‘Ready, set..’
courtesy of ‘BehindTheBadge.com’
Attention, interns: DC United is offering student discounts on tickets to the July 18th game against the Colorado Rapids. Use your .edu email address to purchase tickets online, and you can sit near the Supporters Sections. That means you’ll be up close to the Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brava, which, if I may say, are probably just as entertaining as the game itself.
By Kirk
‘Metro, Orange Line train to Vienna’
courtesy of ‘GogonaÅ?’
The Business Journal reports that riders on Saturday set a new record for July 4th commuting. Metro reported 631,206 trips on their system, an increase of over 32,000 from 2008 ridership. If the masses of humanity that I saw are any indication, every last one of these trips went through L’Enfant Plaza station. What a mess.
By shannon
If you have a couple minutes to spare, take a look at the clip above. Created for the Congress for New Urbanism, it’s a catchy short film linking suburban sprawl to global warming. It frames global warming as a result of the built environment, and encourages new urbanism (i.e. walkable development with a mix of uses that is close to transit and preserves more of the natural environment) as a way to create communities that are sustainable and built to last.
The video is quite well-done, and it got me thinking: the Washington region has a strong concentration of good examples of new urbanism (the examples of good development in the film look very familiar). Aside from the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor that has become the national example of good transit-oriented mixed-use development, we’ve got great places like Bethesda and Crystal City and Silver Spring that are continuing to attract new development. Recently, the region has seen high-quality walkable development in Shirlington and Rockville Town Square, among others. Our region definitely has more than its share of high-quality walkable, mixed-use development than any other metropolitan area I can think of (of course, the region also has a lot of crappy suburban sprawl, too). What do you think– is this type of development the answer to combating global warming?
By jasmine
‘Cigarbox Planetarium – Fort Reno Park – Washington, DC’
courtesy of ‘bSmithPhotoBlogDotOrg’
Tonight, head over to Fort Reno Park (two blocks from the Tenleytown Metro station) for local bands Go Home Robot, Sea Monsters, and Power Pirate. The thing I love most about the Fort Reno concert series this summer? They are serious about making it home at a reasonable hour, which is great for me since I go to bed earlier than most grandmas. Their website declares that all concerts begin promptly at 7:15 pm and are over by 9:30 pm, so feel free to jam out to some electro-rock on your blanket and still be bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning.
By AcaciaO
‘Oven Fried Chicken’
courtesy of ‘thebittenword.com’
This morning on twitter I learned something very important: namely that today is National Fried Chicken Day. I bet you didn’t know there was a National Fried Chicken Day, did you? Or that Thursday is National Sugar Cookie Day, followed by National Pina Colada Day (now that’s a day I can get behind). Yep, it turns out that every single day is dedicated to, among other things I’m sure, a niche food. Months too. Not surprisingly, July is the month of Baked Beans, Grilling and Hot Dogs. What is with this — why do Americans feel the need to make everything into a day? Feel free to pitch in your thoughts while I go talk to a bucket of Popeyes about this.
By Tom Bridge
Marion Barry will be facing the media regarding his weekend arrest shortly. We’ll have the conference liveblogged for your entertainment. Keep tuned in here.
Update 4 [11:04am]
And we lost our feed. We tried to get an updated feed, but managed to get back just in time for the end. Councilman Barry did not comment at all. Mr. Cooke is attempting to discredit Donna Watts, the complainant as listed below, suggesting that her account is not credible. The Park Police have made their complaint to the US Attorney’s office, who will decide if Councilman Barry is charged with misdemeanor stalking. All the details are below.
By Kirk
‘I DO support GAY marriage!’
courtesy of ‘galifa85’
Despite referendums and protests, today DC became the 10th jurisdiction in the US to recognize gay marriage. In May, the City Council passed legislation amending DC code to recognize legal same-sex marriages performed outside of the District. This legislation passed the requisite 30 day review by Congress and today, officially became law. This marks a major victory for gay-rights advocates and sets the city well on the path to full same sex marriage legalization .
By brownpau
This here is Pickles, a green and very talkative rose-ringed parakeet last seen in a tree in the Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle. Pickles’ owner Scott likes to take the bird on his shoulder, pirate-style, for walks around the National Mall on weekends, and on nice days, perch Pickles on tree branches in the Gardens to let him get some nature.
