Carnival and GABB

This week's Carnival of Politics is up.

So is the Greater Akron Bloggers Blog. Redhorse has joined as a contributor. Any interested Akron bloggers should drop a comment or send me an email. Come GABB with us.

Sidebar Updates, Reader Shout-outs and Coming Attractions.

More Scenes from the Blogging Life.

Last Monday I noticed a first-ever comment from someone registered on Blogger. Because I had a ton of things to do and absolutely no time to be mucking about in cyberspace, I naturally clicked through to the commentor's profile. The commentor, MaryBad, lists as her location "Akron." She also lists four blogs. I click on the one that doesn't have a million co-bloggers discover she's in her first year of teaching English Lit and poetry at Akron U. As I scroll down, I see her kid -- who I've seen before. Sure enough, that day as I was picking up Kid T from preschool, there is Mary picking up her daughter from the same class.

"Mary, right?"

[Hesitantly] "Ye-e-es."

[Hand out] "Pho."

Mary's blog, the Word Cage, is on the side bar. Lyrically wry observations about her life. I'm not much into personal journal blogs, but it's well written and personal without being embarassing. She also drops in academic posts, like this one about Disability Studies. I've only talked to her a couple times now, but she is sufficiently cool that I'm willing to overlook the U. Michigan license plate bracket. Surf on by and have a look.

Elsewhere.

I've moved Ohio 13 Votes to the "On Hiatus" list since he/they have declared an end, but I'm not willing to accept it. I actually missed O13V at the Sutton party by like two minutes. A couple staffers told me they had just met him, but by then he was gone. No, he didn't work for Betty. Yes, he has a thing against Cafaro.

I finally got around to deleting GrOhio, not that anyone's been tempted to use the link in forever.

Tim Russo is done serializing his book and is blogging current events again, so he's in. I also added Mystery Pollster to the "Everything Else" list. I may have mentioned that already.

If you haven't heard yet, Cindy, Jill and YellowDogSammy are regular guest bloggers on American Street, so I added that as well.

Attention Akron Area Bloggers

Once again I am trying to organize a meetup. I also plan to set up an Akron bloggers blog on Blogger. If you got an email from me today, you are on my list. If you aren't and want to be, email me: pho197[at]hotmail[dot]com.

To My Readers -- The Nice Ones

Finally, I am bad at responding to comments and worse at responding to complementary comments. I've been getting quite a few of those lately and want to tell you all they are much appreciated. Few are as bad at accepting complements as I, and it appears to hold true even online where you can't see me blush. Don't think I didn't notice and I'll try to do better in the future.

Off to bed. I'm up early tomorrow as I will be in Columbus all day for an Ohio Fair Schools Conference and Lobby Day.

Random Ten

"Not Exactly Friday" Edition

I had great ambitions to post my Top Ten Bar Bands on the R10 with detailed arguments, but it's one of those So Much to Blog, So Little Time periods, so the belated list will have to do.

1. "Pioneers," Bloc Party
2. "Nobody's Business," The Believers
3. "You've Been Good to Us Clouds," Half-Hearted Cloud
4. "So Good Today," The Woodentops
5. "All World Cowboy Romance," Mission of Burma
6. "Cryogenic Sleep," Milemaker
7. "Brand New Colony," Postal Service
8. "Westchester County," Loudon Wainwright, III
9. "The Nocturnal House," Pretty Girls Make Graves
10. "Make War," Bright Eyes

Night of 1000 Nerds: Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Dinner [UPDATED]

Welcome. You have accessed this page over the internet – a network of computers that communicate using a Transmission Control Protocol. No doubt, you are viewing my writing on a computer that uses a dynamic random access memory. Quite possibly, the data that makes up this page traveled over fiber optic cable on its way to you. Scroll down and you will see some low-quality digital photographs. Tonight I shared a room with the inventors of all of the above and more.

While I gave kudos to Peppermint for her Issue 1 endorsement, I take issue with her post title; Akron does not suck. One thing that definitely Does Not Suck about Akron is the National Inventors Hall of Fame and one thing that Does Not Suck about my life is Prof. W’s connections that get us tickets to the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Tonight the inductees were Willard Boyle and George Smith, who invented the charge-coupled device, a light-sensitive microchip that forms the basis for digital photography; Vinton Cerf and Robert Khan who wrote the Transmission Control Protocol; Robert Gore of Gore-Tex fame; Ali Javan whose helium laser is used in optical fiber telecommunications; Robert Langer who has over 300 patents for medication delivery processes and Julio Palmaz, inventor of the cardiac intravascular stent. Presenters included inventors of fiber optic cable and random access memory. MC was NPR alum and current XM talker Bob Edwards.

