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Westbound -- Calif. to Paris: Summer 2007
http://stewartspivak.blogspot.com/
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Saturday, December 14, 2002 :::
Open Directory - Help Central
The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.
http://dmoz.org/about.html
"Instead of fighting the explosive growth of the Internet, the Open Directory provides the means for the Internet to organize itself. As the Internet grows, so do the number of net-citizens. These citizens can each organize a small portion of the web and present it back to the rest of the population, culling out the bad and useless and keeping only the best content."
::: posted by Stewart at 6:00 PM
CareerJournal.com -- The premier executive career site from The Wall Street Journal
http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/cubicleculture/20021115-cubicle.html#pyramid
::: posted by Stewart at 4:26 PM
CareerJournal.com -- The premier executive career site from The Wall Street Journal
Count me in! Add my vote!
Our (Ventura County) courthouse always has to have a courtroom or two open on Dreadful Friday. Oh my God, the office politics, re: who'll have to staff it!
And I'd also like to add that I love Wednesday mornings because I get to go out to my driveway and pick up my WSJ to see what you've cooked up for our breakfast reading! Will it be another "salad pyramid"?
Stewart Spivak
::: posted by Stewart at 4:24 PM
Friday, December 13, 2002 :::
InstaPundit.Com A READER WRITES: "It has begun. Read Krugman's column today and let's see how long it takes for the Lott story to become, in the hands of the media, the racial equivalent of the 'southern gun culture' stories that ran after the pre-Columbine round of school shootings."
Perhaps Krugman will take on the race-baiting that has marked recent Democratic politicking in his next column.
UPDATE: It's not just Krugman -- and not just America.
::: posted by Stewart at 9:54 PM
InstaPundit.Com A READER WRITES: "It has begun. Read Krugman's column today and let's see how long it takes for the Lott story to become, in the hands of the media, the racial equivalent of the 'southern gun culture' stories that ran after the pre-Columbine round of school shootings."
Perhaps Krugman will take on the race-baiting that has marked recent Democratic politicking in his next column.
UPDATE: It's not just Krugman -- and not just America.
::: posted by Stewart at 9:53 PM
Stewart Spivak
"Blogosphere," the cyberworld of personal op-ed pages (or anything else) on the Internet.
If you have any interest in any of this read on:
"Blogosphere" is such an neat new world for expression. Any and all can join in by spending maybe five to ten minutes setting up a weblog with a host. My "host" is www.blogger.com and my weblog is at: http://www.stewartspivak.blogspot.com/. (Check it out!) Maybe even let me know what you think!
This entire Lott business is due, pretty much, to the "blogger", Joshua Micah Marshall, (or so says Paul Krugman in his NY Times column this morning). Marshall is a graduate student in history at Brown and a writer.
The Other Face
By PAUL KRUGMAN
"Joshua Marshall, whose www.talkingpointsmemo.com is must reading for the politically curious, and who, more than anyone else, is responsible for making Trent Lott's offensive remarks the issue they deserve to be."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/13/opinion/13KRUG.html
The name "blogger" sounds awful to me, but in this day of instantly recognized new words, it will probably be in the online OED within a year. (In fact I think I'll calendar this).
So see article below if you're still with me:
"Blogosphere" Exciting new medium for expression.
NEW YORK POST
THE INTERNET'S FIRST SCALP
By JOHN PODHORETZ
December 13, 2002 -- THERE'S nothing more exciting than watching a new medium mature before your eyes. That's what's been happening over the past week in the so-called blogosphere - the cyberworld of personal op-ed pages on the Internet."
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/51499
::: posted by Stewart at 5:15 PM
Thursday, December 12, 2002 :::
What's in a Name? Perhaps Plenty if You're a Job Seeker
Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Sendhil Mullainathan of M.I.T.
::: posted by Stewart at 11:06 AM
What's in a Name? Perhaps Plenty if You're a Job Seeker Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Sendhil Mullainathan of M.I.T.
Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Sendhil Mullainathan of M.I.T.
::: posted by Stewart at 11:04 AM
What's in a Name? Perhaps Plenty if You're a Job Seeker Marianne Bertrand of the University of Chicago and Sendhil Mullainathan of M.I.T.
::: posted by Stewart at 11:02 AM
What's in a Name? Perhaps Plenty if You're a Job Seeker
ECONOMIC SCENE
What's in a Name? Perhaps Plenty if You're a Job Seeker
By ALAN B. KRUEGER
HAT'S in a name? Evidently plenty if you are looking for a job.
. . .
. . .The results are disturbing. Applicants with white-sounding names were 50 percent more likely to be called for interviews than were those with black-sounding names . . .
. . . Two main theories explain labor market discrimination. One, known as taste-based discrimination, posits that employers — or customers, co-workers or supervisors — have a preference against hiring minority applicants, even if they know they are equally productive.
The other, known as statistical discrimination, assumes that employers personally harbor no racial animus but cannot perfectly predict workers' productivity. In this case, an employer assessing an applicant would assign some weight to the average performance of the person's racial group, instead of basing the judgment solely on the individual's merits.
A difference between these models is that employers sacrifice profits to indulge in taste-based discrimination, while, in principle, statistical discrimination, if based on accurate information, can help the bottom line. Professors Bertrand and Mullainathan cannot distinguish between the models — and both may be applicable — but they suspect that their finding that employers in heavily black areas of Chicago are less likely to discriminate against black-sounding names augurs for taste-based discrimination. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/business/12SCEN.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/business/12SCEN.html
::: posted by Stewart at 11:00 AM
Wednesday, December 11, 2002 :::
statesman.com | AP Online
Mormons, Jews Meet Over Baptizing Dead
By C.G. WALLACE
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)--Mormon and Jewish leaders met Tuesday in New York City to discuss the Mormon church's apparent breach of its agreement not to posthumously baptize Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews.
Mormon leaders requested the meeting with Ernest Michel, chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors who helped broker the 1995 agreement with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said church spokesman Dale Bills.
Before the meeting, Michel said the discussion would be preliminary. Numerous calls to his office were not returned Tuesday.
In a statement, the Mormon church said the meeting with Michel was ``positive and productive'' but did not elaborate on the outcome.
Mormons believe proxy baptisms give those in the afterlife the option of joining the religion. It's primarily intended to offer salvation to the ancestors of Mormons, but many others are included.
Baptisms for the dead are performed inside Mormon temples, with a church member immersed in water in place of the deceased person. Names of the deceased are gathered by church members from genealogy records as well as death and governmental documents from around the world.
``For Latter-day Saints, the practice of proxy baptism is a means of expressing love and concern for those who have preceded us. It is a freewill offering,'' Bills said.
At Tuesday's meeting, Michel met with Mormon leaders Monte Brough and D. Todd Christofferson.
Independent researcher Helen Radkey, who prepared a report for Michel, is certain the agreement has been broken. In her research of the church's extensive genealogical database, she found at least 20,000 Jews--some of whom died in Nazi concentration camps--were baptized after they died.
``There shouldn't be one single death camp record in those files,'' Radkey said.
Radkey has been researching Jews included in the Mormon databases since 1999, when she found Anne Frank and her extended family listed as being baptized.
Also among those baptized posthumously by the church, according to Radkey's research: Ghengis Khan, Joan of Arc, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Buddha.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the Mormon church needs to rein in its members if it is serious about its pledge to stop baptizing Holocaust victims.
``If these people did not contact the Mormons themselves, the adage should be: Don't call me, I'll call you,'' Hier said. ``With the greatest of respect to them, we do not think they are the exclusive arbitrators of who is saved.''
___
On the Net:
Mormon church: http://www.lds.org
AP-NY-12-10-02 2349EST
Copyright 2002, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
::: posted by Stewart at 10:24 PM
Tuesday, December 10, 2002 :::
Artists Network of Refuse & Resist!
