EdCone.com

I did not find the experience of squeezing between a naked woman and naked man to enter the Abramovic show at MOMA to be either difficult or titillating, but I did hear myself saying, reflexively and to my own surprise, what any nice person from North Carolina would say when pushing through two people in a crowded gallery: "Excuse me."

The section about the Balkans, including the woman with the skeleton, was powerful stuff.

It does have a certain logic:

The Pakistani military, long reluctant to heed American urging that it attack Pakistani militant groups in their main base in North Waziristan, is coming around to the idea that it must do so, in its own interests.

When bumper stickers aren't enough: a personalized plate story from the Commonwealth.

NYC, quite recently.

The most interesting state in the union: Crist leaves GOP, rich Dem joins race.

With an oily stench permeating the air across southeastern Louisiana, a massive oil spill was expected to start coming ashore in the Mississippi River delta early Friday, triggering all-out efforts to stave off an enironmental and fishing industry disaster.

Don't worry, they're on it: "BP has assembled spill experts from several major oil companies to brainstorm ways to stop the leak. The company has also asked for military technology."

(Alleged) banksters: "Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating transactions by Goldman Sachs to determine whether to pursue a criminal fraud case."

That's as bad as Martinsville: Unemployment hits 20% in Spain.

Phish does the Rolling Stones' Loving Cup, as part of their Halloween tradition of covering albums by other bands. A 3-D concert movie opens tomorrow. Thanks to Will C for the pointer.

Khakis that cost more than my entire wardrobe.

Oh, wait, the designer says they're worth it.

New board chair for NCNB seems likely to keep NB in NC.

If the Philly papers are worth $135 million, what would it cost to buy the News & Record?

Caveat: "Brian Tierney's group thought they were buying at the bottom when they paid more than three times today’s price, $515 million in 2006."

Another caveat: After years of cuts, media companies may require substantial investment after purchase.

A book-signing party for Z Holler's Jesus' Radical Message: Subversive Sermons for Today's Seekers, this evening at 6:00 PM, Faith Community Church on Arlington St., GSO.

RSVP by 4:00 PM at 336.230.0001.

The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills...U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs.

Nobody really knows how well it would have worked, and anyway regulations are for socialists.

We do know how things have gone without the device: "Oil Leak in Gulf of Mexico May Be 5 Times Initial Estimate."

On a conference call today, the N&R's Mark Binker twice asked Kay Hagan if that big nasty oil spill in the Gulf has given her any second thoughts about drilling off the NC coast.

Kay talked about the families of the lost workers and the need to make sure existing and future offshore wells are super-safe and extremely unlikely to do what this one just did.

Which I guess is Senatorese for "No."

Those other techniques must be something: "Burning oil on the water is the most environmentally friendly technique that one can think of."

Other than, y'know, not spilling massive amounts of oil into the water in the first place.

Not entirely unrelated: After nine years of regulatory review, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a highly contested project off the coast of Cape Cod.

Real armies need all kinds of support personnel and soldiers doing essential but not very exciting things. Plastic armies, less so.

My friend Darrell had a plastic army man Anzio invasion set, complete with plastic rolls of barbed wire. I would play with that right now if you put it in front of me.

I liked it better when the global financial crisis was over.

James Protzman endorses Elaine Marshall in the Dem Senate primary, noting that his embrace is "sometimes equivalent to the liberal kiss of death."

Marshall once whipped Richard Petty in a state-wide election, which despite the fact that The King didn't try very hard was a not-insignificant accomplishment. Then again, she once lost a primary to Erskine Bowles, who is much better at running White Houses and university systems than he is at political campaigning.

Dems seem to have three attractive candidates vying for the chance to run against Burr, who looked to me to be  less vulnerable than advertised even before 2010 was ordained the Worst Year Evah for Democrats but is hardly invincible.

Groundbreaking for GSO's new aquatic center, Monday 5/3 at 4:30 PM, Coliseum parking lot.

Brown Town/Cornwallis homeowners have completed the initial petition process for a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay, and an application has been submitted to the City.

This first step required approval from 25% of homeowners; over 38% signed petitions of support, with just a handful expressing opposition or disinterest in signing. 51% approval is needed to finalize the process.

Next steps include photographing all 290 homes in the area, and holding neighborhood and steering group meetings (neighbors are encouraged to join the steering group).

Obviously this study had its flaws. We didn't have a large sample size, and we didn't have a control planet where women were only wearing burkas. We didn't have a good way to quantify how much we increased immodesty...

Further research may be required. Background.

From the same fine oligopolists who want to control broadband in North Carolina:

One of the big problems in this debate is that the data about broadband are as spotty and unreliable as the connections themselves. And, taking a page from the playbook of big oil and tobacco, the telecom companies are spending millions to further confuse the issue, spending about $100 million in 2009 alone in lobbying fees. With all the bogus information out there, hucksters like Seidenberg can lie through their teeth and get away with it.

"Cue apoplexy."

Reactions to a critique of "consciously conservative news outlets" that have "become worryingly untethered from reality as the impetus to satisfy the demand for red meat overtakes any motivation to report accurately."

More here.

Another posh mega-development, The Legacy at Jordan Lake, files for Chapter 11. 

Original plans called for Legacy to include 463 homes with prices starting about $900,000. About 25 homes are occupied and 35 are under construction or waiting to be sold.

Not even the promise of "An afternoon's repose in a picturesque gazebo" could save it.

Reasons to suspect that a Facebook friend request from an attractive young woman of whom you have never heard is spam:

1. Says she graduated from non-existent "Greensboro High School East." 

2. "Religious views" is link to site about porn.

