Puppycide and Other Problems

Austin police officers shot and killed another dog last week. They described the dog as a pit bull, because of course. They also say that dashboard camera footage supports their version of the story—”that the officers had no choice but to respond that way to this dog that was charging at them,” and that “they didn’t have time to have a plan B to draw their Tasers or draw their pepper spray this is a matter of seconds”—although the family adamantly disputes their account:

[Alicia] Guerrero says when the family member holding on to the dog let go, officers shot the animal in the head. She says the dog was retreating to the house when it was shot a second time, ultimately dying on the front stoop.

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Austin and Its Bicycles

Here’s an interesting project that creates maps showing various aspects of city life:

The Social Computing Group at MIT is compiling data for maps that demonstrate the impact that small independent coffee shops can have on life in the big city.

The interactive maps are part of the “You Are Here” project, which creates data visualizations to serve as tools for urban planning at the micro level.

The io9 article shows a map of areas with walkable coffee shops, and I had hoped to see something similar for Austin. We’re not exactly a walkable city, though, are we?

So far, the only map available for Austin shows (you guessed it) bicycle crashes:

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Uh, yay us?

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Vindicated by Grumpy Cat, Sort Of

I have long been a fan of Grumpy Cat (née Tardar Sauce), and while she may be wearing thin as a meme, she can still draw a crowd.

My online petition asking HBO to cast Grumpy Cat in the role of Lady Whiskers in season 4 of Game of Thrones was a bust. Since last August, it has only gained three supporters (and that might include me). Besides that, season 4 starts in a few weeks.

Still, I feel vindicated, as a moment of glorious brand synergy occurred last week during SXSW, when Grumpy Cat sat upon the Iron Throne and, to quote one reporter, “obviously hated it.”

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She even got her own dragons, meaning she’s ahead of Daenerys Targaryen, Iron-Throne-sitting-wise: Continue reading

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Lewd Asian Women

Several friends will be performing an original play entitled L.A.W. Lewd Asian Women starting next week. The play is based in part on a 19th-century court case involving 22 women from China who were detained by immigration officials in San Francisco based solely on the conclusion of one commissioner that they were “lewd and debauched.” The case made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down the California statute in question in Chy Lung v. Freeman, 92 U.S. 275 (1875).

KUT aired an interview with the cast about the show (hopefully the embed function works here):

The show runs Fridays and Saturdays, beginning February 28 and ending March 8, 2014, at the Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin. Tickets might sell out, so you should buy some and go to the show.

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The Downside of Working from Home, Texas Winter Edition

First of all, this is what passes for a “snow day” in Austin, Texas:

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The patio furniture is having fond memories of its native Sweden.

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Do you know what the street value of this deck is???

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We could lie down and make, uh, icy dirt angels.

Do I get to sit on the couch, wrapped in a Snuggie, eating bonbons until it’s deemed safe to drive to work? No, because:

  1. I don’t have any bonbons;
  2. I don’t own a Snuggie, although I do have some nice blankets; and
  3. My office is in the same building as the couch where I would sit and eat bonbons, if I had any, so my daily commute never requires me to leave the area serviced by our HVAC system.

On the other hand, I still don’t have to wear pants if I don’t wanna.

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Public Art in Austin

Austin360 has an article up by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin on public art in Austin. I mention it in part because it is a good article, but mostly because my wife is quoted in it and I’m giddily proud of her for being awesome.

It covers several temporary public art exhibits I have gotten to see recently, and I hope you get to enjoy Austin’s public art, too.

This is from “Albedo,” by Mason Leland Moore and Joel Noland.

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More pictures on Flickr.

This is a composite of pictures I took at “The Color Inside” (PDF flyer) by James Turrell:

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More pictures at Flickr and Tumblr.

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Today in Texas Financial News

Alvimann from morguefile.comTwo important bits of news that came out today were the announcement of Janet Yellen’s confirmation as head of the Federal Reserve, and the official announcement that Charlie Strong will be the new head football coach at the University of Texas at Austin.

