Looking back...

It’s hard to believe that just a century ago, YouTube was a fledgling video site for paupers and presidents alike. Today, we celebrate 100 years of YouTube, and we thought we would reflect on our inaugural year with a re-print of our first blog post from 1911. In honor of this milestone, today’s homepage is a reproduction of how you might have viewed it 100 years ago. Check out some of the most popular videos of the time and be sure to try out our new upload mode which summons a horse-drawn carriage to pick up your video submission from your home. Here’s to another epoch of great video!

April 1911

Editor’s note: Welcome to YouTube! Today we’re honored to have President William Howard Taft as our guest blogger to celebrate our official site launch.

Ladies and gentlemen of these United States. We are living in an age in which, by exaggeration of the defects of our present condition, by false charges and responsibility for it against individuals and classes, by holding up to the feverish imagination of the less fortunate and the discontented the possibilities of a millennium, a condition of popular unrest has been produced.

Due to advancements in modern technology and the advent of the Edison kinetoscope, there is hope. And I venture to say that there is no other destination on the web which has taken more real steps of such progress than the YouTubes, making its debut today. Here, instantaneous expression of the people may be upheld. Great feats of strength may be honored! Here, industry may thrive and cinema appreciated in its rightful form.

I should be untrue to myself, to my promises, and to the declarations of the party platform upon which I was elected to office, if the incoming Congress is not aware of the importance of boxing cat videos and our shared human moments of folly. We should encourage this in every way feasible.

It is a very enterprising time in America. The Pedro Miguel Locks have just been completed as part of the Panama Canal, there are Nobel Prize rumors circulating around regarding Ms. Curie’s so-called “radium discovery”, and J.P. Morgan is building a steamship they say is unsinkable. Very enterprising times, indeed. One can only imagine what events will be recorded for all the world to see.

William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America, recently watched “Histeria! William Howard Taft - Theme From Taft.”

Oh Why Not

Now we can all move on to... Saturday.

Evening Thread

enjoy

Haters Gonna Hate

One thing which always amuses me about my good friends the Inqy commenters is that everything in my urban hellhole can simultaneously be about "rich hipster yuppie scum ruining the neighborhood for working class folks" and "disgusting filthy poor people and immigrants." Oddly, they're not entirely wrong, as many parts of the city manage to maintain a reasonable class mix, but the point is that..whatever it is, it's bad. "Rich people" move in, it's bad. Poor people move in, it's bad. It's always bad.

Anyway, the urban hellhole is still fairly affordable, just don't tell anybody. Especially if they're rich and/or poor.

Short Term/Long Term

I'm a lazy blogger so I haven't even clicked through to the study yet (but I will!), but the interesting question is what happens if we have, say, a 60% gas price spike that persists over several years. All of the recent price spikes haven't lasted very long, and, yes, for most people there isn't an immense amount of flexibility in their driving habits, at least in the short run.

Probably Stupid

The eternal debate rages on, though in this case I vote stupid.

It's also useful to imagine what kind of media reaction we'd have if, say, Dennis Kucinich had said something like this back in 2003.

At Least He's Talking About Jobs

Yes Mittens' diagnosis of the problem makes him an absurd buffoon, but I still appreciate that there's a politician actually talking about jobs.

SUPERTRAINS

I don't actually think it's the worst thing in the world (though bad for Florida) that Governor Luthor shot down the Florida HSR project. It was more of a relatively quick and inexpensive demonstration project than an ideal route. Hopefully the money is well spent elsewhere.

How About Prison, Then?

That's what the state AGs should say.

Some of the State AGs, including the lead on the investigation, Miller, as well as federal regulators and administration officials appear to be looking toward principal forgiveness as the punishment the banks should pay. But as recently as last night, JP Morgan Chase's [JPM Jamie Dimon told reporters, "Yeah, that's off the table."

At Least The Porsche Dealers Are Doing Well

Monthly jobs report comes out tomorrow. As always I'm rooting for actual good news, but if there isn't good news, I'm rooting for a really bad measurement. I don't want people to be unemployed, but a lot of them are, and people in DC don't seem to notice. I don't have much faith that a big spike in measured unemployment will cause them to change course, but it's about the only chance we have.

Optics

Really, Jim Messina drives a Porsche convertible?

Unpossible

As always, it's impossible to resolve the "stupid or lying" question, but it does not speak well for the self-styled school reform leader. She always seemed to be a transparent huckster to me, but one who suckered a lot of people.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

Again we have almost, but not quite, good news.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000 the Labor Department said. The government revised weekly claims data back to 2006 to take into account new seasonal factors.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims edging down to 380,000. The prior weeks figure was revised up to 394,000 from the previously reported 382,000.

GPP Shootout, Part Deux

We interrupt today's regular programming, as the 2011 Gulf Photo Plus Shootout video featuring Zack Arias, JoeyL and Photographic Zenmaster Gregory Heisler (not shown) has just dropped into Vimeo.

Confession time: Working in front of 300+ people? Been there. But I sure am glad I did not have to work under the pressure of Heisler's blistering mic. Let's set the stage, shall we?

Following last year's Polaroid Boy fiasco, JoeyL absolutely had to produce. And Zack, ever the stalwart, was gonna do his thing, of course. What they could not know was that Heisler, after dogging them during their shoots, would later decide to pick up a camera himself...
__________

So, who is Greg Heisler, and why do you not want him riding you while you are shooting? Well, because he makes photos like this, this and this. (Each opens in a new window if you have not seen these vids before.)

So yeah, pretty decent photographer. But where's Heisler still a newb? A rookie? A veritable babe-in-the-woods?

On Twitter, that's where.

I think even with the above small taste in the video, you can see just how suited for the medium he is. And he actually has a twitter account, with over 500 followers, just waiting for him to get his ass in gear.

As of this posting: One whole tweet.

If we get him up to over a thousand followers, I say he pretty much has to join in the fun. So I am asking every one of you to follow Greg on Twitter and send an @reply to him, personally inviting him to tweet more than, well, once.

I'm pretty sure he can take it.
__________

In all seriousness, these kind of fun, if sophomoric, competitions are just one of the many reasons GPP totally rocks. I can't wait to get back there next year.

-30-

Morning Thread

by Molly Ivors

All your emails are belonging to us.

"The latest incarnation of this breed of conservatism weirdly involves this show," Maddow said. As she described it, a conservative think tank in Michigan called the Mackinac Center submitted a FOIA request seeking any emails from labor professors at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University. The center demanded any email that includes the words "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison," and "Maddow."

Maddow said she thought that the Center's interest in her was due to her highlighting of a controversial bill in the state that seeks to allow the state government to declare a financial emergency in a town and send in an unelected official who can actually dissolve the town.