3. Scantily-clad profile pic looks professionally shot.

Judging by "Nicole's" friend list, a surprising number of people I actually do know seem to accept requests without considering such details.

More than 800 giant wind turbines spin off the coasts of Denmark, Britain and seven other European countries...China’s first offshore wind farm, a 102-megawatt venture near Shanghai, goes online this month, with more in the pipeline.

But despite a decade of efforts, not a single offshore turbine has been built in the United States.

That may be about to change.

I had to respond to some readers this morning who were so freaked by the first slide in this deck that they didn't read the second one, which explains that a lot of IT jobs are moving to other parts of the business, not just going poof.

Ur-blogger on blogging: "You have a different experience? Great! Blog it. And stop trying to tell me what to say."

Brussels, we have a problem (free reg req): "Fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread to Portugal grew after the country’s sovereign debt rating was downgraded for the second time in less than a month."

ArtBeat Greensboro 2010 kicks of on Friday and runs through the following weekend, so you should be able to find plenty of good stuff to do around here.

Oak Hollow Mall for sale. "Aesthetically appealing and in excellent, well maintained condition." $15 million.

That’s just one-third of what CBL & Associates reportedly was asking two years ago...a year ago, Green Street Advisors included it in a list of 84 "dead" malls across America...

And that's from a boosterish editorial in the hometown paper.

The current owner bought GSO's Friendly Center in late 2007, perhaps not the most auspicious moment to close on a huge commercial real estate transaction. I wonder how that deal is working out?

Law enforcement officials need to keep their hands off of the communications and files protected under Chen’s First Amendment rights and return these computers and servers immediately.

But the legal issues may not be so clear cut.

Previously: The ethics of the case.

It’s dishonest and ultimately dangerous to pretend that Goldman is the only bad actor. And the worst actor of all is the one leading the charge against Goldman: our government.

More: "The financial crisis began almost three years ago and it’s still not clear if we’ll have meaningful new legislation."

And it's been 18 months since the the guru of the failed cult admitted to Congress that the game was over. Apparently they don't listen so good.

"The time has come to have this debate on the floor of the Senate."

Kay Hagan speaks on the Senate floor after Republicans block discussion of Wall Street reform.

Full text after the jump.

HealthServe is obviously more cost-effective than an ER visit, but Guilford County Commissioners plan a $1.6 million cut to health care that will affect HealthServe and other programs that serve the poor and homeless, further burdening an already overwhelmed system and hurting our community’s most vulnerable residents.

Makes sense, although not everyone agrees: "[T]here is little justification for our county health department to be doing much more than is done elsewhere."

One of my favorite pics by my favorite photog is featured at this cool website.

Said photog took this pic last month in GSO.

Just a reminder as we move closer to more offshore drilling: oil spills are nasty.

Panoramic views from the NC Museum of Art, courtesy of the inimitable Tom Lassiter.

Video for the new-found track from Exile on Main Street, Plundered My Soul.

Says reader P, who forwarded the link, "Universal probably spent $250K making this thing. Funny how that homemade ditty from Torn and Frayed is so much better."

It really is pretty good. Of course, the song helps.

A meeting with City Council members for residents of Districts 1 and 2 to discuss the budget, next Monday at 7PM, GSO Historical Museum (press release after the jump).

City budget website.

Will tight budgets roll back community policing?

Tulsa has laid off 89 police officers, 11% of its force. That has pushed the city to the forefront of a national movement, spurred by hard times, to revamp long-held policing strategies.

In the crosshairs: community-policing initiatives created over the past two decades, such as having officers work in troubled schools, attend neighborhood-watch meetings and help small-business owners address nuisance crimes like graffiti. Such efforts are popular, and some experts credit them with contributing to the steady drop in the national crime rate since 1991.

As Wall Street fights regulatory reform, a glance back at the industry's reaction to an earlier effort to save the bankers from themselves: "[A] monstrous system of guaranteeing bank deposits." 

Interesting to see that "bankster" was accepted slang in 1933.

(Thnx to JC for the pointer).

Birther fantasy: Maybe Arizona's new "your papers, please" law will nab Obama!

And Meghan McCain says, "I do not support the bill...it gives the state police a license to discriminate, and also, in many ways, violates the civil rights of Arizona residents. Simply put, I think it is a bad law." But she also says that Obama calling the law “misguided” is "extreme partisan politics."

Over 850 people were expected at Saturday night's 40th anniversary party at Greensboro Day School, although aerial photographs suggest the actual turnout was closer to two million. I was too busy having fun to do a headcount. Happy birthday, GDS.

Ongoing:

Small bands of elite American Special Operations forces have been operating with increased intensity for several weeks in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan’s largest city, picking up or picking off insurgent leaders to weaken the Taliban in advance of major operations...

...The battle for Kandahar has become the make-or-break offensive of the eight-and-half-year war.

America's Broadband Policy, by Lawrence Lessig.

Thanks to JW for sending along the link.

Allen Johnson: "I want my county back."

The current state of affairs in county government has been created mostly by the collective impotence of the other nine commissioners, who have voted in Alston and Arnold for two consecutive terms as chairman and vice chairman.

Skip's Pet Rhino quotes Skip at some length in its budget article but politely avoids such unpleasantness.

As it turns out, "worst financial crisis since the '30s" and the "Great Recession" were more than glib phrases...

My newspaper column is about optimism on the economy, and some of the hurdles still in our way. You can read the whole thing after the jump.

You want live music in downtown GSO? You got it.

Lots of it.

Tonight, Studio B.

"[I]s the story worth what it cost to everybody else involved — including whatever dollar amount Gizmodo paid to its source?"

An essay about journalism and ethics.