It's been a while since the library blog showed off a few cool tools to make your online life a bit easier, so it seems like high time to take a look at some of the new things out there!
Printing!
Printing problems may be one of the biggest headaches to come along with all of the wonderful things available on the web. How many times have you tried to print a web page and discovered that it refused to print correctly? The text was cut off. Advertising or images on the page made what should be a simple 1 page print job into a several page nightmare. If this sounds familiar then you'll be happy to find PrintWhatYouLike.com, a site that let's you take any web site and edit out those parts you don't care about and preserve the parts you do, making printing tidy and neat and efficient. Of all of the tools I've discovered in the last six months, this is by far my favorite.
Another set of problems involving printing arises in relation to PDFs. PDFs are Portable Document Format files -- the ones that look exactly like scanned in document originals. But more than ever before, new online tools let you manipulate PDF files in interesting ways, converting things (including entire web pages) to and from the PDF format. Enabling editing within PDF documents. A great site to explore these options is NitroPDF.com's collection of free online tools. NitroPDF is working to become a viable competitor for Adobe and so is garnering name recognition for its software by letting users sample limited versions of its products for free. These include converters (HTML and Word), creators and editors. The links are all for the online versions that do not require downloads. They also have free trial versions, but you do not need to download a trial to take advantage of the free software.
It's Just Easier!
PageZipper is one of those tools that just makes life easier. Why am I not surprised that it's brought to you by those clever folks who created PrintWhatYouLike? PageZipper will bind together pages that are in a series, like a bunch of photos or a sequence of Best Sites of 2008 or whatever that require you to click between each page. Instead of clicking the app simply stacks the pages vertically as you scroll. As long as you keep scrolling it continues to stack until either you stop or the sequence ends. At LOLCats you might scroll until you crashed you computer...
Another "it's just easier" tool is NameChk. This website will run your preferred user name through a massive collection of social networking, bookmarking or online tool sites to see if it is still available. That way you can run out and secure RicketyRockhopper before anyone else snags it (still available on all but Squidoo and Vimeo).
It's Just Less Annoying!
Don't invite spam to your mailbox. Rather than posting your email address, any of them, on a Facebook page, internet forum, web site, etc. you can instead use a nifty tool called Scr.im, which will assign you a short, convenient web address that will intervene between you and email address harvesters. For similar reasons, on those occasions you absolutely do have to use an email address and don't want to be bothered with the subsequent email, create an email account just for that purpose.
It's Just More Secure!
Have your own laptop or wireless device you'd like to protect in case it gets stolen? You can download the Adeona program and it will simply sit on your machine and wait, doing nothing unless you activate it. But if your machine is swiped and someone logs in to the internet using it, and you've activated Adeona in the meantime, the program will send location information that authorities can use in locating the device. (Note: this is a research program, which explains why it is free, but it is also in development so you should expect some imperfections.)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Feeling a Little Foolish?
April is the month of fools, and it is also National Humor Month, and perhaps more than ever we could use a little laughter. In honor of April Fool's Day, here is the Museum of Hoaxes list of the Top 100 April Fool's Pranks of All Time. They also provide a list of today's best pranks, including my personal favorite Gmail autopilot, which would respond to your mail for you. Museum of Hoaxes is one of my personal favorite time-waster web sites. PC World provides links to the day's best techno-foolery.
Comedy fans have a number of places (besides the ubiquitous YouTube) that they can go on the web to satisfy their desire for a funny fix. For fans of particular types of comedy, here are locations of a few best comedy bits online. David Letterman's Top 10 List Archive, Jay Leno's Headlines, the Darwin Awards (for those who improve the gene pool by creatively departing from it), and here are some of everybody's favorite Dumb Criminals stories. Here is the Onion's all-too believable-at-times fake news site, while for those who prefer their fake news a little farther off the radar, the Weekly World News has stories just for you. (Check out the latest about the Fiji Mermaid seeking FAFSA aid.) Whether or not you use an RSS reader, you may find it worthwhile to check in on Humorfeed every so often. The feeds "feeders" gather in funny material from around the web suitable to a variety of tastes. And since you're connected to the College, you'll find things to laugh at on CollegeHumor. (Check out Your Essay Translated and Your Professor's PowerPoint Presentation.)
