Open Thread

[Ron Newman]

What we are spending IS NOT being effectively spent on productive endeavors.

True -- a lot of it is being spent on imperialism, which is good for corporations but not for people.

[Lurker]

Don't worry Ron, the DoD is making viral videos to get all the hipsters riled up and ready to go fight all our 'imperialist' wars for free. Koni is only the begging. Well.... at least until the dumb kids realize that twitter, trust fund donations, and iGadgets aren't going to stop madmen with automatic weapons in countries said kids have only a vague idea exist.

[BostonUrbEx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDChEDnISOw


^ GOP frauds breaking their own rules.



Can we end this two party system, now? Better yet, can we make parties illegal now? Every candidate for everything should be non partisan.

Not that the parties would ever let that happen though...

[bostonbred]

^^^
IAM thinkin GeORgiaWASH sugeSting such as thiS but NOTTAHAPPENIN. SO. FaRWELL to U BUDDY boy

BOSTON RULES!!!!

[GW2500]

Electronic Arts is coming out with a new Sim City in 2013. I saw a trailler for it, looks like it might be amazing.

[Lurker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zJx4RZq4Nw4

The obvious stereotypical left vs. right setup of the promo and over emphasis on environmental politics might ruin the game. EA has eventually ruined every studio they've acquired over the years and after SimCity Societies I'm afraid have high hopes for this title.

Unfortunately SC4 with the user made transportation addons is probably the best city simulator we are ever going to get.

[czsz]

Even if it is overpoliticized (and I hope they realize that narrowing the appeal of the game can't be good for business) it makes me wish I were 15 again...

[Lrfox]

Sc4 was great, but that'll be a decade old by the time of release. Sc societies was a departure and EA promises a return to the roots with this one. As long as they allow the community to develop custom content the way they did with sc4, I'm sure it will eventually be great (sc4 is better now than it ever was with all the mods and custom content available).

[BostonUrbEx]

I'm not holding my breathe on this, EA will either fold on the project or it will flop big time.

[Lurker]

I really wish that Maxis hadn't sold out to EA. They used to be so innovative and now all we can really hope for is more "The Sims" remakes and overpriced content packs for content which should have been in the core game. They've ruined Bullfrog, Westwood, Origin, and many others over the years and that's probably a big reason why fewer quality computer games are developed these days. Everything has been dumbed down for the lowest common denominator in the console market.

[datadyne007]

Vienna (Wien) is a fucking amazing city. History, architecture, efficient transit (U/S-Bahn, Tram, Bus), an amusement park in the city core (public, no entrance gates), a outdoor shopping mecca (DTX, but successful), and museums all wrapped in one package.

[czsz]

^ Haven't been, but seems a little stale in that Paris-museum-city way...and way less fun than Berlin.

[datadyne007]

^ Haven't been, but seems a little stale in that Paris-museum-city way...and way less fun than Berlin.

Not at all. The life here reaches levels that Berlin couldn't even dream about achieving. The shopping district (specifically Kohlmarkt where Demel [the famous bakery for torte] is) is precisely what DTX could be (same scale, proximity to tourist/historical attractions) if the city planners cared about the area.

[JohnAKeith]

Where am I?

http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo139/JohnAKeith/Random/vaca.jpg

[JohnAKeith]

Where am I?

http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo139/JohnAKeith/Random/vaca3.jpg

[commuter guy]

^Pure speculation, but your 1st pic looks like something you might find in between Dudley Sq. and the S.End. 2nd pick looks like something you might find in Coral Gables, FL

[Ron Newman]

I was going to guess Miami Beach for the second one.

[kmp1284]

My two guesses are Oranjestad, Aruba or Kingston, Jamaica. Judging by the age and construction of the building in the first shot and the third world fire escapes on the second, I doubt its anywhere in the U.S.

[czsz]

Plenty of buildings like the second in the US, fire escapes and all.

First shot definitely looks like something out of the Caribbean, even though I have a feeling it isn't.

[GW2500]

This should be outlawed tommorrow. And seeing how you can't ask and applicant's age or sexual orientation, and a facebook profile could easily answer these questions, it is already inherently illegal.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/03/20/job_seekers_getting_asked_for_facebook_passwords/?p1=News_links

Home / News / Nation
Job seekers getting asked for Facebook passwords
Robert Collins of Baltimore poses for a photo Friday, March 16, 2012 at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. When Collins returned from a leave of absence from his job as a security guard with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services in 2010, he was asked for his Facebook login and password during a reinstatement interview, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
By Manuel Valdes and Shannon Mcfarland
Associated Press / March 20, 2012
E-mail| Print| Text size – + 2033E-mail E-mail this article To: Invalid E-mail address Add a personal message:(80 character limit) Your E-mail: Invalid E-mail address
Sending your articleYour article has been sent. SEATTLE—When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.

Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps -- such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.

"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,

After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.

"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.

Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.

And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.

Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."

When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."

In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.

"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."

Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.

E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.

Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.

"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.

More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.

Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.

Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.

The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.

"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.

In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.

"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."

[Shepard]

Anyone with a solid career, good career prospects, or a a respectable character will probably be off of facebook within 5 years. I suspect that facebook will evolve into a more financially sustainable version of what MySpace was, attracting naive teenagers and holding the interest of the lumpenproletariat.

[GW2500]

^^ Yea I got nothing to hide either, its just work invaiding your privacy that pisses me off. To be honest I think drug tests are as well. If your doing a good job when your on the clock, then your doing a good job when your on the clock. What you do on vacation is none of their business.

[datadyne007]

Going to the birthplace of modern architecture tomorrow... NBD...

!!! ;-)

[czsz]

Weimar/Dessau?

[JohnAKeith]

Two things.

The first, those two photos are from a) San Juan; and, b) Jacksonville, Florida. The second is a condominium building originally built in the mid-1920's or so. Photo taken from the riverside (that feeds into the Atlantic) park next door, designed by the Olmsted brothers.

Also, here's a rather odd "The Lucy Show" episode where Lucy leads the fight against mean Mr. Mooney and his bank from putting a new freeway down Main Street, USA. Comparisons to Jane Jacobs expected.

http://www.archive.org/details/Lucy_Show_Main_Street

(To be honest, the episode is terribly long and boring, even at just 25 minutes. Mel Torme is in it and wrote a song for it, apparently. Someone named John Bubbles is in it, too, as a 105-year old soft-shoe dancer.)

[datadyne007]

Weimar/Dessau?

Dessau/Bauhaus

[statler]

So 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, the Red Line & Franklin Park.

What the hell was in Boston's water supply in 1912 and where can we get some more to dump in the Quabbin?

[Ron Newman]

Franklin Park is older than that.

[BostonUrbEx]

Franklin Park is older than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Park_Zoo

1912

[BostonUrbEx]

The original Filene's Building was also built in 1912. Imagine if Millienium Partners could get construction going for the 100th anniversary? :D

[statler]

OK, that was a stupid mistake on my part. :)

And I forgot about Filene's. Wow. What a year.

[itchy]

This conversation (i.e., about 1912 in Boston) reminded me of this Globe article, which came out shortly after New Year's:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/01/04/many-boston-landmarks-turn-this-year/L6Tewu3J33mptWi0wiioYM/story.html

[Ron Newman]

I'm highly amused that the article notes Fenway Park was
the first [ballpark] to have a parking lot

[JohnAKeith]

Irrational exuberance may have played a part in the development boom during the first decade, I don't know. Also, the completion of the build-out of the Back Bay and expansion of hospitals & universities in the Fenway.

Was it "by design"? I would say yes, as well as by accident.

Institutional Creep in Fenway; Back Bay Breathing Sigh of Relief (http://backbay.patch.com/articles/institutional-creep-in-fenway-back-bay-breathing-sigh-of-relief)
By John Keith, Patch.com, February 23, 2011

The Back Bay was originally designed to be home to Boston's major cultural, medical and educational institutions. Over time, however, many have relocated to the Fenway. Not everyone is happy about that.

The Fenway neighborhood of Boston is the location of many major educational, medical, and cultural institutions. The neighborhood is also home to thousands of residents, some of whom are displeased with the effects of "institutional creep".

Recently, Northeastern University announced a proposal to expand its campus by building a 720-bed dormitory tower on land purchased from the YMCA. Some residents in the community have expressed frustration over the plan, feeling their neighborhood is being overwhelmed by "institutional creep."

Meanwhile, Back Bay residents breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that, had 19th-century city planners had their way, their neighborhood could easily have become what the Fenway is today.

In the mid-1800's, meticulous plans were drawn up for the laying-out of the Back Bay, making it a neighborhood with a mixture of single-family homes, churches, educational and cultural institutions, and a retail district on Newbury and Boylston streets. Yet, it was not to be; these institutions grew rapidly and, in the need for additional space, moved west to the Fenway.

So, the Back Bay in the 21st-century, instead of staying true to its original design as an integrated residential and institutional neighborhood, remains solidly residential.

The Fenway neighborhood is continuing its 110-plus year progression toward a neighborhood made up mostly of institutions: colleges, universities and hospitals -- with most of its residents living in medium-to-large apartment complexes.

The Boston Public Library, circa 1895, is pretty much the only institution that remains in the Back Bay, other than churches. The Museum of Fine Arts was originally located in Copley Square before it moved down Huntington Ave, opening its first galleries in 1909. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus was located near the Square, but it pulled up stakes and relocated to Cambridge in 1916. The Harvard Medical School was in Copley Square for 25-years before moving to Longwood Ave in 1906.

These organizations moved to the Fenway because they ran out of space in the Back Bay. Their needs were for buildings that expanded outwardly, not upwardly, so they changed neighborhoods at the turn of the 20th-century. By default as much as by design, they ended up grouped together, becoming each other’s neighbor.

Major institutions that started elsewhere but ended up in the Fenway include:

* Beth Israel hospital: it opened its doors in Roxbury in 1916 and moved to the Fenway in 1928;
* New England Deaconess hospital: established in 1896, it relocated from the South End to the Fenway in 1907;
* Wheelock College: founded in 1888, it moved to its current location in 1914;
* Childrens Hospital: opened in 1869 in the South End before moving to the Fenway.

These institutions chose the Fenway as their homes due to their proximity to other, similar organizations:

* Symphony Hall: the Boston Symphony Orchestra opened its first season here in 1900;
* First Church of Christ, Scientist: the Mother Church was finished in 1894 and its extension, the domed church, was completed in 1906;
* Northeastern University: founded in 1898, its first classes were held in the YMCA. It relocated in 1913;
* Wentworth Institute of Technology: established in 1904, opened in 1911;
* Isabella Stewart Gardner: the museum opened in 1903;
* Emmanuel College: established in 1919;
* Brigham & Women’s Hospital: established its roots in the 1800’s and in the Fenway in 1900’s;
* Fenway Park: originally playing on fields near Northeastern, the Boston Red Sox relocated here in 1912.

Contrary to what some might think -- that the Fenway neighborhood existed long before the hospitals and colleges arrived -- it was during this time that many of the apartment buildings were built (1899-1925), concurrent or even after the institutions had opened and established themselves.

Therefore, it's not accurate for either group to say, "We were here, first." Residents and institutions have shared the neighborhood for over a century. It's hard to imagine the Fenway without both.

