When I was last in Boston, I had dinner with Eric and his girlfriend at CPK at the Pru. As usual, we had the hour wait and spent time wandering around Barnes and Noble to pass the time. As we were walking around the various bookshelves talking about books and politics and such, we walked by the women’s studies section where I saw the most unexpected book: SuicideGirls. This is a book for the eponymous porn site.

I’ve never belonged to SuicideGirls, but because they advertise on some of the bigger blogs, I’ve heard of them. They get a lot of good press too because their models break the Playboy-style artificiality. These models are “real” and people geeks and hipsters might be interested in. Say, for example, BoingBoing’s crowd of users. Or Xeni Jardin fans (co-editor of BoingBoing). They also get credit for being a site that “empowers” their models and gives them some control over how they’re presented on the site. The models have blogs on the site, talk to users, etc. It sounds like what a non-exploitive porn site should be.

Anyway, my point is that it’s kind of odd to see them in the women’s studies section but at least it’s understandable. I got home and mentioned it to Heidi. I defended SG a little, saying that pretty much what I’ve said above (better than the rest, might even be a morally “good” porn site in their business dealings).

Well, based on a new article in Wired, it seems I may have to take back what I’ve said above. From the article:

Talk about piercing the veil.

A group of angry ex-models is bashing the SuicideGirls alt-porn empire, saying its embrace of the tattoo and nipple-ring set hides a world of exploitation and male domination.

The women are spreading their allegations through the blogosphere, raising the hackles of the SuicideGirls company, which has until now enjoyed a reputation as porn even feminists can love. It offers burlesque tours, clothes and DVDs in addition to a sprawling online library of naked punk and goth women.

…

Two of the ex-models say they were attracted by the empowerment message, too. “I liked that you had a journal and voice, you had the chance to make your own (photo) sets,” said “Dia,” a 30-year-old former model who doesn’t wish to be identified because she now works outside the porn business in Northern California.

“I looked forward to making great art,” added Dia, who has unsuccessfully tried to get her photos off the site.

She and other models say that contrary to its image as a women-run operation, SuicideGirls is actually controlled by a man — co-founder Sean Suhl. They accuse him of treating women poorly and failing to pay them enough. (According to the site’s FAQ, SuicideGirls models get paid $300 per photo set.)

As usual, Amanda Marcotte over at Pandagon steps back and takes a look at the broad picture here.

I don’t think the fact that a man owns it really makes it any less of a female empowerment enterprise, but control over the images seems important to me as does ongoing revenue sharing. Promoting a band and all that… meh.

The headline says it all: Decline in Iraqi Troops’ Readiness Cited.

More:

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, said there are fewer Iraqi battalions at “Level 1″ readiness than there were a few months ago. Although Casey said the number of troops and overall readiness of Iraqi security forces have steadily increased in recent months, and that there has not been a “step backwards,” both Republican and Democratic senators expressed deep concern that the United States is not making enough progress against a resilient insurgency.

Kevin Drum has more on this.

It sure would be nice if they could just be honest with us. Had they been open and honest about the difficulties ahead from the beginning, I suspect that their approval ratings might not be so low. Seriously, does anyone believe anything these guys say in an official capacity anymore?

Ah, it’s finally arrived: Serenity.

Must. Go. See.

The review I linked to above is probably the best one that captures how fans of the series, like me, are looking at this film. It’s (finally) the next bit of the story we’ve desperately wanted to continue. I really want someone to pick up the series because it was just an awesome little show. Though, I’m a bit concerned about the movie:

So if “Serenity” is this good — and as a piece of filmmaking, I’m hard-pressed to find much fault with it — why am I still feeling the strong pull of those “Firefly” episodes? Whedon knows what he’s doing here: When he puts lines like “I got no rudder. Wind blows northerly, I go north” in Mal’s mouth, he does so for a reason. Everything in “Serenity,” including the delicate shorthand used to delineate the relationship between Wash and Zoe, who are husband and wife, is part of a meticulously worked-out plan, a way of cluing us in to the hearts and minds of these characters, fast.

