If you walked by Greater Goods, the all things eco-friendly store on U Street, tonight and glanced in the window you may have wondered what all those nerdy looking guys and girls were doing with soldering irons huddled around several large tables. They were doing what any self-respecting geek in DC could be doing on a Thursday night: attending one of Make:DC’s first organizational meetings and putting together a tiny circuit board useful for controlling motors like those found in robots.

Make:DC is a new group organized by local mechanical engineer Adam Koeppel as an offshoot of the popular MAKE Magazine. According to the website, the group aims to “inspire and organize the Washington, DC community of makers for greater collaboration and learning.” From tonight’s meeting, it seems they’re well on their way.

I went into the meeting not having used a soldering iron since shop class in middle school, and through some expert assistance and liberal borrowing of tools, I was able to build one of the $20 DC Motor Driver Board designed by one of the group members. (If you’re not sure what a DC Motor Driver Board is, fear not, I wasn’t entirely sure either. But in future meetings, we’ll be using them to control motors, build small robots, and do other neat things with them.) If you’d like to find out more, visit the group’s website at MakeDC.org. The next meeting is June 19, and other activities are advertised on the website.

While looking at information on next week’s O’Reilly conference Graphing Social Patterns - (”this event is for both business executives and technical developers who want to learn more about the evolving environment, and how to reach online communities using new and established social networking platforms and applications”) I clicked through to see what the conference rate and media pass information.

I was pretty amused to read their section on media qualifications.

To qualify for a complimentary media pass for GSP East, the applicant must cover the industry on a regular basis by writing regular reports or publishing articles on related business or technology issues that are not solicited by an exhibiting company. Private consultants who are paid by an individual company are not eligible for a media pass, and should request a pass from the sponsoring company. Also not eligible are financial/financial research analysts, book authors, contributors to user/community group publications, [emphasis mine] or photographers unless they are on official assignment with a reporter who has already been issued media credentials.

Don’t get me wrong - I understand completely that this conference is largely targeted at those people, so giving away access isn’t a smart business move - but it still makes me chuckle to read about a social network conference that doesn’t certify ‘citizen journalists.’

Image courtesy of Luc Legay

We reported earlier that photography at Union Station, despite being Carl’s favorite space to take photos, was getting to be a real challenge, even though photography in the incredibly beautiful Union Station is allowed both by Amtrak and by LaSalle Partners who maintains the space. Fox 5 News has gotten involved, and interviewed local photographer Joel Lawson about getting hassled when he pointed out that photography in Union Station was perfectly legal and acceptable.

What was hilarious, though, was Fox 5, while interviewing an Amtrak spokesman, was shut down by Union Station security for conducting an interview at Union Station. The security guard was unable to explain the policy, and refused to answer questions regarding the policy at the facility, and LaSalle Partners, who operate the mall portion of Union Station, wouldn’t respond in any way, shape or form to media inquiries.

It’s really bullshit that we can’t even ask what the rules are, or how they should be construed. How can we be respectful and participatory in our practice of photography if you won’t talk to us about what they want respected and why. This is the kind of thing that gets people up in arms and more than a little upset.

Figure it out, Union Station, and welcome shutterbugs.

Club violence is always something that kinda gives me the willies, and this example is no exception. Going in for my morning coffee this morning my bariista comrade was looking more forlorn than usual, and related to me that he’d seen the DJ stabbed at 18th Street Lounge last night. Said what had been “a really chill evening” was interrupted by major league violence and a major police response.

While the major media outlets (in my admittedly brief perusal) seem quiet on this, a venue like 18th Street Lounge us not a place I expected to see this kind of tragedy! Damn.

Update: Will the DJ from last night checks in below, entirely unperforated, to our great relief. He does confirm that there was a stabbing at the lounge last night. Our thoughts and well-wishes go out to the actual victim for a speedy recovery, as no one deserves to get stabbed while they’re just trying to have a good time.

Last Call — Originally uploaded by Adriaan Bloem

Those of you who know me and my drive to make Friday officially pants-optional may be surprised that I will not mention it this week because instead we have panda-optional Friday. I just opted in. Join me by watching what is possibly the cutest panda video ever. Many thanks to DC-based social media (and everything else) expert Andy Carvin for linking to this video.

Incidentally, this is the first video on the NPR YouTube channel. Keep your eyes peeled as they add new videos. It is a contribution by David Gilkey to the Chengdu Diary series. Read Gilkey’s notes here.

I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now, and it never fails to amuse me, but today it did something new: it impressed me. In 30 minutes, a number of tweets from various people cropped up wondering what the explosion was, wondering where it was, how many it had affected, and generally spreading the news of the event. See this twitter search:

Click for larger

A number of people were immediately concerned, trying to find out information, trying to see what happened. People raised the alarm, and then just as quickly, found out what it was.