The Back Bay, meanwhile, has its own set of problems. Similar to the Fenway's residents pushing back against the tide to contain hospitals and universities, Back Bay residents are fighting the encroachment of corporations and office towers into its neighborhood.

How successful either group will be has yet to be determined.

[Ron Newman]

Not mentioned, but you could have: Emerson College moved from the Back Bay to the Theatre District.

Berklee College of Music could be said to straddle the Back Bay and Fenway neighborhoods today. Its original location at Newbury & Gloucester was more strictly Back Bay.

A couple more Fenway institutions today: Boston Conservatory and New England Conservatory (which moved here from the South End).

[KentXie]

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/27/10887250-worlds-cities-to-expand-by-more-than-twice-the-size-of-texas-by-2030

Interesting read and something which all NIMBYs should take a look at.

[datadyne007]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/arts/design/renovated-tour-bois-le-pretre-brightens-paris-skyline.html?_r=2&sq=housing&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=2&adxnnlx=1332954864-SclasySGQS+Vl9e9wXj8Kg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/27/arts/building/building-articleLarge.jpg

Facade-ectomy transforms ugly pre-fab Paris tower. Berlin should take notes. There's hundreds of Commie blocks this could happen to.

[Ron Newman]

Is that really an improvement over its previous architecture?

[datadyne007]

...

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/28/arts/artsspecial/20120328BUILDING-SS-slide-U42P/20120328BUILDING-SS-slide-U42P-slide.jpg

[statler]

So... no?

[czsz]

It's going to be funny to look back on all that gushing 50 years from now when it's declaying housing project built of dirty glass instead of a decaying housing project built of ugly concrete.

LeCorb is grinning in his grave at the thought that a serious arch critic thinks a reclad of this wasteland matters.

[Ron Newman]

I'm sure the new version of the building is much better for its residents, which is the most important thing. I just don't see it as a great exterior improvement, for people looking at it from outside. You've basically turned one of the Rindge Towers into Tremont-on-the-Common.

[kmp1284]

GFCI 11 Top 20:
GFCI 11 GFCI 10 Change
Rank Rating Rank Rating Rank Rating
London 1 781 1 774 - ▲ 7
New York 2 772 2 773 - ▼ -1
Hong Kong 3 754 3 770 - ▼ -16
Singapore 4 729 4 735 - ▼ -6
Tokyo 5 693 6 695 ▲ 1 ▼ -2
Zurich 6 689 8 686 ▲ 2 ▲ 3
Chicago 7 688 7 692 - ▼ -4
Shanghai 8 687 5 724 ▼ -3 ▼ -37
Seoul 9 686 11 679 ▲ 2 ▲ 7
Toronto 10 685 10 680 - ▲ 5
Boston 11 684 12 678 ▲ 1 ▲ 6
SFO 12 683 9 681 ▼ -3 ▲ 2
Frankfurt 13 681 16 667 ▲ 3 ▲ 14
Geneva 14 679 13 672 ▼ -1 ▲ 7
Wash. D.C. 15 677 14 670 ▼ -1 ▲ 7
Sydney 16 674 15 669 ▼ -1 ▲ 5
Vancouver 17 667 17 661 - ▲ 6
Montreal 18 658 20 652 ▲ 2 ▲ 6
Munich 19 656 22 649 ▲ 3 ▲ 7
Melbourne 20 653 18 656 ▼ -2 ▼ -3

Sorry about that, it didn't keep its formatting. I'll post a link later. That was copied out of an email.

[Ron Newman]

could you at least describe what all of that data means? what is GFCI? (to me, that abbreviation means Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter)

[Patrick]

GFCI = "Global Financial Centers Index"

If I read that correctly, Boston is the 11th most important financial center in the world, after Seoul and before San Francisco-Oakland metro.

Not surprisingly, the list--which is compiled in England--lists London as the number one spot.

[kmp1284]

Other than New Yorkers, I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance. What is most interesting with this particular listing is that #5 through #16 fall within 20 points of each other.

[czsz]

Other than New Yorkers, I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance.

Is this a joke? Why do you think the national/global financial industry is referred to as "Wall Street"?

By contrast, do you ever hear anyone from outside the UK refer to high finance as "the City"?

It's true NY and London have been nipping at each others' heals for decades now over this title, but I think in terms of public perception NY has the edge.

[statler]

Ron,

Your name just popped up in a Malden Patch article (about Filene's Basement IP).

Please stop being everywhere on the internet.

:)

[Ron Newman]

I've never written anything for Malden Patch. Occasionally I submit a comment at Somerville Patch, but I don't recall ever talking about Filene's Basement there.

[kmp1284]

Is this a joke? Why do you think the national/global financial industry is referred to as "Wall Street"?

By contrast, do you ever hear anyone from outside the UK refer to high finance as "the City"?

It's true NY and London have been nipping at each others' heals for decades now over this title, but I think in terms of public perception NY has the edge.

The key phrase there being public perception.

[czsz]

You wrote:

I don't think anyone has ever considered New York to truly be the center of global finance

I thought public perception was what we were talking about?

[Ron Newman]

"public perception" depends on which country's public is doing the perceiving.

[BostonUrbEx]

www.youtube.com/bostondynamics

Some of the creepest shit I've ever seen. ^

I think I've seen "Big Dog" before, but didn't know about the Boston connection at all, nor all of these other creations.

[statler]

Ron,

I know, it's just the nature of the internet. In the article about Filene's Basements IP (http://malden.patch.com/articles/filenes-to-auction-intellectual-property-including-customer-info) (why in Malden Patch, IDK) they mentioned you and your UHub post

[datadyne007]

"local newshound" OW OW!

(Also: Yay 1,500 posts!)

[Lurker]

www.youtube.com/bostondynamics (http://www.youtube.com/bostondynamics)

Some of the creepest shit I've ever seen. ^.

Cybrids V.01a beta

[Semass]

Not sure where to put this, but an interesting posting in the MassINC blog:
http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/The-Download/185-The-underbelly-of-land-use-politics.aspx


You don’t have to be a Saint to oppose development, according to a federal court ruling earlier this week. In fact, the judge says, you can be “sneaky” and “underhanded” about your opposition because it is protected by the First Amendment.

That was the ruling in a suit against Hingham-based Saint Consulting Group, filed by a developer in a case where Saint employees posed as residents of an Illinois town to muster opposition to a Wal-Mart which would have challenged the local supermarket chain which hired Saint.

Saint Consulting, started by former reporter turned political consultant Mike Saint, is a worldwide group that specializes in overcoming local opposition to land use, ranging from quarry excavation to land development.

But the company’s biggest notoriety came after a Wall Street Journal story detailed its “black arts” approach to opposing Wal-Mart on behalf of supermarket chains that hired the company. In fact, Mike Saint allegedly refers to his employees as “Wal-Mart killers,” according to the article. Of the more than 1,500 projects the company has undertaken, more than one-third have been to oppose a development.

In the case that spawned the ruling this week, a former Saint employee admitted he was sent to Mundelein, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, to mobilize opposition to Wal-Mart on behalf of Supervalu, a midwest supermarket chain that is in direct competition with the retailing behemoth. Robert Mayo, the employee the judge dubbed an “agent provocateur,” assumed the pseudonym of “Greg Olson” and began to foment resident opposition posing as one of them.

The actions, targeting Wal-Mart’s local developer, Rubloff Development Co., were successful, according to documents revealed in the lawsuit.

“Happy 1 year Anniversary, by the way. We cost these guys [Rubloff] a ton of money,” one local attorney wrote to Saint.

According to the ruling, “Other questionable tactics included the rewriting of expert
reports for use in litigation, ‘backchannel’ communications with a Lake County judge to try to get a read on how that litigation would turn out, and . . . failure to promptly forward settlement offers to [an attorney’s] landowner clients, presumably as another delay tactic.”

Mayo allegedly sold information about his work and the Saint actions to Rubloff and Rubloff turned the information over to the Journal and then filed a suit charging Supervalu and Saint with fraud, conspiracy, racketeering, a violation of their civil rights and a slew of other bad acts.

Saint admitted the clandestine approach, one it touts on its website, but argued the approach is not illegal and is, in fact, its right. Judge Harry Leineweber agreed.

“Defendants do not really deny they were sneaky, but claim being sneaky is legal under the Constitution,” Leineweber wrote in the ruling.

Land use politics and NIMBY opposition are nasty business. But as Leineweber says, sinners and Saints both have legal rights.
--JACK SULLIVAN[/COLOR]

[GW2500]

www.youtube.com/bostondynamics

Some of the creepest shit I've ever seen. ^

I think I've seen "Big Dog" before, but didn't know about the Boston connection at all, nor all of these other creations.

We're on the verge of a massive invasion of robots into our society. For the most part it's pretty exciting.

[datadyne007]

Damn, the GDR/DDR sure did give its residents killer views of Berlin in those endless rows of identical towers. It's just unfortunate that they came bundled with a socialist regime. =P

At least now you can enjoy the view on your huge balcony and then travel to W Berlin and have dinner.

Level 17, Leipziger Straße:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/386525_2913665764985_1360897964_3209056_893158782_ n.jpg

I know, it's blurry. Look at it from far away.

[tobyjug]

Damn, the GDR/DDR sure did give its residents killer views of Berlin in those endless rows of identical towers. It's just unfortunate that they came bundled with a socialist regime. =P



Yeah, but they've got a ferris wheel so they are world class.

[datadyne007]

Yeah, but they've got a ferris wheel so they are world class.

You can never escape the Fernsehtrum either! It's always looming over you.

[bostonbred]

dIe IST wElTkAtagorIe!!! Und SO.

[statler]

Fools, April, etc...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rznYifPHxDg&feature=player_embedded#!

[briv]

^Boston in Google Maps, Quest Mode:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/gmaps_quest_mode_boston.png

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/gmaps_quest_boston_streetview_1.png

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y99/briv1/gmaps_quest_boston_streetview.png

[datadyne007]

Loved the 8-bit Hancock!

[datadyne007]

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/41172/new-south-china-mall/

"A Billionaire’s Dream Deferred: China’s Empty Monument to Consumerism"
- New South China Mall

http://www.architizer.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20110208_south_china_mall_temples_of_consumerism00 1-600x399.jpg

[datadyne007]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/524390_10150761439551210_599021209_11871116_206790 3318_n.jpg
LA Transit dream - "You can actually take the train somewhere instead of kind-of-near somewhere."

This just popped up on my Facebook feed. Source is unknown.

[Ron Newman]

That map does extreme violence to the actual Los Angeles geography. I looked at it wondering why there was no line to Santa Monica beach, only to find that it has the line running *south* from UCLA to there.

[Lurker]

For Ron:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyz5d3entBw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGYngjxJP1I&feature=player_embedded

[BostonUrbEx]

http://cdn.foodbeast.com.s3.amazonaws.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ihop-red-velvet-pancakes.jpg

Red Velvet Pancakes. IHOP. April only. Go. NOW.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Oh god damn!