While not for everybody, John Hodgeman's (PC in the Mac/PC commercials) comedy, with its witty pseudo-intellectualism and genuine humanity can be both very funny and surprisingly insightful. Here is his 16-minute TED lecture: A brief digression on matters of lost time. (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and the TED Talks, available for free on the web, are from an annual conference which brings together 50 talented and innovative thinkers in all different fields of knowledge and challenges them to give the "18 minute talk of their lives". The results are extraordinary.)
Like your humor in illustrated form? Check out the online portion of the Library of Congress' display: Herblock's History (Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millenium), Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index (searchable by topic -- check out Twitter -- or artist), the CartoonBank at the New Yorker (which is a commerce site, but both the Free link and the Recession Proof link are worth a look for no cost)
Make 'Em Laugh is a PBS site about comedy that includes tributes (and funny stories) about some of the greatest comedians of all times as well as five of the greatest viral videos and an interview with Michael McKean talking about This is Spinal Tap. The American Comedy Archives at Emerson College include both transcripts and videos of some interviews with famous comics and comedy writers. A few years ago, the American Film Institute put together a list 100 Years...100 Laughs, selecting the best in film comedy. You can check out the list and see if you agree.
And somewhere in all of this, you ought to find a little to laugh about.
Comedy fans have a number of places (besides the ubiquitous YouTube) that they can go on the web to satisfy their desire for a funny fix. For fans of particular types of comedy, here are locations of a few best comedy bits online. David Letterman's Top 10 List Archive, Jay Leno's Headlines, the Darwin Awards (for those who improve the gene pool by creatively departing from it), and here are some of everybody's favorite Dumb Criminals stories. Here is the Onion's all-too believable-at-times fake news site, while for those who prefer their fake news a little farther off the radar, the Weekly World News has stories just for you. (Check out the latest about the Fiji Mermaid seeking FAFSA aid.) Whether or not you use an RSS reader, you may find it worthwhile to check in on Humorfeed every so often. The feeds "feeders" gather in funny material from around the web suitable to a variety of tastes. And since you're connected to the College, you'll find things to laugh at on CollegeHumor. (Check out Your Essay Translated and Your Professor's PowerPoint Presentation.)
While not for everybody, John Hodgeman's (PC in the Mac/PC commercials) comedy, with its witty pseudo-intellectualism and genuine humanity can be both very funny and surprisingly insightful. Here is his 16-minute TED lecture: A brief digression on matters of lost time. (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and the TED Talks, available for free on the web, are from an annual conference which brings together 50 talented and innovative thinkers in all different fields of knowledge and challenges them to give the "18 minute talk of their lives". The results are extraordinary.)
Like your humor in illustrated form? Check out the online portion of the Library of Congress' display: Herblock's History (Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millenium), Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index (searchable by topic -- check out Twitter -- or artist), the CartoonBank at the New Yorker (which is a commerce site, but both the Free link and the Recession Proof link are worth a look for no cost)
Make 'Em Laugh is a PBS site about comedy that includes tributes (and funny stories) about some of the greatest comedians of all times as well as five of the greatest viral videos and an interview with Michael McKean talking about This is Spinal Tap. The American Comedy Archives at Emerson College include both transcripts and videos of some interviews with famous comics and comedy writers. A few years ago, the American Film Institute put together a list 100 Years...100 Laughs, selecting the best in film comedy. You can check out the list and see if you agree.
And somewhere in all of this, you ought to find a little to laugh about.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Three-Mile-Island and the Future of Nuclear Power
Thirty years ago this week, residents around the Three Mile Island nuclear power generating facility near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania awoke to an ongoing accident in the second generating station at the plant. Over the next several hours and days people would be barraged with confusing information about what WAS happening at the plant, what HAD happened at the plant, and if there was any danger to residents in the area. The governor ultimately did order pregnant women and pre-school children evacuated from the area and more than 140,000 people left. During the following days, radioactively contaminated Noble Gases were released from the generator, but very little of the highly dangerous Iodine 131. Several different epidemiological studies have been done of area populations over the years, with the latest results published in 2003. This most recent study confirms that only a tiny possible uptick in cancer risk appears to be evident in the exposed population, although the researchers felt that the population should continue to be followed.
