The other part of Bush's interruption of sweeps week

I'm not totally opposed to Bush's new concept for Social Security: lowering benefits as people's incomes increase. The major problem I see is that the plan might encourage people to move income and investments to areas of the economy that wouldn't actually count as income (I'm no expert, so I'm not sure what those would be). Above a certain income threshold, social security benefits really become unnecessary, but it's my understanding that under the current system, everyone receives them.

With virtually every Democrat, as well as many Republicans, opposed to his plan for private investment accounts, Bush sought to shift the focus of the Social Security debate to a new proposal that would reduce benefits more as workers' incomes rise.

"I believe the reformed system should protect those who depend on Social Security the most," he said in a nationally televised news conference. "So I propose a Social Security system in the future where benefits for low-income workers will grow faster than benefits for people who are better off." This is the first time Bush has backed a specific plan to reduce future benefits for tens of millions of Americans.

What does anyone else think of this plan? Any major drawbacks?

The Bush Administration's plan for fighting terrorism: Superheros

The Secretary of Defense announced the newest weapon in the war on terror in an appearance with Spiderman and Captain America in the Pentagon basement yesterday. Marvel Comics is producing a special "support our troops" comic book that will be distributed to U.S. troops overseas.

"Pure escapism," says Robert Sabouni, a Marvel executive. "A touch of home," said Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense. The story opens with some soldiers who stumble on a UFO-looking ship and call for help. Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic, the two scientist-superheroes, show up. They pry open the ship to find hostile aliens inside, and then KOOM! THWIP! etc.

A man dressed in a Spider-Man costume gamely squatted and did that web-squirt thing with his hands dozens of times to pose for photographs, while the Captain America look-alike flexed his muscles and kept his expression deadly earnest. At some point Rumsfeld too did a little muscle flex for the cameras, only he couldn't keep a straight face.
Are they saying these guys weren't the real deal? I guess I did expect spiderman's suit to be made out of something that offers a little more protection from evil villans than polyester.

Are they saying that these guys aren't the real deal? I guess I did expect Spiderman's suit to be made out of something that offers a little more protection against evil supervillans than polyester.

Original WashingtonPost.com Article

Bush's Energy Speech before "The OC"

It makes so much sense

I missed Bush's speech tonite, but from what I'm reading, the leader from the free world is being informed by people who have never taken a high-school science course.

Mike O'Hare of the Berkley Goldman School of Public Policy wrote a summary/criticism of Bush's speech that sums up the nation's energy options (and the president's distorted view of them) nearly perfectly.

Bush deserves credit for highlighting energy conservation, at least in general terms. But it would have been a lot more useful if he had proposed to stop giving big SUVs and pickups a pass on fuel efficiency, and if he had asked whether we need to have such enormous houses, built so far apart that people have to drive thousands of miles a year because walking, bicycles, and public transportation are impractical. It would have been especially useful if he hadn't asked for those lower gas prices. (Does the man know which way demand curves slope?).

Bush also brought up nuclear power (our best long term solution in my opinion), but he failed to address any of the political obstacles preventing its mainstream use.

It may not have been because the President wasn't making any sense, but NBC, Fox and CBS all cut the President's speech short to return to regularly scheduled programming (including Survivor and The Apprentice).

Wow! It's just frustrating to hear that this is all the most powerful people in the world can come up with. It's not acceptable.

Mark A.R. Kleiman blog post

It's the bat, man

MTV.com has the newest Batman Begins trailer up. Only problem is, they make you use Interet Explorer to view it. I can barely search their site with Firefox. Maybe they made a pact with Microsoft when they got the exclusive preview the new X-Box.

Update: The new trailer is up on the Apple Web site in Quicktime. You can even view a fullscreen version.

Conan, close up

It's finally happened... Late Night with Conan O'Brien is going to be broadcast in high definition beginning next week Tuesday. Zooming in on Conan's face will never be quite the same. Conan commented, "I'm really looking forward to the extra hour in the makeup chair." Maybe I'll try to get back home a little more this summer, just so I can watch Pierre Bernard's Recliner of Rage up close and personal.

Lost Remote post

You'll need cable to watch Monday Night Football...

The NFL just announced that Monday Night Football will be shown on ESPN instead of ABC next season and Sunday Night Football will be moved to NBC. ABC will be the only major network not to be carrying the NFL, although broadcasts will remain under the Disney company umbrella with ESPN.