Ya gotta love Rachel: she sure pisses off the right people.

What to Expect When You're Expecting... an eBay Beauty Dish

I'm a mod slut.

Which is not to say that I am both promiscuous and a snazzy dresser, because I am neither. But rather, I am a sucker for new and different light modifiers. Lots of 'em. Just like Imelda Marcos and shoes.

And especially when they are cheap… Read more »

Late Night

Rock on.

Wednesday Evening

enjoy

Early Happy Hour

I am watching my local sports franchise engage in an even more pointless than usual sporting competition.

And Zombie Unicorns

It's actually possible that Fed is causing some problems with policies which are mostly about goosing asset prices and feeding the banksters - policies I support in the absense of a viable alternative - but Hoenig has never seen a moment were zombie inflation unicorns weren't just around the corner.

If I ran the zoo we'd have a massive one time helicopter drop, but I don't.

...housekeeping: comments links seem to be fading in and out, that's a disqus-side thing, but you can just click on the timestamp permalink to have access to the brilliant wit of my commenters.

Optics

I'm sure the Immelt appointment is mostly a "better have them pissing out than pissing in" kind of thing, but can't we have a slightly better set of Galtian overlords?

Late Night Service

As longtime readers know, one of my big pet peeves is that we fret a lot about drunk driving (rightfully), while not doing the the rather obvious thing - sufficient late night public transportation, at least on weekends - in most places.

Good public transportation isn't really viable in a lot of places, but at least in the places where it is there should be more late night service. My own local transit authority has, to its credit, made some slight improvements in recent years in this area.

Inqy Commenters Explained

No I'm not surprised to find out that the Philadelphia metro area is highly segregated. The city itself is quite diverse, having both white and various non-white groups represented, but the suburbs are still pretty white.

Abortion Is Icky

And, sadly, there are lots of squishy pro-choicers who don't entirely get the choice concept, so if you pass laws trying to outlaw "bad" abortions they'll be on board with it.

Fail

Worst governor ever.

Inconsistency, the governor’s office insisted, this surely was not. The $150 million in funds Walker was now requesting were for improvements to the Hiawatha line -- between Milwaukee and Chicago – which, the governor stressed, was more popular and profitable. The previous batch of money was for a line between Madison and Milwaukee, which, because it was new, would have had cost overruns and required additional state obligations.

A Department of Transportation source, however, says that while the majority of the $800-million-plus in funds set aside for Wisconsin was for the Madison-Milwaukee rail, a small but not insignificant chunk was for improvements to the Hiawatha line.

“They received $12 million to upgrade and lay new track on the Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago,” the DOT official said.

A Cunning Plan

Another way to put this is that if UK household debt does not rise, their economy will tank. And they know this.

Reading Tom Friedman's Entrails

Oh boy.

I don’t know Libya, but my gut tells me that any kind of decent outcome there will require boots on the ground — either as military help for the rebels to oust Qaddafi as we want, or as post-Qaddafi peacekeepers and referees between tribes and factions to help with any transition to democracy. Those boots cannot be ours. We absolutely cannot afford it — whether in terms of money, manpower, energy or attention. But I am deeply dubious that our allies can or will handle it without us, either. And if the fight there turns ugly, or stalemates, people will be calling for our humanitarian help again. You bomb it, you own it.

So there will have to be boots on the ground. But they can't be "ours," and certainly not Tom Friedman's or those of any of the Friedman clan. But they won't be anybody else's either, so they will be ours.

Miserable Failures

Leonhardt is an obvious exception here, but the other group of people who spend all their time fretting about inflation and other zombie unicorns, instead of jobs, are elite journalists.

One group of Fed officials and watchers worries constantly about the prospect of rising inflation, no matter what the economy is doing. Some of them are haunted by the inflation of the 1970s and worry it may return at any time. Others spend much of their time with bank executives or big investors, who generally have more to lose from high inflation than from high unemployment.

There is no equivalent group — at least not one as influential — that obsesses over unemployment. Instead, the other side of the debate tends to be dominated by moderates, like Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman, and Mr. Meyer, who sometimes worry about inflation and sometimes about unemployment.

The result is a bias that can distort the Fed’s decision-making. Just look at the last 18 months. Again and again, the inflation worriers, who are known as hawks, warned of an overheated economy. In one speech, a regional Fed president even raised the specter of Weimar Germany.

Jobs

Actual number comes out Friday, estimate of private sector job growth is +201K.

That'd be good, but not great, news.

Time for thread

Here, have something to read.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answers your questions live on YouTube

Two weeks ago, YouTube and Israel’s Channel 2 News asked you to submit your questions for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Thousands of you responded, from more than 90 countries, and while a large portion of questions were submitted from users across the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan, many also from farther corners like Japan, Pakistan, Canada, Nepal, and Venezuela.

Today, at 11:10 am PST, Prime Minister Netanyahu will answer the top-voted questions from around the world, and you can watch the interview live at www.youtube.com/worldview.

One topic which attracted hundreds of questions by users worldwide was the the fate of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. People also posted about about negotiations and chances for peace with the Palestinians, the recent upheavals in the Middle East, and housing and gas prices in Israel.

To see which questions Netanyahu will answer, and how he’ll respond, please visit the World View channel at 11:10 am or check back later today to see it in its uploaded form.


Alon Chen, Israel Product Marketing Manager, and Ramya Raghavan, News and Politics Manager, recently watched, “Two Questions for PM Netanyahu”.

Overnight

Talk amongst yourselves.

Evening Thread

Enjoy.

Music Tuesday: Farewell, LCD Soundsystem and more

Welcome back to Music Tuesday, the weekly blog feature that lets you know what music we’re featuring on YouTube -- and why! Dig in and discover some new -- and old -- music with us this week.

Album Mania!
The cat’s out of the bag by now: Radiohead made their entire new album available on YouTube yesterday. (Let the wild rumpus start!) But this week we aren’t just saluting those deities of indie rock’s Mt. Olympus; we’re also swooning for up-and-coming Swedish alterna-folk act Fredrik. The group crafted a dreamy, album-length video premiere for the soon-to-be-released “Flora.” The video follows a toy wolf named Ylva as she wanders through the small Swedish town of Malmo, and the visuals are almost as hypnotic as the delicately rendered, space-engendering music that accompanies it.



Farewell, LCD Soundsystem
Led by mastermind James Murphy (who only put together a group for live performances), LCD Soundsystem married rock’s edge with electronica’s love for the dance. It was an unlikely experiment which Murphy himself reportedly didn’t take seriously at first, and which saw Murphy vocally aping his inspiration, Mark E. Smith of The Fall. But three Grammy nominations (and one win) later -- and after seeing last year’s release “This Is Happening” hailed on many critics’ end-of-year lists -- Murphy is hanging up the microphone on this particular project. We salute the band the only way we know how: with a playlist.