Dickinson College, located in Carlisle, PA , had to decide during the crisis whether or not to cancel classes as a result of being located in the potential evacuation zone. Today Dickinson maintains an excellent web site about the events at Three Mile Island. The site includes a virtual museum which offers an excellent timeline and sense of events. PBS's The American Experience did an episode on the events entitled Meltdown at Three Mile Island (available in the library). As with most of their episodes, an accompanying web site offers lots of useful and interesting information about events. The Washington Post assembled this interesting collection of information on the twentieth anniversary of events. Finally, this essay by Gary Weimberg in Jump Cut does a good job of looking at the profound impact that the coincidental release of the film The China Syndrome about a nuclear reactor accident (available in the library) 12 days prior to the events in Pennsylvania had on how people perceived not only the event itself, but nuclear power in general.
When people think about nuclear reactor disasters, if Three Mile Island doesn't come to mind first, it's only because Chernobyl does. The explosion and fire at the number 4 reactor at Chernobyl that resulted in a radioactive cloud of contaminants spreading over areas of Europe and leaving whole sections of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine (link to map to experience long-term closure as "exclusion" zones). In an unusual turn of events, Chernobyl is becoming something of an extreme tourist attraction. You can view the starkly beautiful photos many visitors have taken on the web. Some examples can be found here, here, and here. The other fascinating fact about Chernobyl is the complex situation that has developed regarding wildlife in the exclusion zone. Many large and rare animals have made surprising and abundant reappearances in the absence of human intervention, and in fact a herd of the radically endangered Przewalski's horses were reintroduced into the zone as a result of this observation. But before people get too excited, more recent evidence suggests that smaller, surface-dwelling creatures, such as insects and spiders, and the numbers of animals total within the zone are actually lower than their partial abundance would lead people to believe, while the number of deformities is higher, indicating they have been negatively impacted by radiation.
So what does all this mean for the future of nuclear power? Well, despite safety concerns, the fact that nuclear power does not generate any carbon means that it remains part of the overall picture of future power plans. The Union of Concerned Scientists makes this assumption in its analysis of the nuclear power industry and appropriate nuclear power regulation. To get a sense of nuclear power worldwide, view The Virtual Nuclear Tourist, which addresses many concerns about nuclear energy and is written by a nuclear engineer. For a more detailed and complex analysis of the future and potential of nuclear power, review this MIT analysis, The Future of Nuclear Power.
And finally, what about the holy grail of nuclear energy, the fusion reactor? It may be closer than the skeptics think. A practical plant is under construction in France, while a prototype has been at work in the UK for some time.
Dickinson College, located in Carlisle, PA , had to decide during the crisis whether or not to cancel classes as a result of being located in the potential evacuation zone. Today Dickinson maintains an excellent web site about the events at Three Mile Island. The site includes a virtual museum which offers an excellent timeline and sense of events. PBS's The American Experience did an episode on the events entitled Meltdown at Three Mile Island (available in the library). As with most of their episodes, an accompanying web site offers lots of useful and interesting information about events. The Washington Post assembled this interesting collection of information on the twentieth anniversary of events. Finally, this essay by Gary Weimberg in Jump Cut does a good job of looking at the profound impact that the coincidental release of the film The China Syndrome about a nuclear reactor accident (available in the library) 12 days prior to the events in Pennsylvania had on how people perceived not only the event itself, but nuclear power in general.
When people think about nuclear reactor disasters, if Three Mile Island doesn't come to mind first, it's only because Chernobyl does. The explosion and fire at the number 4 reactor at Chernobyl that resulted in a radioactive cloud of contaminants spreading over areas of Europe and leaving whole sections of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine (link to map to experience long-term closure as "exclusion" zones). In an unusual turn of events, Chernobyl is becoming something of an extreme tourist attraction. You can view the starkly beautiful photos many visitors have taken on the web. Some examples can be found here, here, and here. The other fascinating fact about Chernobyl is the complex situation that has developed regarding wildlife in the exclusion zone. Many large and rare animals have made surprising and abundant reappearances in the absence of human intervention, and in fact a herd of the radically endangered Przewalski's horses were reintroduced into the zone as a result of this observation. But before people get too excited, more recent evidence suggests that smaller, surface-dwelling creatures, such as insects and spiders, and the numbers of animals total within the zone are actually lower than their partial abundance would lead people to believe, while the number of deformities is higher, indicating they have been negatively impacted by radiation.
