From Slashdot:
"The Obama-Biden transition team on Friday named two long-time net neutrality advocates to head up its Federal Communications Commission Review team. Susan Crawford, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, member of the board of directors of ICANN, and OneWebDay founder, as well as Kevin Werbach, former FCC staffer, organizer of the annual Supernova technology conference, and a Wharton professor, will lead the Obama-Biden transition team's review of the FCC. 'Both are highly-regarded outside-the-Beltway experts in telecom policy, and they've both been pretty harsh critics of the Bush administration's telecom policies in the past year.' The choice of the duo strongly signals an entirely different approach to the incumbent-friendly telecom policy-making that's characterized most of the past eight-years at the FCC."
I'm happy with these picks of course, even though I've always been cautious about net neutrality legislation. Not because I don't want a neutral network, but because of the oversized role big business plays in crafting such legislation. I've had this long Cato Institute study queued up for the past week but haven't been able to get through more than the introduction: "The Durable Internet: Preserving Network Neutrality without Regulation." It seems to get at the major point behind my nervousness:
New regulations inevitably come with unintended consequences. Indeed, today's network neutrality debate is strikingly similar to the debate that produced the first modern regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission. Unfortunately, rather than protecting consumers from the railroads, the ICC protected the railroads from competition by erecting new barriers to entry in the surface transportation marketplace. Other 20th-century regulatory agencies also limited competition in the industries they regulated. Like these older regulatory regimes, network neutrality regulations are likely not to achieve their intended aims. Given the need for more competition in the broadband marketplace, policymakers should be especially wary of enacting regulations that could become a barrier to entry for new broadband firms.
Still, I'm less nervous about legislation in an Obama admin then I would have been under Bush! And beyond that specific legal question it's just nice to see some people being picked who actually know what they are talking about.
QOTD, heard in an NPR report about the real estate bubble in Dubai: "People say the market is self-healing. The market isn't self healing. The market is a self-mutilating manic depressive."
tarte tatin
clinton noise bs
ayersmail
who should play jerry?
player piano
elvis costalkshow
atwaterboarding
At 10 Downing, the long-delayed Village eatery from restaurateur Stephane Dorian (Le Zoo, Waterloo), onetime 71 Clinton chef Jason Neroni sends out market-focused, Med-accented New American fare at recession-conscious rates; its banquette-lined interior’s happening clientele and wallful of fine art ensure there’s plenty to please the eye, with a frontage of windows looking out on its bustling intersection to seal the deal.

Zagats
not very happy with this. its one thing to be magnanimous in victory and to recognize the need for building majorities, its another to support incompetent backstabbers.
Did anyone get a copy of the paper today?:

"Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out
that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end.

If, that is, they happened to read a "special edition" of today's New
York Times.

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million
papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged
pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass
them out on the street.

Articles in the paper announce dozens of new initiatives including the
establishment of national health care, the abolition of corporate
lobbying, a maximum wage for C.E.O.s, and, of course, the end of the
war.

The paper, an exact replica of The New York Times, includes
International, National, New York, and Business sections, as well as
editorials, corrections, and a number of advertisements, including a
recall notice for all cars that run on gasoline. There is also a
timeline describing the gains brought about by eight months of
progressive support and pressure, culminating in President Obama's "Yes
we REALLY can" speech. (The paper is post-dated July 4, 2009.)

"It's all about how at this point, we need to push harder than ever,"
said Bertha Suttner, one of the newspaper's writers. "We've got to make
sure Obama and all the other Democrats do what we elected them to do.
After eight, or maybe twenty-eight years of hell, we need to start
imagining heaven."

Not all readers reacted favorably. "The thing I disagree with is how
they did it," said Stuart Carlyle, who received a paper in Grand
Central Station while commuting to his Wall Street brokerage. "I'm all
for freedom of speech, but they should have started their own paper."
from the times both i will get to asap...

AT VERMILION This branch of Vermilion, in Chicago, owned by Rohini Dey, specializes in Maneet Chauhan’s fusion of Latin and Indian food. It is to open Friday: 480 Lexington Avenue (46th Street), (212) 871-6600.

TXIKITO Alexandra Raij, who was the chef at Tía Pol and El Quinto Pino nearby, and her husband, Eder Montero, also a chef, will open their own Basque-style spot Nov. 13. Its name is pronounced chee-KEE-toe, meaning “little” in Basque. There are red patent leather stools at a limestone counter for canapés called pinxos, tapas and regional dishes meant for sharing: 240 Ninth Avenue (24th Street), (212) 242-4730.
Well played.
"At some point, I gave up waiting for the end. There was no scandal or reversal, I assumed, that could sink the system.

Then came Meredith Whitney with news. Whitney was an obscure analyst of financial firms for Oppenheimer Securities who, on October 31, 2007, ceased to be obscure. On that day, she predicted that Citigroup had so mismanaged its affairs that it would need to slash its dividend or go bust. It’s never entirely clear on any given day what causes what in the stock market, but it was pretty obvious that on October 31, Meredith Whitney caused the market in financial stocks to crash. By the end of the trading day, a woman whom basically no one had ever heard of had shaved $369 billion off the value of financial firms in the market. Four days later, Citigroup’s C.E.O., Chuck Prince, resigned."
It's never been simpler to watch some of the very best online films … Gentry select some choice flicks for your enjoyment - turning up some lost gems and old favourites…
factoid of the day:

there is only one american still alive that fought in world war one. he is 107 yo.
amatller chocolate
momofuku milk bar and bakery

pork and egg bun: pork belly, deep fried soft poached egg, cucumber, hoisin, scallions

sign me up!!
great meal at wd50 last nite and i highly recomand the soup and the pork ribs should anyone be dining there.....
food fair
homegrown
table forestière
norma shearer