Aloe Blacc “Loving You Is Killing Me”
Every so often, a video comes along that simply brings joy to your heart. The song is great, and the video just begs to be watched over and over. American soul singer and rapper Aloe Blacc uploaded one of those just a few weeks ago, and we haven’t stopped watching since. Blacc is a compelling figure all on his own, but check out the amazing kid he dances with!



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Married In Berdichev @ Bocumast Records SXSW 2010.”

Sucks To Be A Republican Congressional Staffer

Well, sucks for Democratic ones, too, but they're also going to be missing paychecks soon.

Good

There's a weird aversion to putting any kind of commerce in certain kinds of public spaces in this country, as if people don't need food, drink, and bathrooms. So, yes, put some vendors in the pedestrian plazas.

Shutdown

A lot of things will be bad in a shutdown, but a rather obvious one is lots of federal workers will stop receiving paychecks.

The Golden Age Of Banking

This is what all the big banks should be converted to.

We Can Always Bail Them Out Again

The saga of Big Shitpile will never end.

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) could be forced to repurchase thousands of home equity loans, after a judge ruled in favor of a bond insurer that argued it could build its case based on a sampling of loans.

The ruling against EMC Mortgage Corp, once a unit of Bear Stearns Cos, comes amid many lawsuits seeking to force banks to buy back tens of billions of dollars of mortgage and other home loans that went sour. JPMorgan bought Bear Stearns in 2008.

Governor Luthor

They weren't smart enough to avoid electing a supervillain, but at least they're smart enough to regret it.

Cheating

I wasn't suggesting there should be no performance measurement, just that if you design a system where it's easy to cheat, potential cheaters are unlikely to be caught, and there are big carrots and sticks for success and failure respectively, people are going to cheat. This has no direct benefit for the kids, and perhaps as importantly any education policy decisions made based on the data are going to be flawed. So time to design a new system.

Foxy

Fox has pulled off a neat trick whereby most of the rest of their "peers" at other outlets pretend that they operate under the same rules yet then somehow manage to ignore it when they don't.

In newly uncovered audio, a Fox News executive boasts that he lied repeatedly during the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign when he speculated on-air "about whether Barack Obama really advocated socialism."

Speaking in 2009 onboard a pricey Mediterranean cruise sponsored by a right-wing college, Fox Washington managing editor Bill Sammon described his attempts the previous year to link Obama to "socialism" as "mischievous speculation." Sammon, who is also a Fox News vice president, acknowledged that "privately" he had believed that the socialism allegation was "rather far-fetched."

Morning Post

by Molly Ivors

In which my friend Susie Madrak says goodbye to Joe Bageant.

He wrote so powerfully about the tyranny of owning things, but also had a deep well of compassion for fellow Americans who were caught on the wheels of the economic machine. He was always urging me to stop looking for a job and “just write, goddamnit!”

He was my friend, a mentor, and a fellow traveler on the road to enlightenment. He was no doubt easier from a distance, but really, aren’t we all?

(BONUS: She's been sneered at by Robert Stacy McCain for this!)

Overnight

Rock on.

Evening Thread

Enjoy

Massive Incentives To Cheat

I did a wee stint as a delivery guy from Domino's years ago. I had a very young manager who had found her way into the position sort of by default when the previous manager left. She was ambitious. Domino's had a pretty rigorous accounting system - wage hours, ingredients used/wasted, number of late fees (I think it was $3 off >half hour delivery) - and the mangers were scored using it. Presumably doing well was the way to move up in the company. And, well, my manager totally cheated. Not sure how she covered all of it, but she'd usually eat the late fees herself and not record them as late, and then sympathize on the phone with distraught managers at other branches who weren't doing as well.

Point is, give people an incentive to cheat (big benefit of success, big cost of failure, low likelihood of getting caught), and many people will.

Afternoon Thread

Don't really need one, but testing something.

Journalism!

McClatchy.

States broke? Maybe they cut taxes too much

By Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — In his new budget proposal, Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich calls for extending a generous 21 percent cut in state income taxes. The measure was originally part of a sweeping 2005 tax overhaul that abolished the state corporate income tax and phased out a business property tax.

The tax cuts were supposed to stimulate Ohio's economy and create jobs. But that never happened once the economy tanked. Instead, the changes ended up costing Ohio more than $2 billion a year in lost tax revenue; money that would go a long way toward closing the state's $8 billion budget gap for fiscal year 2012.

Unsurprisingly, the obvious course of action is to cut taxes on rich people and big corporations.

33 million streams in 189 countries around the world: The YouTube Symphony Orchestra Grand Finale

On March 20, the Grand Finale of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 was held at Sydney Opera House and live-streamed to the world on YouTube During the week-long festival leading up to the finale, 101 musicians from 33 countries joined together for the first time—immersed in new cultural experiences, musical mentorship and performances in one of the world’s most iconic symbols of the arts.

During the three-and-a-half hour Grand Finale—and as people in different timezones awoke to re-broadcasts—the event was streamed 33 million times around the world to 189 countries. This included 2.8 million mobile live-streams—making it one of our biggest ever streaming events to date, on mobile and desktop. That means the event was streamed to nearly one-and-a-half times the entire population of Australia, where the event took place.

One of the goals of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra is to make classical music accessible; the total data transferred by the stream was a whopping 422 terabytes—the equivalent of 145 million MP3 files of classical music being emailed around the world.

The top 10 countries viewing the performance online were:
1. U.S.
2. Germany
3. Italy
4. France
5. Poland
6. Russia
7. Australia
8. U.K.
9. Brazil
10. Taiwan

Enormous thanks go to all our Symphony members who flew to Sydney from around the world and put their hearts and souls into an extraordinary performance. You surprised and moved people and had some fun along the way!

For the rest of you, you can read about the experience of YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011 cellist Mathisha Panagoda in a guest post on the YouTube Australia blog. And if you missed the Grand Finale, you can watch the full concert and highlights from the last week anytime at youtube.com/symphony.



Ed Sanders, Group Marketing Manager, recently watched “YouTube Symphony Sails highlights”.

It's Easy If You Cheat

A bunch of people sent this to me.

A closer look at Noyes, however, raises questions about its test scores from 2006 to 2010. Its proficiency rates rose at a much faster rate than the average for D.C. schools. Then, in 2010, when scores dipped for most of the district's elementary schools, Noyes' proficiency rates fell further than average.


A USA TODAY investigation, based on documents and data secured under D.C.'s Freedom of Information Act, found that for the past three school years most of Noyes' classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones.

