Ed Foster writes a summary of Diebold’s blatant misuse of the law to hide its own incompetence in building voting machines.

What really caught my eye was this version of the current state of the first amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of the speech, or of the press … except as needed to allow trademark and copyright holders complete power to control discussions about their brands.”

Interesting collection of photos from the California fires, taken by people on the ground and emailed to this site. Yay, new journalism.

Photos for Peace

Don’t take it out on the workers.

CSS fun.

Modern flirting (aka, smart girls are hot)

Americans are *not* going broke over lattes.

Nepal visitor avoids kidnapping by singing Scottish song.

ADVENTURER Andy Taylor saved his life by singing “Donald Where’s Your Troosers” when he was confronted by gun-toting kidnappers in trouble-torn Nepal.

Andy belted out the Andy Stewart classic to convince communist rebels he was a true Scot.

Yet another blogger posts something to his website, and gets fired.

MetaFilter comments.

I’m happy to see that the Maoists are leaving Americans alone.

“We will ensure that no American citizens — tourists or officials — except those who come to the battlefield with the Nepali army would be caused any harm by the Maoist militia,”

WorldTeach is looking for a new Field Director for the China Program. Do you have what it takes?

WorldTeach seeks a dynamic leader to manage our new program in Hunan Province, China. The Field Director will work closely with provincial education officials and schools to place, train, and support volunteer teachers for one year assignments, and will also oversee the Summer Program in China. This is an exciting opportunity to build program management experience in the field of international education and exchange.

If I were ten years younger, I’d totally consider it. Now I’m too attached to my iBook and my reliably running hot water to spend more than a month out of the country at a time. Along those lines, for those of you who keep track of these things, I’ll be out of the country for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We have an article this week to which I think we can all relate. Understaffing leaves many more employees overworked to the bone.

As Hirsch put it: ”Before you can ask people to take on more, you have to help them clear some space off their already full plates.”

Many organizations, however, take nothing off their employees’ plates. And in some professions, such as nursing, understaffing isn’t just stressful, it can be deadly. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the more patients a nurse has to care for, the more likely that serious complications or death will ensue.

As Tom DeMarco wrote in his excellent book Slack, “Lean & Mean = Skinny & Pissed.”

I ran the Boston Cares project at the Franklin Park Zoo‘s annual Zoo Howl yesterday. It was lots of fun, kids in costume coming to us for candy. Apparently Power Rangers are still very popular among the younger set.

After the event, I wandered around, getting a few pictures, including one very annoyed ostrich:

More pictures:

Calf

Giraffe

Giraffes

Horse

Lion – Front

Lion – Side

Lion – Profile

Ostrich – Front

Ostrich – Profile

Porcupine

Zebra

Ooh, fun! Our friends at Amazon.com have introduced a full-text search of their books database, searching not just the titles, authors and such, but actually searching the full text of the books. Once you find a hit, you can click directly and view the page of the book. This is a huge advance towards the concept of a universal library.

So what does one do with a tool of this power? Ego-Surf!

Do a search for “abuzz amazon product” and you’ll find me explicitly referenced by Rosabeth Moss Kanter in Evolve!.

1 reference to abuzz amazon product in this book:

1.
on Page 53 :

“. . . WILL THE YOUNG LEAD THE WAY? • 53 Abuzz ‘s focus-collaboration and community-building-and to the user experience, which told them . . . minimize and simplify the interface. Another communication facilitator is the product manager, a power- ful cross-functional role that coordinates among engineering, . . . Capello once played that role. His replace- ment came from Amazon .com, not for the money (he probably took a pay cut) but for the Abuzz culture and the chance to have . . .”

Now honestly, would it have been so very hard to actually write my name in there? Come on, it’s short, it’s easy to spell…

More thoughts at MetaFilter.

We saw Lost in Translation last night at the Fenway theater. I definitely recommend it. It’s sweet and funny and actually pretty smart, a refreshing change from most of the movies I’ve lately seen.

While telling the main story, the movie really nails what it’s like to live in an entirely foreign culture. Bill Murray in Japan reminded me of myself in China, an enormous white man towering over the scene, the continual object of whispers, gestures and stares. That, and it had really bad karaoke. I may have murdered Baby Got Back and Hey Jude, but at least I never attempted God Save the Queen.

