UPDATE: Scooped by Technically Phily ...

If you've ever ridden SEPTA you've known of some if it's archaic practices. There are too many to get into, but one of the biggest ones, the refusal to give the public any kind of useful data may soon be changing.

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People's Emergency Center had a forum yesterday (see attached) on homeless youth in Philly and Jennifer Linn, who is one of the only reporters covering this topic over the last couple of years, did a write up.

It doesn't sound like there is much 'news' here. It is the same story for the hundreds of kids in city shelters and thousands who are homeless everyday.

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I'm proud to announce the launch of a new site I'm pretty happy about.

I'm more psyched about the artist, Greg is amazing, than the site itself though I think I did a pretty decent job with it. The design, layout, and functionality are all pretty simple, which is how I like to keep it. On the Drupal-end there was some custom work to get thickbox module to accept node info. Nothing to crazy but the first time I'd passed node info to jquery.


$settings['nodeInfo'][$node->title] = array(
'teaser' => $node->teaser,

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It is no surprise to anyone who reads this that there is inequality in spending for public school students in PA.

But a new website, the Federal Education Budget Project, makes that data available for everyone to see and the results are pretty amazing.

See the inequality in funding per pupil in PA in 2006: http://febp.newamerica.net/k12/pa/4218990/comparison/custom

Here is a list of some of the results:

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Who to Vote For

18 May 2009

I'm not making any endorsements for Tues, but here is a list of folks who have (compiled by YPP):

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rz3LHw2WLQBvIDouD1XZOYg

A printout ballot is also available at:

http://www.phillyforchange.com/node/62

In case you are wondering what tingling sensation in the back of your spine was, yes, I just created my first Drupal module: http://drupal.org/project/mailing_label

This amazing module does the unthinkable: makes mailing labels. This is sure to change the interwebs forever.

All joking aside I'm really excited about this. Will keep everyone (rebecca) posted for my first release!

ran down broad street with 23,000 other peeps this morn.

wwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=55962552&rsID=77533

(awesome sign courtesy of the awesome RJS)

Come Live with Me!

03 May 2009

My awesome 2BR apartment has an opening starting June 1st! $675 per month.

The apartment is large with two private rooms, private bathroom, and deck.

This is a great deal in a great neighborhood. This is one of the closest residences to the Art Museum. I was honestly not looking to move to Fairmount but when I saw this apartment I couldn’t pass it up. Now I love the neighborhood as well.

This is a month to month lease with the possibility of signing a year lease. The reason it is month to month is that my current roommate had to move out at the last minute and the landlord is very cool about the situation and thought it would be easier to start out with a month to month lease.

See my craigslist add for details: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/roo/1152942208.html

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Joe's Coffee, a haven of friendly fair-trade coffee in a city full of angry baristas and starbucksocity, is closing down.

Here's another example of how awesome Joe's is. In their email announcement they spend more time talking about supporting causes like http://covertheuninsured.org/ and http://www.thefoodtrust.org/ than lamenting their early demise. Here's some more from the faretheewell:

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As an activist, writer (occasionally), and Drupal developer, it only makes sense that I'd spend a beautiful Saturday at the News Innovation conference.

The subject is the future of journalism. The print newspaper is dying. Newsrooms are being slashed. Meanwhile the social web is growing. How can we preserve the elements of journalism that are necessary for democracy? How can we take advantage of this shift to push those elements further? How can we have a more diverse, accurate, just and responsive media? What are the social and technological configurations that can get us there?

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