Cunning Plan

Obama is apparently using his KENYANMUSLIMSOCIALIST mind meld powers to get conservatives to keep talking about completely nutty stuff.

It's obviously the only explanation that makes any sense.

I have no idea if the White House thinks this is stuff is good or bad for them politically, but that's very different from saying it's their strategery.

What's The Deal With Maine And Vermont

Weren't, as far as I know, ground zero for the housing bubble. Why all the vacant houses?

Maine had the highest proportion of empty housing stock, at 22.8%. Other states with gluts of empty houses included Vermont (20.5%), Florida (17.5%), Arizona (16.3%) and Alaska (15.9%).

...ah, seasonal/vacation homes and similar.

Good Luck With That

Transportation trolls who fight rail by arguing that buses are better, then fight buses based on, well, FREEDOM FROM ALL TAXATION, always argue that one reason buses are better is that their routes are more flexible. That's true in theory, but in practice all it takes is one stakeholder - as in, bus passenger - to lose their shit about a service change and get their local councilperson to do something about it. So, yes, I do applaud a pilot program to try to speed up a bus route by reducing the frequency of stops along a segment of it from every block to every other block, but all it'll take is one little old lady who, understandably, doesn't want to walk that extra block to mess with the plan. It's what happened last time they tried.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

That Republicans would sucker Dems into supporting entitlement cuts and then pull the football away.

The White Ring Conspiracy

Clipped it and put it on my office door way back when.

Global Banksters

Corrupt everywhere.

KABUL, Afghanistan — When a brother and nephew of an Afghan vice president wanted to build up their fuel transport business, they took out a $19 million loan from Kabul Bank. When a brother of the president wanted to start a cement factory, he took out a $2.9 million loan; he also took out $7.9 million for a luxury townhouse in Dubai. When the bank’s chief executive officer wanted to invest in newly built apartments in Kabul, he took almost $18 million.
At War

The terms were hard to beat: no collateral, little or no interest. And repayment optional, at least in practice.

Gotta Hate Somebody

The GOP likely candidates are fighting to out-bigot each other because our mainstream media won't call it what it is. I don't think the great guardians of our discourse are generally very good referees when it comes to racism and bigotry (and definitely not misogyny), but at least if someone important says something explicitly racist against African-Americans it has a reasonable chance of becoming a "controversy" (Trent Lott, Don Imus). But anti-Muslim bigotry gets a total free pass.

The Cuts Matter

In the context of 8.9% unemployment, sometimes it's easy for liberals like me to start sounding like a (dumb) conservative caricature of a liberal, talking about government spending as if it was an end in itself. That is, more government spending is always good! That is actually mostly true at the moment, because we need more stimulus and the spending is what provides that stimulus. And reducing spending is contractionary, which will be a drag on the economy.

Still we shouldn't forget the specifics of those cuts, that aside from their impact on the macroeconomy they'll have an impact on jobs and on the people who benefit from those programs.

Heckuva job.

Starting To Forget About The Jews

I never thought they meant it, but for quite some time most "respectable" people pushing the "Christian Nation" crap usually managed to pay some lip service to "Judeo-Christian" so it wasn't quite as obvious that they're exclusionary bigots.

The God talk in politics quieted down for a bit, but if we're going to go down this path again it's time to cut the can't-we-all-get-along ecumenical stuff and start talking disagreements. Does Mittens qualify under Radical Cleric Gingrich's definition of Christian?

Good Morning

I guess we had Spring last week and I missed it. 29° now.

On Assignment: Mixing Light with Finn O'Hara

Ed. note: I'm living on a bus for a bit. Please welcome today's guest poster, Finn O'Hara.
__________

Good afternoon Strobistors. My name is Finn O'Hara, and I'll be your guest blogging pilot for the day.

I'm thrilled that David asked me to guest blog this week while he's off on his road trip of a lifetime. I greatly admire this site and it's community based approach to photography.

I'm most likely new to a lot of you, so I'll give you a little background on myself, and how I fit into the photography world. I first came to photography at a young age, as my father worked at Kodak after we emigrated to Canada from England. I dabbled in photography growing up, but it wasn't until 8 years ago that I started to take it more seriously.

I'm self taught, so my camera and lighting techniques are all cobbled from a few years of assisting, as well as a lot of trial and error. I specialize in location based portraiture, and some of my clients include Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Esquire, Time, Nike, Coca-Cola, and the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club.

After reading through the archive here, and pondering an appropriate lighting subject to write about, I realize that all the tools to enable you as a versatile photographer (lighting wise), are all here. So what I'd like to impart to you all is my lighting approach, which has established a somewhat recognizable style to my work, and I think it might offer some of you a next step in your own emerging lighting processes. Read more »

Our media, not theirs

Culture of Truth and I are doing Virtually Speaking Sundays at 9:00 PM Eastern (that's about now), and you can stream live here.

Signed,
Not Atrios

Sunday Evening

Weekend already over?

Adding...

Krugman's of course right that there's no reason for general deflation to have any impact on employment whatsoever.

...though expected deflation could have a negative impact.

Inflation Rocks

One of the great triumphs of elites was convincing people that inflation is a really really really bad thing. And, yes, if it's too high it can be a bad thing, and in the shorter term wages adjustments are probably unlikely to keep up so it will feel like a bad thing for a lot of workers, but the truth is for a lot of people inflation is a good thing. Basically anyone with a nominally denominated debt with a fixed interest rate, like a 30-year mortgage, is going to benefit from a bit of inflation. It was the big boogeyman in the 70s, but once the economy finally turned around a lot of people woke up and discovered that their mortgage payments were a pittance.

It's the people we owe the money to who don't like inflation, and they've convinced us that we shouldn't like it either.

Other Peoples' Politics

German edition:

The environmentalist Greens meanwhile took 25% of the vote, ahead of the 23.5% secured by the Social Democrats. The results mean that the center-left parties can now form a coalition, with the Greens set to name the governor in a German state for the first time.

That the upset should happen in Baden-Wuerttemberg, a wealthy region along Germany's border with France and Switzerland home to luxury car makers Daimler AG (DDAIY) and Porsche SE (POAHY), is doubly embarrassing for Merkel and her party. CDU rule in the state was unchallenged in the post-war era until this election cycle, when creeping voter fatigue with such a protracted political order was magnified by vociferous protests against plans to redevelop Stuttgart's central train station that drew the attention of the nation.

Miss Something?

CoT translates Meet the Press and This Week.

