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It just seems wrong. In my opinion it looks awful. Will it be like that from now on? :S

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15 Answers 15

up vote 117 down vote accepted

An alternative has been pushed. Now unanswered questions are again identifiable as they are the only one without a box. Usability has been restored. Thanks.

It drastically hurts usability. Change it back, or find an alternative.

Especially on a favored tag, the unanswered block is indistinguishable from an answered block.

The other changes so far (envelope, cross-site notification) actually improved usability. This change decreases site usability.

Yes, the old version may have been ugly, but it was usable. I'm sorry, but I'll chose usability above beauty every time.

Users looking for specific answers come from Google, not from the front page... The front page is used by people wanting to answer questions. Leave them the power to find questions to answer fast. Unanswered questions should have emphasis like it had before.

Having unanswered questions not in emphasis increases the efforts required for someone to find an answer they can answer. If the efforts increase, the number of answers will decrease.

Edit: Some say that it's always better if you serve yourself. Here's a GreaseMonkey script to revert the changes. Compatible with Chrome/FF.

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Well, the actual text color is different but I do agree that the difference is not pronounced enough –  Daniel DiPaolo Mar 17 '11 at 19:23
@Daniel DiPaolo: Depending of the type of screen you use and the lighting conditions in your office, they are truly indistinguishable. –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 19:24
I kind of like the way that Accepted-Answer questions stand out more, but now it seems like Answered (but not Accepted) and Unanswered questions are harder to tell apart. (Other than the big red zero, of course.) –  drudge Mar 17 '11 at 19:30
@jnpcl: Personally, Accepted-Answer should be the least visible. Don't you want to put the emphasis on unanswered questions? I believe Stack Exchange is about answering questions... –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 19:32
Just invert the colors of .unanswered: i.imgur.com/htmVT.png –  drudge Mar 17 '11 at 19:33
@jnpcl: That's the way it was before. –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 19:35
If it's red and green being used, I'd like to point out that a non-trivial part of the population is red-green colorblind: blog.yapb.net/post/2010/02/02/Design-for-ColorBlindness.aspx. –  George Stocker Mar 17 '11 at 19:36
@George That's a good point. –  Maxpm Mar 17 '11 at 19:45
@Andrew: Huh, I thought the "Answered but not Accepted" ones had a background-color as well. –  drudge Mar 17 '11 at 19:50
@AndrewMoore Think of the anon. user too - if you're just browsing the site, why would questions with no answers be interesting to you? The answers are (usually) more useful to them –  Yi Jiang Mar 17 '11 at 19:52
The majority of anon users looking for answers are going to land on the page from a Google search, it makes no difference to them whether the front page unanswered questions stand out. People visiting the front page are going to be regulars who are there to answer questions. Unanswered questions need to stand out more. The new look is awful. –  Martin Doms Mar 17 '11 at 20:05
@Yi Jiang: What @Martin said. –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 20:18
@George Stocker: It doesn't matter as the lettering is there to indicate them if it is answered or not. The current color scheme is also affected by color-blindness. –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 20:20
Unanswered questions have 0 answers. Answered questions have 1 or more answers. Do we really need colors to support the counts? Admittedly, colors are very helpful for quick scans, but this is imo a bit exaggerated. –  BalusC Mar 17 '11 at 22:47
With answered questions still highlighted in green, it seems like the designers are intentionally de-emphasizing the questions without answers (and not just assuming you don't need background color for emphasis). I agree with Andrew - most visitors to the front page are scanning for unanswered questions (and not just questions without a chosen answer). –  Mayo Mar 18 '11 at 12:55

I don't necessarily think it should be changed back per se if the change was to improve cosmetics. I do, however, feel strongly that more differentiation is needed between questions with out answers and questions with answers.

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Constructive feedback!! How refreshing. –  jjnguy Mar 17 '11 at 20:15
I agree. I like the idea of having a red background on unanswered questions just like green is on the accepted answer questions. It's the closest thing that I have to a "new" indicator. –  Mark Peters Mar 17 '11 at 20:38

I like it

Please stop complaining and give it a chance!

It will grow on you. (Probably)

Thanks @Jzy

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It'll grow on you because of the subtle color changes that are already happening as we speak! –  Daniel DiPaolo Mar 17 '11 at 20:19
@Dan, perhaps. Nonetheless it's getting better. People need to be more tolerant of change. –  jjnguy Mar 17 '11 at 20:23
This is exactly the comic I think of when I compare us to Facebook users –  Michael Mrozek Mar 17 '11 at 20:37
Totally agree. I like it. It will take some getting used to, but it looks great. –  Pëkka Mar 17 '11 at 21:09
+1 only because of the The Oatmeal! –  Trufa Mar 17 '11 at 21:32
That said, I really think we should give the design at least a try since we may be too used to the previous one and it may hurt your eyes the first few days, change is hard :) –  Trufa Mar 17 '11 at 21:34
Facebook and Twitter usually give you the ability to try out a redesigned interface early. –  tvanfosson Mar 17 '11 at 22:02
@tvan true, but for this minor a design change? I was on board with people wanting the envelope back (still am) but I don't like this current tendency to cry out over every small detail. (Not accusing you of that - just looking at the entire thread) –  Pëkka Mar 17 '11 at 22:15
Desensitisation is not remotely the same as something growing on you. –  walkytalky Mar 17 '11 at 22:33
I don't see the change as a problem. What bothers me is the 'naked' feeling. It is like icons without color, you can never remember for what they are used... It blends with the question mixing information that doesn't represent the same thing... It's weird... –  BrunoLM Mar 17 '11 at 22:46
@walky, that is true. But I'm not sure that applies here. –  jjnguy Mar 17 '11 at 22:47
@tvan, true. But this change is so tiny that it hardly calls for such a giant negative reaction. –  jjnguy Mar 17 '11 at 22:48
+1 for using any form of graphics... I am easily amused. –  Mark Rogers Mar 17 '11 at 23:53
Facebook is completely different to stackoverflow, and on facebook the changes they make are more important (to the facebook team) than just changing a box color, there was no need to change the a simple color, whereas on facebook the layout and the features are changed. –  Jonathan. Mar 18 '11 at 7:49

Really? After seeing some of the awesome work being done on the new site designs, I've been meaning to ask for SO's look to get a little bit of attention. I was hoping that this was just a first step.

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Don't forget my personal favorite-looking, the apple stackexchange –  BlueRaja Mar 17 '11 at 20:17
I support this answer, loved the other beautiful layouts. –  systempuntoout Mar 17 '11 at 20:20
I find many of those site designs as sub-par compared to SO. I'm not a big fan of the cutsiness either. –  Gabe Mar 17 '11 at 20:28
This is of course another exercise to get SO users desensitized to moved cheese. Jin moves in when the din dies down. –  Uphill Luge Mar 17 '11 at 20:33
I agree. Let's make it pretty but please keep us informed and ask if we like it or not. The current color scheme is a headache maker –  Joe Philllips Mar 17 '11 at 20:34
You can improve the layout without hurting usability. Find a way that fits with the layout to make unanswered questions more visible. Right now, this change is a major blow to the site's usability as far as answering questions goes. –  Andrew Moore Mar 17 '11 at 20:51
@Bill this is a first step forward. That's according to Jin. –  jcolebrand Mar 17 '11 at 21:37
@BlueRaja - Gotta admit, that looks like one of the best skins I have seen so far - beautiful! –  Dal Mar 17 '11 at 22:45
It might work on other websites, but on SO I get the 'naked' feeling. Feels like something is missing, the information doesn't get enough value, just like @Matt mentioned on his answer... –  BrunoLM Mar 17 '11 at 22:49

User Styles for those who want an improved readability or just to go back to the original:

Original theme: Original Theme

Modded with light background and black text: Improved Readability

Open to suggestions or requests

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Isn't the yellow background to show your Interesting tags? –  drudge Mar 17 '11 at 19:49
@jnpcl yellow background on the VOTE column –  Myles Gray Mar 17 '11 at 19:52
@Myles: Ahh, indeed. Someone must have slipped me decaf this morning. -_-; –  drudge Mar 17 '11 at 19:55
how about put a highlight border on the tags that you are interested in –  kjy112 Mar 17 '11 at 19:55
@jnpcl pah decaf! I just had a sex-tuple espresso... who needs cocaine eh? :P You're luck the colour scheme i suggested was so moderate and not in negative :D –  Myles Gray Mar 17 '11 at 19:58
@kjy112 that is still in place, i just hadn't highlighted any –  Myles Gray Mar 17 '11 at 19:58
I really like this view. 1 stats column versus 3 ... –  Matt Mar 17 '11 at 20:00
Still too red, the point was probably to make it less obvious that a lot of questions have no answer. How about a subtle grayish blue? Sad question color. –  Uphill Luge Mar 17 '11 at 22:15
@HansPassant Ill mock something up along that line, but to be fair, It NEEDS to be obvious, people coming from Google get linked to the question not the SO homepage only answerers use the homepage, and what do we want? Unanswered questions. –  Myles Gray Mar 17 '11 at 22:17
I think user scripts is over complicating things. Before we know it we'll have a profile page like myspace did, and we all know how that ended.. –  The Muffin Man Mar 18 '11 at 22:32

I don't even remember what the old one looked like...
Granted, with the television I don't remember what I did 8 seconds ago, but still.