[Lrfox]

http://cdn.foodbeast.com.s3.amazonaws.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ihop-red-velvet-pancakes.jpg

Red Velvet Pancakes. IHOP. April only. Go. NOW.

http://i785.photobucket.com/albums/yy139/jfoahs04/mother-of-god-template.jpg

[statler]

http://cdn.foodbeast.com.s3.amazonaws.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ihop-red-velvet-pancakes.jpg

Red Velvet Pancakes. IHOP. April only. Go. NOW.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzecj69SH61qgna2y.gif

[datadyne007]

Ugh, IHOP is where I'm going the morning after I get back from Germany (thankfully that is Apr 28 - still time for the red velvet!). I miss it so much. Pancakes (and breakfast sandwiches) pretty much only exist in McDonalds here. The night I get back, I'm having the biggest and tastiest American dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

God bless the USA.

[Lurker]

http://foodbeast.com/content/2012/04/09/burger-king-testing-a-new-bacon-sundae-because-this-is-america/

The link says it all.

[Lurker]

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-population-control-holocaust

Not recommended reading for those with a weak constitution.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Or people with ADHD.

[Lrfox]

Red Velvet Pancakes. IHOP. April only. Go. NOW.

Went to IHOP at 2:30am last night simply because of the red velvet pancakes. I wasn't disappointed. I don't regret that decision.

[Shepard]

Is it me, or is Marathon Monday virtually the only day in Massachusetts where open container regulations and other blue law repressions go out the window?

In Brookline, at least, bottles cans and solo cups were very conspicuous among the spectating crowd. Didn't seem like any law enforcement officials cared. At least one Washington Square bar was serving into solo cups for unofficial take-out service. As if for one day you get to taste what it's like to live in a free society.

Anyone else make this observation?

PS. Shockingly, the world didn't end

[datadyne007]

Definitely going to miss enjoying a beer with friends on the U-Bahn on the way back from class.

Btw, imagine sleeping in City Hall for a night.. that's what it's like sleeping in a monk's cell in Corbu's La Tourette. Freezing cold.

[blade_bltz]

http://foodbeast.com/content/2012/04/09/burger-king-testing-a-new-bacon-sundae-because-this-is-america/

The link says it all.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/04/behold-a-hamburger-stacked-with-a-thousand-pieces-of-bacon/

Because this is Japan.

[czsz]

Remember that proposed shadow law? Could've been worse:

Builders in Britain have a particularly vexing challenge: a 900-year-old requirement that any new construction maintain a candle’s worth of sunlight for neighboring properties. U.K. landowners have had rights to natural light from the oft-overcast sky since the 12th century. In 2012, developers are paying dearly for casting shadows on nearby structures after a 2010 court ruling that the part of a building obstructing a neighbor’s natural light could be torn down.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-19/for-london-developers-light-is-a-heavy-burden

[tobyjug]

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/04/behold-a-hamburger-stacked-with-a-thousand-pieces-of-bacon/

Because this is Japan.

Why not just put a live pig in a bun.

[BostonUrbEx]

Went to IHOP at 2:30am last night simply because of the red velvet pancakes. I wasn't disappointed. I don't regret that decision.

I've been to IHOP more times this month than any other month ever simply due to red velvet pancakes. The cream cheese icing is what really seals the deal.

[Lurker]

http://phys.org/news/2012-04-georgia-tech-bus-bunching.html
Georgia Tech researchers address bus bunching

April 19, 2012 (http://phys.org/archive/19-04-2012/) By Liz Klipp

Bus Bunching Demo
As any city dweller knows, buses are rarely on time. It’s typical to wait a while, only to have several buses show up one after another, a phenomenon known as bus bunching.
Fortunately, researchers and students at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a possible solution for bus (http://phys.org/tags/bus/) bunching that provides better service to riders, simplifies the job of drivers and reduces work for management.
Industrial & Systems Engineering Professor John Bartholdi and Georgia Tech alumnus Don Eisenstein (MS IE 1983, PhD IE 1992), a colleague from the University of Chicago, have devised a way of computing the delays so gaps between buses “self-equalize.”
Now an interdisciplinary team of Georgia Tech students have built a system of tablet computers to control the trolleys using the equation on Tech’s main campus route, which carries more than 5,000 passengers a day.
“Because of its simplicity, our scheme is easy to implement and easy to adapt,” said Bartholdi, who is also the Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management. “We expect it to be useful for other transportation systems with short headways, such as subway trains or airport shuttles.”
The first step toward reliable bus service, Bartholdi says, is to abandon the fixed schedule and have drivers go with the flow of traffic.
Under the “self-equalizing” plan, each bus is equipped with a GPS and cellphone. The GPS constantly reports the bus’s position to a central server. When the server recognizes the bus has reached a stop, it sends a message via cellphone telling the driver how long to wait and when to proceed.
That departure time is calculated through the “self-equalizing” equation, which changes the headway of each newly arrived bus to an average of its former headway and the headway of the trailing bus. For example, if its former headway was larger, its new headway becomes smaller. Using the equation, gaps between buses will equalize even if a bus is added or removed, or if the bus route changes.
“The equation computes a wait time for each bus arriving at a control point in such a way that gaps between buses tend to equalize,” Bartholdi said. “Exactly how that happens is the magic of the mathematics.”
When the research team tested the system on Tech’s bus line earlier this semester, the researchers received positive results and favorable reviews from bus riders and drivers.
This is a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) at Georgia Tech, which combines students from across disciplines to solve a real-world project. The research outcomes will be published in Transportation Research Part B in May.

More information: Read more about Self-Coordinated Buses Resist Bunching here (http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/%7Ejjb/buses/buses.html) .

Provided by Georgia Institute of Technology (news (http://phys.org/partners/georgia-institute-of-technology/) : web (http://www.gatech.edu/))

[bostonbred]

oOLd Unsle SHowiNG me THIS!!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17890754

I VERRY CITED!!!! OMGG!!!! MUST SAle to BOSTON! But NOT hit asberg!!!

MAYO und GUVNER should c offer TAXCREDTLINGS. Bild in BOSTON places. Or. Quincy!!!!.

BUT. MORE LIFBOATLINS. creating JOBS for wOODworkermans. Like BIG floting sky sraper. BUT. ON SIDE!!!

[datadyne007]

The buses are always on time in Berlin.

[statler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRhPeJ3uzOc

[GW2500]

I'm sure many on here feel the same way. RIP MCA. Beasty Boys had a very speacial path, both musically and artistically.

[statler]

Celebrity deaths usually don't faze me but this one kind of hit me.

He was still working and creating.

I knew about the cancer but I thought he was doing better. Very, very sad.

[Beton Brut]

We were all young one, statler.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PLfjhQG97I&ob=av2e

Fuck cancer.

[Lurker]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139914/A-rare-insight-Kowloon-Walled-City.html

Inside the Kowloon Walled City where 50,000 residents eked out a grimy living in the most densely populated place on earth

By Pamela Owen (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=&authornamef=Pamela+Owen)
PUBLISHED: 07:21 EST, 5 May 2012 | UPDATED: 09:45 EST, 5 May 2012


Once thought to be the most densely populated place on Earth, with 50,000 people crammed into only a few blocks, these fascinating pictures give a rare insight into the lives of those who lived Kowloon Walled City.
Taken by Canadian photographer Greg Girard in collaboration with Ian Lamboth the pair spent five years familiarising themselves with the notorious Chinese city before it was demolished in 1992.
The city was a phenomenon with 33,000 families and businesses living in more than 300 interconnected high-rise buildings, all constructed without contributions from a single architect.

[datadyne007]

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/evg/2998623217.html

Now Hiring several positions (Fenway Park)
Date: 2012-05-05, 8:05PM EDT
Reply to: sqff9-2998623217@gigs.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Now Hiring the following positions

Catchers
Relief Pitchers
Starting Pitchers
Managers with a good sense of when to leave a pitcher in and when to take a pitcher out
General Manager
Owner focused on the every day operations of the Boston Red Sox

Accepting all applicants. You can't be worse than what we've got now.

Location: Fenway Park
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 2998623217

[Suffolk 83]

I didn't get to post it. But I second the sentiments on MCA. RIP. What a shocker. He influenced alot of people and was still making great music in a genre where 47 yo's usually don't have it anymore. This one hurts.

[kz1000ps]

Any NASCAR fans here? No? Yeah that's what I thought. But check out who was racing at Talledega today:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1099402/photo__18_.JPG

No joke, Ricky Bobby's paint scheme was in use today on a legit race car. Shake and bake!

[TMcLaughlin]

No joke, Ricky Bobby's paint scheme was in use today on a legit race car. Shake and bake!

It was only a matter of time. Glad to see the suit, too.
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0adfb9egOnbML/613x459.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000

[Lurker]

Isn't a Microsoft sponsored car more susceptible to spectacular crashes?

[Ron Newman]

Does it have a blue windscreen of death?

[statler]

Windscreen?

I never knew you were British Ron.

[datadyne007]

Windscreen?

I never knew you were British Ron.

It's the only way to work in the word "screen" in that pun. Blue windshield of death doesn't make sense.

[kz1000ps]

Oh man was Windows ME a turd.........three Blue Screens of Death per day was the magic number. Upgrading to XP Pro was like night and day, and as a matter of fact that computer is still working (fairly) smoothly to this day.

[datadyne007]

Oh man was Windows ME a turd.........three Blue Screens of Death per day was the magic number. Upgrading to XP Pro was like night and day, and as a matter of fact that computer is still working (fairly) smoothly to this day.

ME was unfortunately shipped with a defect on the disc itself (in the code) because it was a rushed release. It was doomed from the moment that you installed it. It was a highly unfortunate mistake, as it was a great home OS for the times. That was the last time Microsoft ever rushed an OS' release. To build XP, Microsoft went back to the highly-successful (and my personal favorite) Windows 2000 code.

[TMcLaughlin]

Isn't a Microsoft sponsored car more susceptible to spectacular crashes?

Pair Microsoft with Michael Bay and you may have the most popular team in NASCAR!

[bostonbred]

IAM show THIS to OLde Uncl und he CRYSING bad:

http://www.bu.edu/buniverse/view/?v=2HYzSTzN

[Shepard]

Damn Nstar, what now?!

[datadyne007]

Power-pocalypse 2012 Part II. Even Copley Place is in the dark.

[BostonUrbEx]

BFD and NSTAR are on scene of the previous explosion. Apparently they were continuing work on the transformers and then the system shorted out.

[AdamBC]

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6220/7000161385_35af6f38a4_z.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/7000161385/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Hindenburg over Boston.

[datadyne007]

Horrible news for Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg Intl. June 3 opening date delayed indefinitely because of fire protection issues (issues were corrected, but not enough time now to retest them). This damn airport was supposed to open in 2007!

http://www.expatica.com/de/news/german-news/fury-as-new-berlin-airport-delayed-indefinitely_226029.html

[czsz]

Good to know even Germans have embarrassing infrastructure fails. Most Berliners will be happy to keep using Tegel anyway.

[datadyne007]

Good to know even Germans have embarrassing infrastructure fails. Most Berliners will be happy to keep using Tegel anyway.

Tegel, maybe yes because of the location, but Terminal C (literally a converted hangar that looks like a Home Depot) was designed to only be used for 4 years. Seeing how Terminal C is all AirBerlin, this is a huge blow for AirBerlin. The main terminal is cool though because of the shape and fact that where you enter the airport is literally where your plane gate is (behind a thin glass wall). The Berliners that paid hundreds of Euros to fly on the first A380 trip out of BER are not going to be happy.