Same As It Ever Was

It would be nice if reporters would recognize that the Tea Partiers are just the same tribal 27percenter social conservative Republicans that we've always had with us. They don't give a shit about "fiscal issues," and they never did. They might care about tax rates, but they still want their Medicare. They care that their perceived tribe is not in charge, and are animated by the fact that they imagine some other tribe is getting all of the goodies, but that doesn't really have anything to do with "fiscal issues" as we generally understand them. They think their money is going to the "other" because the KenyanMuslimSocialist is in charge.

Religious Liberty

While I'm usually at peace with the plight of the atheist in this country, I do occasionally get a bit cranky about the fact that most of us are in actuality much more "tolerant" of religion in the sense of not actively justifying employment discrimination based on it. Atheists are no threat to religion, zealous religious bigots are.

Letter

Juan Cole's case for intervention in Libya.

Overnight

enjoy.

Evening Thread

Rock on

Happy Hour Thread

Grilling season is almost here. What critters should meet their fate this year?

Afternoon Thread

Had spicy seafood noodle soup in Chinatown then shopped at Reading Terminal Market.

Thanks, Democratic Consultants

I know Steve's mostly kidding about blaming midterm voters, but, look, more than any time that I can remember I had no idea what the Dem campaign message in 2010 was. There was no national messaging. Vote for Dems... and? We barely even got vote for Dems because they're slightly less evil than the other guys. There was no sense that anything was at stake.

The other side got kenyanmuslimsocialistdeathpanel also, too, he's CUTTING YOUR MEDICARE AND HAVING THE GOVERNMENT TAKE IT OVER. That was enough.

Chump Change

Lawyers enabling the banksters ordered to pay pennies for their misdeeds.


I'm sure the state bar association will take some action (hahahahaha).

Lost Our Way

Bob Herbert's last column.

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Good Morning

At the table are the hard right loons and the right of center Dems. Everyone else can take a ticket. To borrow a phrase, it's quite irksome.

Not Your Average Joe

Quick note from the road, where the Flash Bus crew is working our way east after coming down the west coast.


Q: What's the coolest (among many) thing about touring the US for 13k miles in this 55-foot rolling dutch oven?
A: Getting to watch McNally explore CLS TTL for 29 afternoon sessions.


I grew up as a photog idolizing the guy, but that's gone to a whole new level of respect for both him and his folks. Suffice to say, the man can hit a curve.

As much as I am gonna take crap for admitting this, I would feel pretty darn comfy by now trying some complicated TTL setups. Don't tell him I told you that, though. 'Cause I'm not switching. That'd be heresy.

The crew is gelling really well and the days are getting better and better. Loose and tight, at the same time. We'll be home for a few days of much needed family time, then it is time for the East Coast swing. We'll see you guys there.

And speaking of the crew, here dey is:



__________

(Photo up top by David Daniels, who posted about the day in Salt Lake City. Thanks, David!)

-30-

Friday Cat Blogging

With What Army

It's always been the case the executive branches are more than able to ignore pesky spitballs from judicial branches. Without deference, the power of the judiciary over executives is pretty limited in practice...

Friday Evening

enjoy

We’re turning off our lights, in honor of Earth Hour

In 2007, organizers in Sydney came up with the idea for Earth Hour, a specific time when local residents would conserve energy by collectively turning off their lights. Since then, Earth Hour has grown into a global movement. In 2010, people in 128 countries voluntarily switched off their lights to take part in this event and demonstrate their commitment to the Earth. Learn more:



Earth Hour 2011 will take place on Saturday, March 26, from 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. (your local time) and this year YouTube is joining the movement by “turning the lights down” on the site. During this hour, the YouTube watch page will be darkened. If you prefer the normal watch page experience, there will be the option to turn the light switch back “on”.

Remember, you can also participate in this global event by signing up at www.earthhour.org and turning off your own lights at 8:30 p.m.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Earth Hour Challenge”.

Blog Life

As a blogger who posts a lot I frequently repeat myself in various ways. I also quite frequently write things which are fairly obvious. In addition, not every post contains the entire universe. But, you know, I'm aware of all these things and it's always amusing when occasionally people think I don't. I don't think if I say something fairly obvious that I am showering great wisdom on you, thinking thoughts no one has thought before. The fact that I leave something out of a post does not necessarily mean I am unaware of it. And as for repetition, I actually think repetition is important.

This sounds like a grumpy post and I don't mean it to be, just highlighting something.

You're Not Until You Invent A Perpetual Motion Machine

Idiots.

Why Didn't You Kill Him When You Had The Chance?

John McCain didn't even have to go back in time to get close enough to kill the latest Hitler of the Week.

Flashback from the twitter:

Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy.

This week's Trends: Rebecca Black, global hits, and babies

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:

• We tracked the influx of Rebecca Black covers and parodies that hit YouTube as the 13-year-old became a national phenomenon.
  
  
• We looked at how popular cartoonists in Jordan have reacted to the major events taking place in North Africa and the Middle East.
  
  
• We studied the search and viewing data behind March's three biggest trends.
  
  
• We looked at some of the most popular viral clips from around the world.
  
  
• We teamed up with Urlesque.com to explore why it is that family videos become so popular.
  
  
• And we watched as Pixar Animator and YouTube Singer Nick Pitera's new Disney medley quickly picked up over a million views and became a most-shared clip:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Tornado in Hempfield."

Oh That William Cronon

For some reason his name didn't click. I don't recommend a lot of non-fiction books to people - in part because (to be honest) I don't read all that many (brain tired after staring at tubes all day) - but yes his book Nature's Metropolis is truly awesome.

What The Debate Should Be

In a rational world, there should be no discussion of the deficit as policy. Team D and Team R would prevent their competing visions for what the government should spend money on, and where that money should come from. People should understand that modest deficits are never a problem, and that large deficits in recessions are predictable (drop in revenue) and often desired (stabilizers to prevent state budget cuts). We should not be discussing whether we must cut granny's pension to cut the deficit, we should be discussing how big we think granny's pension should be and how we should be funding that pension. Ideally, we'd have one party that thinks we should spend a bit more on things like social safety nets, and do so with more progressive taxation, and one party which thinks we should spend a bit less, and with more regressive taxation, and the voters would have a reasonably clear choice.

But instead we're having a debate about just how much we should be cutting the deficit now and in 20 years, even though the former is a stupid idea and the latter we have no control over.

Knowns and Unknowns

This is the most thorough summary of the current situation in Fukushima that I've seen, though having said that it still isn't really clear exactly what is going on.

Thug Life

There were many evolving reasons I was 'anonymous' for the first couple of years I ran this blog, and one of them was that I was an employee at a state university.

Spring Fundraising FunDay The Fifth And Final

Week's ending, Spring Fundraising FunDays are coming to the end, but just think of all the great memories we have.

Thanks to all who have contributed! And to all who read this sucky blog!