How awesome is that?

Sure, it’s still dependent on outlets that employ fulltime reporters like WTOP, and the various other mainstream news outlets, but that people could raise a number of individuals who are free and able to search for events like this, and report facts regarding them, it’s nothing short of outstanding and amazing. Thank you, intertubes, and thank you especially, Twitter.

Oh, the Explosion? Part of construction at Fort Belvoir, related to the new National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

[Update] Or maybe not! Via DCist:

I just wanted to let you know we at Fort Belvoir received a call from the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center indicating an earthquake had occurred about 1:30 p.m. today. Media reports circulating that Belvoir officials had confirmed blasting here caused the reported rumbles are inaccurate. No one from this office had any information to indicate that was the case. Our scheduled subterranean blasts were set for 4:30 p.m. today. There was no unscheduled blasting at the site.
Hope that helps.
Don Dees
Fort Belvoir Public Affairs

Huh! Earthquakes! In DC! What’s next?

Why I Hate DC picked up on the new Nationals song that I was trying to explain away this weekend as the result of an auditory hallucination. Here’s the song. I use that term VERY loosely here. And thanks much to the first commenter at WIHDC, who summed it up perfectly:

OMG, it’s like a third-rate glee club and the 1920’s and a marching band’s percussion section had a very slow love child. WTF?

Yes. What the Fuck, Nationals? What the Effing Eff were you on when you decided this was a good idea? I mean, the O’s just got rid of Orioles Magic, and it seems to have gotten them off to a pretty good start? I mean you hired the team that brought us the iconic Monday Night Football Theme. Shouldn’t you have gotten something that resembled that? It’s not too late, Get Your Money Back!

Barely a year after she forced a Deputy Secretary of State out of his job by selling her phone records to the media, authorities believe the DC Madam, Deborah Jeanne Palfrey, has committed suicide at her mother’s Florida home.

As DC Metblog alumnus brownpau points out, Palfrey’s Wikipedia page is already seeing a spike in edits.

I couldn’t help but think, as Ryan Zimmerman rounded first, his fist triumphantly thrust in the air, that I would not have written the ending quite as well as it had come out. With the remaining crowd on their feet and cheering, despite the bitter cold and wind, the new ballpark became the Nationals new Home.

I arrived at the Stadium in 40 minutes today, some hour and twenty minutes more quickly than our Saturday debacle, and after making it through a thorough, yet friendly, search of my person and camera bag, it was onward into the stadium. The Braves were taking batting practice. The concourse was full of Nats Pack handing out game booklets and stadium information, as well as a number of photographers taking fan photos and capturing the new ballpark.

I settled into Section 108 to watch the Braves put on a hitting show. The ball was carrying well into the outfield, and several lucky fans got souvenirs to take home. Around 6, I headed up to get a Kielbasa and a Coke from the stand at the top of our section. There was a bit of a line, but 15 minutes later I had dinner and was a happy guy again. Tiff went for sodas around 6:30 and had a bit of a wait, but everything was happy for the most part. My frustration came at 7:15 when I waited 40 minutes for a Half-smoke All-the-way from the Nats Dogs concession. While the Ben’s Chili Bowl line was horrendous, the other hotdog stands still carry the signature half-smoke with Ben’s Chili, but the line was bad. It moved, sure, but sporadically, and it seemed that concession workers were still getting a feel for their roles, as I saw many people bumping into each other. The only thing they seemed to be short on was popcorn. Tasty as the half-smoke was, it wasn’t worth a 40 minute wait.

I hear the other lines were pretty long as well, but I suspect much will get better as we get further into the season.

The Nationals, despite a solid first inning of offense, went 24 batters out in a row, between their last hit in the 1st and Zimmerman’s homer with 2 outs in the 9th. I was hoping for a bit more offense out of the club. But, the pitching held true, and kept the Braves from doing little to catch up to the 2-0 lead. Lo Duca’s passed ball in the 9th was a real heartbreaker, and at least one guy in our row wondered what Rauch was doing on the mound instead of the Chief. But in the end, it didn’t matter. Part of me wondered, as my friend Ben said to me later, if we weren’t all in some shared hallucination, seeing what our minds wanted to happen, instead of some sadder truth. I’m thankful it was real.

Read on for a status report on the ballpark
Read more

Local DC Media Maker Jill Foster got serenaded in a cab yesterday on the way to work. Hear the troubadour’s song here. Jill writes:

I got into a cab today where the driver says “Welcome to my karaoke cab miss.”

He then asked my name and began singing - as in sang with portable mic wearing a cowboy
hat - fun songs during the cab fare. I was cackling as he agreed to make a mobile
podcast right there via Utterz.com using my cell phone.

Does it get any better than this? Thanks, Jill, for sharing the joy!