Schoenefeld on the other hand is an absolute dump.

[czsz]

Right; my impression was that everyone loved it for the "drive to your gate" thing, although this was clearly more convenient before the age of security. Being trapped in the little gate areas with a full security line experience between you and reentry from any food/bathroom sprint is not pleasant and I never got why Berliners thought it was a worthwhile tradeoff. I was looking forward to making any future visit via BBI (got excited when I saw it pop up on Kayak at the idea that you could book a flight to an airport that wasn't even opened yet...a future airport, if you will).

I think, at least among former West Berliners, maybe nostalgia for the Cold War and not having to share infrastructure with the Ossis must play some role.

And I can actually see them liking the shitty Airberlin terminal because Germans can put up with literally any amount of bullshit (read: spending all day comparison shopping canned food prices at different supermarkets) to get a discount.

[datadyne007]

OMG I know! All the Berliners would rant and rave about how expensive Kaisers was, but the prices were literally AT LEAST HALF of Shaw's and Stop and Shop. The kicker is that Kaisers was around 20-50 Eurocents more than Lidl. ("Angebot" is the magic word in Germany) ;-)

I think the biggest plus for BER (btw, "BBI" was dropped) is that you don't have to get bussed to the damn plane. Those busses from Terminal C were horrible (I only flew AirBerlin when I traveled because it rocks except for Lufthansa home).

[Justin7]

3-D printing company makes Fenway replica (http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/visuals/post/_/id/1844/3d-printing-company-makes-fenway-replica)

[kmp1284]

http://www.historicaerials.com/

[Beton Brut]

Mommy, I want it (http://www.architecturaldigest.com/blogs/daily/2012/05/cassina-franco-albini-bookcase).

[tobyjug]

^^^^

Wow!

But at that price I'll have to wait for the Chinese knockoff.

[underground]

Thought you all might like to hear some fun North End goings on. Evidently the guy who runs the Segway tours in the North End is running for neighborhood council. He's guaranteed a seat at the moment because they can't get enough candidates to run. For those not following, the council asked the city to ban Segways from sidewalks and parks, and now there's a pending lawsuit against the city.

There's a fun little flame war going on in the local news site (http://northendwaterfront.com/2012/05/six-residents-file-papers-for-election-on-neighborhood-council-newnc/)

[BostonUrbEx]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/05/09/fenway-announcer-carl-beane-killed-car-crash/WqcvCFbCaFkINxZvUFq6aI/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

Nooooo! :'(

[BostonUrbEx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKIbIvBYhw

[statler]

I love Kurt Vonnegut (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/i-am-very-real.html).

[bostonbred]

IAm thinkin THIs WRONGG!!! BOSTON NO ONO 4EVR!!!!!

http://www.topuniversities.com/student-life/best-student-cities/2012/

[datadyne007]

IAm thinkin THIs WRONGG!!! BOSTON NO ONO 4EVR!!!!!

http://www.topuniversities.com/student-life/best-student-cities/2012/

Wow, up in the ranks with Paris, London, and Vienna. Awesome.

[tobyjug]

I love Kurt Vonnegut (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/i-am-very-real.html).

Actually met him once around the time of that letter.

Went to a Globe Book Fair with a pal, Vonnegut was the featured speaker. Funny speech, he talked about Dresden (that wasn't the funny bit), answered some questions. When Vonnegut finished, my pal and I split and went to Jacob Wirths for a few pitchers of beer.

After a couple of pitchers, I notice this rumpled Columbo looking guy sitting by himself down at the piano end of the bar. Nudge my pal and say:

"Hey, its Vonnegut. What's he doin?"

"Drinking beer asshole, whadya think he's doin."

"Let's buy him a beer!"

"Hey KURT, KURT, KURTTTT...NICE SPEECH! WANNA BEER?"

"Sure kid. You Irish?"

"YA KURT!!! Half, anyway."

"Yeah, kid. But your ALL drunk."

"Hey THANKS Kurt!!! You know what? You're TALLER on a barstool than you look!"

"Thanks kid. Thanks for the beer too."

"NO PROBLEM KURT! Be seein ya!"

"Here's looking at you, kid!"

"THANKS KURT!!! Bye! Bye!"

Toby and pal return to finish many pitchers.

I can't say my recollection is word perfect, for reasons you may well appreciate. But in those days Jacob Wirths had no neon signs, the waiters wore tails and there was sawdust on the floor. Years later I read that it was one of Vonnegut's favorite bars, maybe a throwback to his German heritage, or maybe just because it was strange. In any event, I'm glad we didn't knock it off of his favorites list.

[Lurker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw

[BostonUrbEx]

They should do it again. But not staged where every single person within a 10 block radius is on it.

[czsz]

Wow, up in the ranks with Paris, London, and Vienna. Awesome.

The ranking was probably largely based on student population. With Boston's closing times, lack of night bus service, and failure to provide late night dining or other options, it felt way harder and way less fun to be a student there than in NY. Whenever I brought Euro-visitors around they couldn't believe it was a "student city" because of the lack of posters, graffiti, nightlife, evidence of alt-lifestyle youth culture etc. compared even to much smaller university towns they were familiar with like Bologna or Krakow or student neighborhoods like the Latin Quarter of Paris or San Lorenzo in Rome. Only Central Square ever came close to fulfilling expectations, and barely at that.

Gentrification has probably played a huge role in this; 20 years ago, central Boston and Cambridge probably felt much more student-centered, and issues like transit weren't as big a deal with students able to live it up more in the center. Places in downtown Manhattan that used to be really fun for students are really losing their edge for the same reason now, and maybe the only place in North America that really feels comparable to a European "student city" is barely-gentrified Montreal.

[datadyne007]

The Houston Dynamo inaugurated their brand new stadium today. Waaaaa I want one in Allston!

http://blog.chron.com/soccer/wp-content/blogs.dir/1907/files/dynamo-new-home/20120512_dynamoopener_jan_03.jpg

[Lurker]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=048_1336682949&p=1 (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=048_1336682949)

h t t p ://w w w.l iveleak.c om/view?i=048_1336682949
(remove the spaces since the forum coding doesn't appear to want to be agreeable)

Why did this not exist while I was in the service?

[bostonbred]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=048_1336682949&p=1 (http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=048_1336682949)
Why did this not exist while I was in the service?

IAM thinkin thiS COMMY ClOaKIN deVIce.

BuT. OlDE UnclE tellin me OF OLDENS DAYS:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1079945/index.htm

[datadyne007]

I just bought Mapping Boston and can barely contain my excitement.

[czsz]

http://bostonography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/life_magazine_cover-817x1024.jpg

This 1911 Boston-themed issue of Life magazine is great:

MANY attempts have been made to bring Boston down from its proud pedestal of superiority, but so far every one has failed. Boston sill leads everything else.

http://bostonography.com/2012/life-the-boston-number/

[Lurker]

That magazine puts modern publications to shame. I found all the commentary on automobiles and the advertising of electric vehicles quite ironic.

[Ron Newman]

This is not Henry Luce's famous LIFE magazine that many of us grew up with, but rather an earlier humor magazine with the same name.

[tobyjug]

Of all the car ads, who'd have guessed that FIAT would be the last one standing.

[czsz]

There's almost not a single ad that isn't hilariously dated. First generation electric cars, self-starting cars (!), corsets, garters, steam trains, fountain pens...tooth powder?

Another great quote:

Boston is an area of Dignity and Tradition entirely surrounded by conservatism

[statler]

I don't want to bump the Filene's thread when there isn't any news...

...but why isn't there any news?!

Surely there has to be some enterprising young reporter out there wondering what the hell is going on with the giant hole in the middle of the city.

[datadyne007]

There's almost not a single ad that isn't hilariously dated. First generation electric cars, self-starting cars (!), corsets, garters, steam trains, fountain pens...tooth powder?

Another great quote:

I always love reading old architecture magazines because there are always a ton of advertisements for the one-and-only ultra-revolutionary... asbestos.

[Shepard]

I'm in Toronto today. It's... um... hard to describe what's happening here in terms of development. Think Vancouver... think Dubai... Vancouverization at Dubai velocity...

Not sure what economics are driving it, but Boston's "building boom" - or any such boom that I've seen recently, including those of emerging markets - cannot hold a candle to this.

Glass and metallic-plate high rises sprouting everywhere - on the waterfront, but also inland... a concentric ring of Vancouver growing around the old high-rise downtown. Unbelievable. Pics to come later this week. It all seems a bit Seaportesque to be honest - although to a large extent the streetcars are already running to these areas making them feel less isolated.

[kz1000ps]

I was just there two months ago and got the same impression. I stayed in a hotel with near-360 rooftop views and counted over two dozen cranes from that one vantage point. And almost all of them seemed to be going up on buildings over 20 stories tall. AND the Toronto metro has only 1 million people more than Boston's.

[JohnAKeith]

This "TED" trailer has some neat scenes of Boston, including one taking place in ... wait for it ... The Midtown Hotel.

TED is a movie about a guy whose childhood stuffed animal ends up coming to life (in real life, not just in his head) and who stays with him into the guy's 40's.

Hilarity ensues.

(The "red band" trailer is funnier and raunchier than this one.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg0olaJekDw&feature=youtu.be

[Shepard]

I was just there two months ago and got the same impression. I stayed in a hotel with near-360 rooftop views and counted over two dozen cranes from that one vantage point. And almost all of them seemed to be going up on buildings over 20 stories tall. AND the Toronto metro has only 1 million people more than Boston's.

Westying a wikipedia plug here:

"As of December 2011, Toronto had 132 high-rise buildings under-construction, which was the highest among all cities in North America, significantly beating Mexico City (88), New York City (86), and Chicago (17)."

Sounds like Shanghai.

[datadyne007]

Berlin just took a huge embarrassing hit. BER opening delay has been announced for March 17, 2013. Was supposed to open 2 weeks from now (but initially in 2007). Sometimes even the Germans with their freakish precision have total infrastructure failures.

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2012/05/berlin-airport/695536/1

[czsz]

Where's the street scene in the last frames of that trailer Lurker posted?

Sometimes even the Germans with their freakish precision have total infrastructure failures.

To be fair, for all that its transit etc. still works so much better than the US', Berlin is somewhat behind the efficiency curve enjoyed by the rest of Germany. It's a combination of relative poverty / lack of skilled workers and the communist legacy.

That, and it's important to keep in perspective the fact that this kind of infrastructure delay would be tolerated with a shrug here, whereas there heads will roll.

[BostonUrbEx]

I don't want to bump the Filene's thread when there isn't any news...

...but why isn't there any news?!

Surely there has to be some enterprising young reporter out there wondering what the hell is going on with the giant hole in the middle of the city.

Didn't they have a certain amount of time to submit a project-change notice? I think that time is up. What's going on is right.

[BostonUrbEx]

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7235/7218389652_e9e90cf08f_c.jpg

Green - Bi-directional Competition
Red - One-directional Competition


Would you say this is accurate? Medford, Malden, and Everett strive to model themselves after (and aspire to be better than) Somerville, no doubt, but what about the rest?

[Ron Newman]

Most days, Somerville doesn't even think about the existence of Everett. There is no road directly connecting the two cities, even though they share a boundary in the middle of the Mystic River.