I don't even remember what the old one looked like...

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I can tell you what it looked li...<headswivel>...squirrel! –  Dennis Williamson Mar 18 '11 at 2:16
What the old what looked like? –  Bill the Lizard Mar 18 '11 at 12:37
This. I saw this discussion, went to the SO homepage, and went - and I quote - what? What changed? Why are people upset? Tempests in teacups like this one just make it less likely for legitimate complaints to be taken seriously. –  Aarobot Mar 18 '11 at 14:47
  • New layout is unreadable for me. And I believe that majority of users will agree that new layout is at least less readable.

  • There are three equally sized numbers and now there is an effort needed to distinguish number of votes and number of answers.

  • Question title size is decreased so less questions will fit on one screen

  • And finally the worst change: number of views increased size. What is the argument for making number of views important as number of answers?
    Are there any measurements or A/B test?
    I guess it is just a designers whim?

Jeff or designer, please explain your motivation.

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Absolutely agree about # of views. It's not needed on the front page at all. –  Martin Doms Mar 17 '11 at 21:44
question title text size was not changed; number of views size was not changed –  Jeff Atwood Mar 17 '11 at 23:00
@Jeff Atwood: I apologize, then it's just visual effect of the change. –  zendar Mar 17 '11 at 23:23

It seems that this has been, at least to some degree, altered.

Questions with answers now have blocks. Questions that have absolutely no answers have no blocks. So now you go from looking for a red block, to simply noticing a very stand-out lack of a block.

Image showing all 3 kinds of questions in one setting. Used favorited questions just to be consistent with the author.

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Yes, this was a very pleasant change. –  Andreas Rejbrand Mar 18 '11 at 13:50
I noticed this as well. Unfortunately I liked it better when it was all naked. Oh well. As Jin said, this is just a first step. (And it really isn't bad. I just liked naked better.) –  jjnguy Mar 18 '11 at 13:51
Well, now questions with accepted answers are harder to distinguish from questions with answers of which none is accepted. Especially on meta. Oh, whatever ;) –  BalusC Mar 18 '11 at 14:18
@BalusC Isn't the difference between the two right now the same as it used to be? Also, Meta uses a green box for an acceptance and a grey box for no acceptance... perhaps the grey just happens to be the wrong shade and might be indistinguishable, though. –  Grace Note Mar 18 '11 at 14:19

The new colors are indistinguishable for those with red-green colorblindness - which affects more than 5% of the male population. Please make either the red one, or the green one darker so there's a distinct contrast when color information is lost.

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The giant 0 on unanswered questions doesn't give it away that there's a difference between it and the other questions with answers? –  user149432 Mar 17 '11 at 23:50
@Mark: Compared to how easy it was before, no, the zero is by far not "giant" enough. –  Andreas Rejbrand Mar 18 '11 at 1:49
@Mark When you're scanning the page quickly it's easier to pick out something in a distinctly different color/contrast than it is to parse the numbers and pick out those that are actually 0. Scroll the page, and you'll have a hard time knowing whether what you just saw was a 0 and not an 8, but if the red stood out more than the green, then it would be easy. Honestly, though, this particular point is not a big deal. I'm pointing it out not to request it be changed so much as to encourage them to include color blindness as a test for future design decisions. All designers should. –  Adam Davis Mar 18 '11 at 3:09
The newest change may alleviate this - the difference is now less on color, more on shape. Color still figures into "accepted vs. unaccepted", but I don't know how much yellow vs. white impacts this. –  Grace Note Mar 18 '11 at 14:03

Best change yet.

Heck, you don't even need to color the number: perhaps the reason why people can't tell the difference between the red and green numbers now is because the color doesn't add any additional semantic information.

That is, the original colored box was just superfluous: a giant

is visually distinctive from all the other numbers that could appear in that area. If you see a giant zero, there are no answers. You don't need to figure out what the color is.

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Maybe they should call it StackAlbino now.

It has definitely decreased usability for me.

It's like looking at old green-sheets where everything blends into each other.

Here's a screen shot of when it's all white:

Stack Albino

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shouldn't unanswered questions look naked? They are bereft of answers. –  Jeff Atwood Mar 27 '11 at 10:13
@Jeff, That is a good point. –  Lance Roberts Mar 27 '11 at 18:18

I read a book many years back by Steve Krug called Don't Make Me Think. And I'm reminded of the lessons in that book when I see these design updates on stackoverflow.com. The previous design was more intuitive and made things more clear at a glance.

That said, why can't we use technology to come up with a solution that everyone likes? Allow folks to choose a template via preferences.

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Much more difficult to scan quickly -- loss of usability ... ugh.

On a related note, this got me to install greasemonkey, and one of the userscripts above to restore the colors. I hope someone takes a whack at restoring the box positions / views to where they were but I imagine that may be more difficult.

I'm not sure what GM allows/doesn't allow one to do, but I have a feeling its possible!

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I totally agree. Ability to quick scan is gone. –  Zabba Mar 18 '11 at 3:04

Hopefully this is constructive.

I am all for rejigging things. The Tagged Questions page can do with more distinction. Bill's answer points to site redesigns that sort of works - at least in two columns, you can still see the 0-answers.. somewhat.

When searching within a Tag or multiple, the votes/answers are collapsed into a single column, blurring the distinction.

Also, I think it better to have the ANSWERS in larger font than VOTES (question), since it is more important piece of information? The range of votes on new questions is invariably 0-1 (90-97%) so there is no real value in making it large.

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I Like It.. Keep Going...

I like it so far, maybe the green and red can be darker. But it would be nice to keep going and give SO a full face lift. I mean just look at some of the other SE sites. programmers.SE, math.SE, cooking, apple, they look awesome.

No offence but SO looked dull and still does when compared to the other sites and its the first and most active site.

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You're saying SO looked duller before than it does after this change? We can argue about usability, but the new styling is drab. –  walkytalky Mar 18 '11 at 9:48
I just find that there is less red...not too much of a diff.. But I'm just hoping they're working on an entire face lift.. because common, SO looks so bad compared to some of the other sites. Just have a look at the programmers.SE badges.. the actually shine!! –  gideon Mar 18 '11 at 9:57

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Finding Your Voice in Washington, DC

By: Paul Nathanson and Omar Nashashibi

Monday, December 05, 2011

Paul Nathanson, of the Policy Resolution Group at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, and Omar Nashashibi, of The Franklin Partnership, are members of the One Voice Advocacy team. One Voice represents the interests of the Precision Metalforming Association and the National Tooling and Machining Association in Washington, DC.

In Washington, D.C., the saying goes: “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” No matter where your business is based or where your customers are located, it’s essential to keep an eye on what’s going on “inside the Belt.” It only takes a slight shift in the political winds or a sentence slipped into a Congressional bill or regulation, often with little notice or fanfare, to cause major upheaval for your industry—and your company. An effective plan to monitor key issues that impact your company’s bottom line and engage your elected representatives and government officials in Washington on an ongoing basis is a must for any manufacturer.

A number of government agencies are proving this point by moving forward with rules and regulations that could have a major financial impact on manufacturers. Examples include:

• A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint against Boeing demanding that the company transfer work from its facility in the largely non-union state of South Carolina to Washington State;

• The NLRB’s dramatic shortening of the union-election process from the median timeframe of 38 days to as little as 10 to 21 days after a union-election petition has been filed;

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) injury reporting requirements; and

• The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) unprecedented number of proposed regulations that would substantially raise compliance and energy costs for manufacturers.

It’s equally important to keep an eye on Congress. For example, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Super Committee”) resulting from the July 2011 debt agreement deal between the Obama Administration and Congress consists of six Senators and six Representatives split evenly among the parties. This committee, which some are calling the “Divine Dozen,” has full authority to look at government spending and revenue (meaning taxes, user fees and other federal government collections) and may now have control over the tax rates, deductions and credits that impact all manufacturers.

While it may seem like Washington doesn’t listen, those who have participated in advocacy and strategic communications work tell a different story. The fact is that companies wanting to influence the regulatory and legislative process do have options at their disposal. Proactive education and advocacy campaigns can indeed be successful in delaying, preventing or modifying government actions.

For example, in September 2011, due in large part to a well-organized industry advocacy campaign, the Obama Administration announced the delay of the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations and the indefinite suspension of the ozone rule. The Administration did not implement this delay because it suddenly realized that the expensive new regulations would further damage the manufacturing sector and prevent job creation. Rather, the Administration acted because manufacturers came together to vocally oppose these regulations, educate Members of Congress and policymakers, and generate grassroots support.

The delay of these EPA regulations shows the importance of educating policymakers and Members of Congress on the real-world impact that these types of regulations have on manufacturers.

But there’s more work to be done to ensure that manufacturing continues to have a voice in Washington.

Congressional staff work on literally hundreds of issues each session and rely on representatives from the business community, non-governmental organizations and academia to provide them with information. If the manufacturing community does not engage their elected representatives, they leave the playing field open to others who may not share their interests.

