Infoworld: More than two-thirds of a mile of fiber-optic cable near Cleveland shows evidence of gunfire that officials say appears deliberate:

Internet service providers in the U.S. experienced a service slowdown Monday after fiber-optic cables near Cleveland were apparently sabotaged by gunfire.

TeliaSonera AB, which lost the northern leg of its U.S. network to the cut, said that the outage began around 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday night. When technicians pulled up the affected cable, it appeared to have been shot. "Somebody had been shooting with a gun or a shotgun into the cable," said Anders Olausson, a TeliaSonera spokesman.

It's a hard road climbing from poverty to Middle Class America. Having my own experience making that climb and watching others along the way gave me a sense just how hard. If you have a family to take care of, more than likely you're fighting to get a job that offers insurance, while balancing one or more part time jobs that keep you off it, by keeping your hours just under full time status. All the while taking care of your children and paying your bills.

The White House today just made that task far more difficult:

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a month-long Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were aimed at returning the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

After learning of the new policy, some state officials said today that it could cripple their efforts to cover more children by imposing standards that could not be met.

Jennifer at Young Philly Politics summarizes the situation here in Philadelphia: Hey Pennsylvania: How dare you try to give poor-but-not-the-very-poorest kids doctors!:

...The idea is that if a state wants to raise the eligibility bar to insure more children, they must first prove that they have enrolled 95% of the children in the state at below 200% of the line, practically speaking, a very difficult task....If unchallenged, this would mean that many children who are currently eligible for CHIP in Pennsylvania, which says that anyone at 300% of the poverty line is eligible, could be knocked off the books and back to being uninsured. Well, the president says that they'd be encouraged to re-enter the private market. But that takes money, and even 300% of our ridiculously low official poverty rate ($20,650 for a family of four!) doesn't give you all that much.

In case you missed it, a big congrats to ALa who appeared on Fox News earlier this month.

Well that's the end of the Falcons as a threat this year, and most likely Vick's career in the NFL.

Will justice be done? Will Vick get off light?

CNN: Vick agrees to guilty plea deal, prison possible.

Your dreams drive your life, but it's not always easy to remember those dreams. To figure out how you got here, check out my blog about Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Michael Vitez's book Rocky Stories. In my blog entry, I show how you can use the famous stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a writing prompt to get in touch with your dreams, the way so many visitors to the museum do every day.

Memoir Writing Prompt: Your Rocky Story

The Modern Letter currently features an interview with Philly native Samara O'Shea. She's spent a few years out of the area, but it appears she's finally come back home.

O'Shea's recently published book, For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing, is a primer of sorts on what many think of as strictly old-fashioned correspondence. And given how lost that art has become to most of us, a guide like Samara's might actually come in handy.

Click here to read the interview.

It seems Pax Romano has a worldwide fanbase, including one contractor on the ground in Iraq. Click here to sample the ground level perspective of one of Pax's readers.

There's a hot new band out of Philadelphia that's getting airplay all over the world; they're called the the Pawnshop Roses.

Philadelphia Inquirer: A Step Up From Working In PJ's:

...t's not job-sharing, with two people taking turns in the same stall in the cube farm.

Instead, think of co-working as an entrepreneurial version of parallel play, with owners of their own small businesses working side by side in a drop-in place that looks like a coffee cafe, minus the barista, with all the accoutrements of what's hip: high ceilings, beer fridge, pool table and Internet access.

Paying as little as $175 a month, they mostly work on their own. But they also trade ideas, help solve problems, and move in and out of loose collaborations.

Today's technology - wireless access, cell phones, BlackBerries and laptops - makes possible a mobile workforce.

Still lonely, Hillman found himself drawn to social and professional groups, but networking nights over margaritas were not what he wanted either, although he likes margaritas.

What he wanted was the happy chance of serendipity and the collegial buzz of people united by passion for their work, whatever it is.

"I think when people work at home they have to come up with new ways to interact with people," said Daniel H. Pink, one of the first authors to write about independent contractors in his 2001 book Free Agent Nation.

"They miss one of the joys and banes of being in an office - the interruptions, the inadvertent contact on the way to the bathroom that sometimes leads to interesting ideas," he said. "Co-working gives a set of colleagues who will interrupt them on the way to the bathroom."

Links:

Independents Hall

Alex Hillman

(wish the Inky would appropriately link!)

Ok, Philly Future, we're opening up another topic for discussion: The Barnes Belongs in Merion. We do believe the art belongs in Merion, not Philadelphia, and we believe Ed Rendell, Vince Fumo, Lenfest Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, The Anneberg Foundation, etc. are wrong to move our art collection.

Yes, some are going to say the residents didn't want the Barnes in Merion way back when, but actually, they wanted Glanton gone. The Barnes art collection is part of who we are out here, part of our history. How would you guys feel if we say, wanted to move the Liberty Bell to the center of Bryn Mawr? Or wanted to move the art out of The Philadelphia Museum of Art and Rodin Museum to Merion Station?

We believe moving the Barnes Collection is stealing. Philly can't manage the art it's got right now.

Anyway, here is the latest update from the Barnes Friends:

Dear Friends,

Following a brief vacation, we are back at our Friends of the Barnes posts, ready to go full tilt on our mission. The response to our fund raising appeal has been amazingly strong considering the fact that we are in the midst of summer vacation. As wonderful as this help is, we have big challenges ahead and will need every member's help. I urge you again to do what you can. Here is the link to the Donation Page of the Friends of the Barnes website, where you can get the details and form.

http://www.barnesfriends.org/files/action.html

Now, for some news.

