« September 16, 2007 - September 22, 2007 | Main
September 29, 2007
Cocoa Sample Code: SimplePicture
In the ongoing quest to remember that not everyone is a Cocoa expert, I put together a small image viewing app which shows you a number of basic Cocoa techiques. Everyone, meet SimplePicture. SimplePicture — everyone...
A Teacher's Legacy
Examiner column for October 1.
George W. has been thinking about his legacy, and his departure is 16 months away. I have also been thinking of my more modest legacy as a public school teacher. Many of us baby boomers are within a few years of retiring from our current postions; what will be our legacies?
Bush will, like his father and Bill Clinton, stay in the “game” by taking on favorite causes. In two years I will continue to teach writing on the college level. But I’ll no longer be getting up in the dark. It may not be “retirement,” but it will be a longer night’s sleep.
How much do teachers affect students? Many of my students don’t even remember my name the following year. Younger siblings sometimes turn up in my class and I ask: “ Didn’t I teach your brother George?” They return later with, “George thinks he might have had you for English, but he isn’t sure. He wasn’t that good at English.”
There are, of course, the students who remember you forever because you caught them at a time when whatever you were teaching meshed with whatever their brains were ready to absorb. Much of a teacher’s effect has to do with the student’s readiness and not the teacher’s skill.
Yet I find myself noting, “This is the second to last Back-to-School-Night,” or “I will only teach “1984” one more time. There is the wistful moment when I think of the many years I have spoken to nervous parents in the fall and tried to reassure them, and the decades I have bonded with students over our mutual hatred of surveillance and government oversight. “One more time,” I think to myself, as I close my classroom door.
Concurrent with this nostalgia is my realistic awareness that high school is four years long and that students’ memories are short. A colleague died 18 months ago and no one at Oakton ever mentions him anymore, even though he taught English there for more than 20 years.
Retirees from our department are welcomed warmly when they come back as substitute teachers, but they, too, are aware that students don’t see them as veteran experts returning to do them a favor. They’re just “subs” in those classes.
And so I think my legacy has to remain largely in my own consciousness since I can’t really depend on the school or students to remember me. I helped design a very popular interdisciplinary Advanced Placement course, “Senior Seminar,” that may or may not survive my departure. If it dies, I can’t assume it was a failure, since hundreds of students benefited from it over the years.
Similarly, my effect on students’ love of theatre or reading may very well go unacknowledged by the student and by me. Perhaps they now buy tickets to the Shakespeare Theatre because they went for the first time in my class. I will never know.
For many of us, our legacies may be virtually invisible, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There must be a special place where teachers’ accomplishments live on. I know my own teachers live on in me.
Erica Jacobs soldiers on at Oakton High School and George Mason University. Email her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
Revver pays $1 million to video creators and promoters
Earlier this month Revver announced that it had paid $1 million to video creators and promoters over the past year. Revver has been a pioneer in combining CC licensing (videos on Revver are licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) and compensation to creators via an ad-based model. Creative Commons used Revver as part of its fall fundraising campaign last year (watch Wanna Work Together).
Congratulations to the video creators and promoters on Revver, and to Revver!
Blip.tv and Lulu.tv are two other video sites combining CC licensing (Blip.tv supports any CC license; Lulu.tv, like Revver, only uses BY-NC-ND) and user payouts.
Hillary Proposes $5,000 "Baby Bonds" For Newborns
Hillary Clinton yesterday proposed a "Baby Bonds" program, in which the government would give newborns $5,000 in an interest-bearing account that would become available to them at age 18, for the purposes of paying for college, going towards home ownership or other causes. The cost would be roughly $20 billion per year.
ABC News notes that Hillary proposed something similar in 2006, only then it was $500.
Postseason Odds Updates All Weekend As Games Finish
At 4:00 eastern time Saturday the Mets‘ finished off a 13-0 thrashing of the Marlins.
INDAY UPDATE: The Mets’ thrashing of the Marlins raises their playoff chances from 21.0% to 31.1%: division champ chance up from 17.6 to 25.6, wild card up from 3.5 to 5.5. It cuts the Phillies‘ chances from 82.4/1.5/84.0 to 74.4/2.4/76.9. The chance of an NL East tie, which would require a playoff game, is up to 34.0%.