One of the most effective s that manufacturers can influence policymaking in Washington is through their Congressional representatives. A Member of Congress likely will think twice before voting for legislation that may cause economic harm to businesses in his or her district. This is a phenomenon in Washington that truly transcends partisanship; all Members of Congress will move mountains to protect a vulnerable employer in their district. However, Members of Congress will only learn about the impact of legislation on their constituents if they hear about it from their constituents.

With the assistance of your trade association, you can engage your elected representative in a variety of s. You can invite them to visit one of your manufacturing facilities or organize a meeting with them in their offices in Washington or in your state. This should be done before a problem arises, as these activities can go a long toward building a valuable connection that could be vital if you need legislative support down the road. Your senator or representative can also often help elevate your issues with federal agency officials by contacting those agencies.

While every manufacturer across the nation has different priorities and goals, no manufacturer is immune to the regulations, legislation and rules being debated in Washington at this very moment.

Manufacturers can make a difference in Washington, but only if they participate in the process. Contact your trade association to review your priorities, reach out to your elected representatives and get a seat at the table—instead of on the menu. MF

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Handcuffed naked woman picture shortlisted for BP Portrait Award

Manchester artist
Louis Smith’s painting of a naked woman handcuffed to a rock has been shortlisted for a leading art prize worth £25,000.

Handcuffed naked woman picture shortlisted for BP Portrait Award
Louis Smith’s painting, Holly, has been shortlisted for the £25,000 BP Portrait Award (Picture: PA)

The 2.5m (8ft) painting, entitled Holly, is one of four contenders vying for the BP Portrait Award.

The 41-year-old’s piece will be up against Ian Cumberland, from County Down in Northern Ireland, for his work Just to Feel Normal, Dutchman Wim Heldens and Turkish-born artist Sertan Saltan, with his portrait of a young woman with her hair in rollers and carrying a large knife during Thanksgiving preparations.

Sertan Saltan BP Portrait Award
Edgy entry: Sertan Saltan’s piece (Picture: PA)

Louis’ painting was inspired by the Greek myth of fire-bringer Prometheus, who was bound to a rock as a punishment for stealing the secret of fire from the gods and giving it to the mortal men.

Mr Smith said his painting was ‘a message of composure in the face of adversity’.

Judges sifted through 2,372 entries to arrive at the final four.

Over 50 portraits have been selected for an annual exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, which runs from June to September.

The winner will be announced on June 14.

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The Big Up

by KC Orcutt on August 3, 2011

Sunnyview Farm, July 28-31
The summer months of the ever-expanding mu

sic festival subculture are all about collecting fabric wristbands and seeing who can outfest whom. For the ambitious, it’s all about Bonnaroo, Pitchfork and Summer Camp. For the prioritized, it’s Camp Bisco, Mountain Jam, Phish’s Super Ball and All Good. The happy-go-lucky Big Up Festival, now in its second year, capped off July with its return to Ghent, marking its territory in the festival landscape while still maintaining the positive small-town vibe and homegrown momentum that defined its strong debut.Featuring more than 60 national and local acts over three days—including headliners EOTO, Marco Benevento, Big Gigantic, the Breakfast, RAQ, OTT, Digital Tape Machine and Papadosio—what really identified the Big Up were the tactfully placed, ornate details of the festival grounds, such as a flower garden made from recycled beer cans and posted reminders to “Call Your Mom,” which demonstrated that the organizers had combined the best elements of countless music festivals attended over the years.

Happy camper: Marco Benevento at the Big Up. Photo by Julia Zave.

Planned by Shireworks Productions and the hosting band Higher Organix, the festival has seen massive growth since last year, doubling in size and production while remaining affordable. Attendance was kept just below the allotted 5,000-person capacity and seemed to draw a slightly younger crowd.

Walking around the historic grounds of Sunnyview Farm, which once served as the venue for John Lennon’s recording session with Roulette Records exec Morris Levy—whose son currently owns the property—there was a lot to take in between the four stage locations, a giant fire pit, artists live painting, multimedia showcases and vendors, as well as the neon stretched-nylon decorations at the Woods Stage. Also unique was the use of two adjacent barns—one for late-night music, complete with a decked-out lounge, bouncy Moon Mats and mini galleries in horse stalls, and the other for overflowing guests seeking a casual reprieve from the neighboring sweaty dance pit. Those hoping for a full eight hours of sleep might have been disappointed, as scheduled performances stretched as late as 6 AM. There was very little overlap between the different stages, so if you were determined enough—and downed a Monster energy or two—you could catch a snippet from every slotted act.

Local hip-hop-jazz-fusion champs the Chronicles killed it during their opening set on Thursday, playing songs like “Purple Haze” and “Triumph” and setting the festival off on a funky, upbeat note. Over at the Woods Stage, people were barefoot, dancing on the cold, exposed earth, as Mentally Ill and Leila fired up the crowd with spitfire drum ‘n’ bass and the occasional dubstep drop.

A standout act was Marco Benevento, who chugged from a nearly empty bottle of Maker’s Mark and riled up the crowd with cheerful banter and tight, progressive improvisation, exhibiting talent and versatility from behind his white piano with solid backing from his band. Additional treats included a guilty-pleasure cover of MGMT’s “Time To Pretend” from rock group the Indobox, the smell of campfire that crept up during Dirty Paris’ jam-heavy set, remixes from Big Gigantic of “Black and Yellow” and “I Need a Dolla,” backed by Dominic Lalli on sax—and the fact that a spontaneous torrential downpour didn’t stop too many from raging out to the improv-and-dance-oriented Higher Organix. The hosts delivered an impressive and diverse performance each night, adapting to the particular stage setting and energy from the crowd. It was an absolute highlight to watch the trio perform, knowing that they had spent the past year planning the festival—a testament to their dedication to providing and performing passionate music.


text:
Dr. Andrew Lesniewski named Curriculum Director of the Baruch MFE Program

Dr. Andrew Lesniewski joins Baruch MFE program

Professor Andrew Lesniewski, a renowned expert on interest rate modeling and celebrated in particular as one of the originators of the SABR model, who joined the Baruch MFE Program and the mathematics department at Baruch College in August 2013 as tenured full professor, has assumed the role of Curriculum Director of the Baruch MFE Program in January 2015.

Professor Lesniewski will continue working on keeping the curriculum of the Baruch MFE Program cutting edge, introducing three new courses in the 2015-2016 academic year, to go along more than fifteen new courses introduced since Fall 2010.

Since switching from an earlier successful academic career in mathematical physics, Dr. Lesniewski has had an very accomplished career in the financial industry, most recently as Head of Financial Engineering at DTCC, and prior to that as Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Research at Ellington Management Group.

Dr. Lesniewski has a PhD degree in mathematics from ETH Zurich and was Associate Professor of Mathematical Physics at Harvard University before joining the financial industry.


text:
Draft policies are 'not the final word'

Sharda Naidoo

ANC draft policies have apparently been hurriedly watered down to calm investors who were alarmed by leaked reports.

Do not be fooled: dramatic changes could still be made to the ANC’s 12 new policy discussion documents after they have been debated by the ruling party’s structures and scrutinised by its alliance partners, the labour movement and business.

Some ANC national executive committee members were quick to point out this week that the party had not taken a stand on the reports, which, at this stage, were the views of the drafters and researchers, some of them independent.

Substantially different versions of the economic and justice draft documents, for example, could emerge at the ANC’s June policy conference in Mangaung.

There are intimations that “sensitised and watered down” versions of the documents, which had been redrafted several times to align them with the National Planning Commission’s 30-year national development plan, were released to allay investor panic.

Most of the documents have gone through several drafts—the economic transformation document, for example, has been rewritten six times—since they were first put on the table at a national executive committee meeting in November last year.

Stifled debate?
At the launch of the discussion papers this week, the ANC’s head of policy, Jeff Radebe, complained that the party was almost being stifled from raising any points of discussions about the Constitution.

The committee held a special sitting last week to finalise deliberations on the papers and also looked at where substantive changes were made to them. This is believed to have resulted in a clear disjuncture between the papers that were leaked to Sunday newspapers and those that were eventually released on Monday.

An ANC insider said some discussion papers also reflected the views of their drafters rather than the overall views of the subcommittees. “Even in a committee of drafters there are often one or two powerful individuals whose views you can see coming through the documents. But, if theirs are not popular views, they are defeated at the policy conference.”

Several committee members said the party was divided over the contents of the documents, partly because most of its members found the language difficult to understand or did not understand the consequences of what was proposed.

As an example, the hotly contested debate on nationalisation, although not crude asset grabbing, was still firmly on the table, one of them said, despite the assurances of President Jacob Zuma and Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu last month that nationalisation was not ANC or government policy.

Although a case of last resort in some cases, nationalisation was presented as a real possibility in the draft 400-page “State Intervention in the Minerals Sector” report.

ANC members said that some committee members advocated the nationalisation of some strategic mineral assets, such as Kumba Iron Ore, ArcelorMittal South Africa and the Phalaborwa copper mining company, which would be housed in a state minerals company, which initially would be run by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).

“We don’t know among ourselves what to do,” Enoch Godongwana, head of the ANC economic transformation committee, said this week.

