Category Archives: The Daily Feed

Crime & Punishment, Foggy Bottom, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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Metro Arrest

This was the scene at Foggy Bottom Metro this afternoon as Metro Transit Police personnel pulled a guy from an Orange Line Vienna/Fairfax train and detained him, for what offense I do not know:


Larger video here.

The suspect appeared to be asleep when I first saw him, but awoke with some poking from an officer, and left the train peacefully. It was when they started to put handcuffs on him that he began struggling, so he was forced to the ground, where the apprehension — and struggling — continued. Then my train arrived and I had to stop shooting video with my cellphone.

Crime & Punishment, The Daily Feed, The Hill
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Stabbing on Capitol Hill

The Hill East and MPD-1D mailing lists are abuzz with the alarming news from Capitol Hill of a woman sexually assaulted and stabbed multiple times by a burglar late Monday night.

According to the account of a neighbor who came to help, the victim came home to an intruder in her house, and ran into a bathroom to call 911. He attempted to rape her, she fought back with punches, and he stabbed her 17 times before fleeing. The woman managed to crawl outside where neighbors helped her and called police. While all this was happening, the victim’s housemates were asleep upstairs. The intruder may have gotten in through an unlocked kitchen window.

According to MPD First District Commander David Kamperin, “the investigation is still ongoing, and the victim is recovering in a local hospital. The only lookout we have at this time is for a black male wearing light colored pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. Anyone who may have seen an individual fitting this description is encouraged to call our tip line 888-919-CRIME or text to 50-411.”

A friend tells me the victim suffered kidney damage and collapse of both lungs, but is recovering.

The Daily Feed
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The Post Hunt will return!

Photo courtesy of afagen
And they’re off
courtesy of afagen

Andy Wenzel, the Tropic Hunt TropicHunt.com guy, tells me that the Post Hunt will return for a second year in 2009, on May 17th. His stated source is Tom Shroder, a guy who knows a little something about the Hunt. It’s pretty exciting news – the Hunt was a good time this year, and I don’t say that just because the Post bought me a beer.

Not that I’m not amiable to drinking another one on your dime, fellas.

Jeez, reporting 2nd hand information. I’m gonna have to get me a fedora for my Drudge outfit.

Edited: Andy insists he’s the TropicHunt.com guy, not the Tropic Hunt guy. Jeez, I linked your site, whadda ya want? You should look at his site though – he’s got great information on every past Hunt, including this year’s first Post Hunt.

The Daily Feed
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Another Warmish Day

Receptacle Tip Candy Corn Hat

Am I ever glad to have this kind of day. I just stepped outside and was surprised by how warm it is. The forecast looks good for another week of pretty decently warm weather, at least. I reckon around the end of the month it might get so cool that I will need to pull out my receptacle tip candy corn hat but for now I’m enjoying the mild weather.

How do you like the weather so far? Ready for winter or, like me, on the verge of dreading it?

All Politics is Local, Arlington, Technology, The Daily Feed
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Robo-Poll


Clockwork Robot…
Originally uploaded by law_keven

I have a landline, but I rarely use it. Usually it’s for stuff like calling the Chinese delivery place a couple blocks over, and so I have something that really works well in my Condo. It’s not that I get calls on it. Except this morning when it rang about 10:15am. It was a robo-call, I could tell immediately, but I gave it a second to rattle off its spiel before deciding it wasn’t going to waste my time or try to sell me more credit than I need.

It asked five simple questions and the whole thing took 30 seconds:

– Who would you vote for if the election was today?
– Which party do you trust with the economy right now?
– What’s your gender?
– What’s your race?
– What’s your age group?

And away it went. But it was all automated. It wasn’t a real person making minimum wage in a call center, it was a robot doing the polling. I got a little sad. Are you telling me there’s no Josh Lyman standing over a group of midwestern transplants and telling them to spit out their gum?! Sigh. The price of progress.

Fun & Games, The Daily Feed
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Gmail, Your Newest BFF

After a long day of work, you go out to happy hour and throw back one too many cocktails. You head home, thoughts of your ex swimming in your head, and you draft a little hate email. Ususally, embarassing things ensue the morning after.

But now, Gmail is here to save you from yourself!  Mail Goggles, the newest feature from the friendly folks at Gmail, requires you do to a couple of math problems after you push send. If you can’t do the math in under a minute, your email won’t be sent.

The Gmail Blog says, “By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it’s active in the General settings”

Great, for those of us who can do simple math problems sober.

The Daily Feed
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Construction Consideration for Carlos

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Today is a good day for my favorite coffee and burrito maker, Carlos, who has a prime 17th and K Streets NW location.

Check how they built the sidewalk scaffolding around his cart, allowing him to vend DC’s best burritos during building renovation. Nice of them to do that.

Of course the construction workers benefit too. Great done from a great guy just steps away from the job site.

The Daily Feed
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Nonviolent political activists labeled “terrorists” due to insufficient database development.


database schema
Originally uploaded by gnizr

While the foibles of technology users are good for a laugh when a doctor’s fat-fingered keystroke results in telling a 71-year-old man that he’s pregnant, the problem becomes considerably more disturbing when Maryland State Police label antiwar and anti-death penalty protesters “terrorists” just because they didn’t see a better selection in the drop-down box.

Note that the police fully admit that they have zero evidence that the protesters in question were actually engaged in any acts of violent crime. But they were labeled “terrorists” in cross-jurisdictional law enforcement databases because the developers of the software didn’t see fit to add any better options, and because the people responsible for the data entry didn’t see fit to choose a less loaded option.
Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Dinner? Try Stuffed Tomatoes!