LA Times / November 24, 2002
Film: war's foot soldier?
We have been brainwashed by history and, more to the point, by the movies into thinking we cannot lose. Ê Ê
By Kenneth Turan,
Times Staff Writer
"Lots of people talking about the coming war,
Some of them rich and some of them poor.
Talk about it like a blackjack game,
But win or lose you can't play again."
-- Mark Spoelstra, "The Times I've Had"
"You are reading a piece I never wanted to write. A piece whose idea has so unnerved me that I've put it off even though I've been compulsively making notes for weeks. A piece about movies and the American mind, about the inevitability of the coming war and its potentially cataclysmic aftermath. For my fear is we are floating toward terribly dangerous waters and that the movies have a share of the blame."
http://www.artistsnetwork.org/news7/news292.html
::: posted by Stewart at 6:29 PM
Yahoo! Mail - stewartspivak@yahoo.com
Dear Mr. Turan:
Re: "Film: war's foot soldier?" Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, Sunday Nov. 24, 2002
Dear Mr. Turan;
A reader's request for more essay writing!
Bravo, bravo!
Which makes me think of the adage "privilege brings responsibility". There comes a time in life when one's external experiences along with one's internal experiences begin to create, well, "wisdom".
Well your time has come.
I'd just love the benefit of your insights gained over many, many years about just about any topic -- since that is what film deals with anyway. As a film critic you've seen just about every aspect of human experience depicted in film. After a couple generations of viewing and writing about film, combined with your own personal life experiences, you have become a very rare breed at observing the events in this world of ours, and just maybe, seeing and understanding those events in a way that is unique and different from the rest of us.
So what about a regular column -- a wise essayist is a very rare breed --what about, say once a month or maybe even once a week. Now that would be a treat.
It looks as if your thoughts regarding just about anything going on around us, especially as seen through the eyes of a film critic, would make a very real contribution to our understanding of, well, the world about us -- or inside us.
Let the other, and younger, foot soldiers at the Times do the day in, day out job of telling us what's on the screen each week. And of course isn't that what is nice about reading, or working for, a major paper. Some of the senior observers on the staff are allowed to reflect a bit more than in the past so they can give the readers a larger view of of our world.
And isn't this what has happened to Frank Rich's work in the NY Times ?
Thank you again for allowing me to gain a better understanding of film and its meaning to such events, as now, Iraq's oil wealth.
Stewart Spivak
Camrarillo
::: posted by Stewart at 5:58 PM
Monday, December 09, 2002 :::
Yahoo! Mail - stewartspivak@yahoo.com
letters@nytimes.com.
re: Berkeley Mayor Admits to Role in Throwing Out Newspapers. December 7, 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/national/07BERK.html
Outrageous, just astonishing. Some one-thousand copies of The Daily California were apparently placed in University racks, published expressly for members of the university community; students, faculty, staff and university visitors. The papers were still the property of the university and its student newspaper when they were stolen. Seems to be theft of public property, a very serious offense by itself. However the crime is especially offensive because it was the theft of news, ideas, and opinion on the day before the Berkeley elections.
No D.A. should have to ponder too long to decide whether or not this was a crime. This sure seems like feloneous behavior to me. And what does it say about someone holding an office of public trust? He has no place serving as mayor.
Stewart Spivak
(Note: I am a retired deputy district attorney and deputy public defender in California)
::: posted by Stewart at 4:47 PM
Stewart Spivak
letters@nytimes.com.
re: Berkeley Mayor Admits to Role in Throwing Out Newspapers. December 7, 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/national/07BERK.html
Outrageous, just astonishing. Some one-thousand copies of The Daily California were apparently placed in University racks, published expressly for members of the university community; students, faculty, staff and university visitors. The papers were still the property of the university and its student newspaper when they were stolen. Seems to be theft of public property, a very serious offense by itself. However the crime is especially offensive because it was the theft of news, ideas, and opinion on the day before the Berkeley elections.