So what does all this mean for the future of nuclear power? Well, despite safety concerns, the fact that nuclear power does not generate any carbon means that it remains part of the overall picture of future power plans. The Union of Concerned Scientists makes this assumption in its analysis of the nuclear power industry and appropriate nuclear power regulation. To get a sense of nuclear power worldwide, view The Virtual Nuclear Tourist, which addresses many concerns about nuclear energy and is written by a nuclear engineer. For a more detailed and complex analysis of the future and potential of nuclear power, review this MIT analysis, The Future of Nuclear Power.
And finally, what about the holy grail of nuclear energy, the fusion reactor? It may be closer than the skeptics think. A practical plant is under construction in France, while a prototype has been at work in the UK for some time.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Bee a Good Speller
The library blog extends its congratulations to Michael Spors, the son of DACC's Director of Instructional Media, Jon Spors, who just earned a place at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC. You can see the news story in the library's America's Newspaper's database here. (If you are off campus, you'll need to provide your DACC user ID and password to access the story.) You can access the original story in the Lafayette Journal & Courier online, but you'll have to pay for the privilege, and you still may not get to see the accompanying photo. But spelling bees aren't simply for kids. Did you know there was a National Adult Spelling Bee? This year the event will be held May 3, 2009.
Spelling, Vocab and Study Aids
So how do people prepare spelling bees? All different ways, but Scripps, the national news organization that sponsors the spelling bee coordinates with Merriam-Webster to provide a prep website called Spell It! On this site users can study words according to language of origin (one of the questions spellers are permitted to ask). The lists include tips about how words originating from particular languages tend to be spelled. The site also includes lists of eponyms, or words based upon people's names. Many of these, like "shrapnel," may surprise you. Another important group is the list of words you need to know. These include those words that are frequently misspelled, commonly confused with other words, and homonyms that are misused. Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, like "meat" and "mete".
Looking for some help with spelling but lists aren't quite what you had in mind? Purdue's famous Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a section dedicated to Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling that can help you cope with trouble spots in all three of these famous bugaboo areas. Here is another page that details spelling rules designed for readers struggling with dyslexia. But one of the best ways to develop not only your spelling but your vocabulary in general is to work on developing your understanding of the root words underlying the English language. Vocabulary.com helps users do that by developing their root word knowledge through puzzles and activities that reinforce the learning process. And it's all free! The site also provides lists of words focused on specific subject and theme areas, lists based off of works of literature, and even vocational terminology. Do you find flashcards a useful tool for learning vocabulary or some other form of information? Then take a look at FlashcardExchange, an extensive online library of flashcards in numerous subject areas compiled by users from 1st grade through college. The service lets you create unlimited text cards and use them online for free as often as you'd like. If you want to download them or add images or audio to your flashcards, you will need to spring for a one-time membership fee.
Y U Shld B a Bad Splr
Not a great speller? Maybe even a really bad one? Take heart, the inability to spell is not a reflection on your intelligence, more an indicator of how your brain is wired. In fact, MRIs reveal your brain may have done some amazing rewiring on your behalf, as the infamously poor-spelling Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post found out. But you don't have to be a crackerjack speller to take an interest in the subject. In fact, over the years there have been multiple movements to simplify English spelling. Playwright George Bernard Shaw, Teddy Roosevelt and Melville Dewey (creator of the Dewey Decimal system of library organization used in most public libraries and here at DACC) all advocated simplifying the spelling of the English language. If you can't spell, these folks might argue, it's not you, it's the language. Having more than 1,100 possible letter combinations to form only 44 sounds, as English does, might be viewed as a bit of overkill.
Some see the rise of text messaging and email as exerting a degree of pressure in this direction on the language. And more than one teacher has expressed fears that these practices are destroying students' language skills, fears that linguist David Crystal identified as appearing first in Great Britain where texting has been a social practice for a longer period of time. But this recent article in the Christian Science Monitor reports that new research suggests otherwise. Texting may actually increase certain linguistic skills. Not quite sure what all the fuss is about? Check out this text to plain english translator.