The Mets’ victory drops the Padres‘ wild card chances from 82.5 to 79.9 and the Rockies‘ chances from
4.4 to 4.0. The chance of a wild card playoff game is up from 16.3 to 19.8%; the chance of a three-way tie is
up from 4.8 to 7.7 and a four-way tie is up from 1.8 to 3.0%.
Reporting from the Manaphy event
What an amazing day! I took my daughter and one of her friends with me when we made the trip down. After a 45 minute drive we arrived!
When we entered the store we saw a small collection of Pokemon toys. A few steps later and we were in the video game section where a small crowd of Pokemon players had already gathered.
There were a lot of kids there for the event and a few adults. Like me, those adults “claimed” to be there to get the Pokemon because their kids could not make it. After a few minutes of talking it quickly became apparent which adults were there for their kids and which were their for themselves!
After downloading Manaphy into my two game cartridges I talked to some of the others who were there doing trades. I managed to trade about 30 Pokemon all told. I cleaned out all of my leftover Totodiles and Gibles today! i also traded away a few other Pokemon that were in demand that I knew I could easily replace (Elekid, Lugia, Piplup).
While trading the two kids I brought with me were spreading the word about PokeFarm among all the other kids there. So, if this is your first visit to the farm then I bid you welcome!
Because I acquired a second Manaphy I will be giving the extra one away in a contest.
Because there are so many Pokemon fans in my area I’m going to be going forward with a plan to host some local Pokemon events at a wired cafe near me.
All in all we had a great time and made some great trades. If you are new here don’t forget to check out our forum!
September 28, 2007
remission
Even though they haven't released anything worth listening to since Dwayne Goettel died in 1995, Skinny Puppy has been a favorite band of mine since I first heard them 15 years ago.
Most of the ice-cold music I've posted here in the past has been, to my ears, directly descended from Skinny Puppy's 1984 EP, Remission. It's a perfect example of self-confidence absent the inflated expectations of a demanding fanbase, a trait also found in early Orbital records and Skinny Puppy's later albums Bites and Mind: T.P.I.
Meeting Gary Fisher by chance
“Ah, nothing’s to chance,” Gary Fisher said and we talked briefly about the Simple City, the bike revolution, politics, his travels, and more. We met at the Vegas Airport. He just finished his meal and we were getting ours.
I hope we can talk more with Gary. We had a lot in common and I think more than just chance.
ToppsWorld
Yeah, I know. I haven't posted lately. But I have good reason: I've been busy. First, I moved out of my apartment. Second, I've been fleshing out the idea of 'ToppsWorld.' I've got it separated into five zones (like Disney World's 'lands' concept): HQ New York (or simply 'New York'); WizKidZone; Parallel Universe; Training Camp; and Duryealand. There would also be an open-air bus that would connect all four parts, the Bazooka Tram. Finally, the park would be rounded out by the on-premises hotel, Chez O Pee Chee.
Park Checklist for 'ToppsWorld'
HQ New York
The Haunted Vault
Brooklyn: Topps Museum & Hall of Fame
Garbage Pail Alley
Don't Get Dumped! (water ride, each car is shaped like a case of High-Series 1952 Topps)
Mr. Mantle's Wild Ride
A-Rod's Bullshit Home Run Sidewalk (500 squares of cement with a different number on each one)
Hero Parade (every day at 11am)
Heritage Cafe (restaurant)
The Warehouse (store)
Connects to other areas and Chez O Pee Chee via Bazooka Tram
WizKidZone
Push Pops Candy A-Go-Go
Dr. Shorin's Mixed-Up Wacky Package Fun House
HeroClix Something Or Other Ball Pit
Bowman Town (rides for small kids; Canadian-themed)
All Star Rookies (restaurant)
Topps of the Class (store)
Connects to other areas and Chez O Pee Chee via Bazooka Tram
Parallel Universe
Refractor Mountain
Sequentially-Numbered Experience
Escape From eTopps!
Chrome (restaurant)
Rip Party (store)
Connects to other areas and Chez O Pee Chee via Bazooka Tram
Training Camp
The Dotted Line (make your own card, sign a fake contract)
Topps Hero Village (batting cages, basketball hoop games, football pass exercises, other stuff)
Hey Mister! (get autographs from visiting sports stars and legends, live and in-person!)