No D.A. should have to ponder too long to decide whether or not this was a crime. This sure seems like feloneous behavior to me. And what does it say about someone holding an office of public trust? He has no place serving as mayor.
Stewart Spivak
stewartspivak@yahoo.com
(Note: I am a retired deputy district attorney and deputy public defender in California)
::: posted by Stewart at 4:44 PM
Yahoo! Mail - stewartspivak@yahoo.com
letters@nytimes.com.
re: Berkeley Mayor Admits to Role in Throwing Out Newspapers. December 7, 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/national/07BERK.html
Outrageous, just astonishing. Some one-thousand copies of The Daily California were apparently placed in University racks, published expressly for members of the university community; students, faculty, staff and university visitors. The papers were still the property of the university and its student newspaper when they were stolen. Seems to be theft of public property, a very serious offense by itself. However the crime is especially offensive because it was the theft of news, ideas, and opinion on the day before the Berkeley elections.
No D.A. should have to ponder too long to decide whether or not this was a crime. This sure seems like feloneous behavior to me. And what does it say about someone holding an office of public trust? He has no place serving as mayor.
Stewart Spivak
stewartspivak@yahoo.com
(Note: I am a retired deputy district attorney and deputy public defender in California)
::: posted by Stewart at 4:44 PM
Yahoo! Mail - stewartspivak@yahoo.com
letters@nytimes.com
Re: Two Rejected Sports Columns to be Printed by The Times, Dec. 7, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/07/national/07PAPE.html
I have been a daily reader of the New York Times for 41 years and the Howell Raines story disturbs me deeply. Others can be much more articulate in expressing my reasons. There are times when a person is allowed a mistake. This is not such an occasion. A gifted journalist, Mr. Rains, needs to be reassigned.
Editors carry great responsibility as trustees of a very fragile institution that is so important to our nation and to readers like me.
I will not feel comfortable reading any story, news article, section columnist, or Op-Ed piece until he is replaced.
With great respect,
Stewart Spivak
6275 Calle Bodega
Camarillo, CA 93012
805.484.9822 fax & tel.
stewartspivak@yahoo.
P.S. My views on Augusta are consistent with those of the Mr. Rains and the editorial board; a seat on the Mt Olympus of business includes, or requires, membership in it's play groups.)
::: posted by Stewart at 4:39 PM
December 15 will be the anniversary of the birth of L.L. Zamenhof
(1859-1917), physician and philologist, best known as the creator of
Esperanto. Designed as a common International language, Esperanto is
the most popular artificial language ever devised.
Why would one want to have a single language rather than a rainbow of
languages, dialects, sounds, and intonations? How else would we have
multi-lingual puns, lost-in-translation gems, and other
cross-linguistic
humor? And what better way to understand other cultures but by
understanding
their languages? The etymology of the name Esperanto (from Latin
sperare,
to hope) gives us a good indication of the motivation behind its
invention.
Growing up in Poland, among an ethnic population of Poles, Germans, and
mostly Yiddish-speaking Jews, Zamenhof witnessed violence arising from
language conflicts and envisioned a world that had a common tongue,
free
of ambiguity and misunderstanding. His goal was not to replace other
languages with Esperanto. Rather, he hoped to create an auxiliary
language
to link people who spoke in diverse tongues. He called it Esperanto,
from
his pseudonym Dr. Esperanto, literally one who hopes.
While Zamenhof's vision of a single international language was a lofty
one
and he had noble intentions, Esperanto achieved limited success. It is
still
the most popular invented language, though far from being adopted
worldwide.
For better or worse, English has become the Esperanto of the 21st
century.
http://www.wordsmith.org/
::: posted by Stewart at 6:34 AM
Sunday, December 08, 2002 :::
::: posted by Stewart at 7:41 PM
So, this is a blog or a weblog. I think I like the sound of the longer term "weblog". So here goes.
::: posted by Stewart at 7:12 PM
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