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April 20, 2008 - April 26, 2008 »

April 19, 2008

Fireworks at McCoy, tiny hedgehogs, sesame noodles, rabbit language

Loose links, in no particular order:

Baby porcupines hedgehogs. (Thanks, Nancy!) Happy almost Earth Day.

Jonesing no more: Cox mail is back. That was unpleasant. I'm obviously addicted to email.

Nibble-all-weekend recipe: peanut sesame noodles. I'm even lazier than she is -- I'm going with whatever pasta I have in the pantry.

Fireworks at McCoy Saturday; game against Buffalo; starts at 6:05. Via email, "First Fireworks Show of the Season at McCoy Stadium!"

You're so vain: Men who explain things - Los Angeles Times by Rebecca Solnit.

Fast forward: YOUNGME - NOWME: Recreating the snapshots of your childhood.

Tall order: Ken Hamwey's Celtics Quiz.. Ken is the Journal's night sports editor. He's put together 41 questions -- one for every year he's been a newspaperman -- about the Boston Celtics.

Nestbuilding: Birds' Nests: How on Earth Do They Do It?

Parallel Web: Coming soon: superfast internet

Gimme carrot: The Language of Lagomorphs: What Your Rabbit is Saying and How to Speak Back

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:21 AM | Permalink | Comments 3

April 18, 2008

Too much politics? Web too noisy? Try imagining the tenth dimension...

Fed up with politics?

Overwhelmed by social networking? ("I need to know what is important, and I don’t have time to sift through thousands of Tweets and Friendfeed messages and blog posts and emails and IMs a day to find the five things that I really need to know.")

Imagining the Tenth Dimension. I dare you.

Too heavy? Try old Johnny Cash.

Vaguely related: If it's too early to wrap your brain around even three dimensions, check out the Quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert using the Fibonacci Progression in their designs. That second link is full of photos of shells, flowers, pine cones and vegetables that illustrate the concept even if, like me, you don't think well in numbers.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 2:28 AM | Permalink | Comments 4

April 17, 2008

Cox confirms email still down in my neighborhood

Earlier today, mail passwords stopped working . The Cox High-Speed Internet status page reported an email outage in Rhode Island, with no estimate of when it would be fixed.

When I got to work, a colleague said hers had been out in Smithfield, but she rebooted and it came back. That hadn't worked for me in Providence.

Tonight, the status page is empty, but I still couldn't get in. My password didn't work. Webmail password didn't work.

Okay, maybe I had the wrong password. Online at Cox, I could reset my password with my email address and account number from my bill. Nope, that didn't work either.

The Internet tech support phone number on the site walked me through a special prompt to press "1" if I were calling about a hockey game, then bounced me into a loop after a recording said it was after business hours and I should press a number if I wanted to change an appointment or go back to the menu that looped.

The only option left was live Web chat with a Cox tech support analyst. I took it.

Eventually -- about 5 minutes after the handshake and account info -- Juan Carlos apologized and typed that there is an email outage in my area and there is no estimate of when it will be fixed. Would there be anything else?

Yes, I typed. Please restore the report of the outage to the status page to inform people that there is still a problem. That you didn't change your mail password in your sleep. Not everybody else is back up but you.

2:40 a.m. Still down.

9:28 a.m. "Carlos" this time, on the Cox live chat line, types, "It seems that the outage is limited to the use of mail clients, howerver it is solved on WebMail."

I try WebMail in another tab, it fails, and I'm locked out now -- too many failed attempts. He says try again in 20 minutes. I ask Carlos to check that WebMail is really up, since I don't expect the same password to work any better in 20 minutes. He exits chat instead. Love that outsourcing!!!

10:55 a.m. WebMail fails again. I have emailed Cox tech support now using the online form, asking that their reply go to my gmail address. Two questions: Is WebMail working? If so , please confirm my password, because it's not working for me.

12:33 p.m. No answer to my message on the Cox contact form yet.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 9:51 PM | Permalink

April 16, 2008

MSM live-blogs the Dem debate: Instareporting; video at ABC

Kathryn Q. Seelye at the New York Times: Live Blogging from the Democratic Debate

Rick Klein at ABC: Live Blogging from the Democratic Debate

There are probably more, but this is the top of the Google, and I have company. Should give you a flavor.

Video later, if I can get past this: ABC Restricts Debate Clips to 30 Seconds; Cable Channels May Cite ‘Fair Use’

Later: NYT transcript: Democratic Debate in Philadelphia

Much later: Watch Full Debate Here at ABC's debate page.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:32 PM | Permalink

Actor Tim Robbins 'dazzles' broadcasters convention

Tim Robbins addresses the National Association of Broadcasters in Las Vegas Monday.

At his LostRemote TV blog, Cory Bergman:

Everyone is still talking about Tim Robbins’ brash keynote speech yesterday, which took broadcasters to task for voyeuristic, gossipy content, among other things. While it was probably a strategic mistake for the NAB to book Robbins in the first place, personally, I enjoyed it. I live-blogged it while Steve Safran shot it all on his Flip phone right here.

From Cory's live-blogging, Tim Robbins' sometimes bleepable remarks turn into a public service message tht ends,

Seriously, “we are at an abyss as an industry and as a country.” You, the broadcasters, have a tremedous power and tremendous potential to effect change. “We don’t need to look at the car crash. We don’t need to live off the pain and humilitation of the unfortunately. We don’t need to celebrate our pornographic obsession with celebrity culture. We are better than that.”

“Some of you are trying… but against the odds of ratings and job security. It is really up to the leaders in this room… to leave behind formulas and focus groups and job security… we can imagine a world of broadcasting where the general consensus of leaders is enough is enough… we are not just businessmen but the guardians of the human spirit… instead of catering to voyuers and gossip… we can appeal to the better nature of our audience.”