But some “Firefly” characters, most notably Shepherd Book, are accounted for but get lost by the wayside. And when certain characters die, those deaths are likely to hit “Firefly” fans much harder than they do “Firefly” novices.

That’s understandable, but I still feel some anxiety that “Serenity” will be viewed by audiences unfamiliar with Whedon’s work as just another sci-fi-geek enthusiasm. My problem, I think, is that “Serenity” dredges up some of the same feelings I have when a movie adaptation of a book I love just doesn’t measure up. I’m so used to “reading” Whedon in the long form — so used to riding the rhythms of his television series, rhythms he sustains beautifully week after week, season after season — that “Serenity,” as carefully worked out as it is, feels a bit too compact, truncated. That’s less a failing on Whedon’s part than a recognition of the way TV, done right, can re-create for us the luxury of sinking into a good, long novel. I hope Whedon makes many more movies (and there’s the enticing possibility that “Serenity,” if it does well, will be the beginning of a franchise). Faced with a big screen, Whedon knows exactly what to do with it. But the small one needs him, too. Of all the pleasures TV watching has to offer, he has perhaps tapped the greatest one: that of waiting on the docks, anxious to find out what happens next.

We need the series back.

The Economist doesn’t really like some of the recent Internet acquisitions (sub required). The core of their concern is grounded on what you’d expect: some of these valuations seem completely out of whack. Their view of Ebay’s purchase of Skype is surprisingly harsh:

A Microsoft stake in AOL—which it would merge with its MSN portal—would come hot on the heels of last week’s purchase of Skype, an internet-phone company, by eBay, an internet-auction site. There is no doubt that there is huge commercial potential in internet telephony. But how that potential will come to fruition—and whether Skype will be the company that benefits—are very much open questions. Look at the raw numbers, and this seems like a deal with strikingly bubble-era economics: a price of at least $2.6 billion for a loss-making firm with unlimited ambition but expected revenues this year of only $60m.

…

Valuing a firm is tricky at the best of times (as is making a success of a merger), but it is especially hard for a young firm. The rationale of Rajiv Dutta, eBay’s chief financial officer, for the firm’s valuation of Skype does little to inspire confidence. He first compared Skype with eBay’s previous biggest acquisition, of PayPal, an online payment system that is not obviously comparable to a phone service (and which, unlike Skype, eBay knew intimately before the acquisition). PayPal cost 8% of eBay’s market capitalisation in October 2002, said Mr Dutta, whereas Skype cost only 4.8% of eBay’s current market cap. But is that the right measure? Skype’s revenue growth in the 12 months in which it has charged for some of its services, he noted, was faster than eBay’s at a similar stage in its development. Again, why is this relevant? Skype and eBay have completely different business models. Finally, its current losses notwithstanding, Mr Dutta thinks that Skype will have a long-term operating-profit margin of 20-25%—apparently for no other reason than that eBay also assumed that PayPal would achieve that same margin.

Ouch.

What’s interesting is that they aren’t knocking the importance of Internet telephony, just this deal. In fact, their cover story a few weeks back focused on the rise of Internet telephony.

I happen to buy the arguments put forth by The Economist. My reaction to the Skype deal was a muted, “Holy crap!” when I heard the numbers. Then, I was confused as to what Ebay and Skype could do for each other as part of the same enterprise. These aren’t complementary businesses as far as I can tell, even if they do some of the seller/buyer communications things I’ve been hearing about. In fact, I haven’t read one good explanation of why this makes sense as a acquisition and that’s probably the most unusual thing about this. It strikes me as a strategic partnership discussion that got way out of hand…

Read this and weep.

Via Boing Boing, I’ve learned that this is Banned Books Week. The ALA has a great kit for teachers and libraries. Exploring these books is a great way to remember the history of our country and the progression of social mores and taboos through time. I suspect there are valuable lessons for our modern times in some of those books, as well.