I ran into David Giffels before dinner which bears a mention to give him a hat tip for the title. He noted that Akron has made moves to be “cool,” but this highlight of Akron’s year is a celebration of nerds. My reply was that nerd is the new cool, so it works. This is literally a black tie, red carpet event celebrating the smart folks.

The Hall of Fame Induction defies hyperbole. The [mostly] men and women that make up the inductee class and returning members are truly among the brightest and most accomplished people in the world. The sit atop the ultimate meritocracy where the only measure of success is making something that works that no one has made before and that changes the world. That’s all you have to do to get in. Oh, and secure a U.S. Patent for your trouble.

At the same time, one message that comes through in the speeches inductees give is the power of serendipity. Gore was trying unsuccessfully to carefully stretch heated Teflon when, in frustration, he gave it a yank and stretched the stuff to he full arm span. Prof. W once met at one of these the inventor of PVC and bubblegum. He called PVC and bubblegum his two biggest mistakes in the lab and concluded, “The lesson is: Patent your mistakes.”

A second lesson is the necessity of failure. George Smith said that the philosophy he shared with Boyle was that if their projects worked 90% of the time, the weren’t being adventurous enough; they should fail 90% of the time. Langer said of one of his early projects that he discovered “200 ways to get this not to work” before finding the way it does.

We live in the time of the cult of data-driven decision-making. While I’m all for following the data where they point to a clear decision, we have to admit the limitations of purely quantitative analysis. I can’t but wonder if in today’s bottom-line, stock-price-driven business climate if a 90% failure rate is tolerated in our corporate research laboratories. One of the dangers of an overreliance on quantification is devaluing those aspects of life that cannot be quantified. Creativity defies quantification. No standardized test can tell if a curriculum is opening or closing a curious mind.

By now the internet junkie who wandered in here by Googling “Vinton Cerf” is getting impatient to hear what he had to say. The answer is: not much. For an “Internet Evangelist” he didn’t much seize the opportunity to evangelize. The format for each induction is: Introduction by some connected eminence, a short film with a narrated description of the invention and its significance intercut with interview quotes from the inductee(s), then an acceptance speech. In the film and after, Kahn did most of the talking. Cerf’s was pretty much an Oscar speech, with this chestnut in the middle: “This is a technology that has no boundaries. Software has no limits . . . we hope to see an outflow of continuous innovation.”

Vinton Cerf and Robert Khan receiving their medals from National Inventors Hall of Fame President Teresa Stanek Rea and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Jon Dudas.












Terrible picture of the monitor when Cerf was speaking.








Kahn picked up that theme in his speech. First, he talked a little about how their work came to pass. The story that the Department of Defense wanted its research facilities to be able to communicate and contracted for the Arpanet is familiar enough that even a tech minimalist like I have heard of it. It sounded like Kahn was lead on the project and asked Cerf to join him, though the partnership was essentially equal. He also said that together they did far more than the sum of what they could have accomplished solo.

Somewhat better shot of Kahn on the monitor.






Hitting on another theme echoed by other speakers, Kahn said that people didn’t see their work as valuable at the time. In fact, colleagues told them they were throwing their careers away working on networking.

Then he spoke about the nature of the internet. It’s essence, he said, is its open architecture. Just like America is more than the dirt and buildings and people within its borders, the internet is more than the hard and the soft* that makes up its architecture. “It isn’t just what Vint and I created, but what everyone has created on it.” Why, you’re welcome, Bob. But more than that, thank you.

It’s practically a Congressional mandate that you can’t talk about these two guys being fathers of the internet without an Al Gore reference, and Bob Edwards dropped one as Kahn and Cerf were leaving the stage. It must cause them some distress as they felt sufficiently moved during the 2000 campaign to issue statements acknowledging Gore’s importance in providing legislative support to the growth of the internet.

The event will be broadcast on 45/49 on May 26 at 10:00 p.m. It’s not the same as being their live, but it’s worth catching. At some point, streaming video will be available online. Keep an eye out, its worth a look.


