Lee Feigenbaum's Life in Words

"Can’t Find a Parking Spot? Check Smartphone" tells about a trial in San Francisco that will use sensors to alert drivers to what parking spaces are currently not in use. The article makes mention of Boris Albinder, a teenager who was murdered in SF over a parking spot a few years ago. And then they include this choice quotation from a UCLA urban planning professor:

If the San Francisco experiment works, no one will have to murder anyone over a parking space.

So, um, without this technology people need to murder each other over parking spaces?

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Oh, no. :-(

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From "Clinic wants to be 'snip city' at NCAA tourney time":

For guys who park in front of the TV during college basketball's March Madness, the Oregon Urology Institute has a suggestion: Why not use that time to recover from a vasectomy?

Why not, indeed?

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A must watch.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the NY Times, The Road to Clarity:

What I saw, Pietrucha knew, was what we all may see soon enough as we rush along America’s 46,871 miles of Interstate highways. What I saw was Clearview, the typeface that is poised to replace Highway Gothic, the standard that has been used on signs across the country for more than a half-century. Looking at a sign in Clearview after reading one in Highway Gothic is like putting on a new pair of reading glasses: there’s a sudden lightness, a noticeable crispness to the letters.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love xkcd... but come on, it took me about 3 seconds of reading today's xkcd comic to realize that the premise is fundamentally broken. Why wouldn't Rob just write definitely for real? It's the same damn length! What gives?

Lame!

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...and you know me: I'd love to use this as an occasion to make fun of the Yankees, but it's really not. It's just an occasion to point out that, holy cow, Jane Heller of the New York Times is the lamest sports fan ever.

I gave it everything I have. I am sick and tired of the “I trieds” and the “What do you expect me to dos?” I’ve been begging for answers and all I have gotten are platitudes. Enough is enough.

And so I am divorcing the New York Yankees — all 25 men on the active roster, in addition to the manager, the coaches and the general manager. Oh, and the trainer, too. And, of course, the owner and all his baseball people.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This entire article (yes, Dodzie, all six pages), is well worth reading.

The Yankees' Clean-up Man:

The greatest love affair of Rudy Giuliani's life has become a sordid scandal.

His monogamous embrace of the Yankees as mayor was so fervent that when he tried to deliver a West Side stadium to them early in his administration, or approved a last-minute $400 million subsidy for their new Bronx stadium, New Yorkers blithely ascribed the bad deals to a heaving heart.

It turns out he also had an outstretched hand.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 02:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Decoy Effect, or How to Win an Election:

Front-runners are usually focused on racing each other. They often do not realize that when people cannot decide between two leading candidates -- and it doesn't matter whether we are talking about politicians or consumer appliances -- our decision can be subtly swayed by whoever is in third place.

(Via Raymond Chen and The Old New Thing.)

I'm going to see if I can make use of this when advocating technical positions, weekend activities, Mario Kart race setups, dinner choices, television and movie lineup selections, and more. Look out, world.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 02:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If Lynn were a college-aged male, pitched baseball instead of slow-pitch softball, and could throw 91 miles-per-hour, then this article would be about her!

As his teammates whipped the ball around the infield, Venditte smoothly, unthinkingly, removed his custom glove from his left hand and slipped it on his right. Moments later he leaned back, threw a strike left-handed to the next batter, and finished the side in order.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recently, GM announced a new hybrid car called the Chevy Volt. Immediately, I found my my feed reader filled with two expert opinions on this announcement:

• Cy Chan, hybrid-automobile-blogger extraordinaire, weighs in with a positive review in "A GM I would actually buy...".
• Scott Adams, Dilbert creator and master of wacky ideas, is less impressed in his take, "Concept Car".

How could such similar authorities differ so greatly on this issue? I'm baffled.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In general, the amount of multi-axis, ten-question "which Brady Bunch family member are you?" quizzes out there on the Internet drives me crazy. But this one from nfl.com is very well done. And for me--at least the first time--it worked, telling me that the Jets are my second favorite team. Of course, the second time it gave me the Saints. Go figure.