So What To Do

Adding to yesterday's post, it isn't that I think we should do nothing. We should spend less money on stupid wars. We should bring down the cost of our health care system, because we spend stupid amounts of money for a mediocre product, and a lot of that (most!) is government spending. But we shouldn't maintain the fantasy that any of these things will lower the deficit. If, for example, we reduce the rate of growth in health care costs, this means that future lawmakers will spend less money on health care than projected. It does not mean that the deficit will be lowered. It will only lower the deficit if lawmakers don't cut taxes on rich people or spend more money on future stupid wars.

My point is that, yes, we should make sensible policy decision, but sensible policy decisions have nothing to do with the deficit 20 years from now. We can't control that.

Map Fun

Census data edition.

Clarity

Shorter version of yesterday's screed.

The voters Andrew Romano was deriding want jobs, retirement security and a health care system that doesn't threaten them with bankruptcy. No matter how frequently he and his fellow Beltway denizens characterize those voters as wanting the moon, these are not unreasonable demands. The rest of the OECD does a far better job than the US does at meeting them. The rest of the OECD does so without significantly lower growth rates and with better public infrastructure.

Cutely named cliques of elected officials are working in back rooms to find a way for the Congress and the President to not deliver what voters (very reasonably) want, and to do so without anybody's fingerprints on that failure. This is styled a "courageous" "Grand Bargain."

I don't know what kind of government you call that, but "representative" isn't one of the adjectives that come to mind.

Misquote

I admit I didn't think we'd still have Mary Rosh to kick around after all these years.

No video camera? No problem! Create original videos with your own photos, clips or just an idea

More than 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and with the motto of "Broadcast Yourself", it's hard to believe that anyone is left out of the YouTube experience. But the truth is, sites like YouTube do largely leave out people who don't have a video camera. That's changing with the beta launch of youtube.com/create, where anyone can use video creation sites Xtranormal, Stupeflix and GoAnimate to make personal videos or animations and post them directly to YouTube.

Create original animations

Creating animation can be pretty hard and often requires expensive software, but GoAnimate and Xtranormal Movie Maker let you create animated videos with just a text storyline. In minutes, you can make two bears discuss fiction-writing, or create your own cooking show parody.

Use your own photos, clips and music to create dynamic videos

Stupeflix lets you pull together your own images, clips and even maps into a dynamic video slideshow. You can tell a personal story or even make a jazzy promo for your craft company.

Start creating!

To try these out for yourself, visit www.youtube.com/create and click on each title to learn more, watch a tutorial and see video examples. You can make an original creation in minutes--and it's free (though some sites have premium services which you can access from their sites directly).

So give it a test drive. Here are some ideas:

• Create an educational video
• Reenact a scene from your favorite movie or play
• Create a digital 2010 year book, or a 2011 graduation video

This is still early and we look forward to adding more sites, so check them out and give us some feedback in the comments section below. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Stanley Wang, Software Engineer, recently watched "First Test on This...GoAnimate App on YouTube" and Shenaz Zack, Product Manager, recently watched "IT'S FRIDAY! (v2)" (created using Xtranormal Movie Maker)

Not Good

Ezra tweeted that "Romer is very good at enemployment and excuses people give for not doing anything about it," but she's not very good if she's signing on to the ZOMG WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE DEFICIT ESPECIALLY CUTTING GRANNY'S MEAGER PENSION crowd.

There's literally nothing that this Congress today can do to reduce the deficit 20 years from now. What you can do is sign into law legislation which reduces granny's pension 20 years from now. And, yes, given the way our system works it wouldn't necessarily be easy to reverse that decision 20 years from now depending on the politics and who is in power. But what will still be easy to do 20 years from now is cutting taxes on rich people and writing giant checks to defense contractors. Those things are always easy to do when Congress and their donors are mostly rich people. Reduce the deficit by cutting granny's pension, increase it again by cutting taxes on rich people. Rinse repeat.

It'd be one thing if there was anything out there suggesting that borrowing costs were going to spike. But there isn't.And as long as the Fed is willing to buy Treasuries, there's no need for borrowing costs to ever spike. As long as we're in a recession, they should be doing this. Anyone sending message other than "we should borrow a large amount of money basically for free and spend it on jobs and boosting aggregate demand" is sending the wrong message. Worrying about problems 10-20 years from now is worrying about things you have almost precisely zero control over.


...adding, just to remind us of history I'm sure we all remember. That Democratic Socialist Bill Clinton got rid of the deficit. Alan Greenspan, who spent years fretting about the deficit, suddenly decided the great danger we faced was not having a deficit. And Bush tax cuts, and too and such.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Silver Linings

Our kinetic military action has brought the Medium Lobster back to life.

(ht ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©)

CNN's Finest

It's weird to me that someone who is relatively young could so fully internalize these dumb faux-1950s misogynistic stereotypes.

If We Only Just Do It Right

A brief reminder that any military conflict you're thinking of being in support of will not be your fantasy war with your fantasy perfect general involved. This is doubly true in the case of civil war where the identity of one of the "sides" isn't entirely clear.

Also, it will kill people.

Perspective

CNBC:

What seems to be happening is that businesses have been ramping up their production and hiring in expectations of strong consumer demand.

Consumers, however, have failed to provide that expected demand.

Because, uh, large numbers of people in the economy have been unemployed or unemployed for a very long time?

Why Connecting your YouTube and Google Accounts Matters

Over the last several months many of you who created a YouTube account before May 2009 may have seen prompters asking you to upgrade to a Google account. We first announced this transition in a blog post last July. In the coming weeks, all YouTube accounts created before May 2009 will need to complete the process of linking to a Google account. A Google account is a single-sign in system for accessing all Google products and services. Any existing email address can be used to create a Google account.

You’re probably asking yourself ‘‘Why am I being required to connect my YouTube Account with a Google Account?” Well, let’s use an analogy. Imagine instead of that sleek new mobile phone you bought last year, you were instead carrying around one of those big brick phones from the 90’s. It might still make calls, but it would be slow and bulky and unable to do 90% of what current smart phones do. Your old YouTube account is a lot like that cell phone. It still works, but it’s not as fast, secure and efficient as the Google Account we’re asking you to link to.

While we understand that change isn’t always welcome, we’re confident that this transition will result in a better experience for you on YouTube. Not only does connecting your YouTube account to a Google Account improve your account security, it will also give you better video recommendations and quick access to the very latest updates and features which our engineers are releasing on the site every week.

After linking to a Google Account, your YouTube username will stay the same. However, when you link to a Google Account, your old YouTube password won’t work anymore. After linking, you’ll instead need to use your Google Account password when you sign into YouTube.