Here’s a piece on FSBO vs Realtors. The author comes out firmly on the side of using a Realtor.

I’m obviously biased, as I’m the son of two superb Realtors, but I agree with the author. Your house is the biggest purchase of your life, it’s probably a good idea to have a little guidance on the way.

From Monday Morning Quarterback:

At 11 Thursday night in the Boston television market, 79 percent of all televisions that were on were tuned to Red Sox-Yankees.

That’s a higher percentage than any of the three Patriots Super Bowl telecasts drew in Boston.

I walked from Central Square to the South End last night, and I caught these snapshots as I walked over the Mass. Ave. Bridge. The combination of the red light and the ominous clouds provide a nice effect.

Here are three quick pictures of the Boston Skyline at sunset — click the picture for the full image.

Here is an excellent essay about Chinese culture, focusing on the ethos of “screw everyone else.”

[T]hings are so fashioned in China that oftentimes narrow-minded selfishness is the most reasonable choice. In simple terms, the culture rewards immorality.

From birth to old-age, the lesson of base selfishness is reinforced again and again. Your physical needs should be taken care of as soon as possible. If you are at a train station, screw everyone else and jump the queue because you want your train ticket now. As a government bureaucrat, steal as much as money as you can as quickly as you can because you might not have another opportunity at the trough.

(Via The Peking Duck)

Cultural Elitism corner: I remember being shocked at some of the basic rudeness we saw over there. Sometimes the only response to line-jumping is a hand gesture accompanied by a properly enunciated “dui bu qi [buddy].”

Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback on Sports Illustrated’s website is a must-read when it comes out each Monday.

I really enjoy it, because it’s written like a blog. And, he’s one of the best guests on WEEI. And, because he’s also a die-hard Red Sox fan.

I’m doing a lot of research for the Globe about employment-related scams — here’s a page from the Better Business Bureau about the most-common work-at-home scams.

To avoid falling for work-at-home scams, both on- and off-line, look for the following warning signs:

• Overstated claims of product effectiveness;
• Exaggerated claims of potential earnings, profits, or part-time earnings;
• Claims of “inside” information;
• Requirements of money for instructions or products before telling you how the plan works;
• Claims of “no experience necessary.”

You’d think this would go without saying, but if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. I have a stack of reference materials on the subject, so if you ever have any questions on any of these types of scams, please please please drop me a line before giving anyone any money.

Interesting article from the New York Times about text mining, scanning thousands of documents looking for buried and unexpected connections.

I sometimes have outrage fatigue regarding the shenanigans of multinational business criminals, but this is still bad: The drilling company has a Bermuda maildrop to evade U.S. taxes, yet still demands eligibility for American-only contracts.

Jay has given Fast Food Fever a facelift.

Embrace Middlebrowism.

Incredibly interesting weblog on moderating online communities.

My Google juice level is pretty high; if anyone does a search for Jason Butler, I’m the first result. Given that anyone can find anything I write, I’m really glad I didn’t post what I wrote immediately after the game last night. I’ve learned through hard experience at work that it’s often better to publish the third draft, not the first, and to leave the vengeance on the cutting-room floor.

So, my eighteen ‘grafs are down to one:

There’s no crying in baseball. On the other hand, it’s not second-guessing the manager when you’re screaming at the television AS IT’S HAPPENING.

Do you belieeeeeeeve? Pedro, Roger, game 7 in Yankee Stadium, Nomar resurrected, Trot on fire. The game starts at 8pm, I have a feeling that tonight may not be a good sleep night.

I don’t always agree with Dan Shaughnessy, but I think he nails it this morning.

This is hardball heaven in the Hub, potentially the greatest sports event in the long history of our city. It is as if the drama of the quarter-century-old Bucky Dent playoff game has been stretched over a full season and a seven-game series. And the Sox seem to have the Yankees on the run.

China joins the manned space-flight club.

The Shenzhou 5, or Divine Vessel, is expected to orbit Earth 14 times before returning after a voyage of roughly 21 hours.

If successful, the mission would make China the third nation to send a man into space, coming more than four decades after the Soviet Union and the United States accomplished the feat at the height of the cold war.