For instance, some of the proposals in economic documents were too ambitious—just a pipe dream—given the country’s infrastructure backlogs and inefficiency.

Another committee member said: “The tradition of engaging has disappeared. The ANC is not a progressive movement any longer in that there’s a lack of theoretical debate within the structures.”

These weaknesses came to the fore on Sunday when a phone call by a Cabinet minister (the Mail & Guardian has established it was Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan), shocked by the contents of a newspaper report, sparked a last-minute scramble by some committee members to make changes to one of the documents. A Sunday newspaper, which was leaked the draft policy proposals before they were released officially on Monday, reported that the ANC’s strategy and tactics documents called for the mandate of the Reserve Bank to be reviewed and widened to include economic policy and not just inflation monitoring and protecting the value of the rand. There was also a suggestion that the bank would be nationalised.

According to the report, the document suggested that the “narrow mandate” of the bank was one of the constitutional areas that were impeding economic transformation and it recommended that the Constitution and the duties of the bank be changed.

Apparently the committee that drafted the document understood the ramifications of its suggestions only after Gordhan’s call, and they were omitted before it was released.

“This is what happens when we don’t engage and the transformation agenda becomes an enclave,” said Godongwana. “We’re constructing policy without broadening the base.”

The lack of engagement could prove to be a problem for the ANC. Some quarters are likely to object strongly to some of the economic and justice proposals, as some tripartite alliance members, because of recent deep divisions among them, were not afforded an opportunity to make an input, as they were in previous years.

Already, among other things, the unions are divided over whether to support the campaign to replace the ANC leadership at the party’s December elective conference in Mangaung. An impasse between the unions and the ANC could put a spanner in the works of some of the party’s plans, particularly those suggested in the minerals sector report.

The ANC envisages pooling union investment money in the state’s financial development institutions, such as the IDC, to take controlling stakes in companies such as Sasol and ArcelorMittal South Africa.

In many cases state and union pension holdings already represent a significant holding in many mining companies but the unions’ holdings are generally managed by private-sector fund managers, giving little scope for direct influence by the unions.

The minerals sector report calls for the unions to pool their mineral holdings with the state in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that would have a major influence on the mining companies and could be used to maximise the economic benefits.

“For strategic minerals, where majority state control might be necessary, this holding could be increased to a controlling holding, but this will require compensation at market value. Such state/union SPVs could be reinforced with the BBBEE [broad-based black economic empowerment] holding, where appropriate,” the document states. “In this regard the ANC and Cosatu should develop a strategy to pool their holdings to promote developmental outcomes in the company concerned. A combination of state and pensions is used to implement national priorities in both Brazil and Finland.”

Herein lies a big hurdle: How will the ANC convince Cosatu, which has broken ranks from its alliance partner on a psychological level, to give away their members’ pension fund money?

Referring to proposals to change the Constitution, a national executive committee member said that they could not be seen as the final product of the policy conference. He said constitutional changes would be made only to strengthen democracy and not to weaken it.

“You can never say there will be no changes to the Constitution. But, despite all the fears, the ANC will change it only to strengthen our constitutional democracy. Minister Radebe has already given the example of current Bills whose purpose is to increase the powers of the judiciary rather than diminish them.”—Additional reporting by Rapule Tabane

Media accountability remains on agenda
The ANC’s communications policy discussion document envisages that the forthcoming parliamentary process should review “existing media accountability mechanisms”, as well as laws dealing with privacy, libel and defamation. The document also suggests the party’s own Media Charter should be updated to reflect developments in technology.

The Mail & Guardian‘s editor-in-chief, Nic Dawes, said the moves could be a way to ” go beyond what a media tribunal could achieve”, by tilting South Africa’s carefully balanced defamation law away from free speech and towards complainants. The moves might have been prompted by the lack of success ANC figures have had in winning defamation cases against media institutions, he said.

In the document the ANC says it “remains committed to a media climate that is free from vested political and commercial interests”. But it also says there is still a need for a “parliamentary inquiry into the desirability and feasibility of an appeals tribunal”.

Lumko Mtimde, chief executive of the Media Development and Diversity Agency, would not comment on whether any perceived problems with the laws had prompted their inclusion in the review. He did say it was necessary to include all the laws that pertained to the media because any new framework would have to “align to the existing one”. Only when the process had run its course would any changes that were needed become apparent, Mtimde said.

Speaking at a discussion on media rights and regulations last year, former Constitutional Court judge Kate O’Regan said international media laws were becoming more uniform as judges referenced international precedent, which made it difficult for countries to be divergent. An increasing number of judgments were also accepting the importance of the professional codes of ethics that guided journalists’ work, she said.

The document questions the diversity of media ownership and proposes an “economic empowerment charter” for the sector.

The Competition Commission should also focus on “anti-competitive practices within the sector”.

ANC national executive committee member Jessie Duarte was not available for comment.—Sipho Kings McDermott

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A general view of Greyhounds racing at Coral Romford Greyhound Stadium on October 9, 2014 in Romford, England.  (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

Florida Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Dog Tracks

Two former jai alai fronton operators received from good news. The Supreme Court upheld a law that will allow them to convert their pari-mutuel licenses to dog racing.

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In Shadows Of Redistricting Ruling, Senate Case Looms

Amid the congressional redistricting lawsuit and its possible effect on elections, there is a similar fight over the state Senate’s map.

State Capitol (Source: David Sutta/CBS4)

Next Governor Could Reshape Supreme Court

Florida’s GOP-dominated House approved a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday that could give the winner of November’s gubernatorial election the power to reshape the state Supreme Court.

Florida Legislature (Source: David Sutta/CBS4)

Lawmakers Face Long Friday After Budget Release

Lawmakers may face a late night Friday after a budget compromise was emailed Tuesday evening.

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Fla. Supreme Court Tosses Out Medical Malpractice Caps In Wrongful Death Suits

The Florida Supreme Court dropped a bomb on the Florida Legislature Thursday morning when it ruled that a 2003 law limiting damages in wrongful death medical-malpractice lawsuits is unconstitutional.

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott Holds News Conference At Biomedical Product Manufacturing

Fla. Governor & Attorney General Sued Over Public Records

A persistent critic of Gov. Rick Scott filed lawsuits on Monday accusing top Florida officials of flouting the state’s public records laws by failing to turn over emails and other documents.

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New Merit Pay System Faces Challenge From Teachers Union

While some applaud the new merit pay system for the state’s teachers, the occupation’s union is fighting it head on.

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Understanding The Florida Amendments

The 2012 ballot will be one to remember across the state of Florida. The ballot is the longest in Miami-Dade history and much of the ballot is taken up with 11 constitutional amendments written in legalese that can confuse even the most well-informed voters.

CBS Miami–11/05/2012

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Amendment 4 Could Shift Tax Burden

Florida voters will have their say on 11 constitutional amendments during November’s general election. Of all the amendments, Amendment 4 could have the most impact on Florida’s voters.

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Group Forms To Support Repeal Ban On Public Funding Of Churches

A new group called “Yes on 8 Campaign” has formed to support a repeal of Florida’s ban on public funding of churches and other religious organizations.


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President Kennedy

Exclusive: JFK Assassination Witness Speaks For 1st Time

When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was cut down by bullets in 1963; a chain of events began that included the murder of a police officer, the capture of the alleged presidential assassin, and the murder of the suspected presidential killer.

CBS Miami–11/20/2013

Bay Of Pigs Invasion (1961)

Fifty Years Since Bay Of Pigs

Fifty years ago this Sunday, a group of 1,400 Cuban exiles, trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, launched the Bay of Pigs invasion.


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    “UTC has really pushed my education as a teacher, and I definitely recommend joining the UTC because it will challenge you in ways that you won’t get in other classes.

    “I studied abroad in Cuba in the winter semester. It was really cool because we learned about a place that we don’t know much about—because the US embargo has it so locked down. It was so great to understand Cuba from their own perspective. It opened our eyes in a lot of ways."

    A few more facts about me:

    • I will be part of the Urban Leadership Internship Program (ULIP) this summer in Chicago.
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Still riding in Utah

Alexander Finger af at
Tue Nov 2 04:45:32 PDT 2010

On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 12:42 PM, dominatr37 <dominatr37 at>wrote:

> Marilyn I am so sorry to hear about Poor Jim, give him my best please. I
> hope he recovers fast.
Same from here, hope things will get in order ASAP..

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Friday, June 25, 2004

Redirection: I have a brief piece on Greece's European Championship victory over France over at ubersportingpundit.

Update: I also have a piece on the schedule for next year's Australia v England cricket series, also at ubersportingpundit.

As happens these days, my laptop computer has been getting steadily clogged up with programs generating popup ads, spyware, and all kinds of other crap over the six months that I have had it. (I have been fortunate enough or well enough defended that I have avoided getting any worms and viruses). I have largely just put up with this. However, a week or two ago, one of the programs that has been showing me popup ads decided to start showing occasional pictures that were essentially hard core pornography, in the hope that I would click on the link and buy more hard core pornography.

This was enough for me, and I have gone through a thorough spyware and irritate-ware removal process, something I should have done a while back. Spybot Search and Destroy informed me that there were over 120 separate pieces of anti-social software of one kind or another installed on my system. Ugh.