Someday, if a pedestrian/bike bridge is built alongside the Amelia Earhart Dam, that might change.

[Shepard]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

[czsz]

What is there in Malden for Medford to envy?

Oh, and Dedham --> Needham --> Newton / Wellesley for sure.

[F-Line to Dudley]

Does anything actually try to emulate Everett?

[GW2500]

If talking only HS football, then everybody.

[BostonUrbEx]

What is there in Malden for Medford to envy?

Oh, and Dedham --> Needham --> Newton / Wellesley for sure.

There's suddenly a load of projects building up for Malden, mostly building up between the Orange Line and bike path within the Central Business District zoning. But I can't think of any major development in Medford at all. The way I see it, Medford is Malden with slightly better income.

[BostonUrbEx]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

Definitely would buy the first and third, but Brookline <--> Cambridge I'm not so sure? I just don't picture Brookline wanting to be like Cambridge or Cambridge wanting to be like Brookline, in any manner.

[statler]

There is a fine line between brave and stupid and these kids are nowhere near that line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diDLgFvq7bo

[datadyne007]

WTF was the point of climbing over the railing and walking along the edge?! Holy shit that's crazy.

I actually dreamt the other night that I fell off the Golden Gate Bridge. Woke up right before I hit the water. Seeing this video triggered me to remember way more details than I could initially remember.

[BostonUrbEx]

Fucked up. I had to keep skipping along since my stomach was going into a knot.

I can't deal with heights like that unless it's a rooftop or something wide like that.

This makes that video of the guy changing a lightbulb on top of a 2000 foot cell tower look like nothing. He was double tethered most of the time.

[Lurker]

Height isn't a problem unless one enters an uncontrolled descent.

[Beton Brut]

It's not the fall. It's the sudden stop.

[statler]

Height isn't a problem unless one enters an uncontrolled descent.

Right. I'm not at all afraid of heights.

Falling, (or even the sensation or possibility of) terrifies me.

[blade_bltz]

Brookline <--> Newton, Brookline <--> Cambridge, Newton--> Wellesley

As a Brookline native, pff @ the Brookline --> Newton vector. Maybe in terms of some of the public schools, I guess.

[Ron Newman]

What is pff?

[datadyne007]

What is pff?

The abbreviation of "pfft," a sound of surprise or disagreement. It's the written form of air blowing out of your mouth.

Used in a phrase: "pfft, yeah right."

[blade_bltz]

+1 Nice work haha.

[datadyne007]

+1 Nice work haha.

Not something you have to define everyday lol.

[tobyjug]

Even Hitler treated his dog better than Romney treated poor Rufus.

[Lurker]

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/7/2010/11/article-1258091-08ba18b3000005dc-183_634x389_01.jpg

[cozzyd]

Talk about a bridge to nowhere... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_to_Russky_Island

[datadyne007]

Cambridge is America's "most peaceful city"
http://realestate.msn.com/10-most-peaceful-cities#2

1. Cambridge, Mass.

Peace score: 1.41

The hard math: The Cambridge area notched nearly ideal marks when it came to the IEP's grading of its homicide rate (1.01), violent-crime rate (1.62) and incarceration rate (1). Its law-enforcement ratio earned a score of 2.08.

How a city leader views the area: "It's a university town, and it's pretty, too," Mayor Henrietta Davis says of Cambridge, which is near Boston and the Charles River.

Real-estate selling points: "At the top of the list is likely the interesting and wonderful, diverse mix of people who live here. On any given block, you can find university professors, doctors and attorneys mixed in with college students, musicians, artists and blue-collar folks," says David Shorey, a real-estate agent with Re/Max in Cambridge.

Peabody comes in at #5

Providence comes in at #6

[tobyjug]

If it wasn't for that marauding Henry Gates the "crime" rate would have been zero.

[Ron Newman]

Comparing suburban Peabody to urban Providence, Cambridge, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Portland feels a little 'off' to me. How do they define a 'city' ?

[Lurker]

Cambridge has quite a bit of crime and I am surprised it did so well on that list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUyzLvuhbps
Aw Hell why not....

[statler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o

[vanshnookenraggen]

That actually looks good. The steam punk NYC threw me at first but I can dig it.

[choo]

So essentially in a year no kid will ever have to read the great gatsby again.

Good impetus to re-read it tho.

[statler]

That actually looks good. The steam punk NYC threw me at first but I can dig it.

Yeah, I have an inordinate love of 1920's style, so to see it 'tweaked' sort of sets my teeth on edge.

But, although I would have rather seen a more straight-up set design, I'll still probably see this on opening night.

[statler]

"My name? Beton Brut. Here (http://gizmodo.com/5912537/concrete-business-cards-are-impractical-and-exquisite-works-of-art), give me a call some time."

[Lurker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqi5F5MqqTQ&feature=player_embedded

[BostonUrbEx]

I believe the Providence imagery on Google Maps has been updated. As I recall even just a couple weeks ago, the old I-195 bridge was still visible. Now there's just a scar.

https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.818648,-71.405082&spn=0.011818,0.022724&t=h&z=16

Feels better already!

[BostonUrbEx]

The railroad equivalent to a spaghetti bowl interchange?: https://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=34.062354,-118.226479&spn=0.004644,0.005681&sll=34.062323,-118.226666&sspn=0.004644,0.005681&t=h&z=18

[datadyne007]

SOM did a modern take on Minoru Yamasaki's iconic World Trade Center. As a huge Yamasaki fan, I fucking love this! (Apparently this was finished in 2010, but I never remembered seeing it in any news) Interestingly enough, it's part of the China WTC complex...

China World Trade Center Tower III -
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/538875_10151755088230603_210740790602_24256728_338 688225_n.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/China_World_Trade_Center_III.jpg

Looking up from the base is nearly identical to the originals!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Wtc_arial_march2001.jpg/240px-Wtc_arial_march2001.jpg
http://wirednewyork.com/images/churches/saint-nicholas-greek-orthodox-church/st_nicholas_up.jpg

[tobyjug]

Never liked the WTC. The Chinese one is better looking.

P.S. The video looks like Batman meets the Jazz Age. DiCaprio looks convincing as Gatsby. Is Toby Maguire playing Nick? Good casting. Daisy is pretty bland looking. Got the car wrong...should be a Rolls Royce, not what looked like a Duesenberg in the clip? Might not be as authentic as the Robert Redford version, but a whole lot better than the Alan Ladd iteration.

[datadyne007]

Great night in the city! Highly uncomfortable game, but a success!

[Corey]

Boston (http://parkscore.tpl.org/city.php?city=Boston) ranks #3 on The Trust for Public Land's "Park Score" list. (http://parkscore.tpl.org/rankings.php)

[Beton Brut]

Good grief, I fucking hate Baz Luhrmann. That looks like a Heineken commercial. Sickening.

[Lrfox]

I believe the Providence imagery on Google Maps has been updated. As I recall even just a couple weeks ago, the old I-195 bridge was still visible. Now there's just a scar.

https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.818648,-71.405082&spn=0.011818,0.022724&t=h&z=16

Feels better already!

That whole region (RI and SE Mass) has been updated. Here's the new Veterans' Memorial bridge (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.725958,-71.151667&spn=0.006686,0.013937&t=h&z=17) in Fall River and Here's the new exit 8 1/2 (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.763838,-71.096156&spn=0.013364,0.027874&t=h&z=16)on Route 24. The Bridge opened last October, and the new exit opened in January or February. This stuff is very recent.

re the Veterans' Bridge. It's great because it has a separate bike path... the only one crossing the Taunton River, Narragansett, or Mt. Hope Bay. It's a big part of the plans to connect the East Bay (Providence-Bristol) to Cape Cod and the trail system there.

*Edit*
Also has the deconstruction work of the highway in downtown New Bedford (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.635736,-70.920739&spn=0.003348,0.006968&t=h&z=18) (Rt. 18). These are probably from mid-late November.

[F-Line to Dudley]

That whole region (RI and SE Mass) has been updated. Here's the new Veterans' Memorial bridge (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.725958,-71.151667&spn=0.006686,0.013937&t=h&z=17) in Fall River and Here's the new exit 8 1/2 (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.763838,-71.096156&spn=0.013364,0.027874&t=h&z=16)on Route 24. The Bridge opened last October, and the new exit opened in January or February. This stuff is very recent.

re the Veterans' Bridge. It's great because it has a separate bike path... the only one crossing the Taunton River, Narragansett, or Mt. Hope Bay. It's a big part of the plans to connect the East Bay (Providence-Bristol) to Cape Cod and the trail system there.

*Edit*
Also has the deconstruction work of the highway in downtown New Bedford (https://www.google.com/maps?ll=41.635736,-70.920739&spn=0.003348,0.006968&t=h&z=18) (Rt. 18). These are probably from mid-late November.

HA! New Bedford's even got the T's brand new Rotem bi-level coaches prototypes sitting in the rail yard by the Herman Melville Blvd. docks. Those are being tested by the freight carrier down there before they head back to the factory for modification.

[Lrfox]

HA! New Bedford's even got the T's brand new Rotem bi-level coaches prototypes sitting in the rail yard by the Herman Melville Blvd. docks. Those are being tested by the freight carrier down there before they head back to the factory for modification.

Is that what's sitting there in the photo?! It looks like three of them, but they don't look like locomotives from overhead.

That move was no coincidence. The trains were originally scheduled to arrive at another port. However, the city pushed to have them delivered to New Bedford to draw attention to the SCR project as well as their efforts in creating more growth in shipping. For a publicity move, it got very little media attention.

[BeeLine]

Anyone know where I can get a list of the terra cotta faced buildings in the Boston area? I have noticed several great examples (Filenes and along Washington Street), and would like to get photos of more examples. The recent Globe article about cast iron buildings got me interested in facings. Appreciate any help.
Thx!

[datadyne007]

Can Your 4 Year Old Make Google SketchUp Masterpieces??

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/301858_10151763278950603_1053993459_n.jpg

Jed’s Masterpiece
April 30th, 2012
Goto comments Leave a comment

Recently, my four-year-old son Jed has been expressing interest in what I do for a living, so yesterday I decided to start teaching him the basics of Google Sketch-up (3D design software). He grasped the fundamentals very quickly and learned how to navigate with the mouse, produce forms and change their colours.

I let him muck around on it for a while by himself fully expecting that when I came out – about half an hour later – he would be outside doing something else. To my amazement he was still intensely focused on the screen. When I asked him how it was going, he called me over and showed me this:



I was absolutely staggered. Ever since Jed could play with blocks I have been amazed at his ability to create interesting forms with relatively simple things. I think it is incredible what the unadulterated minds of children can produce.



Picasso once said, ‘Every child is born an artist. The trouble is remaining an artist when you grow up’.

I look forward to seeing what else he comes up with considering this was his first ‘mansion’, as he calls it. Love your work Jed, you're amazing!!!

http://bleuscape.com.au/blog/jeds-masterpiece/

Picked up today by ArchDaily -- Probably the youngest architect to be featured on ArchDaily! The spatial concepts are all there. Phenomenal architectural compositions!

[Lurker]

I find it rather sad that many published architects display the same spatial aptitude as a 4 year old child.