Signatures (restaurant)
The Parking Lot (store)
Connects to other areas and Chez O Pee Chee via Bazooka Tram
Duryealand
Dream Street: 1) regular house filled to burst with cards, 2) Swap Meet: trade for special World of Topps cards, 3) Shorin's Candy Shop: olde timey candy shop sells reprint cards in 5 cent packs (also Duryealand restaurant), 4) Topps Factory
The Topps Factory Tour, hosted by animatronic Bazooka Joe (actually partially reprogrammed cast-off Chuck E. Cheese with blond wig, inexplicable eye patch and backwards hat)
Factory Store (largest store on premises)
Connects to other areas and Chez O Pee Chee via Bazooka Tram
Chez O Pee Chee Hotel & Convention Center
XFractor (nightclub on premises)
Mergers'N'Buyouts (store)
Greg Oden's Knee (restaurant/movie theater with lots of legroom)
You may laugh it the idea of 'ToppsWorld' (and it's okay – it's funny), but the more I thought about it this week, the more plausible it became. Especially with Eisner at the helm. Because for all the boom that the baseball card hobby has enjoyed this year, cards have yet to make the jump from 'hobby' to 'mainstream kitsch' (which is really where it should be).
On a related note, Topps has started selling t-shirts on its website. And while that's a fine start, are those same shirts available at stores like Urban Outfitters? Or even Wal-Mart? Cards may be what Topps think it sells, but of course any psychology student can tell you that what Topps sells is much larger than 2.5" x 3.5".
Just you wait and see: after a few years of smart marketing, a pipe dream like 'ToppsWorld' won't seem so far fetched.
matt webb, sooooper genius
Ah, the genmon Twitter stream. Worth every iota of attention, esp. when it produces gems like this: "Oh, gtd is finite state machines. What other computing paradigms can become life org methodologies".
Photo of the Day: Rice Field
Photograph from Tamaki on Flickr
This is what rice looks like before it finds its way to your plate. This rice field happens to be in Miyagi Perfecture, Japan. Flickr member Tamaki lives nearby and has posted a beautiful set of photos of the rice field at various times of year.
Stingy Kids: I was thrilled to learn this week that the poet, translator, and publisher Peter Cole was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (otherwise known as "the genius grant")
Translating With
Some of my translations appear this month at Kritya, an online journal of poetry and translation, which is published in India (NB: Because of the way the page is formatted, some of the line breaks in the translations are incorrect.). About a month ago, Eran Tzelgov, one of the founding editors of Daka (literally, "minute"), a relatively new Israeli literary journal, approached me with the opportunity to translate some poems from the first two issues. The result is some of the poems on the Kritya site. Other poems will make their appearance at the 2008 Austin International Poetry Festival and, hopefully, in other journals. Translation is always a collaboration to a degree. There are people I approach, for feedback and comments, at the beginning of a project and others at the end, depending on the requirements of the particular project. But ultimately, it's my name that appears after "translated by." This was the first time, however, that I shared credit. The line between "what is mine" and "what is yours" is often blurred in co-translation (or collaborative translation) but it becomes very clear at which point you've crossed from "feedback and suggestions" to actively building the translation together. I've long admired the work of co-translators Chana Kronfeld and Chana Bloch, who have collaborated on Yehuda Amichai's last book Patuach sagur patuach (Open Closed Open) and a collection of poems by Dahlia Ravikovitch (forthcoming), but always wondered how exactly co-translation happens. I have some sense of it now but I'm interested in reading more on the topic and pursuing collaborative projects in the future.
"War Profiteers Read My Weblog"
Disturbing Search Request of the decade: 213.42.21.150, searching Google for “who would handle a commercial shipment of arms and ammunitions from Sharjah to Baghdad”. That’ll be someone downstream of AS5384, or Etisalat (Emirates Telecom), the UAE’s fun-loving national telco monopoly, best known for blocking more websites than China.What’s crazy is that this weblog is a useful search result in this case. You to firms like Tenir Airlines. A quick check of the Sharjah International Airport departures page would show you a Tenir flight just left Sharjah for Bagram, only 18 minutes behind schedule.
Rosie the free range chicken
I waited by the chicken door to see if any of the birds would exercise the
option and stroll down the little ramp to their grassy yard, which had been mowed recently. And waited. I finally had to conclude that Rosie the organic free-range chicken doesn't really grok the whole free-range conceit.Reading an Awesome book title "The Omnivore's dilemma"
This is a witty and informative book. As a vegetarian I pay a whole lot of attention to what I eat. The information in this book tells you that it isn'tjust about brand names and ingredient lists. Rather, you have to think about the sources food, and the food's sources, and origin of those sources all the way back to the water, lnad and even the sun.