Well, they are now gone.

Although I have not myself had a worm or virus infection, several people I know have, and I have been helping out in cleaning these up. One friend of mine received an infection from a variant of the Gabot worm, and this managed to mess things up pretty thoroughly before we managed to kill it.

Update: That wretched porn came back. Either the both Spybot S&D and Ad-aware both missed it, or I visited the site that was responsible for installing it in the first place again and it got reinstalled. (And no, I didn't attempt to rip the new Beastie Boys CD). Now running the software again, but I am very pissed off. I might be about to abandon Internet Explorer and start using Firefox exclusively, too.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Doing a little hacking

Okay, I am in the process of installing Wine on my Linux box. This is a reverse engineered implementation of the Windows APIs that runs under Linux and other Unix like systems that run on x386 processors, and theoretically allows them to run Windows applications. Ideally I would like to use it to run iTunes under Linux. There isn't really anything else in terms of Windows applications that I feel I have to have. Firefox is a substantially better browser than is Internet Explorer, and while I haven't used it in a big way, OpenOffice seems adequate for most of my purposes. And while there is an open source jukebox program that was part of the SuSE Linux distribution, I really do want iTunes.

I have a quote of the day over at Samizdata.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Non updated websites

A reader has gently chided me and asked whether I am a "slow reader", due to the fact that (he claims) I have had the same three books listed in the "What I'm reading" section in the sidebar on the left for the entire time he has been reading the blog.

That is not entirely true. Over the 18 months or so the list has been there, quite a lot of books have appeared and then vanished. These are some of the books that I have actually read in that time. (I do read a substantial number of books). However, there is something of a problem. When I started the list I had eight to ten books sitting on a table next to my bed, and these were the ones I put on the initial list. I had at least started all of them - in some cases just having read a page or two. Since then, most of the books on the original list have vanished as I have read them, but the remaining three have stubbornly refused to be read. Mostly this is just that I haven't got round to reading them, but they haven't really grabbed me either. "Gangs of New York" seems quite good, and I will no doubt get to it at some point. "Tea From an Empty Cup" is by Pat Cadigan, and Cadigan writes intense and dense books that require a lot of concentration. To be properly appreciated her books need to be read within one sitting or within a couple of days at the most, and I haven't really managed to sit down for such a sitting. "The Seduction of Place" is the one really problematical one. It's a book about architecture containing lots of interesting information about how certain cities got the way they are, but it is rather tiresomely ideological, and ideology in urban development and urban design usually leads to bad places. (It is also a rather rare thing - a book I read because it had a really good title - summarising the buzz I get out of seeing and visiting new places - something I practically find necessary for survival).

Some would suggest that I should remove the books from the list if I have gone so long without finishing them, but that would be an admission of defeat somehow: an acknowledgement that I never will read them. And I think somehow that I should read them. The longer they stay up the more I feel so.

The trouble with this though is that the list then doesn't summarise my taste in books very well. Stuff I find hard going stays up, and stuff that I enjoy and read in one sitting stays up for a much shorter time, if it even gets up at all. (Also, there is a feeling that if I put a book on the list I have an obligation to then read it quickly, and that is perhaps not fun). In recent months I have been reading books, but I have not updated the list.

So the overall rule is the more I enjoy a book the shorter the time it spends on the list. Oops.

Perhaps it is the way the list is structured: I update the blogger template. This takes longer than just making a blog post, and doesn't keep a proper historical record.
Or perhaps I have just grown lazy.

But I am not going to delete the feature for now. I think I will try to update the list properly, and I may make a rule that all books stay up for at least a week, even if I have already finished reading them by the time I put them up. In fact I think I shall put up some more books that I am either reading or I have just read right now.

Or I could switch to actually writing reviews of the books I read. But that sounds like work.

But the three books are staying up until I have actually read them.

Sunday, June 20, 2004

I have a 6000 word essay that is basically a history of the Australian airline industry for the last 50 years over at Transport Blog.

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Friday, June 02, 2006

Blog Co-ed Showdown Result

We thought it would be closer. But apparently posing naked for Playboy just isn't what it used to be (at least in the eyes of MZone readers).

In our latest Blog Co-ed Showdown, #5 seed Brigid, the "Lethal Weapon Barbie" defeated #12 Jordanna, aka "We Don't Believe That Was Really You Leaving Comments On The Site." When the votes were tallied, the final results were roughly 68% for Brigid, 32% for Jordanna.

As you can tell by the updated bracket, that leaves us with only two first round match-ups left before things start to get really interesting.

And we already have found one of our next competitors via a reader suggestion. Who's she going to be up against? Well, that's still to be decided. So keep those ideas coming.

St. Simons Island Nole said...

I say we just skip to the Final Four showdown....Hell, skip to the Championship - FSU cowgirl vs ASU cheerleader!

St. Simons Island Nole said...

Oh wait, I forgot about the OSU chick. OK, let's do a vote.

John Frum said...

In our office pool for the Final Four I have FSU Cowgirl vs OSU Video Chick and ASU Cheerleader vs Lethal Weapon Barbie.

Theri Maa, Bhanchod! said...

i don't want to live in a world where posing naked is less attractive that blondes in bikinis

Yost said...

Doug said...

If you're looking to fill the remaining slots in the bracket, why not make one of the opening-round matchups a Matt Leinart Special -- Paris Hilton vs. the girl Leinart was caught on camera drunkenly trying to get with?

Matt said...

Clemson's very own drum major Kate Moon should be an instant nomination. She hasn't quite reached Jenn Sterger status, but she is an ACC phenom nonetheless.

Anonymous said...

You're on to something, Matt. Good clip. Googled her and found her in the cache for the Miss South Carolina competition as Miss Clemson. Her talent? "Flute performance"

You can't make that up.

Anonymous said...

Also, accused of throwing a hissy when not named to the top ten:

Matt said...

If you need some help getting more links about Kate Moon, enter the Tiger Board forum at www.tigernet.com and start asking about her... they'll help you out.

Also, www.tigermemories.com has a photo gallery with a "babes" section. Kate appears several times.


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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Two-Minute Drill

* Dan Weitzel at Yahoo! Sports gives Michigan no love. In his column, he about OSU getting no respect, especially from fans in the south and the west, he had this nugget: "There is little question Ohio State is set to waltz into its second consecutive BCS title game via the easiest road imaginable. The Buckeyes haven't beaten a top-line team thus far and the only quality opponent remaining is Michigan, which lost at home to both a I-AA team and No. 3 Oregon, by 32 points."

Uh, does he really think the Bucks will be playing the same Michigan team that he's referring to? Seriously?

(HT: S2)

* Let's face it - Michigan's season couldn't have started out worse. Yet U-M fans still showed up and sold out the Big House. Not Vol fans when their team struggled this year. The Vols dipped below 100,000 for the first time since '96 last Saturday.

(HT: HM)

* MZone reader BK saw someone on one of the MLive forums proposing the following t-shirt in response to all the MSU folks buying up Appy State garb...

Michigan State: Easier to beat than Appalachian State!

* The Dayton Daily News references the MZone, America's source for news...and semi-naked women.

(HT: Dave)

* Finally, MZone reader Anthony writes:

Hey guys, saw on facebook that some of my friends were RSVP'ing to an event called "Make Some REAL Noise at the Ohio State Game" The tagline to the event reads: Replace the key play with change in a water bottle.

The description reads as follows:

Bring an unopened water bottle into the game, or buy one in the Stadium. Fill your pocket up with pennies, dimes, or any other change you can find. Once at your seat, chug the water, add the coins to the empty bottle, and shake. The noise is annoying, but reaches the field better than shaking keys.

Invite all your friends! Let's do our part in winning this year!

Didn't know if you guys wanted to post anything about this closer to the game to see if we can get more people in the stadium to participate...also not sure if the admin is going to catch wind of this and attempt to stop it, though I'm not sure how exactly they would be able to.

Love the site...Go Blue!

Anthony '05

Always want to promote a more intimidating Big House, Anthony. More on this as OSU nears.

whetstonebuck said...

Let's get some security in your complex. Ol' Dan is just echoing the angry sentiment around the country concerning tOSU's waltz to the Big Dance. Our signature win is against a 3-6 Washington team--ouch! Instead of helmets our team should be wearing paper sacks.

Get a load of this line: "Yes, Ohio State's non-conference slate was an abomination. As one fan pointed out on a message board, the helmets of its first four opponents spelled Y-A-W-N (Youngstown, Akron, Washington and Northwestern). And they played Kent State, too." Admit it, that's funny as well as painful.

Wetzel calls UM a "quality" opponent and you all fixated on the mention of Appy State and Oregon. Brothers, you got tagged with “quality.”

It's our turn to be ridiculed. The whole country hates us. We are useless; an abomination; scum. We don't deserve to live. If the Nation new we’d turn out like this, we would have been aborted.

Geez, Louise. Let us have our fifteen minutes of National shame. After all, it's been ten months since our last dose. We are having some withdrawal pain.

(That of course, does not take into account the shame of the NCAA B-Ball Championship loss to Fl#%*da. I view basketball as something to do for people that can't play football.)

Move over little brother. Stay in line and behave. It's not always about you.