They’re also offering, via Audible, a free chapter of 2004’s most challenged book, The Chocolate War.

Here’s the poster. Love the quotes:

I’ve been so busy that I haven’t seen anything other that a shot here or there of cars strewn on the highways around Houston. Because I only saw the images and didn’t really have the mental bandwidth to actually have the volume turned up, I was wondering what was going on. I’m finally catching up, but assuming that most of you knew about the shortages and whatnot, I’ll skip to TNR’s article on the implications of the events in and around Houston. Good read, and I’ll let it stand on it’s own, but I do want to point out something that caught my eye:

Rita caused such panic it may come to be known as the Second Runaway Scrape, eerily like when Texans fled across the landscape in 1836, in advance of the Mexican army. Then, Texans battled Indians, cold, rain, and hunger. This time, the town of Sealy, 24 miles from Houston, looked like it was ravaged by riot: stores shuttered, gas pumps empty, garbage everywhere, desperation on drivers’ faces as they ran low on fuel under the scowl of the cops. “If it hadn’t been for Katrina, maybe I wouldn’t have been so concerned,” says Susan Clark, who with her husband Adam had fled Houston, only to make it 15 miles. “People in New York might say, ‘Take the trains,’ but we don’t have that here. I was having a fucking anxiety attack.

In the context of a hurricane, not sure the trains thing is really relevant (how many people could really evacuate this way?). The thing is, within the greater culture of America and in diverse issues such as obesity and energy policy and commerce, I think that more local light rail and subway/trolley systems are a very good idea.

When I lived in Boston, I was healthier. Not because I ate better or went to the gym more, but because I walked a LOT more. I walked to work on nice days, I walked to get groceries. I walked to have dinner or to meet friends. If friends lived far away, I took the T or the light rail out and had them pick me up. Short drives instead of long ones on the highway.

I used way less fuel because I didn’t need to drive. I actually didn’t own a car, but I realize that’s because I was in a special situation (truly urban living is different than neighborhood suburban living, for sure). It’s interesting to see that some communities are starting to see this, though. Atrios pointed out an interesting light rail development around Denver, I think. Denver, by the way, used to have ZipCar. I think they’re working on the right type of development and Atrios’s comment about reducing vs. eliminating cars is spot on.

I would totally love a way to take rail to ESPN, but the problem with a big sprawling campus is that they really need to be away from urban centers. But Hartford, man, Hartford could use a hub-and-spoke development strategy with light rail running out to the major suburbs. No one lives in the city, and it’s all cars over interstates and local highways.

Thankfully the Department of Justice has a new crusade, protecting us all from hardcore pornography. According the story, Attorney General Gonzales has claimed “the best and brightest” will be on the anti-obsenity team. Because really, that is where we need to concentrate our top resources. I know that as a new mom, I am *thrilled* that the government is concentrating on keeping adults from viewing pornography instead of say, going after terrorists, organized crime, or any of the many other priorities we have in this country. Thanks guys!

The New Orleans Times-Picayune runs a followup on the stories of rapes and violence in the convention center and the Superdome. It’s an interesting read. The good news is that most of the stories seem exaggerated or at least the product of communications that mirrored the “telephone game” rather than first hand journalism.

MSNBC’s Brian Williams has more on his blog.

Mike Brown may not be gone. TPM reports (and I just watched Olbermann talk about this on Countdown):

CBS says FEMA has rehired Brownie as a consultant “to evaluate it’s response following Hurricane Katrina.” The Times-Picayune says merely that he “is continuing to work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency at full pay, with his Sept. 12 resignation not taking effect for two more weeks.”

While there, says, DHS spokesman Russ Knocke, said Brownie will advise the department “some of his views on his experience with Katrina.”

Long goodbye or not, aren’t pearls of wisdom such as Brown appears to have on offer usually extracted not with paychecks but with subpoenas?

