👓 Motels to House Pasadena Homeless? | ColoradoBoulevard.net

Read Motels to House Pasadena Homeless? by Garrett Rowlan (ColoradoBoulevard.net)
If the body politic were a real body, the body of Pasadena would be one plagued by itches and bruises that continue to irritate.

👓 8 First Things That Happened During 1966 Rose Queen Reign | ColoradoBoulevard.net

Read 8 First Things That Happened During the 1966 Rose Queen Reign by Carole Cota Gelfuso (ColoradoBoulevard.net)
A 19-year-old student at Pasadena City College, who almost did not make the tryouts because she lost her mom couple of months prior to the event, was named Rose Queen in 1966. Her name was Carole Cota Gelfuso, and that year turned out to be a year of many “firsts”.

👓 Microblogging | Benjamin Esham

Read Microblogging by Benjamin Esham (esham.io)

The idea of microblogging on my own website is something I’ve been kicking around for years. Instead of posting short pieces of text to Twitter, longer pieces of text to this blog, and photos to Instagram, why not just post all of that stuff here? I could still cross-post to other sites if I wanted to, but my intention has always been that this website should represent me on the web and so it only makes sense to put all of my work here.

My microblog is a new part of this site where I’m posting the kinds of things that I posted on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll still post things on those sites for the foreseeable future, but only a subset of the things I’m posting here. You can follow my microblog using a feed reader (well, more on that later) using the links on my new feeds page.

👓 Just a Thought: Searching vs. Browsing | Powazek

Read Just a Thought: Searching vs. Browsing by Derek Powazek (powazek.com)

Think about these two words for a moment: "Search" and "Browse." They're words that are used frequently to describe things we do on computers. But consider their traditional associations:

Browsing is shopping, strolling, flipping through a magazine. Browsing is fun, casual, entertaining.

Searching is mechanical, trial and error, frustrating. Searching is work.

There's a powerful emotional difference between the two. Now let's talk about tags.

👓 Just a Thought: How Tags Happened at Technorati | Powazek

Read Just a Thought: How Tags Happened at Technorati by Derek Powazek (powazek.com)
It's been six months since we added Tags to Technorati (where I'm Senior Designer), and as it turns out, it was a pretty big deal. So before we get too far away from it, here's the story of how it came about. From my perspective, anyway.

The page was set up to show any post that contained a link to it – in other words, if you linked to that page, then your post appeared on that page.  

Just a rehash of Refbacks? or an early implementation of Webmention?!
October 04, 2018 at 09:19AM

👓 Just a Thought: Design for Selfishness | Powazek

Read Just a Thought: Design for Selfishness by Derek Powazek (powazek.com )
In 1996, Paulina Borsook wrote a story that, frankly, really pissed me off. In "Cyberselfish," published in Mother Jones and eventually turned into a book, she wrote about how new have-it-your-way technology was creating a generation of spoiled brats with computers. I took umbrage. Not only was I a proud member of the generation she was lambasting (a generation that is now oldschool on the internet, for whatever that's worth), but I had personally observed just the opposite. I witnessed people using new digital tools to collaborate. I saw more selflessness and altruism online than off.

Highlights, Quotes, Annotations, & Marginalia

I think the internet’s core message can be summed up in one word: Share.  

An early reference to the sharing economy?
October 04, 2018 at 09:08AM

The last thing most people need is another microphone. They need something to say. (And time to say it.)  

Interesting to hear this from 2006 and looking back now…
October 04, 2018 at 09:12AM

Designing for selfishness does not mean abandoning the group good.  

October 04, 2018 at 09:14AM

Except that the aggregate selfish behavior of millions of people tagging billions of photos means that the public tag pages make entertaining surfing for everyone.  

Reading this reminds me of some of Brad Enslen and Kicks Condor‘s conversations about discovery on the net.

How can one leverage selfish behaviour to the benefit of all?
October 04, 2018 at 09:15AM

👓 Technorati Tags: What Are They Really? | Bokardo

Read Technorati Tags: What Are They Really? (bokardo.com)
Round and round we go, where we’ll stop, nobody knows! The crazy game of tags gets crazier. What are Technorati tags really? And should we use them now that categories are being indexed in the same way? Jeff Jarvis has started another good conversation about tagging over at Buzzmachine. (He started another good conversation about tagging recently). He recently implementated his interpretation of “tags”, and that got him thinking about their value and purpose.

👓 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth | The New York Times

Read 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth (nytimes.com)
Based on a trove of confidential financial records, the Times report offers the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald Trump a gilded life.
A quick précis of the whole 13,000+ word story for those without the time.

👓 How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President’s Wealth | New York Times

Read How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President’s Wealth (New York Times)
Three reporters spent over a year digging through more than 100,000 pages of documents and chasing down key sources familiar with President Trump’s father and his empire.

👓 Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father | New York Times

Read Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father by David Barstow (nytimes.com)
The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s.
I had suspected something like this for a long time and my suspicions were pushed during the election upon reports of Trump cheating sub-contractors and not paying them and again earlier this year when Jonathan Greenberg revised some of his 1980’s reportage for Forbes, but this is simply incredible!

While there are a lot of things one can take away from this stunning, thorough, and long read, the thing that strikes me is what Trump did to attempt to cheat his own father, who had been repeatedly been digging him out of trouble, when he was against the wall. He tried to defraud and steal from his greatest benefactor. How can anyone trust him to fight for America or real Americans when his entire substance as well as facade is a complete sham?

Combined with the millions he’s losing on real estate and other deals over the past decade, one is forced (again) to wonder who exactly is funding him now?

 

 

👓 The Cruelty Is the Point | The Atlantic

Read The Cruelty Is the Point (The Atlantic)
Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear.
A searing piece of writing here. A must-read.

This makes a compelling argument about why some humans are so painfully cruel.

👓 Why History Matters | Audrey Watters

Read Why History Matters by Audrey Watters (Hack Education)
This talk was given today to Eddie Maloney’s class at Georgetown University (specifically, its Learning and Design program) on “Technology & Innovation By Design”

👓 FBI has not contacted dozens of potential sources in Kavanaugh investigation | NBC News

Read FBI has not contacted dozens of potential sources in Kavanaugh investigation (NBC News)
With the investigation winding down, multiple individuals who have tried to contact the bureau have not heard back.

👓 Dear Christine Blasey Ford: I, too, was sexually assaulted — and it’s seared into my memory forever | Washington Post

Read Dear Christine Blasey Ford: I, too, was sexually assaulted — and it’s seared into my memory forever by Connie Chung (Washington Post)
I, too, was sexually assaulted — not 36 years ago but about 50 years ago. I have kept my dirty little secret to myself. Silence for five decades. The molester was our trusted family doctor. What made this monster even more reprehensible was that he was the very doctor who delivered me on Aug. 20, 1946. I’m 72 now.