WingRG said...

Re: coins replacing keys.

Maybe i'm misunderstanding something, but don't you guys have voices? Can't you yell real loud? Is that too "low brow" for you guys?

Oh, WhetStone, regarding 15 minutes of national shame and b-ball, does losing to a DII team in your own building in an exhibition, coming off a year in which you made the National Championship game count as national shame? To quote Uncle Jun: "I was ashamed to face my friends"

whetstonebuck said...

Basketball is for folks that can't play football.

Basketball is "low brow."

I have no comment.

Mikoyan said...

Why is it when a Big Ten team plays a schedule like that it's called weak but when an SEC team does it's called "Well they have plenty of competition within the SEC that they can take a break with their off conference teams"? Heck, maybe OSU should be more like ND so they can have a weak schedule and still be 1-8.

But again, this is my fundamental problem with the BS. No matter what they say, the "Champion" is still determine by a subjective means. The AP saw through the sham. Most folks call for a playoff of sort (but even that would be subject to shenanigans). Maybe it's just not possible to crown a Champion of a league where 117 teams play but thier schedules comprise less than 10% of their opponents.

Anyways, the Brutus thing in the Dayton article looks interesting. I wonder if you could do a subtle paint scheme to taunt the Buckeyes?

As far as your guys loss to Findlay pick a number (complied by our little brothers):
1. It was an exhibition game
2. Appalachian State!
3. It doesn't matter

surrounded in columbus said...

BYU never apologizes for its pathetic schedule during the 1984 season. you shouldn't either. w/ BC going down, you'll now have to play a team that the rest of the world considers "good". you win that, they'll stop talking. and if you don't, they were right, so what's it matter? can't be worse than last year, can it?

on the other hand, if we want to be bitch about our little corner of the world and being discussed unfavorably in the same article, you ought to let us go ahead & vent. doesn't matter if tosu was the main story line- we just read the parts about us.

Matt said...

Notre Dame has one of the toughest schedules in the country this year. It's a miracle that they beat UCLA. That "YAWN" thing is hilarious, btw.

Like I've said before, some people in the media blasted Michigan fans as fairweather fans. Sporting News was the worst. But the fans held tight and continued to show up to games. This goes to show that a bit of the UM reputation as fairweather is undeserved. We're pretty classy, but we don't get much credit for that.

whetstonebuck said...

Aw, c'mon SiC. You know I wasn't apologizing. The schedule is what it is. Ha! I laugh on their lapel.

I just got a kick out of Yost's take on Wetzel and how rivals look at the same article and see it slanted in opposite directions; nothing new there. Like it or not, the maize & blue and the scarlet & grey are joined at the hip. We need each other to enjoy the finer things in life—like VICTORY!

I find it incredibly funny that tOSU is in first place (this week anyway) and the consternation and irrational hatred this causes around the country. Humor is where you find it.

You are right. Nothing could be worse than last year.

Wait, repeating last year's travesty vs. another SEC team would be worse. Yes, Rhett, I don’t think I could bear that. If it does happen, my executor will ship you my Michigan cap. I want you to have it.

(Oh, of course all of this is dependent upon a victory this week and a little skirmish on the 17th.)

ohio_guy said...

hopefully the big house is just as loud as beaver stadium was two weeks ago....

it seemed to work out well for them...

whetstonebuck said...

Indeed. We like loud.

Loud? We don't care about no stinkin' loud.

Matthew said...

I just don't think change in a bottle is going to get Michigan on this list,

Loudest College Games Ever Recorded:

1) 2007, Oregon hosts USC - 127.2dB
2) 2005, Clemson hosts Miami - 126.0dB
3) 1988, LSU hosts Auburn - 121.0dB (the "Earthquake Game")

For reference: jet takeoff from an aircraft carrier w/ afterburners = 130dB

Mikoyan said...

I heard the fan at Rynearson can be pretty intimidating.

lane said...

on topic rumblings at theozone.net

love the 'we need more cowbell'!!!

surrounded in columbus said...

Would be honored to have your hat. Would place it over the mantle on the moose antlers for all to see. Just don't send it to soon. I'd go nuts if the only tosu fans I was left to carry on with were wrgrg & my wife...

WingRG said...

hey, i don't bug u too much. Now, i'm not sure 'bout your wife. :-) but i gotta admit i'm not nearly as entertaining as WS. He should moonlite doing standup.

surrounded in columbus said...

you are right wgrg. if we lost wetrock it would be just the two of us, alone, knocking about this great big blog w/ out him.

i suppose we'd muddle thru somehow.


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Saturday, March 22, 2008

How to Park Like a Buckeye

Got the picture and email below from MZone reader Matt who lives in Columbus and has a blog about bad parking called BadParkingAroundTown:

"Hi, I am a daily reader of your blog and I love it. I am an Avid U of M fan.

Anyways, I just wanted to show you this picture I took. I thought you might get a kick out of it. I have a blog about bad parking. I was out recently and took these pictures. From my experience, it's a typical "University of Ohio State" fan

And don't be fooled by the lot being empty, folks. You know this is the same guy at Christmas time jamming that thing into a compact space and dinging the shit out of the properly parked car next to him.

Ed. Note: For those of you who don't understand the "University of Ohio State" moniker, it is the official new name here at the MZone for our rivals to the south after being referred to as such by student-athlete and brand-new Buckeye Terrelle Pryor.

phil said...

Cut the guy a break. At least he's following one UOS rule. To be a fan of the University of Ohio State you have to be at least 30 lbs. overweight.

Rob said...

Let's not forget that the proper title of our rival school to the south is THE University of Ohio State. :)

beast in 'bama said...

A blog about bad parking? That never has an off-season.

Vadatripp said...

See, you're assuming he meant to park like that. Have you seen TUoOSU fans drive? I'm amazed he didn't park his car in the store's front window.

Andy said...

If you look very closely -- I think there is a sign placed in front of the car. Either it is a handicapped parking or an employee of the month parking sign...

Either way, he likely qualifies.

I-O !!!!

srudoff said...

not sure what's more sad... Mzone commenting about this or Matt having an entire blog devoted to bad parking. i'm guessing Matt majored in General Studies at UM - 15 minutes every two weeks, learning about how to use a calendar!

srudoff said...

replies to the effect of "what's more sad is a suckeye fan...." in 3....2....

Yost said...

Sru, let me finish the sentence for you:

What's more sad is a Suckeye fan coming to a Michigan site to comment on commenting about this.

srudoff said...

jcloverboi said...

very off-topic here, but i recall a post sometime ago about the horror that is a couple's shower. i've been invited to one sometime next month, and two things about this really stand out to me:

1.) there will be couples there i've never met.
2.) there will be NO alcohol served. at all.

Since it's being held by one of my best friends, i'm exempt from being part of a couple, but i don't think i'm up for meeting lame strangers who have nothing better to do than go to couple's showers (while sober!). In fact, i think i'd rather be blown by a shark with a laser beam attached to its head. any thoughts from gallery?

jcloverboi said...

*the gallery.

sorry for not previous specifying:)

Out of Conference said...

Srudoff - where ya been?

JCloverboi - if you have to go to that thing (and I would not), do you best to find that one chick that looks like she's not having a good time, could use a drink, doesn;t like her date/husband- then start a conversation, explain to her that you have a flask, and see if you can move the you-her party to the bathroom. I know it works - I read about stuff like that happening all the time Penthouse Forum. Those guys don't lie.
If nothing else, you can count on not getting invited to the wedding.
Joshua should be along soon to fine tune my tips.

Sgt. Wolverine said...

I have a handicapped parking permit, so I get to see some pretty bad parking jobs when I'm looking for parking. But that one takes the cake. If he doesn't have a handicapped parking permit, I'd give him an honorary permit for out-parking the worst handicapped parkers.

Joshua said...

"In fact, i think i'd rather be blown by a shark with a laser beam attached to its head."

Ladies and gentlemen, our first Oral Sex with a Shark comment. My how I've been waiting for this day.

jcloverboi said...

glad i could be of service--lip service...

srudoff said...

this site is "websensed" from work since the first of the year - working from home today so i've got 3 months of vitriol bottled up :)

sgt wolverine - not sure if you knew this, but hanging your Michigan diploma from your rear view mirror entitles you to handicap parking pretty much anywhere in America these days - in case you leave the house without your current permit.

surrounded in columbus said...

michigan degree = handicapped parking? oh gawd, that's a hoot.

but seriously? my maid went to tosu.

Joshua said...

Ooc, the bathroom thing would never work because there's likely to be some shrew acting as the Fun Police and making sure everyone pays the utmost attention to the couple, specifically the woman. This is most likely her best friend. This is also likely the lady who suggested it was a good idea for it to be an alcohol free shin-dig so she wouldn't look out of place being awkward and uptight. As the Self-appointed Minister of Fun for everyone I know, these people are my arch nemeses- and yes, that's the correct pluralization of nemesis. So the bathroom's out.

