July 29, 2005
Rails to Trails: a good idea
Want to bike, rollerskate, or scoot on a nice flat surface but not be smushed by cars? Try a trail, my friend.
July 28, 2005
More hypocrisy than paradox, maybe
Harper's enumerates a number of decidedly un-Christian behaviors of the most professedly Christian nation (we're more professedly Christian than Israel is Jewish, f'r Chrissakes). The author calls it a paradox; I'm inclined to call it hypocrisy, or maybe just ignorance of what Christ is reported to have taught.
July 27, 2005
(mentally) reserve your copy today!
Harry Shearer's first novel, Not Enough Indians, will be published next year. You bet I'll be reading it!
July 25, 2005
More Doctor Who news
The article is nominally about the return of Sarah Jane Smith, but also includes such tidbits as these:
- David Tennant does appear at the end of the first series (presumably we get to see Eccleston's regeneration),
- Stephen Fry will write (has written?) an episode for the second series, and, perhaps best of all,
- Tony Head will guest in the second series!
July 22, 2005
Dinner in Pompeii
In "the most important find of [its] sort in more than 70 years," 20 silver goblets, plates, and trays collected by their owner (or maybe a looter) into a wicker basket and stashed in a public bath stairwell have been separated and cleaned off.
July 20, 2005
But how will I remember my anniversary?
A combo lock with letters instead of numbers is now available, but it can't spell everything.
Things that make me check my calendar
Clearly I'm out of touch with the world of fine arts, as it never would have occurred to me that at least one Symphony Orchestra is a preserve of sexist idiocy. Somehow the musicians' "artistic expertise was being disregarded" in the "premature conclusion of the search process."
The coverage has that quality of vague that always indicates to me that nobody's on the level. The musicians cite unspecified "concerns" (which I have to interpret as "you can't make us follow some girl," since surely any substantive shortcoming would be bruited far and wide), while on the other hand we have Baltimore Symphony President Glicker: "Glicker expressed confidence that she would achieve a smooth relationship with the orchestra through 'her personality on the podium. That's pretty compelling,' he said. 'And she has great people skills. I'm hoping that's going to win the day.'"
Her personality on the podium? People skills? I suppose conducting a bunch of egotistical gifted children does require good people skills, but why not say "her technical prowess is world class, and we're lucky to have her," if it's true? And if it's not true, why would you hire her? Merely because "She has the ability to sit down one on one with a patron or potential donor and make that person very comfortable"? You need that ability in your Orchestra staff somewhere, but does it really have to be at the conductor position? Or is there a glut of world-class conductors (or it's just not that hard), so they have the luxury of choosing based on schmoozing ability?
Maybe the next Grisham-esque thriller genre will deal with the cut-throat world of symphony conducting, so all this can be presented to us in an easy-to-grasp form. Hell, for all I know, such works already exist.
July 18, 2005
A Later Anniversary Present
Via BoingBoing, some historical images of Nevada nuclear testing.
July 16, 2005
Not really the trades, but I may read it for you
Adfreak! The sad/glad thing is, I watch so few TV ads that I am entirely unfamiliar with the ads people mention at the theoretical water cooler (actually the sign in desk at headquarters).
Later note: it is the trades, and I'm just easily led.
Assembly-Line Painting?
As with many NYT articles (or even news in general?) the premise is more interesting than the article itself: cheap paintings from China, cranked out in bulk. My favortite bits: 1. The idea of thousands of artists, painting away for export (so very Bruce Sterling!), but they seem to do it as piecework in their own homes or businesses rather than in a massive warehouse or cube farm. 2. "Artist groups in the United States are starting to express concern, questioning the originality of some Chinese paintings and whether they comply with American copyright laws." I'm entertained that anyone's surprised about the possiblility of China violating copyright (gasp!) and that the issue of originality is a separate issue. (One of the dealers comments that "the copies are inherently different because they are handmade, and so do not violate copyrights." An interesting concept! A rep for a gallery trade group disagrees, naturally. In his rebuttal, it is mentioned that "vast majority of paintings produced before the 20th century were in the public domain." Vast majority? Doesn't it seem like all of the art produced before 1900 should be PD by now? Yeesh.) Unoriginal art produced in bulk for hotels and condos? Heaven forfend! 3. This is not a new industry, it is in fact the export of a business formerly common in northern New Jersey! I'm betting these are the same sort of outfits that Daniel Pinkwater wrote about in his essays on his early artistic life in Hoboken.