The Barnes Foundation was the cover story of an article in a great regional publication -- LifeStyle Magazine -- called, "Will the Barnes Foundation Stay Put?" by Maryanna S. Phinn. This is the first time a widely-distributed publication has profiled Friends of the Barnes and the article is superbly written. To read it on line, go to the following link. Don't forget to cast your vote on the "stars" system you will find near the top of the page.

http://www.lifestylemagazineinc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=181&Itemid=101

The Main Line Times published a front page story about the unified letter urging Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett to "get with the program" of protecting the Barnes Foundation. You can see the article and the press release, including the text of the letter to Tom Corbett signed by the Montgomery County Commissioners, U.S. Representative Jim Gerlach, and Lower Merion Township Commissioner Brian Gordon on our website. (See the sidebar on the right for Latest News.) http://www.barnesfriends.org

The National Historic Landmarks Program has written back to us with a very encouraging response, saying they would be "pleased to consider" the Barnes Foundation for National Historic Landmarks status. This follows the preliminary assessment we commissioned of the Barnes Fondation. The assessment refers to an intact site in Merion, including the grounds, gallery buildings, and art collections. Of course, an application would need the support of the Barnes Foundation Board. We have sent a letter to Bernard Watson, head of the Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation, urging him to take this opportunity to have an intact Barnes Foundation officially recognized as a national cultural treasure. To date, no reply from the Barnes Foundation has been received. You can see the Press Release covering this development on our website. (See the sidebar on the right for link to the press release.)
http://www.barnesfriends.org

We ask that you check on the website home page for latest developments regarding the submission of the petition to the Montgomery County Orphans' Court. This will be the quickest way to let people know about the rally at the Barnes that will take place at the time of the submission.

That's all for now. Thank you again for your steady support and interest.

With warm regards,

Nancy Herman
for Friends of the Barnes Foundation

"Never doubt that a small group of caring, committed citizens can change the world. In deed it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Well, he could be if he wanted to. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has high marks for Citizens Bank Park's non-meat offerings, according to a recent survey.

Benjamin Franklin's letter to Benjamin Vaughan:

Phila July 31, 1786 (To Benjamin Vaughan)

Dear Friend,

I recollect that when I had the great Pleasure of seeing you at Southampton, now a 12 month since, we had some Conversation on the bad Effects of Lead taken inwardly; and that at your Request I promis'd to send you in writing a particular Account of several Facts I then mention'd to you, of which you thought some good Use might be made. I now sit down to fulfil that Promise.

The first Thing I remember of this kind, was a general discourse in Boston when I was a Boy, of a Complaint from North Carolina against New England Rum, that it poison'd their People, giving them the Dry Bellyach, with a Loss of the Use of their Limbs. The Distilleries being examin'd on the Occasion, it was found that several of them used leaden Still-heads and Worms, and the Physicians were of the Opinion that the Mischief was occasion'd by that Use of Lead. The Legislature of the Massachusetts thereupon pass'd an Act prohibiting under severe Penalties the Use of such Still-heads & Worms thereafter. Inclos'd I send you a Copy of the Act, taken from my printed Law book.

Hi folks,

The following is a Philly Future related editorial published to my personal blog:

Despite the information and communication revolutionary time we live in, Americans remain in the dark about our world.

Pew released a survey back in April detailing Americans knowledge of current affairs, comparing the status quo to that of 1989.

We've had a literal explosion of new media and communications services and tools come into being these past 15 years. They have completely reshaped how we get our news and how we connect with our communities.

Social Networks, Blogs, RSS, News Aggregators, Email, Email Lists, Message Boards, Websites, News portals, the Web, the Internet, Cable network 24/hr. news, talk radio, online magazines, collaborative news filters, algorithmic news filters, the list goes on and on.

You would think with so many choices, so many avenues to get informed, we'd actually be better informed.

You'd be wrong.

On average, today's citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago. The new survey includes nine questions that are either identical or roughly comparable to questions asked in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, somewhat fewer were able to name their governor, the vice president, and the president of Russia, but more respondents than in the earlier era gave correct answers to questions pertaining to national politics.

In 1989, for example, 74% could come up with Dan Quayle's name when asked who the vice president is. Today, somewhat fewer (69%) are able to recall Dick Cheney. However, more Americans now know that the chief justice of the Supreme Court is generally considered a conservative and that Democrats control Congress than knew these things in 1989. Some of the largest knowledge differences between the two time periods may reflect differences in the amount of press coverage of a particular issue or public figure at the time the surveys were taken. But taken as a whole the findings suggest little change in overall levels of public knowledge.

The survey provides further evidence that changing news formats are not having a great deal of impact on how much the public knows about national and international affairs.

I'm among a bunch of folks who tend to trumpet online services as a cure-all for our past lack of information awareness and communications access.

On the opposite side of the bench have been those who have sounded alarm after alarm about how our ever growing media-and-communications-scape will fragment us ever further and result in ever tightening echo chambers, making us less informed about subject matter as a whole.

Turns out both perspectives are wrong.

Here we are, with so much new technology, so much new media, transforming the way we live our lives, and yet we are as informed, as ill informed, as we were in 1989.

Related:

Newsweek: Dunce-Cap Nation

Wired: Infoporn: Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

-Karl

The coffee giant from Seattle is going to have some Philadelphia-based competition: Saxby's Coffee.

Well, this is my first posting on a blog and seeing where the day takes me on it.

We are the Distortion Arts Project, a group of 15 emerging artists from the Philly tri-state region who simply got tired of the same old-same old of the First Friday scenarios, Rittenhouse Arts Crawls and other things. We just wanted a place to do fun creative theater meets arts events around the city and came up with this creative fun!