Now there are two ways this could go: Either there will be an attractive single female present OR it'll be the equivalent of receiving fellatio from said Darwinian death machine. This is your choice. As this is one of your best friends he should be able to verify if there will be any single available women present, and work with you to make sure Jenny in accounting is invited if she wasn't on the original list. If not, then bring a date. Sounds crazy, but I'm thinking it would be signed off on by the lady of the house, as it would be "awkward" for you to be the only non-coupled person in attendance. This is a tremendous opportunity to show a young lady whom you're interested in that A) you have friends and B) some of them are actually grown-ups. Plus once you arrive the possibilities for conversation are endless. And if you're good with kids it's a major plus as the props will be included.

If it's a date, leave the flask out, if not- may i suggest the J Crew "tie flask" in a nice Blue and gold? It says not only "I'm the fun guy at this party with a flask" but also "I'm a Michigan man". Definitely two tremendous qualities every discerning young lady looks for. If it is a date, then make it a precursor to dinner- this gives you an easy out when you decide to leave as you "can't miss your reservations".

Hope that helps.

Joshua said...

Oh, and while most of that was typed tongue-in-cheek, it'll actually probably work.

jcloverboi said...

OoC and joshua,

good stuff from both of you. the only way i would even consider going is with a date, but the problem there is that most of the women i know wouldn't be caught dead at one either. seriously, who comes up with these things? i think it's just an excuse to get two gifts from the same person. at least they have the decency to have the wedding in may and not in september--because if given the choice between UGA-LSU and a booze-free outdoor wedding, well, i think you know which way i'd go there.

of course maybe my date and i could be the power couple that teaches the squares to have fun and get down like i see in those hep-cat teen movies.

i'm interested to see what the ladies have to say about it--where are you in my time of need catie and T9?

Sgt. Wolverine said...

sru, it's unfortunate for me, then, that I don't have a Michigan diploma. Oh well.

Oh, and I noticed you said "pretty much anywhere"; I'm guessing Ohio is the exception. Is that because Ohio actually has reserved non-handicapped parking for the fully functional minority that has to live there?

Andy said...

I find it insulting that Wal*Mart is "websensing" this blog.

surrounded in columbus said...

well, he really is supposed to be out in the lot collecting the carts instead of trolling the internet.....

THE ohio state university- the only business program in the world where they have a class in which you learn how to say:

do you want fries w/ that?

zen wizard said...

As a former resident of Columbus--many years ago--I never thought of it, but a lot of my tsuris was parking related...

Both my OWN bad parking, and the bad parking of others.

I also noticed a strange gleefulness about having someone's car towed that I have not seen anywhere else but Los Angeles--where it is I guess debatably justified. The bad part about having someone's car towed in Los Angeles is that you are often also towing the person's DWELLING.

In the case of Columbus, I think it is because the town was named after a sailor, so you figure if you are on dry land, that must be a really good parking job.

Out of Conference said...

JC - just show up freaking hammered. Not buzzed and making a slight off color comment, but downright shitfaced smelling like a brewery. And then choose one of the following phrases:

1. "Too bad this isn't ole England and Prima Nocta isn't in effect, because I'm purt damn near sure the law in these parts and that bride-to-be is looking dayyyyaaaaam good."
2. (looking at bride), "You not going be like that one over in the big city that went and done runned off to Areezona claiming a man kidnapped her because she got da cold feet, are ye?. Because ever dayum women around ought to know that they should be thankful for some poor sucker just putting up with thar shit, let alone fixin' to marry them."

Don't worry about the wedding invite- that will leave you time to catch a UGA baseball series before Hoover.

TitleIX said...

the smartest thing you can do is to NOT go to the couples' shower.
first, you should be automatically exempt by your non-coupled status.
secondly, it is absolutely the dumbest thing in the world unless the theme of said couples' shower is marital aides/power tools. Then it might be worth coming around to the idea (ba-da-bing!)

definitely check if there is a theme to the event because if so, FOR SURE don't go. Tell your friend that if his fiancee really loved him then there would be no such thing as a couples' shower.

or--suggest that said couples' shower be held at the club house of a local golf course. the guys go play 18, the gals ooh and ahh over shit from Target.....

if, however, you HAVE HAVE HAVE to go I concur with joshua---boda bag under the shirt.

TitleIX said...

and---good to see my bro andy back!

jcloverboi said...

great suggestions on what to say if i were to go, but you outted me--that's how i talk BEFORE i'm shitfaced. My emphasis on (mostly) correct spelling and grammar is just an air i put on for all of you smart Michigan types.

Nah if you 'scuse me, I gots ta steal down to tha outhouse over yonder so's ah can peek at ma sister what went dere ta change 'er britches. honest to gawd, she'd be even more fetchin' if she wasn't also mah mama.

jcloverboi said...

as always, your wisdom is greatly appreciated. i can assure you the couples' shower wasn't hsi idea--his fiance a little nuts. and by a little, i mean that the Big House couldn't adequately hold her craziness.

jcloverboi said...

*his idea
*is a little nuts

me fail english? that's unpossible!

Joshua said...

Couples showers are reserved for people who say "We're pregnant", and if any of you ever utter said term in my presence I will take it as open license to mock and ridicule you in between pointing and laughing. It has been my experience that women should be both respected and honored, but this can be done without using fruity terms and throwing couples showers. It is the man's job to support the woman, hand out cigars, and smile pleasantly while she's in labor and yelling "You did this to me!" and pointing at you like you're evil/Jim Tressell incarnate.

So be a man and treat the love of your life correctly, but don't turn into a fruit.

Disclaimer: Previous use the term "fruit" should not in any way, shape or form be assumed to be a reference to gay people. My best friend on earth is a big 'mo, but even he'd slap me silly for using the term "we're pregnant". Carry on.

jcloverboi said...

again, quite off topic, but did anyone else see the drake-western kentucky game? that's about as scintilating as sports gets.

that being said, my bracket is pretty FUBAR.

WV: shyrd
phonetically the sound i made when i was invited to the couples' shower/ heard the beatles for the first time.

Joshua said...

Clover, there's an MP3 of the sound at the Ceasar's sportsbook when WKU hit that shot over at Every day Should Be Saturday. Pretty sweet.

I'm thinking about trudging through the snow (snow?!- this state is messed) to watch the Sparty game at BW3, but that would include hanging out with Spartan fans.

Tom C said...

Trudging through the (snow?) to watch sparty, with real spartans?
Damn couples shower starts looking better.
btw No booze no shower, even with the themes T9 spoke of.

jcloverboi said...

the ls always throw me off.
josh, can't believe it's still snowing up there--definitely one thing (among many) i don't miss about living in Cincinnasty. Not to rub it in, but it's a sunny 78 degrees here in Georgia. The half-inch coat of pollen on every surface, however, takes some of the bloom off our rose.
tom c, agreed on the couples' shower. i'm not even sure most people here in the bible belt even know what "marital aides" are. usually sheep serve that purpose 'round these parts.

zen wizard said...

The only more cringeworthy statement in the English language than, "We're pregnant" is "We're trying to get pregnant."

If a GUY constructs this statement, a perfectly acceptable response is, "Maybe she should try with a person who has not surrendered his Y-chromosome to the Oprah Book of the Month Club."

Joshua said...

Clover, where'd you live in Cinci? I lived in Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout for about 3 years.

And as for the snow, it was like 45 here in East Lansing Thursday. Then yesterday we got about 2-3 inches of snow. WTF? I really miss the Caribbean.

Tom C said...

Jc I think the pine pollen is coagulating around my boat here on Lake Murray.

jcloverboi said...

josh, i don't remember exactly where it was in Cinci--we only lived there briefly and i was like 8. my dad worked in middletown, and eventually we moved to carlisle. 4 years later it was off to Georgia, and we've all been here ever since. i can still remember riding down Pete Rose Pkwy when my dad would take us to Reds games.
That's harsh about the weather--we had one hour-long snow flurry, and that was about it. We have, however, had an unusual amount of tornadoes this year, particularly the one that hit the GA Dome.

tom c, i live in macon, which is home to about 400,000 Yoshino cherry trees. The town is as pretty as you could ask for, but the pollen count ranges from trachea-clenching to downright carcinogenic for the first 6 weeks of spring. i don't even bother to wash my car until late May.

Thick & Chunky said...

Just for the record to any TUoOS fans trolling here. Anyone who parks bad is fair game, not just buckeyes. If I see someone who is parked horribly and has michigan stuff on, I will get a picture of that too.

Yost, Thanks for the post and link

Spencer096 said...

this is awesome...such a great example of both sides.

OSU fans could give 2 sh!t's less about something like that. what does it matter? the parking lot is empty.

UM fans go on a 5 paragraph diatribe about how great UM grads can park, like it's some badge of honor or something.

oh well, enjoy making fun of arrogant buckeye fans, we'll just keep on enjoying smoking you on the field.

Joshua said...

It IS a great example of the two sides.

YOU feel the need to come on a Michigan blog and make false statements to make yourself feel superior. "A five paragraph diatribe about how great UM grads can park?" Please show me this diatribe you moron. This might make you feel better about being a
Buckeye fan but it won't cure that emptiness inside. You know what else won't fill that emptiness? Donuts. So put down the donut Fatty.

And thanks for referring to UM grads as "great"....unless of course you meant how "well" UM grads can park. Yup, there's another difference. We KNOW we're better than you because we're Michigan fans and don't feel the need to seek out Buckeye blogs, AND we'll correct your grammar.