Annoys me that San Francisco has gotten so moonbat dominated that they denied this significant bit of history from making the city its permanent home port. LA doesn't have anywhere the significance in the WWII PTO as SF.

http://framework.latimes.com/2012/05/13/battleship-iowas-final-journey/#/0

Battleship Iowa’s final journey in Photos




Posted By: Times Editors (http://framework.latimes.com/author/latphotostaff)
Posted On: 8:46 p.m. | May 13, 2012

The battleship Iowa, a storied vessel that languished for years in the U.S. Navy’s mothball fleet, began its final journey Saturday, from the San Francisco Bay to its permanent home as a museum in the Port of Los Angeles.
Four tugboats guided the Iowa under the Golden Gate Bridge at 3 p.m. and out of the bay. One of them, the 7,200-horsepower Warrior, will chug down the coast with the massive ship in tow, taking about four days to reach Southern California.

[datadyne007]

I find it rather sad that many published architects display the same spatial aptitude as a 4 year old child.

The opposite is actually the case. Notice how the entire composition is proportional. The 4 year old demonstrates refined concepts of space that some modern architects today don't achieve successfully. Notice how he instinctively makes a lower ground floor and proportionally heightens the level above. There are obvious programmatic correlations to this in actual design - living areas tend to be higher in section, while service and sleeping areas can be lower. These two stacked volumes are linked vertically off to the side by a double-height space, as seen in figure 3. Each volume together forms a whole, with no proportion overwhelming another.

[tobyjug]

Had Halsey not taken the bait or had he prudently split his force, the Iowa and New Jersey would have gone muzzle to muzzle with the Yamato at Leyte Gulf.

The photos (and thanks Lurker) do not convey the size of the Iowa and her sisters.

[Lurker]

I wish a Montana Class battleship had been completed for us to visit as a museum today.

[tobyjug]

Yes the 4th turret would have been amazing! The Iowa/Montana 16"/50 rifle had almost the same power as the Yamato's 18.1" and the class would have clearly overmatched the Yamatos.

Too slow to keep up with a carrier group though. In a way kind of a throwback to the 1920 South Dakotas, again giving away speed for armor and endurance.

In the Washington Navy Yard there are some 2 foot thick armor plates taken from Kure left over from Yamato/Musashi/Shinano. They were given ballistic testing by the 16" AP. Swiss cheese!

But probably would have stood up to a Silkworm or even a Sunburn. Maybe even one of those transformer toys in the movie Battleship.

[BostonUrbEx]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LE0ycgkBQ

[Lrfox]

I'll be in Springfield this weekend to lead a brand training exercise for my company. I'm going to be spending Saturday night in town (at the Shearton).

Anyone know what I should see/do there (within walking distance of the hotel). I hear just horrible things about Springfield and I've mostly only just passed through. I'm hoping that some of you may have suggestions. Hopefully I'll have time to snag some pictures.

Really interested to see if Springfield really is a diamond in the rough or just plain rough.

[tobyjug]

Go to the bar at the Student Prince and get f'd up on German beer.

[statler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBshKSJ9JAU

[BostonUrbEx]

WFNX has been silent on the radio and their web player for 30 minutes. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

[datadyne007]

WFNX has been silent on the radio and their web player for 30 minutes. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

They said 2 months was the cutoff date... =/

Anywho, it's saturday night - Club Kiss will do!

[BostonUrbEx]

They're having tech problems. After an hour of silence, they came back for about one or two songs. Now they're silent again. I think whoever is the DJ right now is the only staff there to fix it at the moment.


EDIT: Manholes exploding in Lynn's Central Square. Blackouts and brownouts ensuing. Possibly (probably) related.

[tobyjug]

Hipsters interfering with my evening out.

http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/police-arrest-28-in-montreals-f1-protests

The police did a very good job clubbing and gassing them. The line of riot police swept right past my table and brushed away the great unwashed. The wind was blowing toward the layabouts, which was convenient on many levels.

[datadyne007]

How (Not) To Host The Olympics
11 Jun 2012
By Vanessa Quirk

So – you want to be an Olympic City do you? Well let’s hope you’re going for gold.

First of all, the Olympic bid is no child’s play. You can spend millions just to prove (often unsuccessfully) your worthiness. And, if you do get the bid, whose to say that your Olympic Dreams won’t be dashed by elephantine debts, colossal inefficiencies, and your own citizenry’s open animosity?

Everyone may think the Olympics is all guts and glory, but frankly, the truth is far more complex. Which is why we’ve come up with a User’s Guide – the Do’s and Dont’s to Hosting Your Very Own Olympics.

We’ll begin with the GOLDEN RULE: “The best thing to do if you’re bidding for the Olympics, Is to Not Get the Olympics.” ...

Whole article:
http://www.archdaily.com/242480/how-not-to-host-the-olympics/

[Ron Newman]

One glaring error in that article: the Theme Building at LAX (labelled 'Encounter Restaurant' in the caption) was NOT built for either of the Los Angeles Olympics. It opened in 1961.

[datadyne007]

One glaring error in that article: the Theme Building at LAX (labelled 'Encounter Restaurant' in the caption) was NOT built for either of the Los Angeles Olympics. It opened in 1961.

That wasn't sitting right with me either. Thanks.

[Ron Newman]

I left a comment saying this but it immediately disappeared.

[Beton Brut]

One glaring error in that article: the Theme Building at LAX (labelled 'Encounter Restaurant' in the caption) was NOT built for either of the Los Angeles Olympics. It opened in 1961.

Indeed. Designed by a fine architect, Paul Revere Williams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Williams_%28architect%29). His story is one worth knowing.

[datadyne007]

The author "corrected it," but it's still pretty weak. I really don't think that portion of the LAX expansion had anything to do with the Olympics. The airport was expanded for the Olympics later on.

[Ron Newman]

Nor did the restaurant open for the 1984 Olympics. Its web site (http://www.encounterlax.com/encounter_genesis.html) says it opened in 1997.

[kz1000ps]

Whoooo my band is on the front cover of today's Phoenix! Why is that, you ask? Because enough of y'all voted for my band to win the Best Act award for 2012. So for the next week my face is front and center (well, actually to the far right) on the newsstands...weird but cool.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/303614_10150909794244858_233450099_n.jpg

[statler]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ux3-a9RE1Q

[commuter guy]

KZ - congrats!

[briv]

Yeah, congrats, KZ. Very cool.

[Lurker]

Congratulations to whichever one of you little rat bastards found and ganked me in Eve Online.

There will be consequences.

[statler]

CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-32973_3-57453321-296/why-i-had-it-all-wrong-about-bostons-high-tech-scene/?tag=nl.e496) June 15th, 2012

Why I had it all wrong about Boston's high-tech scene

Commentary: A Silicon Valley reporter returns to Massachusetts with a bad attitude about the commonwealth's tech market. The locals happily inform him he can pound sand.
Jim Kerstetter
June 15, 2012 4:00 AM PDT Follow @jimkerstetter

http://asset1.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/06/14/Boston_skyline_610x458.jpg
A foggy picture for Boston's high-tech community?
(Credit: Photo courtesy Evelyn Rodriguez-Anton)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- I'm at a crowded tech schmoozefest, and Tim Rowe, the pied piper of local startups, is giving me a serious talking-to about my blase attitude toward the local tech industry.

"I'd like you to think about what you're saying and look at the facts," Rowe says with growing intensity. "I think you're going to see your perception and the facts don't add up."

No startup culture? Look around here in the Cambridge Innovation Center in Kendall Square, ground zero for New England startups, Rowe says. There are about seven floors filled with nearly 450 startups and offices for two major venture capital firms, Charles River Ventures and Highland Partners. And there's more academic research and development spending in Cambridge than any other part of the country, including the San Francisco Bay Area.

It's true. About $4 billion annually just in Cambridge versus $1.3 billion in the Bay Area, according to the National Science Foundation. And that stuff in the college labs, we all know, often leads to game-changing companies like Google.

Not enough talent? This neighborhood right next to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has more programmers per capita than anywhere in the world. That's true, too. Look it up, Rowe says.

It's a late Thursday afternoon and I'm in the fourth-floor meeting hall of the Innovation Center, which has all the brushed metal and floor-to-ceiling glass that you'd expect of a tech hangout. I'm here for the weekly Venture Cafe, a mix of how-to training sessions for entrepreneurs and old-fashioned glad-handing. It's a scene you could find on just about any weeknight in San Francisco: Aspiring startup bosses are shouting to be heard by investors who are trying hard to look interested as the beer flows, wine is served, and a determined group of Southeast Asian techies serve what I think is a sweet Thai tea.

Rowe, who has run the place since 1999, is the emcee of the weekly event. Trim, clean-cut and in khaki pants, the quick-talking, native New Englander and MIT graduate is mounting a spirited defense of the local tech market.

And I am not making him happy with my Silicon Valley-centric worldview.

So what are the facts about the Boston area's tech community? Everything Rowe says is indeed true, even if few people, even here in the home of the Celtics and Romneycare, seem to realize it. Per capita -- and it's important to look at the number in relation to the overall population -- Boston and Cambridge in particular have more software developers and more R&D investment than anywhere in the world.

Perception, however unfair, is another matter. Depending on who's counting, New York City passed greater Boston in total venture capital deals about five quarters ago. Silicon Valley and neighboring San Francisco dwarf the Boston technology market, as they always have. And Facebook -- oh, Mark Zuckerberg, why did you have to found your company in a Harvard dorm room and then move the whole kit and caboodle to California? You have no idea the tooth-gnashing you've caused here.

The VC data is tricky, of course. In the first quarter, the Massachusetts share of venture deals was 10 percent, one percentage point behind New York and 30 percent behind California, according to CB Insights. (See the embedded document above.) But in total funding, California has a 49 percent share, followed by Massachusetts with 11 percent and New York with 6 percent. That relatively strong second ranking has much to do with the Bay State's strong showing in health care. In high-tech areas such as Internet and mobile tech, it's a distant third. And that, fellow Bostonians, is why our area is often considered an also-ran in high tech.

The boomerang

I returned to Boston several years ago after a decade in San Francisco. My view of the Boston high-tech industry has gone something like this: Once upon a time huge companies like Digital Equipment and Wang made minicomputers (think a slightly less lumbering version of a mainframe) and dominated the tech landscape. They were headquartered near Rte. 128 surrounding Boston, and were by the mid-1980s what Google and Apple are today.

But then the PC revolution happened... somewhere else. The minicomputing companies failed to adapt to smaller, easier-to-use devices and eventually disappeared. Insert your dinosaur metaphor here. Then the dot-com boom happened, and while Boston had its fair share of companies like the search engine Lycos, it didn't produce a new giant, a new Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, or Google. The most interesting local companies, mostly focused on the plumbing for networking and mobile tech, were acquired by Silicon Valley heavyweights like Cisco and Intel.

The one Boston-area giant that has emerged over the last two decades is the data storage company EMC and, rightly or wrongly, it has earned a reputation for insularity. Or just being boring. Another exception? The Roomba maker iRobot.

