configurations of human sexual behavior are, in any sense, in opposition to "human nature" because they are cultural accretions then they are talking out

Access To Knowledge In The Age of Intellectual Property

2010-11-29T23:02:00.001-05:00

edited by Gaëlle Krikorian and Amy Kapczynski From Zone Books. It may either be purchased in hard-copy or downloaded for free, and redistributed on a non-commercial basis. Derivative works are not permitted. The end of the twentieth century saw an explosive intrusion of intellectual property law into everyday life. Expansive copyright laws have been

The Death of French Culture?

2010-11-28T01:39:00.001-05:00

After a few minutes of listening to the podcast to which this description refers it becomes clear that what they are really talking about is the decline of the influence of French culture in the rest of the world. Even Donald Morrison, the author of the book, seems to concede that culture is thriving within France. He simply judges it to be the wrong kind of culture on the basis of its

Who Owns Yoga?

2010-11-27T21:10:00.001-05:00

Yoga is practiced by about 15 million people in the United States, for reasons almost as numerous — from the physical benefits mapped in brain scans to the less tangible rewards that New Age journals call spiritual centering. Religion, for the most part, has nothing to do with it. But a group of Indian-Americans has ignited a surprisingly fierce debate in the gentle world of yoga by

Lessig Calls For WIPO To Lead Overhaul Of Copyright System

2010-11-26T12:50:00.001-05:00

Intellectual Property Watch5 November 2010 Lessig Calls For WIPO To Lead Overhaul Of Copyright System By Kaitlin Mara @ 3:47 pm Influential copyright scholar Larry Lessig yesterday issued a call for the World Intellectual Property Organization to lead an overhaul of the copyright system which he says does not and never will make

Study Of Public Domain, Copyright At WIPO Offers Recommendations

2010-11-26T12:42:00.001-05:00

Intellectual Property Watch26 November 2010 Study Of Public Domain, Copyright At WIPO Offers Recommendations By Catherine Saez @ 8:48 am A better definition of the public domain is needed, but copyright and public domain are not antagonistic, said a study commissioned by the World Intellectual Property Organization presented this

Adventures In The Economy of Attention

2010-11-24T22:15:00.001-05:00

In a post published earlier Tuesday on his blog, Four Four (fourfour.typepad.com), Mr. Juzwiak, a senior editor at VH1.com, recounted how he and Kate Spencer, the editor of the VH1 site TheFabLife.com, came up with the idea for a video compiling Ms. Swift’s facial reactions to her victories at the Country Music Association Awards, the Grammys and other awards ceremonies. On Nov. 16 they

Copyright: what do we want it to do? | guardian.co.uk

2010-11-24T13:18:00.001-05:00

YouTube’s users produce 29 hours of video every minute, the vast majority of it independently produced material. Photograph: David J. Green/Alamy A recurring question in discussions of digital copyright is how creators and their investors (that is, labels, movie studios, publishers, etc) will earn a living in the digital era.But though I've had that

SNL Kagan: TV Subscribers Down for Second Consecutive Quarter - The Hollywood Reporter

2010-11-23T22:15:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK - Research firm SNL Kagan made it official on Wednesday - the U.S. multichannel TV industry experienced its second subscriber decline in the third quarter following a drop in the second quarter. And one of its analysts weighed in on the cord cutting debate that has gripped the industry, suggesting that it is real and that new online video, or so-called over-the-top, options may

Business Models For Musical Performers: A Mimiandeunicean Perspective

2010-11-23T12:25:00.001-05:00

Stealing Labor: Killing Music: from Nina Paley's Mimi & Eunice

"Put up or shut up" time for US Copyright Group

2010-11-21T23:04:00.001-05:00

The US Copyright Group (USCG) has sued more than 16,000 people this year for sharing movies online, with the lawsuits all based on anonymous IP addresses—but it has yet to actually name a single defendant. When an ISP looks up the subscriber name associated with an IP address, USCG doesn't immediately add that name to its lawsuit; it sends out a settlement letter, asking the person

Oringinality, Tradition and the Individual

2010-11-21T19:17:00.001-05:00

Melvin Bragg, on the BBC radio program(me) In Our Time, conducts a fascinating discussion on the idea of "originality" in art. Participants dicsuss, at several points, this remarkable essay by T.S. Eliot on Tradition and the Individual Talent. Download now or preview on posterous TraditionAndTheIndividualTalent.pdf (92 KB)

How Can Technology "Want" Anything?

2010-11-21T19:12:00.001-05:00

NPR's Radiolab brings us a fascinating discussion... Download now or listen on posterous radiolab_podcast10tech.mp3 (23254 KB)

Johnny Cash, Paradoxicalist

2010-11-21T17:42:00.001-05:00

Description from an auction catalogue: A Johnny Cash handwritten "To Do" list that reads as follow: "1. Not smoke, 2. Kiss June, 3. Not kiss anyone else, 4. Cough, 5. Pee, 6. Eat, 7. Not eat too much, 8. Worry, 9. Go see Mama, 10. Practice piano." In the "Notes" section, Cash has written, "Not Write Notes." This item can be seen on page 64 of the book, Cash: An American Man, published by

Where Are They Now?

2010-11-19T19:23:00.001-05:00

Both of my kids, Ruth and Joel, were born and raised in Park Terrace Gardens. Ruth is currently in her second year at Grinnell College in Iowa...but she doesn't seem to have generated any publicly-accessible Web presence lately -- except this. Joel, who graduated Oberlin College in Ohio a year and a half ago, now works (via AmeriCorps VISTA) as a "Green Jobs Coordinator" at a non-profit in

Pulling a Tinkerbell

2010-11-18T15:17:00.001-05:00

I stand accused, in semi-public, of being a thieving, traitorous hijacker merely for having started this website. I will spare you the details unless you ask me to share them but be warned: it isn't as interesting as it sounds. Let me say that I believe that my motives have been misinterpreted and the facts of the matter misunderstood; the accusation has NOT caused me to go into any tailspins