One of the retailers of such products is online and offers custom paintings! I think I need a custom oil of Alfred E. Neuman.
July 15, 2005
Comics movies
CNN reviews a raft of upcoming movies based on comic books and graphic novels. All indications are that Alan Moore no longer has anything to do with film adaptations, and has severed ties with DC because of their inability to maintain that separation.
July 14, 2005
Mysterious gifts
Somebody left a sample of Magnecote on my desk. It reads "I [heart] librarians" and has this URL on it. The target requires flash, and seems to respond randomly, so it's not quite Subservient Chicken, but it's somewhat entertaining.
A reasonably tidy round-up
Time for the occasional acknowledgement that the administration has brought new levels of shame to the White House.
July 13, 2005
Found item
The apparently lovely and talented Heather B. Armstrong has a post that made blogdex today.
The rest of her site seems pleasing to me, too. Her monthly newsletters (well, the one I read) remind me of the best parts of Irony Central's Story about the Baby.
Alberta History
Neat! Alberta history available to all-- digitized newspapers, airphotos, and more. They say they are renovating, so I hope this means more to come.
July 12, 2005
July 11, 2005
One Presses On
94 year old Red Cross volunteer and WWII ambulance driver, Marilyn Benemen, walked down to the hospital to help out those injured in the recent London bombing:
"Oh, when you're Red Cross, you're expected to do it. Oh, yes, if you're in walking distance, I think you should turn up. And long as you can just soothe people down and an extra cup of tea, a spot of tea, yes--it's a wicked, wicked thing, though. You say, `Well, the world's got to go on. Everything's got to go on. You can't give in to these things.' And so one presses on."
I would have guessed someone older
Who'd have thunk it?
 | I am:William GibsonThe chief instigator of the "cyberpunk" wave of the 1980s, his razzle-dazzle futuristic intrigues were, for a while, the most imitated work in science fiction. |
July 08, 2005
Viewer Discretion is Advised!
The CDC has a Public Health Image Library (it was mentioned in some of the flu coverage that Craig linked to), and if they have to warn you about the content, you know it's good!
Hey, they're working!
Even Nicky Brendon is working (and with our favorite Ralph Fiennes-alike Bradley Cooper (the reporter best friend from Alias), no less). Lots of other Buffy/Angel alumni are mentioned in the article, too.
July 07, 2005
Joss!
If only the purchase of this shirt somehow credited Joss with a beer or other tasty beverage of his choice.
Time, time, time, see what's become of you
The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service has declared a leap second for the end of this year, after which the difference between UTC and TAI will be 33 seconds. GPS-UTC will be 14 seconds.
July 06, 2005
Pity it's only monthly...
The LoC has a "web magazine" to guide you to cool stuff in their collections. Which I suppose I could do, too, were I not so busy goofing off with Corbis.
Sheds!
Wow, it's all about sheds. In the UK, where a shed is really a shed.
Werewolves of Bellevue
The tallest building in Bellevue (right at the city's 450-foot height limit) will house a Trader Vic's, as well as other stuff.
Speaking of Kennewick Man
Seems like just the other night we were talking about Kennewick Man, and now folks are (finally) headed to the Burke to check him out.
