NIMBY Party

Sunday, June 21, 2009 

On Saturday, Mike Wehner and I went to the NIMBY party. It turned out really well, a good crowd and fun entertainment despite the anomalous efforts of the OPD to embargo the party. It was something I’ve never seen before: the police blocked access to the building thus locking out a few thousand would-be-party-goers.

They did not interfere with the party with respect to those people who found a way in or were already in attendance. They were polite and didn’t give anyone a hard time. They just did what they could to keep anyone from getting in. There was a rumor going around that an edict had been issued by a politician to the OPD to shut down the party.

A solid 500-1,000 people (it seemed to me) did get to enjoy the event including a therm demonstration, a very impressive stunt riding demonstration, and, of course, the boxing.

I’m not a fan of spectator sports of any kind, and have never actually watched a complete boxing match before, but this was particularly entertaining. Really drunk bikers knocking each other around (safely supervised, with gloves and mouthguards) was sometimes pretty hilarious, and sometimes a good excuse for a drink. A few of the men I saw get up there were technically pretty good and fun to watch.

By far though, the most entertaining fighters were the women. Some wrestled instead of boxed, which was awfully sexy from an oogling perspective (the most vociferous ooglers were other women, by far, who were the only one’s calling out for clothing removal moves I heard). What was most surprising was that some of the female bouts were actually really good boxing – far better than the men. They stayed clean for three rounds, fought well, had good form, and were just technically better fighters and had the most interesting bouts even from a purely athletic perspective.

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Posted at 22:37:01 GMT-0700

Category: Eventsphoto

“Secure” Fliight

Sunday, June 21, 2009 

UAL notified me that Secure Flight is about to be rolled out by the TSA. EFF has had a lot to say about this program, which is worth reviewing (donate to EFF, help them defend your rights!).

Practical issues to watch out for:

– You need to present your full name exactly as it appears on your ID. – You will need to give your birthdate and gender while making a reservation – Do you have a redress number?

There is now a mechanism to apply for redress when you have been penalized by bureaucratic mixup and have been flagged for special scrutiny or denied the right to fly without due processes or judicial oversight.

Posted at 22:34:58 GMT-0700

Category: Related Links

A week of tweets: 2009-06-21

Sunday, June 21, 2009 
  • On the plane with @phragments to LA. Feel bad, kicked an employee out of 1st so we could sit together at the last second. #
  • What is this, a hummer/golf cart hybrid? Is a regular cushman just not butch enough for security? http://twitpic.com/7qddl #
  • Canadians… I will not be up early. #
  • Heading back to SF now. Marine layer never cleared in santa monica today. Canadians kept me up late last night what with the moose and all #
  • Wow… one of the RCC employees is having a melt down. Never saw that before. Usually it is the PAX. #
  • ORD causing chaos! Should be finally leaving LAX now… #
  • Bad two car accident 80 EB at toll plaza. #

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Posted at 02:11:00 GMT-0700

Category: Twitter