If you’re having any issues, we’ve created a series of articles that you can reference for help. By clicking on the links below, you can learn how to easily solve some common issues that may arise in the linking process:

• I Can't Sign Into YouTube After Linking to a Google Account
• I Don't Know Which Google Account I'm Linked To
• I Linked to the Wrong Google Account
• I Can't Remember My Password

If you’re still experiencing difficulties, you can contact our support team. We know this process isn’t always easy, and it can sometimes be frustrating, but hang in there. Connecting your accounts will create a better, more up-to-date and secure YouTube experience and we’ll do our best to do everything we can to guide you through this process.

Michael Ortali, YouTube Web Developer, recently watched “Macarena - Los del Rio”

Spring Fundraising FunDay The Fourth

Thanks again to all who have contributed. No worries for those who can't or just don't want to. I certainly appreciate the contributions, but don't expect them!

Freedom Bombs Are Kinetic Military Action Is Not Free

One of the ickier things too come out of our Great And Glorious March To War In Iraq was the popularization of the phrase "freedom isn't free," as if cutting taxes and sending other people off to war actually costs you anything (yes it costs the people who go and their families, along with the people who get a freedom bomb dropped on their heads are on the receiving end of kinetic military action, but the rest of us...tax cuts!) But it is true that this stuff does, in fact, cost a lot of money and the only question is who is ultimately going to pay for it. Presumably tax cuts for rich people will be the solution.

Unsafe Working Conditions

I don't even want to think about the consequences for the heroic workers who are trying to fix this mess.

Three workers were exposed to high-level radiation Thursday while laying cable at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and two of them were taken to hospital due to possible radiation burns to their feet, the nuclear safety agency and the plant operator said.

The three men in their 20s and 30s were exposed to radiation amounting to 173 to 180 millisieverts at around 12:10 p.m. while laying cable underground at the No. 3 reactor's turbine building.

Multipliers

In the short term the net impact on the economy of reducing taxes on rich people, or failing to boost them, in exchange for cutting government worker jobs and services and income transfers to poor people is going to be negative. State governments don't really have to balance their budgets as they can borrow to do things like build roads and other capital projects. And if you're turning down capital projects that are largely federally funded, then you're just turning down free money. Sure that federal money will likely be redistributed elsewhere, but not necessarily very quickly.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

382K new lucky duckies. Getting closer to being good news.

Narrative

Andrew Romano at the Daily Beast presents the narrative of the Third Way Democratic elite:

The current conflict over government spending illustrates the new dangers of ignorance. Every economist knows how to deal with the debt: cost-saving reforms to big-ticket entitlement programs; cuts to our bloated defense budget; and (if growth remains slow) tax reforms designed to refill our depleted revenue coffers. But poll after poll shows that voters have no clue what the budget actually looks like. A 2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans want to tackle deficits by cutting foreign aid from what they believe is the current level (27 percent of the budget) to a more prudent 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. A Jan. 25 CNN poll, meanwhile, discovered that even though 71 percent of voters want smaller government, vast majorities oppose cuts to Medicare (81 percent), Social Security (78 percent), and Medicaid (70 percent). Instead, they prefer to slash waste—a category that, in their fantasy world, seems to include 50 percent of spending, according to a 2009 Gallup poll.

This harkens back to Atrios commenting yesterday that we don't hear from the many economists who know this is hackery. It's certainly not the case, as Andrew Romano conceded to me on the twitter yesterday, that "every economist knows" cuts to social programs are essential. He tweeted, instead, that he should have referred to "the vast majority" of economists. I also rather doubt that's true, but he certainly couldn't be bothered to cite a few examples.

That people oppose cuts to the social insurance safety net seems pretty sensible. Social Security is fully funded, prepaid out as far as projections can reasonably go. Medicare is not itself the problem; the fact Americans in every part of the healthcare sector pay twice as much as the rest of the OECD for worse results (higher mortality, higher morbidity) is the problem. And, in our system, Medicaid is the insurer of last resort--after you've gone through personal bankruptcy. So you really want to keep that around if you aren't in the top income decile.

I suspect many people view troops in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as falling into the "foreign aid" category, not the defense category. That'd be an interesting question for Markos to poll someday. As for waste, they've been hearing that canard reported ceaselessly, so it's not surprising they are misinformed.

What is striking, though, is Romano's rejection of democracy as an important input to his policy recommendations. The requirement to cut social insurance programs, converting them from middle class programs to welfare, is reported as an inevitable consensus among all the cognoscenti--call them what you will: "the elites" "the Villagers" "the Third Way" or "the New Democrats. That inevitable consensus dominates the Beltway narrative right now. In fact, as the current Gang of X gathers behind closed doors to "courageously" make lives worse for ordinary Americans, it seems to be the only narrative. It's also striking that Romano doesn't even bother to state what policy goal these program cuts achieve; the evil deficit now lurks, unspoken, in the narrative framework.

They've never made a case for this policy regime, but nonetheless "everyone knows" something must be done.

OT: Manage Your Funnels

Editor's note: We are stepping outside of the box today.

As photographers, we are more likely to be hired as creatives than to hire a creative. But recently I was involved in choosing a print designer, a video production house and an illustrator.

Seeing the different paths that lead us to each of these people was a little like having an out-of-body experience. It was a cool look into the other side of the equation, and one that left me with a better understanding of marketing my own services as a photographer.

Three funnels you should not discount, inside. Read more »

Overnight

Rock on.

Life Among The Econ

Chris Hayes tweeted that he was emailing Kenneth Arrow, who is getting close to living forever, and is one of the granddaddies of so much in economics. I've been rather down on my former profession for some time, but the truth is I'm mostly just down on the public face of the profession which is largely dominated by right wing hacks with little pushback from the less hackish (and here I honestly don't even more liberal) members of the tribe.

But reading the linked wiki about him, and being reminded of all of the truly interesting and innovative approaches to things he was a part of, makes me remember what I liked about it all once upon a time.

It's Almost As If This Was Part of A Grand Plan

Duh.

Dinner Thread

Salmon here.

Apparently The Pentagon Has "Money Woes"

They need few more billion to light on fire, or something.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy.

Spring fundraising fun!

Anti-Stimulus

All the various cuts that our horrible new Republican governors are trying to implement aren't just going to make the residents of their states suffer, they're also going to work against the macroeconomy.

Oh well. Just call this another "maybe somebody should do something" post.

New Home Sales

A bad number, and I'll remind us all that they are a leading indicator.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Watch Lady Gaga’s exclusive Q&A with Google

Google went totally Gaga yesterday, when the indomitable artist otherwise known as Stefani Germanotta clicked onto the Mountain View,  CA, campus in her impossibly tall black boots.