UPDATE: Giffles quotes me in his story on the event. My quote is at the very end. We didn't plan it, but the two stories complement each other nicely with David more completely describing the vibe of the evening and me running down more of what was said.

*Also, I forgot to mention that 40 PhoPoints are available for anyone who can identify the source of "the hard and the soft," (20) and the name of the character who says it (20). Sorry k-pho, you aren't eligible for this one.

2006: Let the Wild Rumpus Start*

Less than a week from the primary, I get my first message poll aiming at the looming election. I think just maybe this was commissioned by State Sen. Kevin Coughlin. Read the questions and see what you think

1. Ohio right track/wrong track
2. Governor’s race
3. State senate race
4. Aware that Ohio schools spend an average of 57% in the classroom?
5. Support 65% proposal?
6. If I tell you 65% would put another $1 billion in the classroom without raising taxes, would you support 65%?
7. If a candidate supports 65%, would you be more likely to support him/her?
8. Kevin Coughlin supports 65%, does that make you more likely to support him?

No surprise Coughlin supports the latest scheme to wreck public schools. I’ve heard two different stories in which Coughlin told school teachers that the entire problem with school funding is that teachers make too much. He also thinks that support personnel make too much. I know he thinks University employees make too much. His general anti-union stance suggests he thinks blue and pink collar workers make too much.

Ultimately I think Kevin Coughlin thinks everyone makes too much money except 1) guys named Kevin Coughlin and 2) people who give money to guys named Kevin Coughlin.

Judy Hannah has her work cut out running against 65%, but she better do it. She doesn’t have much chance in the general election, but at least she can make the case that 65% is a fraud. But it’s going to be difficult, and may require defying conventional political wisdom. On the other hand, if she can make the case that 65% is a fraud, she may be able to work it to her advantage. Hanna needs to make the case that Coughlin is too far right for the 27th and that she isn't too far left. Taking a reasonable stance on a bread-and-butter issue like education can do that.

If you need to read up on 65%, check out the links in my previous posts on the subject.

*5 PhoPoints

Old Soldier, Not Fading Away.

Not content to retire from politics as an elder statesman with some small swatch of his dignity intact, Tom Sawyer seeks to alienate what’s left of the local party by filing an FEC complaint against Ohio 13 nominee Betty Sutton and EMILY’S List, alleging illegal coordination. Those of you doing a better job than me of keeping up with Lorain Morning Journal’s political reporting would have seen this coming:

Noting that the mailing addresses of Ohio Women Vote and Sutton's campaign use
the same Akron UPS office, Sawyer has suggested that the two may be more
coordinated than allowed by law.
''We are actively investigating a complaint,'' said Bill Burgess, an adviser to the campaign. ''We wouldn't be doing that if we didn't think there were grounds.''

I didn't know Burgess was working on the Sawyer campaign as well as Issue 1 in Akron. Good to know they are toiling so hard to keep their streak going.

It isn’t the first time EM-List has had to defend such a charge. This case in Florida actually provided more compelling facts – EM-List ran ads where the candidate did not. The FEC dismissed that complaint. I’ve found a total of four complaints where EM-L is a respondent. All have been dismissed.

In this case, the Occam’s Razor explanation is actually noncoordination. The mailings were ham-fisted, over-the-top riffs on statements Sutton had been making. Those of us who like Betty hated the mailings because they weren’t a reflection of her character. That’s what you would expect if a 527 was watching the race and developing materials based on the candidate’s platform. My read on Betty, based on the times I’ve talked to her, is that the mailings would have had a different tone if she had anything to say about them.

The complaint is not yet available. Presumably the factual allegation among the most compelling is the P.O. boxes. That issue is particularly silly. The UPS store in question is in Wallhaven, a retail/office district with lots of available space and plenty of coffee outlets – a prime spot for campaign offices. It’s about a block away from Sutton’s HQ in the Chem Workers building. Not much of a coincidence that OVW bought a mail drop there. If they had office space, Wallhaven would be a likely choice. If they didn’t, that UPS store is pretty much the best option. It’s cheaper than the Post Office, you can rent shorter term and the Walhaven location is convenient to everything and has ample parking. If they were trying to hide illegal coordination, getting a box across town would be the obvious move. Hell, if they were in any communication with the Sutton camp, they'd keep their mail drop as far from Betty as possible.