Yesterday, Pickles disappeared. Continue reading
By Tom Bridge
‘Fireworks over the Mall – 2nd Edition’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’
There are a TON of amazing fireworks photographs in the We Love DC Flickr Pool this morning, so we’ve decided to fire up a contest for all our photographers. Add your best fireworks-in-DC photo to the pool, slap this tag on it: WLDCFireworks, and you’ll be entered to win a pair of passes to the Corcoran’s screening of William Eggleston in the Real World, a documentary about the invention of color photography, showing this Thursday at 7pm. Enter up to three photos per person by noon on Tuesday, and we’ll announce the winner Wednesday at noon!
By Katie
”
courtesy of ‘Hoffmann’
Where and when are you going to be able to get Sweetgreen’s Sweet Flow, wine from Asia Nine, sushi from Kaz, a dish from The Source and Pete’s Apizza all in the same room? Duh, at Washingtonian’s Best Of Washington Party, of course!
Washington’s top restaurants (as voted by readers and editors of Washingtonian) and wine and beer purveyors will be serving up their best at the National Building Museum on July 15. See the list of participating restaurants and purveyors here. Editor- and reader-favorites including Central Michel Richard, Citronelle, Blacksalt, Hook, Charlie Parker Steak and the Oval Room will participate in the annual event which attracts more than 1,200 people and shares a portion of the profits with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Dessert lovers will find cool treats from Dolcezza Gelato, sweets from Georgetown Cupcake and Baked & Wired, and delicious offerings from other top-rated bakeries and creameries.
Tickets, $95 to $125, are available on washingtonian.com.
By Jenn Larsen
"Smashed Egg" by nicasaurusrex, on Flickr
It had been a while since I walked down the stretch of R Street between 15th and 14th. But on a leisurely stroll home last night with some friends, we really weren’t thinking about watching our backs. I mean, it was the Fourth of July! Everyone’s in a good mood, right? No need for anyone to be jerks, let alone hostile and violent jerks.
In hindsight, it shouldn’t have surprised us when the first egg hit the sidewalk in front of us. I’ve avoided that block for years at night precisely because of incidents like that. There were probably some thirty people hanging out on the opposite side of the street, all just glaring at us like a gauntlet. The fact that we had a dog didn’t deter them from throwing about four eggs at us. At least they weren’t rocks.
The glow of “we’re all Washingtonians together in a new beginning” has obviously faded, or they never felt it to begin with.
It breaks my heart.
By Tom Bridge
‘IMG_8619’
courtesy of ‘dbking’
NBC 4 is reporting tonight that Marion Barry was arrested today in a domestic dispute. The Twitter Buzz is that the charge was for stalking, but as the commenter on NBCWashington.com wrote, “the only thing it seemed that he was capable of stalking might be a stuffed animal or a warm glass of milk”.
Hopefully Hizzoner will be available for comment in the morning.
Cheese Lincoln
Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge
Yes, that’s a 6’8 statue of Abraham Lincoln carved out of mild cheddar on Constitution in front of the American Pharmacists Association building. You are not hallucinating.
For each of the past three years, CHEEZ-IT has sponsored a massive cheese carving of some patriotic theme in honor of Independence Day. Cheese sculptor Troy Landwehr has been their go-to-cheesehead, creating a Mount Rushmore and a Signing of the Declaration of Independence in the last two years. The choice to carve Lincoln in pasteurized dairy product is to honor the 14th president’s bicentennial year.
The sculpture took about 40 hours in a near-freezing room to complete, says Landwehr. It started as a 1000-pound round, and the completed sculpture weighs about 700 pounds. Landwehr prefers to work in mild cheddar over other cheeses because it has the right texture and consistency for carving. Even sharp cheddar is too crumbly. (I swear to God I’m not making this up.)
CHEEZ-IT staff assisted passerby with taking photos with Cheese Lincoln, and passed out single-serving bags of CHEEZ-ITs. Unfortunately, American Pharmacists Association staff did NOT pass out leaflets on cholesterol management.
By Katie
‘Workers’
courtesy of ‘squidpants’
So I’ve been avoiding the Real World beat for as long as possible (our authorship tends to trade off reporting duties, so none of us actually has to “own” the beat) so I’m going to take my turn and fill you in on the latest. Kirk told you that they’re here, and now I’m going to show you what they look like.