The diminutive superstar wowed a capacity crowd in a venue that was (literally) packed to the rafters with adoring Googlers. In a wide-ranging interview that saw Gaga taking questions from fans via Twitter and Moderator, the musician spoke about everything from bullying to Rebecca Black, the creative process and her upcoming album. She took questions from the audience—hugging several Googlers in the process—and even became a judge when a gaggle of Gaga-alikes flooded the stage.

True to form, the singer was by turns funny, thoughtful and inspiring. But don’t take our word for it — you can watch the entire Q&A now on YouTube.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Lady Gaga - Born This Way.”

Duran Duran’s UNSTAGED concert streams live on YouTube tonight

Duran Duran, the iconic '80s band who’s returned with a new album and tour, will be broadcasting their UNSTAGED performance live at 7 p.m. PT tonight, March 23, on their YouTube channel. The show is part of YouTube’s UNSTAGED concert series, presented in partnership with Amex and VEVO, and it will be directed by famed cult director David Lynch.

Few bands embodied the 1980s like Duran Duran. They had the best hair, the loveliest makeup, outlandish fashion...and they released a slew of amazing pop songs other bands would have killed to have written. “Planet Earth” is a case in point: one of their earliest hits, it encompasses the style that would make them famous.



In recent years, groups from across the musical spectrum have both embraced and been influenced by Duran Duran’s sound. But despite their success, the band hasn’t rested on their laurels. Working with famed producer Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs), they released the new album “All You Need Is Now” this week; the first single is a startling and modern pop confection.



And for fans who are looking to learn more about a group who’s held the public’s attention for so many years, you’re in luck. Director David Lynch has been following the band and capturing amazing behind-the-scenes footage. He’s asked the band about their firsts -- first concert, first band, first moment they were truly starstruck. He’s also been inviting the guys to record their dreams in a video journal. Simon LeBon offers up a fascinating one for your interpretation below.



So don’t forget to tune into Duran Duran’s channel on Wednesday, March 23 at 7 p.m. PT to watch them live in concert. If you miss the live broadcast, catch show highlights on their channel immediately following the event.

Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Pharoahe Monch ‘Clap (One Day)’ Extended Video.”

Wanker of the Day

Fred Hiatt.

THEY HAVE BIG SCREEN TVS

Various internet shopping sites tell me that you can get a 40+inch flat screen HDTV for about $450. My memory could be faulty, but I'm reasonably sure that's about what the 19" color TV my parents bought in 1980 cost. Of course $450 then is the equivalent of about $1200 now, but even in the Strapping Young Buck era I don't think the possession of a color TV was seen as some sort of display of obscene wealth.

Still I imagine the ZOMG FLAT SCREEN TV IS IN THE HIZZZHOUSE will long be held up as PROOF that the poor are NOT POOR.

Spring Fundraising FunDay The Third

Much thanks to all who have contributed so far. I'm always amazed by the generosity of people, both those who give a little and those who give a lot.

Once I'm convinced (or not) that the comment system and new site has basic functionality I need I'll work on making it a bit prettier. Things seem to run a lot more smoothly on firefox 4, at least for me.

Pissing Off Liberals

Obviously there are other agendas - no taxes for rich people, give poor peoples' money to favored corporate interests - but otherwise pissing off liberals is the prime motivation. Some liberals like trains! And they have them in that liberal hellhole PORTLAND!!!

It's In The Genes

Yes they're both racist and stupid.

Urban Hellhole Blogging

When I have more time I'll see if the Census annual estimates offer any more clue, but I am curious about just when Detroit's radical decline started in the past decade. A few years back there were plenty of stories about Detroit having a modest rebirth. This isn't actually necessarily at odds with population decline citywide, as a rebirth can exist in certain population centers, while other neighborhoods become ghost towns, but I also get the sense that Detroit had a bit of comeback, interrupted.

The Catholics Are Alright

I'm not really surprised by these numbers, but my futile hope is that maybe just maybe some in the press will stop letting Bill Donohue be the spokesperson for all Catholics. I get that what the hierarchy says will inevitably get some additional weight, but there's no need to compound that by pretending that asshole speaks for the people.

Late Night

Started watching Inside Job. Had to turn it off after 25 mins. because the blood pressure was spiking.

Music Tuesday: Your guide to discovering music on YouTube

Today we’re launching a weekly blog series in which we discuss the music we’re featuring on youtube.com/music -- and why. We’ll share the videos that have us tweeting obsessively, playlists which delve into all the great new (and old!) music scenes percolating on the site, and even the occasional streaming album premier. Sure, we’re only scratching the surface of YouTube’s vast musical universe -- but you’ve got to start somewhere, right? Welcome to the first edition, and we hope you discover some great music with us!

Dig for Fire’s SXSW Lawn Party Highlights
We had a big presence last week in Austin. Besides our excellent party, we were also psyched to partner this year with the taste-making New York record store Other Music and indie videographers Dig for Fire to present their two-day Lawn Party. The list of performers was stellar: James Blake, !!!, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and many more. Dig for Fire has graciously put together some exclusive videos for us, featuring live performances and backstage interviews. Kick back and watch; now’s your chance to feel like you had a VIP badge.

Music Discovery: The ‘80s are back...again!
This week also sees the release of a new Duran Duran record and The Cars’ first single in 24 years. Yes, you read that right: it seems the current love affair with the ‘80s is not just inspiring indie bands anymore; it’s actually resurrecting iconic ‘80s bands themselves. Which is, let’s admit it, kind of awesome. Who doesn’t want to hear more from Ric Ocasek?

Why the ‘80s obsession, why now? The ‘80s were a disposable, plastic era that celebrated artifice, and two hallmarks of the ‘80s -- cassette tapes and VHS -- were precursors of the portable entertainment era we now find ourselves in. (It’s no accident both have attained a sort of nostalgic chic in recent years. In the age of the iPod, cassettes are undeniably cute and lo-fi.) But the long, slow boil of this retro trend is actually cooking up some great music, whether you’re listening to the well-known Daft Punk or lesser-known acts like Tape Deck Mountain. We feature both bands -- and oodles more -- in our playlist “The ‘80s Are Back...Again!”

Full Album Premiere: Pharoahe Monch’s “W.A.R.”
If you haven’t heard of Pharoahe Monch, now’s the time to jump on the bandwagon. This underground emcee is one of the lyrical princes of hip-hop, the kind of lyricist others turn to for inspiration. He’s an unflinching truth-teller with a political edge, and his deft, literate lyrics will stun you with their sound as much as their sense: the man is a master of the internal rhyme. Monch returns this week with his third full-length, “W.A.R. (We Are Renegades),” and we’re streaming it to you, in its entirety, this week.



Stay tuned and check back next week to discover more music.

Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Ducktails - Killin’ The Vibe (ft. Panda Bear).”