I expect to see much more analysis, speculation, and navel-gazing about Strong than about Yellen in the coming days/weeks/decades, and let’s be honest, people are likely to perceive that story as having the greater cultural—maybe even financial—impact. With a rumored $5 million annual salary, Strong will probably be paid about as much as the entire School of Engineering. Meanwhile, the doings of the Federal Reserve are of little interest to anyone except libertarians and conspiracy theorists (but I repeat myself.) Did I just rip on libertarians, our great national obsession with the bread and circuses of competitive sports, or some combination thereof? History will decide, maybe.

Photo credit: Alvimann from morguefile.com.

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The Rise of the Super Zips

Presumably because we just don’t have enough ways yet to isolate the super-rich from everyone else, the Washington Post has prepared an interactive map of the nation that identifies what it calls “Super Zips”—zip codes that rank in the 95th to 99th percentile for median income and education level.

Austin, Texas has eight Super Zips. Not at all surprisingly, they are all west of I-35. In fact, with the exception of a small sliver of 78749, they are all west of Mopac. (Fun fact: I lived in that sliver of ’46 for just over three years! In an apartment. Trust me, the Super Zip-ness comes from the west side of the highway.) The highest overall score, a 99, goes to 78746, which includes West Lake Hills and Rollingwood, and should not be a surprise either. The highest median income, however, is in 78739 ($132,552 to the ’46’s $129,188).

The lowest score in Austin, from my cursory review of the map, is east Austin’s 78742 zip code. It ranks in the 10th percentile, with a median income of $21,071 and 14% college graduate rate. It also doesn’t seem to have much in the way of buildings.

Just for fun, I thought I’d look at all of the zip codes where I have lived in my 14 years in Austin:

  • 78705: 48th percentile, median income of $11,910 (although it’s worth noting that this zip code is probably mostly college students);
  • 78751: 57th percentile, median income of $37,521;
  • 78749: 90th percentile, median income of $79,712 (especially now that I’m not there to drag it down);
  • 78704: 66th percentile, median income of $47,336 (damn hippies);
  • 78751 (I moved back here for a while); and
  • 78723: 43rd percentile, median income of $41,839 (interesting that it has a higher median income than ’51, but it only has 28% college graduates to ’51’s 64%).

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Also interesting: the zip code where I grew up, 78209 in San Antonio, is famous for its “old money” excess, but it only ranks in the 79th percentile these days. Still impressive, but it’s clear that the real concentrations of wealth have moved further northwest (check out 78248, 78257, 78258, and 78015 for the big bucks). I bet the ’09 still has an edge in snobbery, though!

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A Special Prosecutor Will Be Looking at Rick Perry and the Public Integrity Unit

Via empireonline.com

Via empireonline.com

A senior district judge from San Antonio announced that he will name a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of “abuse of official capacity” and other charges against Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Texans for Public Justice filed a complaint against Perry with the Travis County District Attorney and the Travis County Attorney in June. Perry had threatened to withhold funding for the Public Integrity Unit (PIU), which investigates allegations of official misconduct, unless Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg resigned in the wake of her DWI conviction. (Perry may have had other reasons to want the PIU shut down.) Perry eventually vetoed funding for the PIU.

That veto took away about $3.7 million from the PIU. The Travis County Commissioners’ Court voted in early August to use $1.8 million of Travis County (not Texas) taxpayers’ money, plus over $700,000 “from another fund,” to keep the PIU going. This gave Lehmberg the opportunity to “scold” Perry. Continue reading

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My Video of the Stand With Texas Women Rally, July 1, 2013

Here’s my video of the Stand With Texas Women Rally at the Texas Capitol this past Monday, July 1, 2013. It was a less-than-seasonably-hot day for Texas, meaning it stayed under 100° F the whole time. The iPhone apparently doesn’t handle heat all that well, so it kept shutting off on me. Here’s the video I was able to get. The initial graphic is by Lindsay Braun.

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