And then social media came along and, far as I could tell, Boston had HubSpot and that's about it. Last fall, Zuckerberg returned and (I will assume) unintentionally rubbed salt in the wound when he said that if he had to do it all over again, he'd have kept Facebook in the Boston area. Nice of him to say that. He also mentioned that Facebook would open a local office somewhere down the line. About six months later, Facebook still doesn't have an office in Boston, though there are rumors of a shadow office -- which usually means there are people telecommuting from home.

As for me? Like many people, I returned to the East Coast to be closer to family and because I wanted my kid in good public schools, which San Francisco sadly lacks. But I worked West Coast hours on the East Coast so I could stay on top of what was going on out there. The local companies were barely on my radar.

But by the time I'd made it to this local startup-fest at the Innovation Center, crazy as it sounds to outsiders, I'd started to buy into this notion that Boston has a vibrant tech scene. Now, I'm not deluded enough to think the next generation of hot consumer tech companies are going to be here. That horse has long since left the barn.

Still, people here are good at solving problems. And the next big problem to hit tech will be big data: How do you make sense of those once-unimaginable volumes of data going into big consumer sites? Traditional databases and tools won't cut it, and many of the people trying to figure out that issue are right here.

They're just not as cool as the millionaire hipsters and wannabes of San Francisco's movable feast of a tech scene.

How did I go from cynical to an embarrassing-for-a-journalist Polyanna? That involved a visit to old-school venture capitalists on the "Money Hill," a trip to the fringes of local gentrification, a meeting with three more VCs who clearly had better things to do than listen to me, and an interview with the CEO of a newly minted public company whom I'd interviewed years ago when he was running another company in San Francisco.

Put it all together: Do you have an open-minded reporter trying to let the facts dictate his analysis, or the sad case of a homer who believes against all odds that his team is going to win? Probably a bit of both. I am, after all, a Red Sox fan; denial comes naturally.

The Money Hill

Waltham, Mass., sits about 15 miles west of Boston along Rte. 128. For anyone traveling along the highway to points north, it's where the roadway gets unnervingly curvy and a series of old radio and TV towers are mounted on rocky hills above. If you look closely, you'll also see signs you could just as well see along Rte. 101 in Silicon Valley -- Oracle, Cisco, and the like. Those used to be local companies. They've long since been acquired.

Just a short drive away, tucked into an office park, is what local tech folks used to call the Money Hill. It's where several venture capital firms were headquartered for decades. Today, many of them have relocated to Cambridge, but a few remain. Two weeks before my scolding in the Innovation Center, I'm on the hill in the offices of North Bridge Venture Partners, enjoying a quiet cup of coffee with two senior partners, Jamie Goldstein and Jeffrey McCarthy.

At least I think it's the Money Hill. I've asked three different people where exactly the Money Hill is, and I've received three different answers. Regardless, it's a very nice hill, sloping steeply and giving the row of offices on top a fine view, even on a rainy day like today, of a reservoir and forested neighboring hills which may or may not be the real Money Hill.

Goldstein and McCarthy are ticking off local companies they're excited about. Some they've invested in. Some they are merely excited about. There's Endeca, Demandware, Acquia, A123, Heartland Robotics, QD Vision, and many others. Some are cloud computing or software as a service companies, some are energy companies, some are doing research in new materials. There are also biotech companies and big-bet energy research investments.

If there's one thing in common among them, it's that none of them are consumer tech companies. No quick-hit mobile app outfits here. Instead, it's companies like QD Vision, an outfit out of MIT that's working on technology for displays in things such as flat-screen televisions. They are, thankfully, terribly patient with my less-than-charitable questions about the local tech industry, particularly when I ask why the local tech scene has fallen so far behind? Are people in Boston more risk averse than Californians?

"I hear that all the time," Goldstein says. "Also, are we less creative? I think that's totally wrong." After all, he argues, the long-term bets they're making take more courage than throwing a few hundred thousand here and few hundred thousand there at a bunch of startups.

"The 500 Startups model?" I ask. That, for those of you who haven't been slavishly following the startup scene, is a venture company that's spreading money far and wide in little piles to see what sticks.

"We'd never do that," says Goldstein.

There's another big difference between Goldstein and McCarthy and the VCs out west: They're not celebrities. No Marc Andreessen or Dave McClure here. These are behind-the-scenes guys. They've funded 180 companies over 18 years, and they don't expect to do much more than that. They do have an office in San Mateo, Calif., McCarthy says. "It's not so different than what we do here," he quickly adds.

They agree that Boston has not had a big hit in a long time. There hasn't been a company so important that it created the proverbial ecosystem of smaller, feeder companies around it. Akamai, the big Web plumbing company, is a strong company but hardly the center of an ecosystem and Demandware recently had an IPO that, unlike Facebook, did not slide backward after its first day. That could be a big name over time. But it's certainly not there yet. Shoot, it's not even profitable.

After talking to the North Bridge partners, I think believing the local tech market gets beyond a talent pool for the big guys out west requires two things: A leap of faith, and that assumption that the next big thing in tech is solving the big data problems that Boston's tech crowd has historically been very good at solving.

The gentrification-resistant neighborhood

Two days later, I ask more questions of Coach Wei, the CEO and co-founder of Yottaa, a "big data" company in a little, unassuming office in Boston's Downtown Crossing district.

Downtown Crossing is a tightly packed neighborhood of pedestrian malls, narrow streets and an air of decay. Despite years of trying by city officials, this compact area has avoided the renaissance enjoyed by the rest of the city's downtown. Blame the loss of a few landmark department stores or poor planning. Whatever the cause, it's the kind of place that makes you peek over your shoulder if you're there after dark. Not surprisingly, the rents here are cheaper than nouveau-hip Kendall Square across the Charles River.

Born in China's Hunan province, Wei went to work for EMC in 1998, when it had 6,000 employees. He was one of eight people who built EMC's ControlCenter software for data management. When he left two years later, the company had 25,000 employees.

He started a company called Nexaweb, which ran into legal wrangling with EMC that he'd rather not talk about. That led him to Yottaa in 2009, which he thinks is tackling the proverbial "next big market opportunity," big data.

"I never really thought about moving to California," says Wei. "Staying here was the right thing to do... There's a lot of advantages here," he says. The people who know how the Internet works best are local, he says. It's a tremendous talent pool for people who understand Internet arcana such as DNS protocol routing. It's a big reason Google and Microsoft have large and growing offices in Cambridge.

Now if he wanted to do a consumer tech company, he admits he'd probably thinking about heading west, where there are lots of experienced hands in product development, marketing, and management.

"But we're not trying to be the next Twitter," Wei says. "We're not trying to be the next Facebook."

OK, I'm starting to get it, I think. You want to be Mark Zuckerberg, move to California and take your friends with you. You don't want to be the Hooded One? No need to go west, young man. But don't count on anyone making a movie about you.

The Charles River gang

The next week, I visited the offices of Twitter investors Charles River Ventures. Who better to shed light on the future of Boston's tech scene than the VCs who invested in Twitter? (Albeit notably, out of their other office in Silicon Valley.)

Just a few months ago, Charles River moved into one of the top floors of the Innovation Center. I'm meeting with partners Jon Auerbach, Izhar Armony, and via videoconference, Devdutt Yellurkar. Auerbach used to be a reporter and was nominated for a Pulitzer for The Wall Street Journal. This, of course, is terribly interesting to me, as would any encounter with a writer who found something else to do for a living.

Unfortunately, I'm here to talk about the Boston high-tech market. It's the end of the day and the partners have squeezed in time for me between two "partner" meetings that I assume involve serious discussions of how and why Twitter will make an awful lot of money for all of them.

Auerbach has just walked me through a recent history of the local tech industry. It's a bit like mine, but his doesn't mention dinosaurs. There have been lots of good companies, but none of them were breakouts. I ask why consumer tech companies haven't taken off here. Armony jumps in.

"Like Hillary Clinton said, it takes a village," he says. "But if you try to do consumer Web here, you do not have a village." At some point, a geography gets critical mass. Silicon Valley achieved it with the PC industry. It's done it again with Web and social companies. Boston has whiffed on both.

Does that make it impossible to do a consumer Web startup in Boston? Not at all. Look at HubSpot. And Charles River has done seed funding for some small local companies such as Kibits and LuckyLabs. But it makes a lot more sense to go with what an area is good with. And what are Boston's technologists good at? Solving difficult problems, not apps.

A few days later, I'm on the phone with Stephan Schambach, the founder of Demandware, a moderately successful cloud computing outfit, sort of the Salesforce.com for e-commerce service in suburban Burlington, Mass.

Interestingly, I interviewed Schambach at least 12 years ago when he was running Interworld, a San Francisco company that sold e-commerce software the old-fashioned way, through licenses. I should add it's a bit unnerving that he says he still has his notes from that conversation. When he was thinking of starting a new company in 2004, being back in San Francisco or in Boston or New York didn't really matter to to the native German. What did matter was venture backing, and he found that in Boston.

Does he miss San Francisco? "Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't," he says. "I really enjoyed my time there." There are upsides to being in Boston, however. Employees are more loyal, there's tremendous technical skills coming out of the universities, and "Boston is not cheap, but it doesn't have the same characteristics as the Valley where when things heat up, everything costs twice as much."

The merry startups

That brings me back to Rowe and his merry band of startups. Pop in on the weekly gab sessions here in the Innovation Center and there's no shortage of aspiring entrepreneurs, like Brad Geswein, a cheery MIT alumnus with double graduate degrees in business and mechanical engineering who is running a little company that's made a theft-proof bike light.

So I ask Geswein, who's carrying an old briefcase that he had turned into a portable stereo (this is an MIT engineering grad, after all), if he ever considered heading to California after he graduated. Didn't he want to work for a cool startup? Enjoy better weather? My God, does he not understand the romance of a young man heading west to find his fortune?

"Sure," Geswein says. "But there's not much there that I couldn't do here." He managed to get $84,000 in seed funding for his young company, Gotham Bicycle Defense, through through the open-source funding outfit, Kickstarter. He's working with a few friends on that and another startup that's building wireless headphones. He's having fun building things. And building things, he points out, does not require moving to California.

As I finish writing this piece, I exchange e-mails with Geoff Mamlet, who works with Rowe at the Innovation Center. I tell him my conclusion: There's plenty of opportunity and resources in the Boston area if you want to solve high-tech's difficult issues or build off cutting-edge science. But if you want to reach mass-market consumers, this is a tough place to make a go of it. He isn't buying my line.

"I know that's been the rap on Boston for some years, but I think it's one of those cases where perception lags reality..." Mamlet writes back to me. "Speaking with my investor hat on" -- Mamlet is a principal at New Atlantic Ventures, where Rowe is also a partner -- "I'd say I have no difficulty crediting Boston as a good place for a consumer-facing company."

Geswein is right, of course. And Rowe and Mamlet are probably right, too. To a point. But they won't know what it's like to wake up to the smell of eucalyptus, to live in a boom town (or a bust town). For many entrepreneurs, the journey is as important as the results. And the journey, like it or not, is a lot more interesting when you see just how fast a limited-edition Porsche can drive on I-280 on the hills above Silicon Valley.

Do you need to head west to create a great company? No. That is, unless you're planning on the next Facebook.

[datadyne007]

The penultimate line of that article totally discredits any sliver of credit he might have already had. Who the fuck cares about Porsches and fancy cars driving on a highway through sprawlville USA? This line shows that this guy is nothing more than a showy bandwagoner.