Highly recommended and really for everyone because we all eat.
MacArthur Awards Poet Translator
I was thrilled to learn this week that the poet, translator, and publisher Peter Cole was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (otherwise known as "the genius grant"). Cole and his wife Adina Hoffman are the founders and, with Gabriel Levin, editors of Ibis Editions, a small press based in Israel that is committed to promoting cross-cultural understanding in the Levant (They deliberately avoid the term "Middle East."). On their "about" page they describe their objectives as follows:
The press publishes translations from Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, French, and the other languages of the region. New writing is published, though special attention is paid to overlooked works from the recent and distant past. Ibis aims to make a modest contribution to the literature of this part of the world by drawing together a group of writers and translators whom both politics and market-forces would otherwise keep far apart, or out of print altogether. Ibis is motivated by the belief that literary work, especially when translated into a common language, can serve as an important vehicle for the promotion of understanding between individuals and peoples, and for the discovery of common ground.Small literary presses are more often than not labors of love and Ibis Editions is no exception. But the MacArthur Fellowship also recognizes Cole's astounding translations of contemporary Israeli and Palestinian literature (Taha Muhammad Ali, Yoel Hoffman, Aharon Shabtai, Harold Schimmel and others) and Medieval Hebrew poetry. This year, Princeton University Press published the anthology The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, 576 pages of poems translated by Cole. He is also the author of the poetry collections Rift (1989), Hymns & Qualms (1998), and What Is Doubled: Poems 1981-1998 (2005).
To learn more about Ibis and Cole's thoughts on translation and poetry, I highly recommend reading the transcript of Leonard Schwartz's radio interview with Cole. To go directly to a PDF sampler of poems from his most recent collection, click these words. I also encourage you to browse the Ibis catalogue and support its editors, writers and translators with a purchase.
A night the letters fell from the wall
like startled minnows, shimmering...
--from "Torches" by Peter Cole (in Rift)
Where Fancy Takes Me
Between classes, dissertation and an exhilirating translation project (which I can't disclose yet), I haven't had much time for exploring literary life on the internet. But clearly I get distracted because by Friday morning, my desktop is (again) clouded with links "saved for later."
The April 2007 issue of Poetry was devoted to translation and included a poem by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, translated by Paul Muldoon. The poem, "The Mermaid in the Hospital," was my favorite piece in that issue. A complete translation of Ní Dhomhnaill's "mermaid poems" is forthcoming. I've been meaning to read more of and about her work. She writes in Irish and also actively encourages bold translations of her poems. To quote from the PIW introduction to her work (linked to above): "Ní Dhomhnaill questions translation approaches that call for extreme fidelity to the original Irish text, and prefers instead to grant her English translators with full creative license to render her original Irish poems into aesthetic texts for English-speaking audiences."
I like to imagine an anthology of poems featuring mermaids and sea-horses:
Then all the dry-pied things that be
In the hueless mosses under the sea
Would curl round my silver feet silently,
All looking up for the love of me.
And if I should carol aloud, from aloft
All things that are forked, and horned, and soft
Would lean out from the hollow sphere of the sea,
All looking down for the love of me."The Mermaid" by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Christopher Reid published a volume of poems titled Mermaids Explained. But I must have saved a link to this interview with Reid because it addresses the theme of translation that runs through his work, which I've never read. His third book, Katerina Brac, is a translation of works by a ficitional poet. It's going on my list of books to buy immediately.
I subscribe to the Writer's Almanac but when the week gets hectic many of their messages end up unopened and later discarded. The one email from WA that I opened this week featured the poem "The Fabric of Life" by Kay Ryan (scroll down to September 27). Her lines are taut, tremendously compressed. I've been thinking about line and breath lately so I'll be taking a closer look at her work. In 2006 Ryan appeared on the NewsHour with Jim Leher. "Silence means a great deal to me, and I've learned to distinguish a great number of forms of silence. My poems talk about a palpable silence, that creamy, latexy kind of silence that we know, even when we're experiencing it as a giant luxury, like a dream luxury. There is an angry silence, which is a very different and unpleasant form of silence." Take a moment to read "Blandeur."
Kevin Shay interviewed Robert Pinsky when he was sixteen years old. I enjoyed every bit of this interview. Here's a highlight:
CG: What words of advice would you give to aspiring young poets?