July 05, 2005
Flu update
H5N1 (one of 15 Avian Influenza strains) has been simmering in Asia since December 2003, and has claimed at least 54 human and countless (more than 100 million as of last year) poultry lives. "Most influenza experts also agree that the prompt culling of Hong Kong’s entire poultry population [due to H5N1 infection] in 1997 probably averted a pandemic." The WHO has been closely tracking the situation in Viet Nam (later expanded to Cambodia) since December of 2004. They aren't raising the pandemic alert level above its January 2004 level ("incipient pandemic", near as I can tell), but neither are they lowering it. China's unwillingness to share information and propensity to do stupid things (and then deny them) are probably creating the greatest hindrance to minimizing the pandemic threat.
It's a bummer that poultry farming practices in Asia are creating a nearly ideal virus incubation and mutation lab. The conspiracist in me wants to see some significance in the fact that the government of the world's most populous nation is behaving in a way that is encouraging a situation that could wipe out a substantial chunk of the world's population, but I find it hard to take the conspiracist in me very seriously most of the time.
July 01, 2005
June Reading
Here's what I've read in June. Though I tell you while feeling inferior to DirtyLibrarian, who reads more and better than I do. (Y) means it is intended for teen readers.
Guys Write for Guys Read, ed. Scieszka (Y)
Better in concept than execution. Assembled to support the Guys Read literacy program, the choice of essays is not great for the purpose of encouraging young guys to read. Two stars for effort.
The Secret Under my Skin by McNaughton (Y)
Post ecology-apocalypse political wrangling, with an orphan girl in the middle. Starts with promise, but limps in the end. Better than Gathering Blue (with similar apocalypse and textile elements), but that isn't saying much. Two stars for being better than G.B.
If Chins Could Kill: confessions of a B movie actor: an autobiography by Bruce Campbell
Conversational, personable, funny, a really enjoyable biography. Good use of pictures, too. Four stars for being good and making me happy that I have my job and not his.
Fray by Joss Whedon
It isn't often that I gasp at a plot twist in a book. This one had me on the edge of my seat and emotionally involved with the characters. Impressive, considering how short it is. Five stars and a hearty thumbs up.
Sequential
This was loaned to me by Mike. I couldn't really get into it. Sorry, Mike. No stars.
America the Book by those Daily Show people
I'll put it here as a June book, even thought I read it over the course of many months. It has been my designated bathroom book. It's a funny book overall, and very well suited to reading a little at a time. Three stars for good potty reading.
Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last by Susan Juby (Y)
I love Susan Juby, and I love Alice. This is Alice's third installment (after Alice, I Think and Miss Smithers). Very funny and touching, as usual. Now I want to go visit Smithers. Highly recommend for young and not-young. Four stars for excellent round three and writing a character that I can really root for.
Time Hackers, Paulsen (Y)
Time travel used for disgusting pranks, but may get out of hand. Novella-length and easy to read with lots of grossout details in the beginning, this is a definite booktalk title. Sly humor makes it fun for adults, too. Three stars for good high low book with cadaver stank on the first page.
Marvel 1602, Gaiman
The review said it was hard to understand if you weren't really familiar with the Marvel universe. Turns out they were right! No rating due to giving up partway through the book. Later: Craig read it, says it's great. Encouraged me to read the preface and try again.
Uglies, Westerfield (Y)
Wow, it's nice to read a book for teen readers that really sucks you in. It was a long one (just over 400 pages), but I'm ready for the next book in the trilogy already. Future slang was well-done, and the first and last lines of the book were great grabbers. Four stars for an exciting and involving read with good character development.
Surviving Antarctica: reality TV 2083, White (Y)
Great premise, poor execution. Only made it halfway through. Two stars for annoying dialogue and glacial pacing.
Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, Heimann
Only got it for the pictures, which were an OK selection.
One star for noir.
Banvard's Folly, Collins
I got it because I absolutely love the two books he wrote after this one. I didn't like it as much as the others, though. Interesting, but I had read about several of the cases in other books, and it ended up being more sad than interesting in spots. Perhaps I was not in the right mood for this one. I didn't finish it. Two stars for a promising start.
Mysterious, romantic Saturn
The physics makes a certain amount of sense, I guess, since they're all massive and stuff, but who would have thought Saturn's rings would have atmosphere?