Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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“PayPal for Porn” Booted from UVa

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 24, 2007 in Business and UVa. 14 Comments

Brian McNeill had an eyebrow-raising story in the Progress a few weeks ago about a Darden startup business that’s basically PayPal for porn. Not only was it surprising that Darden would have actively recruited the startup to join their business incubator, but that its founder would have done so little research into the existing market; there are oodles of PayPal competitors attempting to tap into the market, since the electronic payment company prohibits using their service for pornography or gambling payments. The head of the Darden program was asked if perhaps it wasn’t wise to be launching a company in this line of business, and he responded that “what is and what isn’t controversial is open to some interpretation.”

Now Pmints.com has been pushed out of Darden, the AP reports, a result of anger by alumni that Darden would be backing this business. (Presumably because of its premise on porn and gambling, rather than the fact that it’s a wholly unoriginal business idea.) Pmints.com’s founder says he’ll carry on without Darden, and expects to launch the business later this year.

Two More Assaults on West Main

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 21, 2007 in Crime. 78 Comments

WINA reports this morning that two more assaults have taken place in the downtown area, this time on the 400 and 800 blocks of West Main Street. Both took place around 3 AM, and both attacks involved a group of 4-6 young, black white t-shirt-wearing males attacking a couple, not inflicting serious injury and not for the purpose of robbery. Joy assaults, basically. These sound precisely like the random assaults that have been taking place for the past few weeks, though took place many blocks away from the downtown area where business owners want cameras, ostensibly to stop the crimes.

Council Taking Bids for Downtown Cameras

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 17, 2007 in Crime and Politics. 51 Comments

City Council wants bids to have security cameras all around the Downtown Mall, after a spate of assaults have have occurred just about everywhere downtown but the Downtown Mall, the Progress reports. Police Chief Longo has proposed 30 cameras for $300k, though it remains to be seen what the bids determine is feasible. I’m fond of Tim McCormack’s proposal that, fine, we put up the cameras, but that all the video be streamed real-time to the internet.

I’m assigning reading to City Council: Jeremy Bentham‘s “The Panopticon Writings” or Michel Foucault‘s “Discipline & Punish,” which explores modern applications of Bentham’s theories on surveillance. We really can’t have a proper discussion of the merits of becoming a surveillance society without getting the decision makers up to speed.

10:30pm Update: Jennifer McKeever attended last night’s Council meeting, and provides each councilor’s stated position. Apparently Dave Norris cited Tim’s suggestion of putting the video online, and Chief Longo supports it. Wonderful.

07/18 Update: Seth Rosen has a more detailed look in today’s Progress, including an account of putting the video online that is far less rosy than I’d gathered. Ah, well.

Walk Score

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 17, 2007 in General News. 20 Comments

How walkable is your neighborhood? My prior home, downtown, gets a 92/100. My current home gets a big, fat 0, but that’s country living for you.

Poverty in Charlottesville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 17, 2007 in General News. 8 Comments

In this week’s C-Ville, Jayson Whitehead provides a lengthy piece about poverty in the Charlottesville area (20% live below the federal poverty line) for which he spent a day working as a day laborer, doing the sort of basic investigative journalism that we don’t see much around here. He also grabs dinner at Holy Comforter, visits with Holly Edwards at Westhaven Clinic, and checks out the Tom Shadyac-funded conversion of First Christian Church to a multipurpose facility for the homeless and poor.

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