RP: Find something you’ve read that you love. Memorize it, type it up on a piece of paper with your own hands, and put it on the wall above your toaster, and say it to yourself in the shower. Find things that you really love, not because the teacher said they were good but because you love them, and try to acquire as many things like that as possible—things that you know so well you feel as if you had written them.
Absolutely. Susan Stewart's "Yellow Stars and Ice" has been on the wall adjacent to my desk for almost two years.
Desktop Status: Clear, momentarily. A threat of afternoon showers looms.
The Five-Way Tie is Dead. Long Live the Four-Way Tie!
My post from yesterday on playoff tie scenarios was incorrect. In that post I wrote:
In fact, the fact that the Diamondbacks and the Rockies cannot finish with the same record is also rather detrimental to the prospect of a “true” four-team tie. For example, let’s say that the following happens:
Padres go 1-2, finish at 89-73
Phillies go 2-1, finish at 89-73
Mets go 2-1, finish at 89-73
Rockies (playing Diamondbacks) go 2-1, finish at 89-73
Diamondbacks (playing Rockies) go 1-2, finish at 90-72That creates four teams tied at 89-73 … but in Major League Baseball’s eyes, this represents two two-way ties rather than one four-way tie. The Phillies play the Mets for the NL East title. The loser of that game is at 89-74, and therefore is no longer tied for the Wild Card. So you simply have the Padres and Rockies, both 89-73, in a one-game playoff for the Wild Card slot.
I apologize for the error. This used to be correct, but it simply isn’t any longer. From Clay Davenport (and a couple dozen loyal readers):
Sorry, Nate, but I think you are wrong about your four-way tie scenario.
MLB changed it a couple years ago, so that, quote,Any playoff games played to determine a Division champion shall not count in determining which Clubs are deemed tied for a Wild Card designation. Clubs that were originally tied with a Club or Clubs for a Wild Card designation shall still be considered tied.
That is from scenario 5 in this press release.
For scheduling purposes, MLB would probably make the Rockies and Padres play-off while the Phils and Mets decided their division title. The loser of Phillies/Mets would then play the winner of COL/SD, i.e, be team C.
Thus, there remain two distinct scenarios by which a four-way tie can still be achieved. My apologies again, and I hope you can forgive the confusion.
Errol Morris writes several hundred words about two iconic photos...
Errol Morris writes several hundred words about two iconic photos taken by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War, during which he explores the interplay between "clear" evidence and the interpretation of that evidence by people with different agendas and ideas.
As I've said elsewhere: Nothing is so obvious that it's obvious. When someone says that something is obvious, it seems almost certain that it is anything but obvious - even to them. The use of the word "obvious" indicates the absence of a logical argument - an attempt to convince the reader by asserting the truth of something by saying it a little louder.
This might be the best blog post I've ever read. I can't wait to see Standard Operating Procedure, Morris' upcoming documentary on Abu Ghraib and, from what it sounds like, the culmination of his exploration of truth in photography.
(link)
● Star Wars viewing order
Look, I know it's Friday you're just looking for some fun stuff to end the work week with, but we've got a pressing matter to discuss. Let's say you're a new father and a movie fan. When your child is of an appropriate age to start watching movies, in which order will you show him/her the six Star Wars movies? By original release date (Star Wars, Empire, Jedi, Phantom Menace, Clones, Sith) or according to the intra-movie chronology (Phantom Menace, Clones, Sith, Star Wars, Empire, Jedi)?
We're currently leaning toward by original release date, but I can see the advantages of the other way around too. At dinner the other night, a friend asserted that not only was original release date the way to go, but that viewing the original versions on VHS was essential as well. I believe the relevant tapes and a cheapo VCR have been stashed away for this purpose already.
What do you think? How would you approach this? (thx to rehan for the suggested topic)
(Comment on this)
The Extended Family in New Jersey
In our modern culture, everybody tries to get their own. Kids want their own room, and when they grow up, they want their own place to live. Living in an extended family -- many of us third-generation immigrants would need...