And finally, many of you have probably seen the Spell Checker poem that has circulated around the internet for several years in varying forms (one version can be seen here). Here is the story behind the poem, as well as its original, subtler form.
Spelling, Vocab and Study Aids
So how do people prepare spelling bees? All different ways, but Scripps, the national news organization that sponsors the spelling bee coordinates with Merriam-Webster to provide a prep website called Spell It! On this site users can study words according to language of origin (one of the questions spellers are permitted to ask). The lists include tips about how words originating from particular languages tend to be spelled. The site also includes lists of eponyms, or words based upon people's names. Many of these, like "shrapnel," may surprise you. Another important group is the list of words you need to know. These include those words that are frequently misspelled, commonly confused with other words, and homonyms that are misused. Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently, like "meat" and "mete".
Looking for some help with spelling but lists aren't quite what you had in mind? Purdue's famous Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a section dedicated to Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling that can help you cope with trouble spots in all three of these famous bugaboo areas. Here is another page that details spelling rules designed for readers struggling with dyslexia. But one of the best ways to develop not only your spelling but your vocabulary in general is to work on developing your understanding of the root words underlying the English language. Vocabulary.com helps users do that by developing their root word knowledge through puzzles and activities that reinforce the learning process. And it's all free! The site also provides lists of words focused on specific subject and theme areas, lists based off of works of literature, and even vocational terminology. Do you find flashcards a useful tool for learning vocabulary or some other form of information? Then take a look at FlashcardExchange, an extensive online library of flashcards in numerous subject areas compiled by users from 1st grade through college. The service lets you create unlimited text cards and use them online for free as often as you'd like. If you want to download them or add images or audio to your flashcards, you will need to spring for a one-time membership fee.
Y U Shld B a Bad Splr
Not a great speller? Maybe even a really bad one? Take heart, the inability to spell is not a reflection on your intelligence, more an indicator of how your brain is wired. In fact, MRIs reveal your brain may have done some amazing rewiring on your behalf, as the infamously poor-spelling Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post found out. But you don't have to be a crackerjack speller to take an interest in the subject. In fact, over the years there have been multiple movements to simplify English spelling. Playwright George Bernard Shaw, Teddy Roosevelt and Melville Dewey (creator of the Dewey Decimal system of library organization used in most public libraries and here at DACC) all advocated simplifying the spelling of the English language. If you can't spell, these folks might argue, it's not you, it's the language. Having more than 1,100 possible letter combinations to form only 44 sounds, as English does, might be viewed as a bit of overkill.
Some see the rise of text messaging and email as exerting a degree of pressure in this direction on the language. And more than one teacher has expressed fears that these practices are destroying students' language skills, fears that linguist David Crystal identified as appearing first in Great Britain where texting has been a social practice for a longer period of time. But this recent article in the Christian Science Monitor reports that new research suggests otherwise. Texting may actually increase certain linguistic skills. Not quite sure what all the fuss is about? Check out this text to plain english translator.
And finally, many of you have probably seen the Spell Checker poem that has circulated around the internet for several years in varying forms (one version can be seen here). Here is the story behind the poem, as well as its original, subtler form.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Insect Fear Film Festival
Tomorrow, February 28, 2009, you too can enjoy the spine-tingling pleasure of bad movies combined with insects (or more accurately in this case, arthropods) at the 26th Annual Insect Fear Film Festival at the University of Illinois. The best thing about the festival is that it is free! Two feature films, two cartoons and a Mr. Wizard special on animals plus an insect petting zoo and an art show of insect art done by area school kids. What more could you ask for or get for so little!
The subject of this year's festival is centipedes. Now, if you'd like something a little creepier and/or more impressive, take a look at the fiercer (and larger) side of centipedes featured on the Damn Interesting web site, which includes images and links to videos of centipedes tackling bats and mice.
If you'd like some additional information about insects or arthropods, you may want to check out some of these web sites. The BugGuide is an online identification guide to both insects and arthopods of the U.S. and Canada that offers lots of pictures, description, food, range, classification information, habitat, risks posed by, and references. The eNature guides include identification guides for both bugs and spiders (rather sadly myriapoda or the multilegs like centipedes and millipedes appear to be left out, although butterflies those arthropoda scene-stealers have their own guide), as well as field guides for birds, mammals, shells, trees, amphibians, and wildflowers among others. The site also includes an archive of nature articles. Want some kid-related bug ideas? Check out the University of Kentucky's Dept. of Entymology's page of activities and ideas. And finally, here's one person's list of the top 10 bug movies of all time...