Past complaints give some indication of how EM-List goes about their business. In particular, check out their response to a complaint in Florida. EMILY’s List, the Washington office gives money to the candidate, provides training, what have you. Meanwhile, EM-List’s “project” Women Vote – and not clear if this is a subsidiary organization or an affiliate or a d/b/a – sets up shop in the jurisdiction in question as [State] Women Vote! and do whatever independent advocacy they deem appropriate. EM-List puts procedures in place whereby staff of EM-List proper and staff of Women Vote! don’t communicate.

I don’t know the extent of actual staffing for Ohio Women Vote. Based on a Google search, it doesn’t appear to have existed before the Sutton campaign. I know EM-List/OVW had people working in Akron because I ran into their canvassers Monday night in my neighborhood (who were nice to me even when I identified myself as Pho.)

Having had quite a throwdown with RussellPounderStaff over this issue, I see some value in Tom’s complaint. The FEC will investigate. If a preliminary investigation shows a reason to believe that the parties violated the law, the Commission will issue what I would have called a probable cause finding, but they oddly call a Reason to Believe finding. After that, a full-blown investigation, but I suspect this case (or Matter Under Re view or MUR)won’t get past the preliminaries.

EMILY’s List knows they wander the political landscape with a bullseye on their back. While I take serious issue with their tactics in this race, I don’t believe they are stupid and reckless enough to endanger their rep and a candidate’s viability by illegally coordinating. They have procedures in place to stay on the good side of the law and I expect they follow them scrupulously, just for the sake of survival.

I’ll try to follow the case, at least online, and report developments.

Akron School Levy: Pay Anyway

My friends Brant and Marie, who are much gentler souls than I, have a wonderful idea for channeling their disappointment over the defeat of the school levy. I'll let them explain, then add some points.

In our house, we've decided not to be depressed about the failure of the Akron school levy, Issue 1. We've decided to pay anyway. We are making a donation to the Akron Public Schools in the amount that we would have paid had the levy passed.

The way we figure it, we voted for a tax that we would have had to pay, and the schools need the money whether it comes in the form of tax collections or donations. A donation will be tax deductible, so the tax consequences are the same. We will be in the same position financially as if the levy had passed.

As to the objection that this isn't fair because the family down the block won't be paying their share, we've decided not to care about that. To us, part of the reason we're in this mess is that we have all become too concerned with looking out only for ourselves, for our own children and our own pocketbooks. That's also why we've chosen not to just direct all our giving to the school our child goes to, or to give less because one of our kids goes to a private preschool. For us, the point is to help the Akron Public Schools, not just our own child.

If you would like to do likewise, the Akron Public School District has a form you have to fill out to make a donation--it is available online here.

You can calculate how much tax you would have paid if the levy had passed by using the following formula:

[Market Value of your home] x 35% = Taxable Value
Taxable Value x .0079 x 87.5% = Amount to Donate

As we understand it from talking on the phone to the District Treasurer's office, the .0079 is the millage (7.9/1000), and the 87.5% reflects a credit for payments from the State.

We are writing our check and sending it in. If you are planning to do likewise, it might be fun to keep track of it by sending an email to lawprofsr[at]gmail[dot]com. Also, if you like this idea, please forward this along to others who might be interested.

I can hear the Anonymice tuning up now. "It won't help. You can't raise enough that way. It will be counterproductive."

The last point first. I do worry that some people will say that this is such a great idea that we should only fund schools through private donations. I expect some will make this argument, but that they will prove to be the sorts of asshats that stretch anything into a reason to oppose a levy. And on the other hand, we may be able to put together a list next year of people who are showing their support for the schools in more than word.

As to the first two points, true enough. If this really catches fire, if everyone emails it around, if people talk about it and get excited about it -- if we get 200 donors, that would be huge. And 200 donors at $250 per would raise $50,000. That would be enough to save maybe one teacher.

That’s not the point.

The point for me is that this is a viable Plan C. Plan A was visiting the guy on Rhodes who posts a homemade “Vote No” sign every levy campaign and beating him into a coma. Plan B was renting a sound truck and driving the streets of Ellet and Kenmore, reminding the residents what a bunch of mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, redneck morons they are. After reflection, each of these has the potential to be truly counterproductive.

So Prof. W. and I have voted to raise the millage on our own home. If you feel similarly compelled, drop a comment or an email so we can keep track of it.