Creating the Doomsday Yawn
One professor's quest to create a Doomsday Yawn. Also: can humans transmit yawns to other animals? (via tir)
September 27, 2007
The Five-Way Tie Strikes Out
Joe Sheehan made a comment tonight about how he hoped that the Dodgers would beat the Rockies, because this would preserve the possibility of a five-way tie. I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about at first, but here’s the deal … the Diamondbacks enter the last weekend of the season with 89 wins, and the Rockies 87. So, the Rockies would need to gain exactly two games on the Diamondbacks to facilitate the five-way tie. The problem is that the two teams play one another this weekend, and there is no way to wind up with a +2 swing for the Rockies. If the Rockies sweep the series, that’s a +3, and they’ll finish a game up on the Diamondbacks. And if they win two out of three, that’s a +1, and they’ll finish one game behind. So the possibility of the five-way tie is dead.
In fact, the fact that the Diamondbacks and the Rockies cannot finish with the same record is also rather detrimental to the prospect of a “true” four-team tie. For example, let’s say that the following happens:
Padres go 1-2, finish at 89-73 Phillies go 2-1, finish at 89-73 Mets go 2-1, finish at 89-73 Rockies (playing Diamondbacks) go 2-1, finish at 89-73 Diamondbacks (playing Rockies) go 1-2, finish at 90-72That creates four teams tied at 89-73 … but in Major League Baseball’s eyes, this represents two two-way ties rather than one four-way tie. The Phillies play the Mets for the NL East title. The loser of that game is at 89-74, and therefore is no longer tied for the Wild Card. So you simply have the Padres and Rockies, both 89-73, in a one-game playoff for the Wild Card slot.
The only remaining scenario for a “true” four-team tie is if exactly the following happens:
Padres go 2-1, finish at 90-72 Phillies go 3-0, finish at 90-72 Mets go 3-0, finish at 90-72 Rockies (playing Diamondbacks) go 3-0, finish at 90-72 Diamondbacks (playing Rockies) go 0-3, finish at 89-73If that happens, you have playoff games in the East and West on Monday, and then the losers have a consolation game to determine the Wild Card on Tuesday. By the way, this scenario would eliminate the possibility of a tie in the NL Central, because the Padres are playing the Brewers and the Brewers need to win at least 2 out of 3 games to have a shot at tying the Cubs. So the highest conceivable number of playoff games is three.
There remain, rest assured, several quite plausible possibilities involving a three-way tie for the Wild Card.
airport terminal infographics
a site-specific digital art exhibition of 5 different projects exploring themes of contemporary air travel & the architecture of airports at Toronto Pearson International Airport."Arrivals & Departures" is a "terribly impractical" dynamic display of airline arrival & departure times that reacts to the dynamic movements of passers-by.
"Touch & go" is an interactive animation that explores the secret life of the airport icon. users can send the "hero" on random encounters with the hazards & pitfalls of his flatland existence.
"Passage Oublie" is an interactive artwork allowing the public to send text messages that are then animated along flight trajectories on a map featuring airports involved in rendition flights.
this media installation was part of Year Zero One's Terminal Zero One installation at the Toronto International Airport.
[links: shiffman.net (arrivals & departures) touchandgoproject.ca (touch & go) & passageoublie.org (passage oublie)|thnkx Christopher]
Michelle Obama Didn't Say Iowa Win Essential, After All
Below we noted that the Quad City Times had quoted Michelle Obama saying that if her husband doesn't win Iowa, it's all over. But it looks like she didn't say this, after all. The campaign has sent out the following transcript of her actual remarks:
“Iowa will make the difference. If Barack doesn't win Iowa, it's just a dream, but if we win Iowa, then we can move the world as it should be. And we need your help in making that happen so join me."Not the same at all, obviously.
Freedom From Choice
A.J. Jacobs, master of the year-long book stunt, spent a year trying to live by all the rules dictated in the Bible. As stunts go, it's not that interesting to me ("Hey, I grew a beard!"), but one of the lessons he mentioned learning in this Newsweek interview indicates he really did go in with an open mind:
We all talk about freedom of choice, but there’s something very attractive about freedom from choice. Religion provides structure, mooring, anchoring. Should you covet? No. Should you give 10 percent to the needy? Yes. It really structures your life. After my year I felt unmoored, overwhelmed by choice. I have adjusted, but I’m still overwhelmed by choice, as we all are in America.
There's an analogy here about why those who preach simplicity in the realm of technology sound so much like they're preaching religion, and why those who agree with them often take on a near-religious fervor, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
Hoefler & Frere-Jones on InterCapping:
Suddenly, intercaps have a genuine purpose: invisible to machines, they aid human comprehension, which is ultimately the goal of all typography.
