Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
I was reading an article in the New York Times (free registration required to read) this morning about how the housing market is crashing not just in the U.S. but all over the world. And I was thinking, “Well, that makes the U.S. look a little less dumb in comparison to everyone else.” But it also means that investors and marketers all over the world have managed to overlook a basic fact about housing economics: If someone in an equivalent job to yours can’t buy in your neighborhood today, your neighborhood is overpriced and due for a “correction.” (more…)
This video totally goes against the “shorter is better” rule of online video. It’s somewhat over an hour long. But it’s also the only full-length record of the 2nd Annual Village of the Arts Poetry Slam, held at The Village Bookshop in honor of National Poetry Month. I don’t think many people are going to watch this all the way through, but for those of you who have never been to a poetry slam or want to see what happens in Bradenton’s Village of the Arts besides selling paintings and crafts, here you go. (Note: the “slam-master” is Kevin Webb, nationally-recognized poet and owner of the Liberal Artz gallery in Bradenton.)
That’s right, folks. Somebody got it wrong, didn’t they?
In this case, I’d say the Bradenton Herald is the one that got the story right. Their piece included hard numbers from the Florida DOT survey about Anna Maria Island bridge preferences, while the Herald-Tribune’s story only quoted a few people who were apparently part of a group that opposes a high, fixed-span bridge between the island and the mainland.
Good job, Herald reporter Duane Marsteller — and the editors who passed on the piece before publication, too!
Emerson Point has lovely restored wetlands, great views of the Manatee River where it empties into the mouth of Tampa Bay, and ruins and other artifacts from early European settlers — and from Indians who lived here as early as 800 A.D. This short “highlight tour” concentrates on some of the more humble animal inhabitants and the view from Emerson Point itself. We need to go back another time to see some of the park’s (many) other features.
I’m just going to point you to this AP article and let you read it for yourself. Please read it all the way through. Then, if you still think our current Republican administration is at all competent, please check yourself into a mental hospital for a thorough checkup. And also, please, think very hard before you vote for another Republican. Geh.
Florida’s biggest problems — a poor educational system, doctor shortages, a lack of high-paying jobs, inadequate roads and other infrastructure, high crime, and excess growth — will take government intervention to solve. And government intervention will require more and higher taxes, not fewer and lower taxes. (more…)
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 2008 - The Village of the Arts in Bradenton, Florida, held its first-ever St. Patrick's Day parade. It was organized by Dona Lee, owner of the Village Voices Book Gallery on 10th Ave. West.
Most of the shots in this impromptu video were taken at the corner of 11th St. West and 16th Ave. West, in the "South" section of the Village of the Arts the city has decided should not get additional improvements. It was a joy to see the mayor and three city council members here — and an even greater joy to see a police car here not answering a call.
Dona dida great job organizing this event, and deserves huge credit, especially for including the oft-forgotten section of the Village of the Arts South of 13th Avenue.
roblimo | Humor, Politics | Monday, March 10th, 2008
FANTASYLAND, USA — During a press conference held earlier today, presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton invited (soon to be former) New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to run as vice president on her ticket.
“I am totally comfortable with this man in a way I am not comfortable with other potential vice presidents,” Clinton told all three assembler reporters. “Maybe it’s because he reminds me of my husband Bill.”
One reporter asked if Clinton was sure Spitzer was a Democrat. Although he claims membership in the Democratic Party, the reporter pointed out, it is usually Republicans who get caught up in sex scandals.
“Well, plenty of people accused Bill of being a secret Republican, too,” Clinton retorted. “And I was once a Republican myself. Deal with it, chumps.”
Our local papers tend to run articles about once a month that say housing prices have bottomed out, so you should buy now instead of waiting. This Sarasota Herald-Tribune piece quotes local builder Lee Wetherington, who says his sales prices are 25% lower than in 2005, that building costs are going up, and new homes are a better value than “resale” houses. And no, this article is not an ad, even though it reads like one. It carries the byline of respected Herald-Tribune staffer Stephen Frater, which means it’s a jen-you-wine news-type article even though it consists entirely of quotes from a single, self-serving source.
Here in Florida we are watching thousands of government employees, including a number of “conservative” elected Republicans, trying to justify retiring early to collect pensions, then keeping the jobs from which they have “retired” — at full salary while collecting full pensions. On the national stage, we see insurance companies competing fiercely for “Medigap” customers who, we all thought, were being taken care of by Medicare. But it turns out that there is plenty of profit in supplying them with drugs and services Medicare does not cover. And, of course, our “conservative” Republicans in Congress and the Oval Office have made sure their drug-producing friends aren’t forced to bid against one another for Medicare patients’ business, because that would be wrong. Or something. In the end, what we’re seeing behind the “conservative” mask is plain-out greed. And anyone who speaks out against greed is labeled a socialist. Fine with me. I’ve always been a social person. If that makes me a socialist, the people who believe greed is more important than helping their neighbors should be called “anti-socialists,” which is easily shortened to “antisocials.” (more…)