Stuffed Tomatoes
Wayan recently wrote about the last of his tomato crop. Wondering what to do with the last of the tomatoes from the farmer’s market? Ready to make one last red, juicy hurrah? This recipe from All Recipes.com is fabulous. I added in some ricotta cheese like one of the commenters suggested, and it turned out deliciously! Read more for the recipe…

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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stress relief


white wings
Originally uploaded by philliefan99

Is it just me, or is everyone especially cranky and overworked this week? I have only anecdotal evidence to back it up, but it seems like everyone I know is knee-deep in assorted work-related ridiculousness, and I know I personally am developing strategic iPod playlists designed to keep me from biting the head off (you can take it literally or figuratively as you like) the next person who strolls into my cube with an emergency that I have to fix.

So this is your moment of relaxation. Stretch your arms, go for a walk, and while you’re out… head into a sporting goods store for an aluminum bat to keep near your desk.

I call mine “The Decider.”

The Daily Feed
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Luggage Location Check

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

Do you find yourself wondering if your luggage made that crazy-close connection to your IAD flight? Did the baggage handlers make the dash across LAX like you did?

Now, if you flew United Airlines you can use a handy Bag Check to see if you got lucky. I just made sure my work gear made made the red eye I ran for.

Of course it is best if you never check bags to begin with, or prepare if you must check.

Arlington, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Virginia Trafficking in Absurdity

Bear with me for a little exercise.

  • – Expired registration. Hell, *no* registration.
  • – Impeding the flow of traffic.
  • – Fail to obey traffic lights. Fail to obey a stop sign.
  • – Evasion of a “traffic control” device (road cones, barriers, etc).
  • – Fail to give full time & attention (texting, anyone?)
  • – FAIL TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF VEHICLE.
  • – Fail to drive on right side of highway. (?!)
  • – Speeding 20 MPH above the limit…in a school zone.

If you answered, “easy! They’re moving violations” you would be correct, but uninteresting.

If you answered, “well, thanks to the nanny state anti-sprawl dirty hippie activists in the Commonwealth of Virginia, those are all moving violations with smaller (in some cases considerably so) fines than the first violation of the HOV rules because traffic is clearly an end-times apocalyptic crisis and the social engineering of how many passengers you have in your car is sacrosanct”, you would be absolutely on the mark.

 @#*&${#@(*$

  

Music, The Daily Feed
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Lost Crapped Up iPod

Crapped Up IPod IMGP2336_1

Did you recently lose a hot pink iPod while getting on or off the bus? If so, I am pretty sure I found your little darling, still there in the street, waiting approximately where you left it. The only problem is that it must have been run over a few hundred times before I found it. It sure does look like it’s been run hard and put up wet.

I can’t tell if it still plays because the LCD and all the ports are smashed and unusable, but if you had a nice mix of Television, Gram Parsons, Elvis Costello and The New York Dolls, like on the CD I found, I am sorry for your loss. If it was anything like whatever it is that kids blast out their car stereos nowadays, I think it’s all for the best.

The Daily Feed
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Normal people live here, too.


The palette of the Apotheosis of Washington
Originally uploaded by karthikkito

One of my least-favorite memes in national politics is this idea of Washington as haven for out-of-touch, effete big-city types who need some newcomer, usually the convenient choice of the underdog political candidate whatever their political party, to come give them what-for.
Len Downie stuck up for DC a few days ago, and Slate.com’s Anne Applebaum debunks this scurrilous accusation by pointing out what should be obvious- Congress and the President, by definition, are “outsiders.” The only person in Congress actually FROM Washington is DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she doesn’t even get a vote.

I object when DC gets smeared by politicians too lazy to make a real argument (or who assume the American voter is too stupid to understand one) and instead try to score points by impugning the reality-awareness of an entire major city. I further reject the larger idea that people who choose to make their homes in urban centers are inherently less valuable to the country than people who choose to make their homes in rural areas and small towns, but that’s a rant for another day, and another blog.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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Penang Burns Again

Penang at 19th & M caught fire on Saturday afternoon, damaging the Chipotle downstairs, and Porters and Starbucks right next door. As I drove by this afternoon, Several of the upstairs windows had been knocked out and covered by plywood.

The fire started in the kitchen, and spread through the ventilation ducts, causing over 100 firefighters to rush to the scene.

Both Chipotle & Penang are closed, and will be for a bit, but Starbucks had people outside this afternoon, and the doors were open at Porters.

Technology, The Daily Feed
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Vault Life! (Fallout 3 in DC)

How awesome is it that we have Vault-themed ads for Fallout 3 on the Metro?

Vault Life!

For those not in the know, Fallout is a series of turn-based adventure/role-play games set in the barren wasteland of a post-apocalyptic anarchy, where you play a survivor newly emerged from an isolated subterranean bunker called The Vault. DC-focused trailer video and images after the jump.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Who Uses Forex Anymore?

washington dc by wayan
Photo by Wayan

This blurry photo of a Travelex currency exchange office at Dulles Airport makes me wonder:

Who uses foreign exchange bureaus anymore?

With the global spread of ATM machines and debit/credit cards, there is not a need for travelers to change money in transit. Just grab it on arrival at the destination airport. Its way faster and cheaper than forex.

Trust me, I know how to travel international.

The Daily Feed
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JetBlue’s Crazy Fares


JetBlue Sunset
Originally uploaded by tbridge

Jetblue is doing a Happy Jetting Happy Hour out in Reston tomorrow from 3:30 til 6:30 at Reston Town Center’s pavilion. They’ll be doing super special deals for last minute getaways in October to New York, Florida (four cities) and California (three cities) at their ticket bar. In the wake of their eBay fare auctions, they’re trying some other unique events.

Hey guys, awesome idea, but maybe do it on Freedom Plaza next time? Or up on Dupont Circle?