A few years ago, urban legends began to circulate about the accidentally funny URLs of Powergen Italia, Pen Island, and Therapist Finder (you do the math.) To this day, those hoping to connect with their favorite Hollywood starlets can do so at the alarming website whorepresents.com. All of these mixups could have been avoided — or amplified — by a little creative intercapping.
So along with mayonnaise, diesel engines, and high-waisted pants, we think it's time to bring back the intercap.
Bad News for Us Diet Soda Addicts
My wife has been asking me to give up diet soda for years, but I've managed to keep her at bay by telling her that, at the very least, drinking diet soda reduces my sugar intake.
Well, the Gourmet magazine email newsletter I just received says the opposite may be true. It mentions a recent study from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City, in which researchers concluded that "drinking diet soda actually causes your body to absorb more sugar. Turns out that artificial sweeteners trigger the same taste receptors in the small intestine that glucose does, releasing hormones that absorb sugar into the bloodstream."
I'm afraid I'm going to have to come up with another rationale to justify my Fresca and Diet Coke regimen.
Sagrada Familia from Park Güell
From on top of Park Güell, it feels like you can reach out and touch the city. I took this shot with a 135mm, but it kind of feels like I used a much longer zoom to pick out the Sagrada Familia.
FastScripts 2.3.4
Those of you who are using FastScripts with the forthcoming Leopard 10.5 operating system from Apple will want to upgrade to FastScripts 2.3.4, which works better in that environment.
I don’t talk a lot about FastScripts these days, because I’ve been so busy focusing on other applications. But it’s still a really big part of my workflow here, and I don’t know what I would do without it!
Often I get feedback from people who have finally figured out how FastScripts can help them. The recurring theme to this feedback is “I had no idea it could do that!” So let me try to summarize some of FastScripts’s selling points more effectively than the current product page does:
- It lets you open or run (almost) anything, instantly by keystroke. Yes, it supports shell scripts, AppleScripts, applications, Automator actions, and can even open documents for you. Just put them in the Scripts folder.
- Its keyboard shortcuts can replace almost any menu item shortcut in any application, redefining the behavior with a script.
- Its context-specific behavior for Applications lets you define shortcuts for just one app, without affecting other apps.
- It installs in your menu bar, but is not a hack. It’s “just an app.”
- Built-in “On Screen Display” functionality lets you show nifty Growl-style feedback, even if you don’t run Growl.
- Oh yeah, it’s particularly good at running scripts quickly, without taking focus away from your target application, and without frustrating you.
I recently showed off some of my FastScripts tricks to the local CocoaHeads group here in Boston, yielding some oohs and aahs (and one immediate sale!). A lot of people are familiar with the awesome “everything launchers” such as LaunchBar and Quicksilver, but are increasingly less familiar with the benefits of an old-fashioned “macro” setup. I think this “one stroke and you’re done” approach still has a place, and can make you a lot more productive.
The biggest difference between FastScripts and these apps is FastScripts doesn’t strive to be a general-purpose launcher. It’s a paring knife where those apps are a cleaver. Its primary purpose is to alter the landscape of your Mac so that the results you want, in Mail, the Finder, Safari, whatever, are available at the pressing of a single keystroke.
Opening oysters by sound
There's a great piece of information almost buried in the article about Spanish chef Ángel León in the October Gourmet (which is awesome, btw). Chef León isn't just a chef, but also a scientist/inventor (what chef isn't in Spain these days?) and while watching a documentary on Pompeii, he came up with a great invention:
He remembers hearing...that when the volcano blew in A.D. 79, millions of shellfish in the coastal waters around Pompeii were forced open by shock waves from the explosion. This idea sent León back to the laboratory, where he came up with a device for opening oysters by means of low-frequency sound waves. The oysters are placed in a bain-marie six at a time, and at the touch of a button their shells loosen their iron grip. No more digging about with knives is required; no nasty bits of shell are left in your oyster.