On a lighter note...
What Can House Hunters Teach Us About Ourselves?

Don't get me wrong, HH may not offer the same escapist pleasure that HHI does, but it's fun in a different way: it allows you to sit back and lazily judge your fellow Americans. Each episode offers up the delightful chance to chastise the lifestyle choices of a doughy couple as they visit three houses (always three!) and decide to buy the one they like best. Part of the thrill of the show is watching the buyers say stupid things and make poor decisions. (It's even more enjoyable if you play along with this handy drinking game!). But it's not that the house hunters are awful or even particularly annoying people. In fact, most of them seem like totally decent, reasonable, likeable folks. However, after watching a few episodes (ok, fine, after watching almost all of them—why would I sleep or leave my house when I could watch other people shop for theirs?!?) you start to find that a lot of them do things that are pretty ridiculous. And it turns out these things are so irritating because they hit upon real problems that, as we speak, are probably destroying our country and most certainly ruining the planet. Let's discuss five of the most common House Hunters pet peeves and think of them as windows that offer lovely views out onto the slow destruction of our civilization...

http://jezebel.com/5845469/what-can-house-hunters-teach-us-about-ourselves

[blade_bltz]

Who the fuck cares about Porsches and fancy cars driving on a highway through sprawlville USA?

Not that I dispute the substance of your point, but...have you ever driven along 280 down the Peninsula? It's fucking breathtaking.

[choo]

Ya, that article was ok. But the main thing I got from it was summed up by his porsche line. Boston has a very healthy and enviable start up environment- and as he rightly points out it mostly focuses on back end software and programming problems and in areas like energy and healthcare and less in consumer products. He is clearly enamored with the entrepreneur as celebrity ideal- thinking of the twitter founder in vodka commercials. While that is the glamour side of the industry, and it would be great if a couple big names emerged, I think the current crop is better for creating good, lasting companies with significant impact. Bio, energy, even companies like zipcar. These companies change the way the world works in a very significant way. It just sounds like it lacks the celebrity style culture found in CA, which is how he was judging the area.

[Commuting Boston Student]

So, I have a confession.

I've become totally disenchanted with regards to the MBTA Commuter Rail.

Yes, it's true! In light of the recent/impending fare hikes, I decided to give Amtrak out of KIN a try - it's much closer to my house, does not charge parking, and $19.80 both ways against $14 both ways and $4 more on parking fees is the sort of margin for convenience charge that I'm willing to put up with.

Well, I have to say... I've fallen in love with Amtrak KIN - BOS. It's a faster trip - I cut my commute time from 2hr30m down to 1hr15m, the seating is much comfier and amazingly roomy, and I can buy coffee on the train.

Oh, and let's not forget - weekend service!

Sorry, Commuter Rail...

We can still be friends, though.

[BostonUrbEx]

$14 both ways? That should only be if your purchasing your ticket on board.

[Commuting Boston Student]

$14 both ways? That should only be if your purchasing your ticket on board.

Can't purchase tickets anywhere in Wickford Junction - there are no ticket vending machines / salesfolks - you HAVE to purchase on board.

As for the other direction, I've been informed that Zone 10 is not 'in the system... yet.' I remain skeptical that it will ever be 'in the system' - certainly not in time to avoid a surcharge, which you're guaranteed to pay at least one way.

[datadyne007]

I never thought about the FVMs' lack of Zone 10. That's horrible. It shouldn't even be legal for them to not offer a Zone 10 ticket in the machines.

[BostonUrbEx]

So... who else lost power today?

AFAIK, Saugus, Melrose, Malden, Medford, Belmont, and Brookline lost power. And a slew of others, but I'm not positive which others.

That was the most intense rain I ever saw. And it went 20 minutes straight.

[Ron Newman]

a friend was at the Revere movie theatre when it lost power

[statler]

I'm in Malden, but I didn't lose power. A lot of neighborhoods around me did though. That's usually the way it goes. In the 8 years I've lived here I've only lost power once (for about 15mins). We seem to be on some sort of super-grid.

[Commuting Boston Student]

I was at the Barbecue Beach Party. The moment the very first raindrop fell though, I decided I wasn't sticking around.

So I had the good fortune to be watching the torrential downpour from the safety of South Station. No loss of power there, but that might be because it's South Station and not indicative of power loss elsewhere in that area.

[KentXie]

I was at the Barbecue Beach Party. The moment the very first raindrop fell though, I decided I wasn't sticking around.

So I had the good fortune to be watching the torrential downpour from the safety of South Station. No loss of power there, but that might be because it's South Station and not indicative of power loss elsewhere in that area.

I wish there was a camera set up to catch that.

There was some kind of show being set up at a basketball court in Charlestown. I went by it on my way home and luckily got back right before the heavenly gods decided to un-dam the world's highest waterfall into the city.

Surprisingly they were still there after the rain but it looked like they had to re-set everything up.

But imagine watching all the tourists at the BBQ Beach Party run for their lives as the rain started to pour.

Mother Nature is definitely a troll.

Except that I think the downpour occurred after the event was over (it ends at 4pm I believe and the rain didn't start until 5pm?)

Also temperature dropped 5 degrees in the current rainstorm and I swear it look like it was 6 am at 10 am with all the dark clouds blocking out the sun.

[BostonUrbEx]

I love spring weather!

Even though this is supposed to be summer.

Bring on the cool temps and lightning!

[Commuting Boston Student]

I wish there was a camera set up to catch that.

There was some kind of show being set up at a basketball court in Charlestown. I went by it on my way home and luckily got back right before the heavenly gods decided to un-dam the world's highest waterfall into the city.

Surprisingly they were still there after the rain but it looked like they had to re-set everything up.

But imagine watching all the tourists at the BBQ Beach Party run for their lives as the rain started to pour.

Mother Nature is definitely a troll.

Except that I think the downpour occurred after the event was over (it ends at 4pm I believe and the rain didn't start until 5pm?)

Also temperature dropped 5 degrees in the current rainstorm and I swear it look like it was 6 am at 10 am with all the dark clouds blocking out the sun.

Nah, it was noon to 9 pm.

I probably would have stayed through the rain if I wasn't concerned about my phone etc.

[statler]

Currently one of my all time favorite movie reviews:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is easily the worst thing to ever happen to President Lincoln in a theater -Twitter user @spookyskeletons

[datadyne007]

^ Brilliant. Hahahaha.

[BostonUrbEx]

Anyone know info on seeing the tallships?

EDIT: hereletmegooglethatformyself

http://falmouth.patch.com/articles/boston-tall-ships-schedule-2012-0d22a1b8

[statler]

Just in case there are people here who haven't seen these yet:

SSP's Flash does Boston (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=199312).

[datadyne007]

^^ Holy lord those pix are fckin amazing!!! The JFK Library shots are insane!

I still don't understand how this picture works:
http://images.metroscenes.com/images/2012/boston-may-2012/boston_may_2012_metroscenes.com_26.jpg

Isolating International Place like that seems nearly impossible.

[statler]

Yeah, they discuss it further down in the thread.

This guy has one of the most amazing eyes I've seen.

I'd kill to be able to see the city way he does.

[AdamBC]

Anyone know info on seeing the tallships?

EDIT: hereletmegooglethatformyself

http://falmouth.patch.com/articles/boston-tall-ships-schedule-2012-0d22a1b8

Kind of disappointing after the experience the last time the tall ships were here - only 5 ships or so with 4 of them being at Fish Pier (which smells terrible). Last time there seemed to be 20 ships up and down the waterfront.

[Ron Newman]

Yep, just four tall ships at Fish Pier and one (US Coast Guard Eagle) at the Charlestown Navy Yard. I didn't notice any bad smell at Fish Pier, but I went at 7:30 pm which may have made a difference.

[bostonbred]

Seeing war BOOTY ADLER wHich being kAptUred hOrST vESSel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Eagle_(WIX-327)

[statler]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46216000/gif/_46216562_houses_466_4.gif

Source (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8201900.stm)

[GW2500]

America would be a lot better off if we start building reasonable sized homes on reasonable sized lots. A lot of this is b/c of snobby reasoned zoning laws.

[statler]

I was surprised to read the attached article about Britons complaining about too-small homes. I always thought that was something they took pride in and lorded over the US.

[Commuting Boston Student]

I picked up Google Chrome for the iPhone on my way in this morning and boy, oh boy, does it ever blow Safari out of the water. It's free, too.

I highly advise anyone with an iProduct still using Safari to make the switch posthaste.

[czsz]

I was surprised to read the attached article about Britons complaining about too-small homes. I always thought that was something they took pride in and lorded over the US.

They also just complain about everything, and "everything" includes Americans. In the British mind, it's entirely consistent to complain about your too-small house and the too-large homes the Americans have.

Also, who knew Danish homes were so large?

[GW2500]

Is it me or does HSR seem to be dead in the water in this country?

[datadyne007]

WFNX to become right-wing talk radio:
http://bostinno.com/2012/07/05/talk-1200-clear-channel-wfnx-glenn-beck/

This is tragic and horrendous news. First Scott Brown ends up in Ted's seat and now WFNX, once the nation's premiere alternative (and incredibly progressive) station, goes to right-wing talk radio. Liberalism is vanishing in MA before our eyes. =(

[Commuting Boston Student]

Is it me or does HSR seem to be dead in the water in this country?

That's what tends to happen when you turn infrastructure projects into political football and turn the intended goal into trying to score points for your 'team.'

Even without the wave of Republican obstructionism coloring politics for the last couple of years, the 'High-Speed Rail Corridor Designations' that were put out by USDOT and the FRA are stunningly ill-thought out, with serious holes in them. (Houston and San Antonio would not be connected, Jacksonville and Orlando would not be connected, no connection between the Chicago Hub Network and anything else, connections to Montreal but not Toronto...)

This is, of course, completely leaving out the Empire and Keystone Corridors being the start and end of New York and Philadelphia's respective HSR interests, Ohio pre-Kasich only wanting HSR that reinforced them into a central position, and lots of other pro-HSR 'point scoring' that was going on.

[czsz]

WFNX to become right-wing talk radio:
http://bostinno.com/2012/07/05/talk-1200-clear-channel-wfnx-glenn-beck/

This is tragic and horrendous news. First Scott Brown ends up in Ted's seat and now WFNX, once the nation's premiere alternative (and incredibly progressive) station, goes to right-wing talk radio. Liberalism is vanishing in MA before our eyes. =(

No, it's just vanishing from an increasingly antiquated and underutilized medium.

Also, I'm willing to bet more than a few conservatives listened to FNX. It's not like good music is inherently liberal.

[statler]

Right. Music over the radio is going the way of news on paper.

It sucks and a lot of good things are going to die along the way, but it is going to happen anyway.

[kz1000ps]

The article said the right-wing changeover was just a rumor, but Michael Marotta, DJ for FNX's "Boston Accents" and the Phoenix's music editor, says it's 100% true. Ack.


But on a more upbeat note, this mashup is currently blowing my mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6zS069US_I

[statler]

I will never, ever understand the appeal of listening to people yammer on (and shout) about politics.

It would almost make sense if it were an even-handed, actual discussion, but listening to people bleating the same talking points over and over again seems like a form of torture to me.