Standing ovation complete with “here! here!” from the crowd.

Cory is Director of Digital Media at KING5 TV in Seattle.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:13 AM | Permalink

April 15, 2008

Cartoons: Donald Duck pays his taxes to beat The Axis

How to fill out your tax return, 1942. The war needed money, and Donald Duck stepped up.

 

Donald does his bit for the war effort in 1943, when "every American should pay his or her income tax, gladly and proudly."

Jim Korkis has the backstory (it's a good one)... and Walt Disney's chili recipe.

The animation is smart and fun.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 3:53 AM | Permalink

April 13, 2008

Backstory on Dylan's Pulitzer; Congress is on Twitter

The Minnesota Star-Tribune has the story it became part of. Liz Donovan found this gem from Jon Bream (Dylan wins special Pulitzer Prize):

The Pulitzer Prize committee wasn't sure how to reach the ever-elusive Bob Dylan on Monday after it awarded him a rare "special citation" that has gone to the likes of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Dr. Seuss.

"I might ask you for suggestions of who to contact," Pulitzer administrator Sig Gissler told a reporter from Dylan's home state. "We're starting from scratch."

...Like Dylan, two of the 17 voting members of the Pulitzer Prize board of directors have Minnesota connections. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman grew up in St. Louis Park, and Miami Herald editor Anders Gyllenhaal was the editor of the Star Tribune from 2002 to 2007.

"I'm really delighted," said Gyllenhaal, who championed Dylan to the Pulitzer committee. "I've always been a fan."

In a position, finally, to honor someone's work with a Pulitzer, whom would you choose?

The Pulitzer wording: "A Special Citation to Bob Dylan for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power. "

Since this story ran, bobdylan.com has taken note of the Pulitzer, and links to the Pulitizer site and to the AP story published at... Forbes.

Also from Liz, U.S. Congress Twitters

Here's Twitter from the Senate Floor; Twitter from the House Floor.

Twitter users send messages of up to 140 characters to cell phones, IM, web pages. It's enough for an answer to the site's original question, "What are you doing?" and also enough for a headline and a link to a blog post, news story or photo.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments 1

Elegant river-powered shelters for canoers

The Mill at thecoolhunter.net - architecture, a great place for a Sunday drive.

The Mill is a river shelter for canoers. My first thought was to put one in Waterplace Park in downtown Providence. Heh.

... Finnish architect and artist Sami Rintala, together with architecture student Janne Saario, has created The Mill, a modern wilderness hut that will be located in the Halikko river in south western Finland, near the town of Salo, mid-way between Helsinki and Turku. The wooden shelter even includes fireplaces and sleeping platforms and the waterwheel in the middle of the stream produces the energy for use in the shelter. To be completed in the fall of 2008, The Mill is part of Halikonlahti Green Art Trilogy, which in turn is part of an ongoing multi-year "Cross-artistic and Scientific Environmental Event"  The 39-year-old Rintala has created experimental and environmentally sustainable installations and experimental buildings all over the world, form the Scandinavian countries to Cuba, Canada, Japan and Korea. By Tuija Seipell

At artist Rintala's site, there is a photo of the model, the bones without wood.

Want to try The Mill out? Here's a map pinpointing Salo, Finland -- east of Sweden, north of Estonia, west and a bit north of St. Petersburg, Russia...

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:08 PM | Permalink

BBC Casteneda documentary; New Firefox extensions; Life/death art

Carlos Castaneda And The Shaman. Tales From The Jungle. a one-hour BBC documentary on the controversial author of "The Teachings of Don Juan" series, and on Mexico's Yaqui Indians.

New Firefox extensions reviewed:

Fireday is a series for reviewing Firefox extensions every Friday (Friday + Firefox = Fireday) and selecting the best and worst extensions that are out there so you know which ones to use and which ones need adjusting.

The entire list is below so find the extension that best suits your needs and drop a line to see if there is an extension you want reviewed...

More vodka infusables. Cantaloupe sounds pleasant, but there's garlic, too.
.
This Fennel and Fig Infused Vodka recipe sounds intriguing.

Wonder if it would work in iced tea? I'm not a big vodka drinker.

Left behind:

Life Before Death, an exhibit by "Walter Schels, an artist terrified of death," as the Guardian UK calls him, of 24 terminally ill people before and after death (How to stare death in the face):

Walter Schels, an artist terrified of death, took a series of extraordinary portraits of 24 terminally ill people, before and after death. The result is a profound and unforgettable show

Life Before Death
Wellcome Collection, London NW1; until 18 May

'I think that after I have died, the suffering won't show on my face. If my soul is able to float away, as I hope it will, I will lie there completely at peace.'

Beate Taube, facing death at 44, was mercifully right. The suffering is not there in her countenance. In the hour of her death, Taube's eyes are closed and there are traces of terminal exhaustion, but she looks neither in pain nor asleep. If it is possible to speak of posthumous expressions, hers is one of absolute concentration, as if she was listening to faraway music or contemplating a deep inner secret.

As in life, so in death. A month before she died of cancer, Taube was photographed by German artist Walter Schels. She is pensive, alert, her concentrated gaze seeing far beyond him; had her eyes been open, she would have looked, you feel, almost exactly the same in the mirror-image portrait he took after her death. What exactly has occurred in between? Nothing visible has changed in the passing.

Beate Taube, facing death at 44, was mercifully right. The suffering is not there in her countenance. In the hour of her death, Taube's eyes are closed and there are traces of terminal exhaustion, but she looks neither in pain nor asleep. If it is possible to speak of posthumous expressions, hers is one of absolute concentration, as if she was listening to faraway music or contemplating a deep inner secret.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 12:52 AM | Permalink