Category Archives: Pals
The Naked and Famous – Young Blood
My legs hurt
I did a 5K last night in Central Park – which sounds like nothing, but I am not a runner.
The last time I ran was 15 years ago in the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge, with Chris Acton. It was terrible. I ran the 5K race in Rochester in a terrible 45 minutes. I was so slow and awful that my elf-lord boss ran backwards in bare feet encouraging me to keep going. It seems kind, but it also seems kind of like krumping to show someone that it isn’t hard to dance.
Anyway, this time was better! I don’t dig the 30 minutes of being corralled while we wait to start or the crowding, but once the run started I was able to get going and stay going. I’m still slow – finished in 32 minutes – but it’s better by a lot than last time!
Review: A Burglar’s Guide to the City
A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve always been a fan of Geoff Manaugh’s BLDGBLOG, which is only nominally a study of architecture through strange lenses. (One of the first posts as I write this looks at an art study of the bacteria on money and how it travels through society and compares to seeds being transmitted through ancient boat ballast.)
And who doesn’t love burglary and heist movies – I’m in it for the naughtiness of penetrating forbidden places and urban exploration.
This book is a loving review of how architecture affects burglary, how burglary affects architecture, how the architecture of a city affects the burglary and then affects how policing responds. The helicopter patrols of L.A. sprawl are a response just as the vertical patrols of giant housing projects reflect their own landscapes.
We delve into locks, lockpicking, escaping, getaways, tunnels through earth, air, traffic, and buildings themselves.
At the end is the sobering reflection that all of this is only interesting as the edges of burglary, the mythical kind of burglary. Real burglary is too often full of ugly nastiness, destruction and damage to the lives of those burgled.
I really enjoyed the discussions on Nakatomi space and turning on burglar eyes to see architecture in a different way – it’s an easy read and I’d recommend it.
Who watches the watchmen?
The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.
The cases include those of 32 defendants sentenced to death. Of those, 14 have been executed or died in prison, the groups said under an agreement with the government to release results after the review of the first 200 convictions.
Source: FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades – The Washington Post
It happened before 2000. There was other evidence in those cases. But still – false testimony from these high levels over decades happened.
It should shake you.
What is preventing us from reading a similar headline in ten more years? How could we make sure this lab has an incentive to tell the truth rather than to ally with their colleagues?
Self portrait as a wood worker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTcvmmOkqJI?t=17s
Review: Dad Is Fat
Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It’s not really a great book, but it is a great thing to have in the bathroom. Think of a comic working on a series of small riffs on parenthood and writing them down.
That’s what this book is.
The best part is Jim explaining how they put 5 children to sleep in a 2 bedroom apartment, with diagrams. Given the complexity of putting down one child, I’m flabbergasted. My gasts are really flabbery after reading this book.
Reading material
Just got A Burglar’s Guide to the City in the mail, super excited to add it to my giant tower of books to read.
I fixed the stove
Our stove just stopped baking. It was weird. As soon as I got some cookie dough to make cookies with Maxie it stopped heating, though the broiler still worked.
We thought about calling a repairman, but given the cost I thought I’d take a shot. Did some searching and figured out there is an igniter that lights the gas that was probably the problem. The part costs $90, so I went for it.
I took the door off, removed all the racks, removed the oven floor and the flame spreader. Then I remembered to switch off the electricity to the oven. Doh!
The old igniter unscrewed from next to the gas plate but didn’t have enough cord to actually unplug. I snipped and stripped the leads and did the same with the new igniter. Joined the wires with some ceramic nuts and then ask that was left was replacing everything and testing. Worked first time! Huge savings and now I can make cookies with Lazerpants tomorrow…
Ghost: Emily
I will live on in the people I love and they will live on in me.
I like all the Radiotopia podcasts, but The Heart is a special treasure. Listening to Ghost: Emily reminded me I need to share it with the people I love.
The heart is an ongoing audio art project about intimacy.