Since so many people now have cable and games will still be shown on broadcast stations in local markets, I don't really see this as having a major impact on NFL viewership, although it may be an annoyance to some used to relying on broadcast television for their MNF fix. NBC hasn't had NFL games in a while... I always like to compare how different networks approach broadcasts of the same sport.

MSNBC.com story

ESPN.com story

Adobe + Macromedia = Adobe Systems

Today Adobe (makers of Adobe Reader, Photoshop and InDesign) announced that they are aquiring Macromedia (makers of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash). The deal consolidates some of the most-used software in Web design into a single company. I'm excited to see how Adobe might incorporate features of Photoshop into Dreamweaver and how the company will continue to develop Flash for web interactivity in mobile devices.

Blog post from Mike Chambers (Adobe Product Manager) explaining the aquisition and what it means for the future of the two companies.

Google Siteseeing

Since Google aquired Keyhole, they have added a satellite photo feature to Google Maps, allowing easy navigation of locations across the world. While most of the high-quality photos are of urban areas in North America, the service has photos from all over the world at various altitudes.

The blog Google Siteseeing is a collection of satellite photos of famous landmarks taken from Google Maps. My favorite finds are the white house (which apparently has had its roof photoshopped), the washington monument and Oprah's likeness carved into foliage.

Googling The New Vernacular

Right now, if you google, "The New Vernacular", my blog comes up as the 31st result. Not bad when you consider that "New Vernacular" is also a type of American architecture that a lot of people aparently like to write about on the web.

But... if you search "thenewvernacular", I'm number #1!

And if you Google "Mike Westling", my blogger profile is #1. I should probably take the time to actually write something in there, eh? A few of my posts follow in the top ten.

I'm also the third site if you search Google for "Feingold '08"! Just a little less significant now that Feingold and his wife recently announced that they will soon be getting a divorce
(which essentially trashes his chances for a presidental run in '08, considering the impact of the "values"in the last election. It's truly not something that should affect it, but it obviously will. It won't hurt him in Wisconsin, but it would have an impact in a national race. And seeing that Feingold said he would only run if he thought he would have the best chance of winning.... it doesn't look good. More than anything else, I'm just sorry that it happened. Actually being a good, thoughtful politician who goes to a listening session in every county would put a strain on any family situation.)

Anyway..
The New Vernacular has also been getting hits from people searching "Russ Feingold '08" on Technocrati. People actually searching for information that I'm writing about, and then coming to my site to read about it... that's the point, right? I find it exciting, anyway.

(if you hadn't noticed, I'm doing some excessive name dropping to try and bump that Google pagerank up a bit, [evil laugh])

Dear UW Athletic Dept....

The UW Athletic Department has announced that they're putting the method of voucher redemtion for next year's football student season tickets to a vote.

Here are the details from the Badger Herald

Here's what the Daily Cardinal has to say about it

And here's the e-mail that I sent to everyone in the UW Athletic Dept. Ticket Office directory:

I an a UW sophomore who has had season tickets to football, basketball
and hockey and am writing to express my disapproval of the choices
being given to
students regarding turning in ticket vouchers for football games next
year.

The first choice, having students line up for tickets all at once
like they do for basketball and hockey will create a huge line,
considering that the number of student seats are more than three times
what they are for other sports. The line will also likely be created
weeks, if not months ahead of time, once again introducing the issue
of camping on campus due to nicer weather and a higher demand for
tickets. Students in the Madison area for the summer will have a
distinct advantage over those who are not, and if the redemtion date
is before the beginning of school, waiting in the ticket line will cut
into the Wisconsin Welcome activities that the university puts large
amounts of time and effort into preparing.

The second choice, having students redeem their vouchers on gameday,
is better, but still inferior to the current system. This plan
effectively moves the time and location of the current system from the
Kohl Center on Wed. afternoon to Camp Randall on Saturday morning.
While I agree that this system will encourage students to arrive
earlier for games, seeing as the student section has been criticized
for showing up late to games in the past, it will cause them to arrive
days, if not weeks earlier. It then follows that this solution does
not solve the problem of students missing class, but instead
encourages them to miss class on different days leading up to
gameday. As for camping, the same issues that are present in the
current system will arise.

