First Looks category archive

My local rag profiles investigators who are using DNA and other advanced technologies to track down sources of water pollution. Here’s a bit:

After the qPCR results signaled bacteria excreted by humans in some of the Wayne Creek samples, Gonzalez and his team began the really hard work: trying to figure out where, in the miles of often-overlapping sewer and stormwater pipes, a leak or leaks had occurred.

They tested seven more times over the next six months, narrowing in on concentrations of HF183 – a genetic marker for bacteria specific to human waste – in a couple of connected legs of a stormwater line. The source trackers wondered whether septic tanks still in use by some homes might be at least partly to blame. But the largest hits were detected near one of the city’s sewage pump stations.

Could there be a break there?

Yes, it turned out.

“Privacy for me, but not for thee.”

Taking a breather.

Off to drink liberally.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere. (I’ll be talking about the Chapter Leaders Conference week before last in Philly.

When: Thursday, September 8, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

At The Guardian, John Naughton contrasts two visions of the internet: that of Tim Burners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web (that is, hypertext mark-up language or HTML) and that of Mark Zuckerberg, who wishes to assimilate you, and you, and you into his Zuckerborg. Here’s a bit.

It’s not the inaccuracy that grates, however, but the hypocrisy. Zuckerberg thanks Berners-Lee for “making the world more open and connected”. So do I. What Zuck conveniently omits to mention, though, is that he is embarked upon a commercial project whose sole aim is to make the world more “connected” but less open. Facebook is what we used to call a “walled garden” and now call a silo: a controlled space in which people are allowed to do things that will amuse them while enabling Facebook to monetise their data trails. One network to rule them all. If you wanted a vision of the opposite of the open web, then Facebook is it.

Patricia has organized a Sunday brunch for us with special guest Nicole Carry, Norfolk City Council Member. Join us there:

When: 12:30 p, m., Sunday, August 28.

Where:
The Tasting Room
Mermaid Winery
330 W. 22nd Street
Norfolk, VA (map)

Please RSVP on Meetup or Facebook.

Oh, my.

It what can only be described as a rather usual crime, someone has made off with the leg of a 17-metre fibreglass dinosaur from Dinoworld Norge in Ørsta in Western Norway.

The travelling (sic) dinosaur exhibition discovered on Sunday that its Diplodocus model was missing one of its four legs. The massive leg was strapped to a trailer along with the other pieces of the model on Saturday night but on Sunday it was gone.

That puts me in the mood for a song . . . .

Read more »

Remember as you listen that the Young Turks were berning for Bernie. (They are young and innocent enough to believe that. after 150 years of unrelenting anti-socialist propaganda in this country, an avowed socialist, however benign his brand of socialism, would have had a chance in a general election.) Hints of that Bernie bern come out in their commentary.

Off to drink liberally.

When you visit North Carolina, don’t drink the well water.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere. (I’ll be talking about the Chapter Leaders Conference week before last in Philly._

When: Thursday, August, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

Warning: Language.