The questions are different each time you take it. Who do you end up with?

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 03:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It's been a while since I've blogged here. So what better to blog about than the British woman who gave birth to three babies.... from two wombs!

From: "Triplets for woman with two wombs"

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to Lynn for pointing out this article. It's on the long side, but well worth the read.

"In Tiny Courts of New York, Abuses of Law and Power":

A woman in Malone, N.Y., was not amused. A mother of four, she went to court in that North Country village seeking an order of protection against her husband, who the police said had choked her, kicked her in the stomach and threatened to kill her. The justice, Donald R. Roberts, a former state trooper with a high school diploma, not only refused, according to state officials, but later told the court clerk, “Every woman needs a good pounding every now and then.”

A black soldier charged in a bar fight near Fort Drum became alarmed when his accuser described him in court as “that colored man.” But the village justice, Charles A. Pennington, a boat hauler and a high school graduate, denied his objections and later convicted him. “You know,” the justice said, “I could understand if he would have called you a Negro, or he had called you a nigger.”

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Only two this time around, but they're rock solid.

• BBC interview: A French cabbie on the Apple vs. Apple ruling
• The original RBI baseball commercial

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new series, in which I share my favorite links from the week in the hopes that not all my readers have seen them all. This week, we start out slowly with only four links:

• What if everyone woke up one morning, put on khakis and a blue shirt, and headed to their neighborhood Best Buy?
• The White House asks the USDA to promote the War in Iraq
• Pedro Martinez, away from the baseball diamond
• Rick Sutcliffe, guest announcer and drunk off his ass

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 05:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I say yes. You decide. (Thanks to Wing for forwarding this to me.)

Game 6.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Brokeback to the Future

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm glad you're unharmed, Dodzie:

Museum visitor trips, breaks Chinese vases

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Randi, on Friday night:

I love reading Wing's blog—
It's all about his video games and bicycle rides.

Ahh yes, that's why we all love it.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In which Christopher's friend, Casey, muses on the proper spelling of Diabolical Laughter:

Take note: 2 ha = maniacal, 3 ha = diabolical, 4 ha = you are starting to lose credibility. Remember, you are shooting for evil with a tinge of crackpot, not full-on crackpot.

For the record—and as made clear in my second attempt at commenting on Casey's entry—I'm a firm believer in the inclusion of everyone's favorite three-syllable letter in my villainous chortles. Regardless, I agree with Casey's mockery of those who would seek world domination while emitting a bovine laugh (moo-ha-ha).

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 02:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In which my coworker and good friend Ben Szekeley jumps into the blogging fray.

Spurred on by our resident blogging guru at IBM Elias Torres, and inspired by Lee Feigenbaum, I finally registered a domain, and began a Weblog. I must also admit that I was motivated by the fact that Lauren beat me to the punch with a Weblog. This is slightly embarassing as she is working toward her second masters in Classics at BU and I’m working on a Master’s of Computer Science at Harvard while working at IBM, an industry leader in blogging.

Also, I can't help but think that Ben's blog seems somehow... visually reminiscent of Elias's blog. Must be a coincidence.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lee Feigenbaum is someone who jumps at the opportunity to spend 30 minutes reading a collection of questions and answers about hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes.

(The opportunity arose while composing another entry and struggling to figure out when I should type "-" vs. "–" vs. "—".)

Aren't you glad you now know that about me?

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From an SI.com article:

Men are dirtier than women. So scientists confirmed by spying in public restrooms, watching as one-quarter of men left without washing their hands... The worst hygiene was at Atlanta's Turner Field baseball stadium, where 37 percent of men left the bathroom without washing, and 16 percent of the women did.

Such meaningful statistics do not come as a surprise to us bleeding-blue-and-orange Mets fans.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My sister, Randi, is a lot more gifted with words than with web design. From No One Deserves Lung Cancer:

Last June, my father died at the age of 56 after a nearly two-year battle with lung cancer. His story challenges the very fundamental perceptions people have of lung cancer patients.

Posted by Lee Feigenbaum at 02:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)