Tailgating before football games is a Madison and Wisconsin tradition
for students and alumni alike... As the city of Madison is so adament
about upholding the tradition of having the Mifflin street block on
the first weekend of May, I hope that the UW athletic department
follows suit and preserves the tailgating tradition that makes UW
football games one up the greatest college sports experiences in the
country.

I fail to see how either of these options solves any of the problems
created by the current system. If I'm missing something and they
truly are better solutions, I hope that you will respond and explain
to me how these systems will benefit the students and the University
community. I will be voting for the second choice if forced to, but I
hope that the Athletic department keeps the interests of students, the
peers of those actually playing the game, at the forefront of their
decision making.

Building a good relationship with student fans is essential to having
a successful collegiate athletic program. I have yet to see a
concerted effort on the part of the athletic department to really
reach out to the student community. This may involve making
concessions, such as pushing for a change in university policy that
would allow students in the hockey ticket line to actually have
resources at their disposal (such as a blanket) to help counter
negative effects on students' health and academic performance. Just
because certain policies are in place now does not mean that they
can't be changed in the future. There's no reason for students to be
given tickets for having a blanket and pillow when the only way for
them to get great seats to support their favorite UW team is to sit
outside in the cold for weeks at a time.

Take a note from "Krzyzewskiville" at Duke University. Encourage
students to get
involved and show school spirit for their sports team and you'll
retain and grow the wonderful student fanbase you already have at the
University.

Thanks for your time. I hope to hear back from you soon,

Mike Westling

High-Rise in Madison?

I just typed a much longer post about this article, but I lost it and am now very frustrated. So this'll be short. Written by the fabulous Meg Costello for the Badger Herald:

27-story complex stirs urban growth debate

A proposed 27-story building on the 900 block of East Washington Avenue is continuing to stir debate among Madison residents and officials. The complex, named the Archipelago Village, would overshadow all city buildings, by far exceeding the Capitol View Preservation Limit, but many agree developer Curt Brink has brought a positive and forward-thinking discussion to the Madison development table.

The city is grappling with the possibility of building a 27-story multi-use complex on the block where the Mautz Paint building lies. The reported cost for the Archipelago Village is estimated at $250 million, out-shadowing the $205 million Overture Center.

But Brink said the complex is designed to serve as a mass transportation hub that would bring in all forms of traffic. The building would also serve as conglomerate of 400,000 square feet of office space, 600,000 square feet of retail space, two hotels, a fitness center, a grocery store, more than 3,000 parking spaces and a possible water park.

By attracting visitors to the Archipelago Village, the complex would provide access to regional and local buses, the mayor’s proposed streetcar or several hundred bicycle lockers.

According to Brink, the “misnomer” of the project is “it just looks big” when, instead, the size could produce numerous opportunities for development in the East Washington Avenue area.

But Brink added that the size of Archipelago Village is not that big when compared to buildings in other cities, and due to the mass transportation traffic, the large design incorporates all the intersecting hubs.

“Looking at how it all works together and interacts, this is how the design comes out,” Brink said.

The building has spurred talk of Madison’s continuing urban growth. Mayoral spokesperson George Twigg said the battle between urban sprawl on the periphery or increasing city density is a current issue Archipelago Village tackles.

“Are we a small town or are we becoming a big city?” Twigg questioned. “While [the building] is a long way from breaking ground, it’s a good thing to have people coming forward.”

Twigg added Madison will have to look into options to secure this growth.

more...

I'm not tired.....ZZZZZZ

My esteemed collegue, partner in crime and future roommate, Ben Kuss, just published an article about the documentary he's producing on sleep deprivation among college students at Brandeis University. I'm excited to see the final film.

OP-ED: You're getting sleepy, very sleepy
Sleep deprivation widespread among students at Brandeis
By Benjamin Kuss

For the last month or so I've been trying to create a documentary about Brandeis students who are sleep-deprived. My escapades have lasted well into the night as I've spanned the campus filming and interviewing those oh-so-sleepless individuals. Staying all night at the Justice's office with sports editor Dan Hirschhorn '07, spending all waking hours with Sarah Pipes '07, hanging out with the WBRS crew during the 2 to 6 a.m. shift, as well as interviewing roommates, classmates, friends and strangers, it seems that now I get even less sleep than my subjects.

Read the rest of the article at The Justice Online