I tried to poke around a bit on Google for some information about this but didn't find anything. I'm curious about the effect of the sound waves on the shellfish. Are they killed by the waves, and in death they're opening their shells? Or are they still alive but opening their shells? Even if you use this method for shellfish shucking, you still need to detach the oyster from the shell for easy slurping. But I find this whole thing fascinating. I wonder if we'll see this method spread at all. It might be too expensive and slow. After all, the world's fastest shucker can open 33 oysters in a minute.
comments are open
YouTube and Checkout for the non-profit world
Posted by Maryrose Dunton, Product Manager, YouTube, and Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager, Google Checkout
Ever since YouTube first launched, people and organizations have been using it to broadcast their causes and engage supporters around the issues they care about. In that spirit, today YouTube unveiled its Non-Profit Program at the Clinton Global Initiative to help non-profit organizations more easily connect with the world's largest online video community. In the past few years, online video has emerged as a key tool for grassroots organizing on the Internet -- a short, simple video can demonstrate the impact and the needs of an organization in a uniquely compelling fashion. This program will enable non-profits to create dedicated YouTube channels for themselves, making it even easier for people to find, watch, and engage with the organization's video content. The initial participants are 13 organizations including the American Cancer Society, Friends of the Earth, and YouthNoise.
One other thing the YouTube Non-Profit Program offers: the ability to collect donations directly from these channels using the new Google Checkout for Non-Profits. Checkout for Non-Profits -- which can also be integrated directly into a non-profit's site -- helps drive more donations for U.S.-based 501(c)(3) groups by making it possible for supporters to contribute quickly and securely. It also offers supporters the satisfaction of knowing that 100 percent of their contributions will be sent to the non-profit, as Google has committed to processing donations through Checkout for free through at least the end of 2008. This functionality is particularly exciting, as today's fund-raising is increasingly moving online -- and Checkout for Non-Profits makes the entire process even easier. You can learn more here.
How to close every McDonalds in Manhatten
Artist Steve Lambert closes every McDonalds in Manhatten and then blames Ronald McDonald, nice
Michelle Obama: If Barack Doesn't Win Iowa, It's All Over
Michelle Obama, speaking out with surprising candor in the Quad City Times:
“Iowa will make the difference,” Obama said. “If Barack doesn’t win Iowa it is over.”As Ben Smith notes, this is blunter than candidates usually are about the importance of Iowa -- even, I'd add, when they're in full Iowa-suck-up mode.
Videogaming is the new MTV
... says Gameplayer, an Australian gaming site.
The music scene is struggling. The onset of digital media and peer-2-peer networking has led to a much publicised decline in global music sales which in turn has seen the mighty MTV veer away from video clips as the heart of its programming. Think about it: when was the last time you turned on MTV and saw an actual music clip?
Where albums like Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Madonna’s Erotica owed much of their success to the videos beamed into lounge-rooms across the world by the likes of MTV, the music industry is now forced to seek other ways of exposing its products to that market. And where is that market now? Well, they’re playing games…
MTV's acquisition of Harmonix was a fab move, amongst many. The article is a bit light on fact, just summarising the past few years' movements, but ... great title.
Not sure why Mas warranted so many negative comments on...
Not sure why Mas warranted so many negative comments on this Chowhound thread about the worst nice restaurants in NYC. We were there last night for my birthday and everything was great: service, wine, and food. It was our 5th or 6th visit over the past 3 years and nothing's ever been amiss.
(link)
They Call Them '20th Century Castles'
“Thanks for your interests in our unique underground properties. Built at a cost of millions, these heavily reinforced historic structures were designed to withstand nuclear attack. They bring new meaning to the word “shelter”. Centuries from now they will remain.”
These heavily reinforced underground historic structures are decommissioned US missile sites, available now from missilebases.com.
Too bad Ry’s sick of the east coast, this would be a perfect PH:
“Most highly developed Atlas F site, part of exclusive airport subdivision on (FAA approved) 2050’ runway, with manicured grounds in forest setting with mountain view, in Adirondack State Park, 2000 sq. ft. open floor plan home on surface with large garage and wrap around porch hides the underground structure entryway through surface home. LCC converted to 2300 sq. ft. 2-story (3 bedroom, 2 bath) luxury home with fiber optic lighting and contemporary finished interior. Silo tube has all floors, spiral stairs and steel superstructure. Includes generator & new well. Low taxes. Privacy, security, and, unlimited possibilities. NO other like it anywhere.”
The One Ill Building
When I first saw the banner unfurled on Sixth Avenue, I figured The One Ill Building was the Beastie Boys' first foray into urban planning. (Long overdue, if you ask me: if Jade Jagger can be an architect's muse, why not the King Ad-Rock?) If not a real estate development, then surely theoneillbuilding.com was promoting a new documentary about sick building syndrome, perhaps narrated by Al Gore.
Turns out it's neither. So what is The One Ill Building?
Continues...