The subject of this year's festival is centipedes. Now, if you'd like something a little creepier and/or more impressive, take a look at the fiercer (and larger) side of centipedes featured on the Damn Interesting web site, which includes images and links to videos of centipedes tackling bats and mice.
If you'd like some additional information about insects or arthropods, you may want to check out some of these web sites. The BugGuide is an online identification guide to both insects and arthopods of the U.S. and Canada that offers lots of pictures, description, food, range, classification information, habitat, risks posed by, and references. The eNature guides include identification guides for both bugs and spiders (rather sadly myriapoda or the multilegs like centipedes and millipedes appear to be left out, although butterflies those arthropoda scene-stealers have their own guide), as well as field guides for birds, mammals, shells, trees, amphibians, and wildflowers among others. The site also includes an archive of nature articles. Want some kid-related bug ideas? Check out the University of Kentucky's Dept. of Entymology's page of activities and ideas. And finally, here's one person's list of the top 10 bug movies of all time...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Keeping Up with the Scandals: Politics Illinois Style
Following the latest twists and turns in the ongoing saga of Roland Burris and Rod Blagojevich, whose recent appearance on Letterman is must see TV for every Illinoisan, one is constantly reminded of Illinois's long history of political corruption. As an old joke goes: A Chicago school teacher as a student how to spell "politics" and the child replied: P-A-Y-O-F-F.
Several recent articles have tracked some of the state's more infamous corruption scandals. This New York Times graphic timeline does a nice job of plotting out the state's more recent scandals, while this earlier playlist of corruption provided by the Chicago Tribune focuses on the Ryan era. This MSNBC article offers perhaps the best piece, skimming off several of the more glaring of the many public officials that have been convicted of wrongdoing. This article would be worth checking out if only for the photos the editors have selected to represent various pols. The shifty-eyed shot of former governor Dan Walker, for example can be seen in interesting contrast to the former governor's own self-assessment in his book The Maverick and the Machine, profiled in this review article.
Gubanatorial Wrongdoing
Another governor who has made a noteworthy contributions to the state's record of wrongdoing is Otto Kerner, a man who demonstrates that no matter how significant an individual's achievements, a felony conviction will be better remembered. Kerner served honorably in WWII, achieving the rank of Major General and earning several commendations. He reformed state adoption laws while a judge in Cook County. And as governor improved access to housing, mental health care, jobs and housing for all state residents. Ultimately he led the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission). In the final report, he eloquently defined a key problem facing the United States: ""our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." (Recent commentary has brought this commission report back up for reconsideration and noted how far-seeing it was and how short-sighted the government was in failing to follow its recommendations.) All of these achievements would be wiped out shortly thereafter by his conviction on bribery, perjury, mail fraud, and tax evasion charges. Interestingly, as pointed out in this article, had Kerner survived, he might have been granted a new trial and his conviction been overturned because the argument used to convict him was found unconstitutional.
Some might argue that George Ryan's moratorium on the death penalty, which he discussed in this interview with The Nation, made prior to his own conviction on corruption charges, should overshadow the crimes that led to his downfall. Others would make quite the opposite case. As this Chicago Tribune article points out, that's a historical determination, and probably one that is yet to be made.
Not Just Governors
Governors have hardly had a lock on corruption in the state. In recent years, Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic congressman from Chicago became infamous for laundering money through the Capitol Post Office and then receiving an 11th hour pardon from Bill Clinton. His experiences were described in the book Rostenkowski: The Pursuit of Power and the End of the Old Politics, reviewed by Robin Toner.
Rostenkowski, of course, was a product of the Chicago Democratic Machine, the last of the big city political machines. Machine politics grew out of the era of heavy immigration and internal migration that ballooned urban populations. By providing services to the otherwise unserved and keeping cities working, political machines filled an important niche, despite being rife with corruption, and Chicago's was among the most efficient. Machine politics worked in part because the people it served came from backgrounds that inclined them to accept, at least temporarily, a degree of corruption and arbitrary brutality as the norm. It began to break down as individuals within the system identified its inherent unfairness, a situation that came to a head in 1968.
Probably the most colorful crook in downstate history is Paul Powell, former Secretary of State. The long-time, license-plate king made a big splash when he died, leaving behind a hotel room full of shoe boxes, briefcases, and strongboxes stuffed with cash. A consummate shakedown artist and patronage specialist, Powell was quoted as saying: "There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one." (Nest Egg)
Trickle Down Corruption
The Chicago Sun-Times demonstrated just how far corruption trickled down during its Mirage Bar sting operation in 1978. Working with the Chicago police and posing as new bar owners and employees, journalists left a barful of code violations for city inspectors to notably not enforce as they took money and offered advice on how to better avoid meeting the city's building and accounting codes and regulations.
Several recent articles have tracked some of the state's more infamous corruption scandals. This New York Times graphic timeline does a nice job of plotting out the state's more recent scandals, while this earlier playlist of corruption provided by the Chicago Tribune focuses on the Ryan era. This MSNBC article offers perhaps the best piece, skimming off several of the more glaring of the many public officials that have been convicted of wrongdoing. This article would be worth checking out if only for the photos the editors have selected to represent various pols. The shifty-eyed shot of former governor Dan Walker, for example can be seen in interesting contrast to the former governor's own self-assessment in his book The Maverick and the Machine, profiled in this review article.
Gubanatorial Wrongdoing
Another governor who has made a noteworthy contributions to the state's record of wrongdoing is Otto Kerner, a man who demonstrates that no matter how significant an individual's achievements, a felony conviction will be better remembered. Kerner served honorably in WWII, achieving the rank of Major General and earning several commendations. He reformed state adoption laws while a judge in Cook County. And as governor improved access to housing, mental health care, jobs and housing for all state residents. Ultimately he led the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission). In the final report, he eloquently defined a key problem facing the United States: ""our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." (Recent commentary has brought this commission report back up for reconsideration and noted how far-seeing it was and how short-sighted the government was in failing to follow its recommendations.) All of these achievements would be wiped out shortly thereafter by his conviction on bribery, perjury, mail fraud, and tax evasion charges. Interestingly, as pointed out in this article, had Kerner survived, he might have been granted a new trial and his conviction been overturned because the argument used to convict him was found unconstitutional.
Some might argue that George Ryan's moratorium on the death penalty, which he discussed in this interview with The Nation, made prior to his own conviction on corruption charges, should overshadow the crimes that led to his downfall. Others would make quite the opposite case. As this Chicago Tribune article points out, that's a historical determination, and probably one that is yet to be made.
Not Just Governors
Governors have hardly had a lock on corruption in the state. In recent years, Dan Rostenkowski, the Democratic congressman from Chicago became infamous for laundering money through the Capitol Post Office and then receiving an 11th hour pardon from Bill Clinton. His experiences were described in the book Rostenkowski: The Pursuit of Power and the End of the Old Politics, reviewed by Robin Toner.
Rostenkowski, of course, was a product of the Chicago Democratic Machine, the last of the big city political machines. Machine politics grew out of the era of heavy immigration and internal migration that ballooned urban populations. By providing services to the otherwise unserved and keeping cities working, political machines filled an important niche, despite being rife with corruption, and Chicago's was among the most efficient. Machine politics worked in part because the people it served came from backgrounds that inclined them to accept, at least temporarily, a degree of corruption and arbitrary brutality as the norm. It began to break down as individuals within the system identified its inherent unfairness, a situation that came to a head in 1968.
Probably the most colorful crook in downstate history is Paul Powell, former Secretary of State. The long-time, license-plate king made a big splash when he died, leaving behind a hotel room full of shoe boxes, briefcases, and strongboxes stuffed with cash. A consummate shakedown artist and patronage specialist, Powell was quoted as saying: "There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one." (Nest Egg)
Trickle Down Corruption
The Chicago Sun-Times demonstrated just how far corruption trickled down during its Mirage Bar sting operation in 1978. Working with the Chicago police and posing as new bar owners and employees, journalists left a barful of code violations for city inspectors to notably not enforce as they took money and offered advice on how to better avoid meeting the city's building and accounting codes and regulations.
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