First off, we have a pair DCist commenters dubbed Angela and Ricky (God, I loved that show!) – a “redhead” and a guy with curly black hair. Check them out here and here. The Anti-Real World DC has a shot of the required blonde girl here (cute shoes, though!). A group shot shows more cast: the obligatory black guy, what some are calling “the hottie” and some blonde dude I’m going to personally dub the douchebag. This shot shows what I’m guessing is the 7th cast member, a girl with long brown hair.
Reports from RealWorldDCNEWZ on Twitter had them shopping at the Super Secret Safeway, grilling (scroll down for pics), mandatory hot tubbing, and then heading to Bucca Di Beppo for dinner. Other reports have DC residents shouting “GO HOME!” at them. (Tee hee hee.) (I’m mean.) False rumors spotted them at Town, the latest have them coming out of Chi Cha Lounge, and I suppose we’ll just have to wait for confirmation and pictures. Welcome to DC, kids. Try not to throw up on my shoes.
By Tom Bridge
‘here’s a question for you two…’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
The Post’s Nationals Journal and the Nationals are trying to put together a Twitter Mashup for Tweets at Nats Park. So, if you go to any of the games this weekend, they could use your help getting things tested out. If you see something Tweetworthy, like a great catch in your section, or maybe the tastiest half-smoke in the concessions, tweet about it with #natswp and a hashtag with your section number (#319, or #125 if you’re spending the beaucoup bucks) and they will be doing some magic with it.
By Tom Bridge
‘rosetta pillar’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Secure Communication has long been a pillar of diplomatic and internal communications. You want to make sure that only your intended recipients can read and understand your messages, not some man in the middle who’s particularly clever. In the days before digital computers, working with solid encryption meant a lot of mathematics by hand, using agreed upon methodology for encoding and decoding the message. If your method was solid enough, it would be pretty much improbable for anyone to decode it. So thought President Jefferson and his mathematician friend, Dr. Robert Patterson. Together, they devised a code so secure that it was given to the State Department to encrypt diplomatic communications. It remained uncracked for 200 years, when Dr. Lawren Smithline cracked Jefferson’s secret code.
Working for a few years using modern cryptographic techniques, Dr. Smithline was able to crack the sample of Jefferson’s code given to him by Dr. Patterson. What was in the message? Those words we’ll all think of come Saturday: “In Congress, July Fourth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy six. A declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. When in the course of human events…”
Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to go re-read Stephen Levy’s Crypto…
By Kirk
‘Dispersing the luggage’
courtesy of ‘Michael_Lehet’
Considering the false alarm from earlier this week, you can take this report for what it’s worth: @Realworlddcnewz says that RW cast members are moving in right. Supposedly, a pair of good looking, 20 somethings was seen bringing bags into the house at 2000 S St. I’ll be heading down that way in a few hours to confirm, but for now you’ll have to rely on twitter or go down and see for yourself.
By Don
‘Kost’
courtesy of ‘florisla’
Today’s Post has an article about recent discoveries in the train collision revolving around a train sensor. Metro uses sensors mounted on the tracks – typically on the crossbeams between rails – that detect the presence of a train in order to determine if a track is clear and and provide direction to oncoming trains. A sensor was replaced in the week preceeding the accident and apparently was suffering an intermittent flaw that was difficult to detect with Metro’s user interfaces.
By jasmine
‘spinning’
courtesy of ‘pinguino’
For those of you who need to shake off the traditionalism of fireworks and hot dogs for the 4th, Velvet Lounge has your answer: INDIEpendence Day. From 9pm until close, DJs including DJ KC from Fatback DC will be spinning the tunes, male and female models will be having their bodies painted, bands upstairs will be rocking your socks off, and general mayhem will ensue. $3 downstairs, $8 upstairs.
By Tom Bridge
View Approved DC Fireworks Stands 2009 in a larger map
DCRA has put together a useful map of all the city’s legal fireworks locations, so that if you’re looking for a few fun pyrotechnics to make your weekend a little more awesome, you can find the legal stuff. Fireworks are pretty carefully regulated in DC and the surrounding area, so be sure to check with your locality if you don’t plan to set these off in the District. Always have a fire extinguisher handy, and always play safe, okay?
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