TitleIX said...

forget the tuos trolls joshua

are you watching Butler v. Tenn and/or Davidson v. Georgetown???

mmmmmm Bracketology

surrounded in columbus said...

Make a note: tuos fans do NOT care what m fans think.

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate you stopping by to let us know.

Next time we make a tuos joke, we'll do so safe in the knowledge you don't care.

Big load off my mind.

Joshua said...

Come on guys- I feed off their stupidity. And yeah T9, some carzy games today.

Anyone else hear that Herbstriet said "Get ready for Maurice Clarett the sequel" about Pryor?

surrounded in columbus said...

The Dispatch had a full page write up on Pryor on Thursday, but amidst the accolades they had one column titled: "Double Threat or Double Trouble?".

Guy has a lot of potential for a lot of things. Not to worry though. Look @ Tre$$els's track record for handling head case prima donnas....

Randy said...

Obviously the slowest day of the year for Michigan football news.

Adam said...

This is a little off topic, but while this is the off season for football, I hear the Michigan ice hockey team is pretty damn good this year. Why not write about that?

Spencer096 said...

hey, i was just being light-hearted, no hate.

i frequent this and mgoblog because they're both WELL written and detailed. why be an asshole over something i said, not about football, but about the absurdity of the post. it's not like im trolling around here saying stuff like, "Terrelle Pryor is the best! UM SUCKS UM SUCKS!"

but i'm glad that I'm the typecast retard because of an innocent grammatical error and am called a Fatty in response. classy stuff.

i guess occupational success and personal happiness doesn't mean a thing because i'm not a UM grad. oh well, i guess i'll just cry next November when we whoop your asses again.

thanks for the comment on my blog whomever left it.

TitleIX said...

University officials respond to Carty's clownery....

Joshua said...

If that was an intended lighthearted reply I owe you an apology. I got a little fed uo with the OSU/Pryor trolls this weekend, and you've gotta admit that donut comment was funny if not classy. Anyway, always nice to have a civil Buckeye voice around here (in addition to Whets, I think he gets lonely) and like I said, I apologize. But donuts really won't cure that emptiness inside. Nor will hookers. Or donuts being eaten by hookers. and while hookers being eaten by Donuts might make a wonderful sci-fi flick, I don't think they'll help either. Just so you know.

Vadatripp said...

Spencer: "it's not like im trolling around here saying stuff like, "Terrelle Pryor is the best! UM SUCKS UM SUCKS!" "

Yes, I'm sure the timing of your posting here with "we'll just keep on enjoying smoking you on the field" was purely coincidental in the wake of the Pryor crap.

IT'S A MICHIGAN BLOG! WTF ARE YOU DOING HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE? Sheesh, do you think any of THE university of ohio state blogs welcome UM fans with open arms? Hell, Yost is even gracious enough to keep tUOS fan pets like Whets and Sru around. I imagine most of the posts directed at UM fans on your sites read like "$%&# you mom. %&#$ your dad. I hope you @$^*#$$%% and then @$#%^&** a sheep and $$%^&*$#@# die." Be glad you got off as lucky as you did.

Please, just go away and never come back. Thanks. You can throw full beer cans and baggies of dog sh!t at me in November if I decide to get dressed up in battle armor and venture down to that sh!thole in Ohio.

Spencer096 said...

joshua...it's cool. and for the record, i do love me some donuts, but you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the belly off.

vadatripp...god forbid there be some banter regarding the best rivalry in sports. from my perspective, it seems more gracious to comment on a post about an OSU fan being an a$$hole parking than it is to be a dick and post typical bullshit about TP.

what am i doing here? know your enemy, and im fortunate enough to have a rival school that has such eloquent authors (for the most part) that allows me to get into the UM program more than just watching them once a year and punching my buddy from detroit in a drunken stupor.

i understand the buckeye stereotype even if i consider myself a level-headed objective participant, but re-read your post and you'll probably see that you're not any different than the OSU fans you pigeonhole.

plus, if a few of you didn't throw some dickhead comments up on my blog, i really wouldn't have said anything in response.

whetstonebuck said...

"Look @ Tre$$els's track record for handling head case prima donnas...."

I think it's a plan. He squeezes a NC or two out of them and then sends them to the Big House.

Uh, wait. Not THAT Big House. Never mind.

Vadatripp said...

"god forbid there be some banter regarding the best rivalry in sports."
What, was my "diatribe" not considered banter? I despise most of you Suckeye fans and I was just giving back what you spouted on a UM FORUM. I thought it was funny.

"from my perspective, it seems more gracious to comment on a post about an OSU fan being an a$$hole parking than it is to be a dick and post typical bullshit about TP"
So, the timing of your friendly visit is purely coincidental? I guess you're not as obsessed with UM football as Whets or Sru - that might be a good thing.

"allows me to get into the UM program more than just watching them once a year and punching my buddy from detroit in a drunken stupor"
OK, I definitely believe this part.

"but re-read your post and you'll probably see that you're not any different than the OSU fans you pigeonhole"
Except for the parking skills, you mean. I hope - in terms of my attitude towards OSU fans - you're correct. I hope it comes across like I hate them as much as they've shown to hate me. Geez, I've been doing a piss poor job if that hasn't been made clear.

"plus, if a few of you didn't throw some dickhead comments up on my blog, i really wouldn't have said anything in response"
Now, I don't know what your blog is (nor do I really care), but I'm guessing those probably came as a response to your unsolicited visit here.

whetstonebuck said...

"I guess you're not as obsessed with UM football as Whets or Sru - that might be a good thing."

"Hell, Yost is even gracious enough to keep tUOS fan pets like Whets and Sru around."

Okay, vapidtripp, did I impregnate your sister or something? What the heck?

I'm not obsessed with UM football. I am, however, obsessed with "The Rivalry." I accidently stumbled into this blog awhile back and enjoyed the people--even the folks with some real hatred issues that I don't understand, but I haven't been in their shoes.

One thing's for sure. I've never been the teacher's pet so this is an unusual burden to bear. I will serve with distinction and pray that I don't let any of you down.

Yost, you need a refill or a foot rub?

Spencer096 said...

vadatripp...don't worry buddy, not a regular commenter here, just thought the original post was pretty funny and figured there'd be some funny stuff happenin' in the comments.

and yes, the timing of my comment was pretty conincidental, as i said, i visit here pretty often and have commented here once before, so it's not like i was hiding in the bushes waiting to pounce. and if i really did want to rub in the whole TP thing, which i don't, this wouldn't have been the post to do it.

don't take yourself too seriously dude. no hard feelings.

Joshua said...

Hatred issues? Who's got hatred issues? Just because I refuse to set foot inside the Columbus city limits and believe there's never been a more retched hive of scum and villainy, that doesn't mean I hate the place. Now, the proposal of a class letter writing drive to Kruschev in 1981 trying to get it moved up the list of Nuclear targets might qualify, but that got shot down. Ah, first grade. Those were good times.

Joshua said...

Btw, ESPN will be sending the entire Gameday crew to the Florida spring game on April 12th. Somehow my idea of tailgating for the spring game is becoming more and more socially acceptable.

Story via Awful Announcing:

I'm too lazy to speak html today, sorry.

Tom C said...

Ooc looks like the Gamecocks will be short their stud QB. Garcia got popped again with beer. Might be strike three.


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Ezekiel Honig

Microcosm Discography:

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A New York City native, and founder/label manager for the Anticipate and Microcosm labels, Ezekiel Honig concentrates on his idiosyncratic brand of emotively warm electronic-acoustic music. Using the loop as more of a tool than a rule, Honig paints outside the lines, nestling into a comfortable, shared space between muted techno, melodic, event-driven ambient, textural downtempo and slowmotion house - using them as reference points from which to stray, rather than as steadfast frameworks. Drawing on the rich history of musique concrete, Honig looks to incorporate a material nature into his music by imbuing it with a host of field recording/found-sound sources in the search for a balance between digital software innovation and the physicality of the world around us. Using the sounds of plastic, metal, wood and air in collaboration with Rhodes, guitar, horns, piano and other instrumental origins, his music is one of contrast and contradiction, combining minimal, abstract tendencies with a core of timeless harmonics - pairing inviting, fuzzy chords with clunky and dirty "mishaps."

In addition to his studio releases and label work, Honig performs live consistently, and in this setting, strives to push beyond the boundaries of the recorded material. His improvisational approach combines loops and elements from various songs with on-the-fly arrangements, editing and effects. Viewing the recorded material as a constantly shifting body of work leaves space for serendipitous moments and leads to each set being an individualized rework, referencing and reprocessing itself as well as the song forms from which the parts emerged. As a result of this flexibility to tailor sets to the environment, his performances have been known to take the form of location-centered, rhythmic near-ambient, deep after-hours techno, or heartbeat-driven installation. Honig performs regularly in a variety of venues in NYC, from Le Poisson Rouge to inflatable bubbles, Roulette to The New Yorker Festival, and many points in between, as well as galleries and alternative spaces outside his hometown, including Mutek (Montreal, Canada), Plateaux Festival (Torun, Poland), Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro (Milan, Italy), and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival.