Downtown : Buzz

Baltimore's grassroots effort to be one of the lucky city's chosen as a test ground for Google's ultra-fast 1-gigabit per second broadband deployment is just one of several currently taking shape in city's across the country. See what the other cities competing for the prize doing...

Here's an excerpt:

"Broadband-starved cities and towns across the country are going to great lengths to grab the attention of Mountain View (Calif.)-based Google, which in February said it will set up a network that can deliver speeds of 1 gigabit per second, about 20 times faster than the speediest ones sold by Verizon Communications (VZ). Google will spend "hundreds of millions" on the effort, Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, said in a recent interview with Bloomberg News.

To set themselves apart, some municipal officials are naming cities after Google, owner of the world's largest Web search engine. The city of Greensboro, N.C., is preparing an "Operation Google" gift package for delivery to Google headquarters and has earmarked $50,000 for promoting a Google broadband effort."

Read the entire article here.

In case you missed it, here's a peek at the recent protest People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) staged outside of Lexington Market last week. Wearing little more than bunny ears, cotton tails, and signs reading, "Only Animals Should Wear Fur," a pair of PETA beauties handed out leaflets urging people to cross fur off their shopping lists. The leaflets explained why buying and wearing fur supports one of the cruelest industries on the planet.

Part of PETA effort to inform consumers about how rabbits and other animals on fur farms spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy cages before they are killed by poisoning, gassing, anal electrocution, or neck-breaking. Animals trapped for fur suffer excruciating pain before trappers stomp on their chests or break their necks. In China�which is now the world's leading fur exporter�animals, including cats and dogs, are sometimes skinned alive.

"I'll gladly bare my skin in the cold if it will help save animals' skins," says naked "bunny" Amanda Fortino. "With so many stylish and toasty alternatives to fur available, there's no excuse for harming a hair on a real bunny's back."

If you're wondering where to go for a romantic date, Kristin Kizer has come up with a list of the city's most romantic destinations. On the list are the Senator, Fells Point and any of the city's parks.

Here's an excerpt:

"One of Baltimore's Parks -- Is there anything more romantic that a picnic in the park with your loved one? The city of Baltimore features about 6,000 acres of parks and public spaces for people to enjoy. There are large parks with wide open spaces for a game of Frisbee or ambling about, there are smaller wooded walks with trails for strolling through, there are lakeside parks where you can watch the wildlife, and there are even parks with public golf courses for the couple who likes to hit the links together."

Read the full blog post here.

A bacon aficionado alerts Baltimoreans to a festival combining beer, bacon, and music. What could be better? And yes � there is a blog devoted to bacon.

An excerpt from the post reads:

If you 1.) love bacon and 2.) live in Baltimore - or within a reasonable driving distance, then here's an event you should check out.

On Saturday, September 19th from Noon to 4 pm, you can sample over a dozen types of bacon, drink a dozen kinds of beer, and enjoy some live music at the Heavy Seas Bacon and Beer Festival - Pyrates, Pigs and Pints.

Tickets are $40 and include all-you-can-taste beer and bacon.

Read the entire blog post here:

Two popular blogs are teaming up to create a guide by Baltimoreans for Baltimoreans. Each week they'll ask a question to discern everything from where to buy the best music to where the best neighborhoods are. They want to hear from you.

An excerpt from the post reads:

The Shank is partnering with our friends at Smile Hon to put together a Baltimore Insider's Directory. If we use your answers/submissions, you'll get a free copy when we're done. Just make sure you post your name & email if you want credit and the comp copy.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be asking these types of questions and compiling the results. Please tell your friends to answer too. The more reseponses we get, the better the guide will be.

Read the entire blog post here:

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) tops the list of up-and-coming national universities compiled by U.S. News & World Reports. The magazine's annual report ranks universities across multiple categories. The 2010 ranking was the first time the magazine's editors used peer assessment surveys in its calculation of the top schools.

UMBC beat out 69 other universities for the No. spot. Here's an excerpt:

This spring, for the first time, U.S. News asked the experts who respond to its annual peer assessment survey to identify schools that fit this profile. The 70 that received the most nominations range from household names like the University of Southern California to Grand Valley State in Allendale, Mich., and Salve Regina, a 2,000-student Catholic university in Newport, R.I.

University of Maryland--Baltimore County Baltimore, MD	Rank 1
George Mason University Fairfax, VA	Rank 2
Northeastern University Boston, MA	Rank 2
Drexel University Philadelphia, PA	Rank 4
Arizona State University Tempe, AZ	Rank 5

To read more go here.

Baltimore Magazine hosted its bash honoring the winners of its 2009 Best of Baltimore survey. Winners sporting "I Won It" badges mingled with partygoers and the city's glitterati sampling tasty treats from 50 local eateries. The best offering? The Crispy Creme bread pudding - made from, yes you guessed it Krispy Kreme doughnuts - from Ale Mary's in Fell's Point was the highlight of the evening. A portion of the proceeds from the event, held at the Hippodrome, benefit The Family Tree.

Didn't pick up your August issue of the print mag? Here's a peek at a few of the winners:

Peter's Inn - Best pub food

Larry Doyle - Best humorist

Ali True, True Balance Training Studio - Best personal trainer

Lisa Ponzoli, owner of Babe boutique - Best sweet dresses

Dean Krapf, owner of Lluminaire - Best makeup artist

Leeann Burlbaw, co-owner of Mark and Buttons Chimney Sweeps - Best chimney service

Kara Hanson, owner of Funky Beehive in Federal Hill - Best kitschy home gifts

Bulle Rock Golf Course - Best golf course

Marc Steiner - Best comeback

Rupert Wondolowski, editor Shattered Wig Review - Best literary magazine

Adam Jones - Best Oriole

Panera Bread � Best Bagel

Want to check out the remaining winners of the mag's 45 categories? Read on here

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Blogger Clio Bluestocking of that "Great Zoo on the Potomac" (dare we assume this is Washington?) walks the streets of Baltimore for five weeks and notices "landmarks of some very bad guys who have graced the streets of this interesting city."

An excerpt from the blog post reads reads:

Speaking of individuals willing to go to great lengths to protect systems, here we have a non-fictional bad guy memorialized in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood. That is Chief Justice Roger Taney: Maryland-born, first Catholic Supreme Court Justice, and author of the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision. Sure, he was a slaveholder who freed his slaves; but really, you have a hard time making his case as a good guy. After all, he was the man who identified the central question of the case as this: "can a negro whose ancestors were imported into this country and sold as slaves become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied by that instrument to the citizen, one of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution?" and decided not only that Dred Scott and his family should be kept in slavery because "Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and not entitled as such to sue in its courts, and consequently that the Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of the case, and that the judgment on the plea in abatement is erroneous," but also that all African Americans were not and should not be considered citizens of the U.S. So, I consider him a bad guy.

Read the entire post here.