This seems short sighted. Even if he’s just getting paid until his resignation takes effect, just send him home…

You know, I never really got into the whole College Republican or College Democrat thing in college. In fact, the only time they really even popped up on my radar was when one former Hopkins College Republican shot and killed a student on campus, a rival CR member apparently over some personal issues. That was pretty much the only time I ever really thought about the College Republicans, and then only because a number of my friends knew one or both of the guys involved (small campus and all that).

I bring all this up only because TNR has a long article covering the intrigue and drama in the recent election of the new national College Republican President. So many shenanigans going on here that it just pretty much symbolizes the mess that is American politics today.

Though, this caught my eye:

A few weeks after the convention, I got in touch with the newly reelected president of College Democrats, Grant Woodard of Grinnell College. For his uncontested race, he said he raised $2,000–$198,000 less than Michael Davidson’s estimated take. Unlike the College Republicans, Democratic students are not organized as an independent 527. They reside within the Democratic National Committee and exist largely to supply campaign volunteers. Woodard makes all his calls after 9 p.m., “when I get free cell phone minutes,” he told me. His salary is $75,000 lower than the one Chairman Paul Gourley receives–that is to say, nonexistent. The contrast between the two organizations is remarkably vivid. When the liberal Center for American Progress sent a blogger to the CRNC convention, she returned horrified by what she’d witnessed and sentimental about the Democratic operation: “I much prefer our movement with blue jeans, diversity, goofy kids, birkenstocks and good beer (none of that busch light crap). We’ve definitely gotta step up the field based organizing, but let’s make sure we’re enjoying it. And each other.” Considering their current losing streak, Democrats might want to spend more time contemplating the contrast between the two styles of political education. How often do Birkenstocks trod the road to victory? Can you really count on goofy kids in a knife fight?

Interesting difference? No doubt which one is more effective, though, in the short run…

One of the problems with working past 3AM for 2 of the past 3 nights is that your sleep cycle gets completely jacked up. I went to bed early tonight then got woken up by my pager going off. Now, I’m wide awake and can’t sleep.

The cause of all of this lost sleep was the testing and preparation for this Sunday’s relaunch of FantasyCast for ESPN.com’s Fantasy Football. If you upgrade your team or league you can get access to this app which provides you a quick overview of the NFL games and your fantasy league all in a nice, compact space. Here’s a screenshot of the post-game appearance of the app:

Click on the image to enlarge.

I’d also encourage you to leave feedback for the application using the “Submit FantasyCast Feedback” link at the bottom of the window there. I can assure you that our fantasy games folks are definitely reading the feedback. Obviously, we can’t promise we can do everything people suggest, but your feedback is important to us.

You’ll be seeing more of these applications as we build out our RealTime technology stack and even some surprise apps coming soon.

We’ve had some interesting comments over the past few weeks. First, Kim’s post about Best Buy drew some comments from Best Buy employees explaining the personal shopping assistant program there. In case you shared some concerns about the program or are simply curious, you can check out their comments.

We also had someone from the film comment on my post about the documentary The Fire Next Time. This commenter is one of the local citizens who was in the documentary who I even quoted in my review. He’s passionate, that’s for sure, but I stand by my original commentary.

If I missed anything else that was interesting, let me know.

A coworker just ran into an interesting feature in Java that created a subtle bug. Most Java programmers know what the += operator does when used like this:

op1 += op2

Basically op2 is added to the value of op1 and then assigned to op1. So, for example:

Well, what happens in Java if you accidently type =+ instead of +=?

He didn’t know, I didn’t know, and another excellent Java programmer here had no idea either. So, off to look at the list of Java operators to make sense of it.

I’ll post the answer after the jump.
(Click here to read the rest of this post)

The National Hurricane Center offers their advisories via RSS feeds if you want to track the storm news. I suspect that this will be very helpful to folks who want to track storm warnings. It’s probably of limited use to residents in places that get hurricanes often, but particular storms might be interesting to have in a desktop aggregator (perhaps a Konfabulator or Dashboard widget?) in case you want to keep abreast of the storm track without having to constantly check the NHC web site.