GirlHacker's Random Log

The Flummery Digest is a collection of news items that illustrate extreme political correctness. The entries reveal a rather sad trend (or perhaps it's not a trend but a constant?) towards extreme sensitivity which can lead to actions that seem to be the products of a not sane mind. (However, readers should also take into account the filtering and bias of the media which reported these stories.)
9/30/2000 12:34:38 PM - name='963534'

The Coffee Science Information Centre has a nicely designed site which provides information about coffee and caffeine based on research. Looking through it, though, I get the distinct feeling that it was funded by the coffee industry. All the health information has a definite bias towards the positive. All the possible benefits of coffee are highlighted and all the medical research discussed is laudatory with negative reports diminished. Either coffee is better for us than I thought it was or I've stumbled onto yet another camouflaged PR site. Take a sentence like: "Although some negative results have been reported, overall there is no conclusive evidence that moderate consumption of coffee during pregnancy presents any hazard to the fetus." and be your own judge.
9/30/2000 12:17:28 PM - name='963442'

Friday, September 29, 2000

Netcom's shell machines will be shut down in the next day or so. I'm switching my email address to the domain I do have control over, ltao@girlhacker.com. Netcom plans to forward for a year, but I'm better off transitioning now. I'll really miss that account. I'm giving an IMAP mail server a try now.
9/29/2000 1:01:03 AM - name='953218'

I always hope that there are many kids out there like I was, perusing library shelves and discovering treasures, often not realizing that they are stumbling upon a much loved classic. I'd hate to think that everyone's just sitting around waiting for the next installment of Harry Potter. Get thee to a library! A web site has been created for C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. He wrote seven books (just like what's planned for Harry) of magical adventures and I am sad to say I don't remember many details anymore, but that means I'll just have to read them all again!
9/29/2000 12:54:18 AM - name='953193'

OK, cows, moose, salmon, potato heads, and now chickens. Yes, "bwak bwak" chickens. Lynwood, WA, population 33,000, used to be one of the largest egg producers in the country. A local artists thinks giant fiberglass poultry would be a great way to bring in tourist dollars and promote the city. I suppose that's more interesting than giant eggs (though egg decorating is a loved art). And just to round out the list, the article mentions the "Big Pig Gig in Cincinnati; Horse Mania of Lexington, Ky.; and a show of 5-foot-tall Snoopy sculptures in St. Paul, the childhood home of the late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz." (thanks Marc)
9/29/2000 12:34:48 AM - name='953133'

Thursday, September 28, 2000

Are you overrun with mosquitos? The Mosquito Magnet is a pricey device that lures blood-sucking critters into its net by sending out a plume of carbon dioxide like we and other yummy animals do. It runs off a propane tank just like a gas grill. You'd think that mosquitos would be better off not causing irritation, not to mention spreading diseases, when they take our blood. What is the evolutionary advantage of being targeted for a slap? I suppose they're just fast enough and prolific enough (one female lays 100-300 eggs at a time) that it didn't matter.
9/28/2000 1:11:51 AM - name='944679'

Here's a SF Chronicle food article on the celebrity chef trend. "The restaurant has become a pop culture icon", with lots of people eating out lots of the time. Various people connected to the "foodie" industry have differing opinions on why chefs have become all the rage. Mimi Sheraton, former NY Times critic, says it's just an extension of our need to create celebrities. It's celebrity that's the trend, not chefs in particular. If you take a look at how those survivors of reality TV are being treated, you can see her point. Julia Child worries that chefs and diners will forget that it really should be about the food, not the cachet of a TV show. Examples of various restaurant-related TV and movie characters, such as Monica on "Friends", are given to illustrate how glamorous the profession has become. But, alas, Jack Tripper, the struggling chef from "Three's Company", and those waitresses from "It's a Living", perhaps the pioneers in this "new" trend, are overlooked.
9/28/2000 1:01:49 AM - name='944643'

Wednesday, September 27, 2000

I was wondering how the maraschino cherry came about. I don't really like them; they look too fake. But they do spruce up a ginger ale quite admirably. Maraschinos were originally soaked in liqueur called Marasca, thus the name. Over time, almond oil was substituted in for the liqueur. Red and green food coloring was added too. The modern processing of these sundae toppers is detailed in this article about Johnson Fruit where they produce maraschinos in blue curaçao, orange citrus, and white piña colada flavors. I'm still sticking to fresh.
9/27/2000 1:39:16 AM - name='936370'

J. Michael Straczynski talks about Babylon 5 and its possible future. It's all publicity for Bab5's new wide-screen showings on the SciFi channel, so there's no real news, but if you're a real JMS fan, read the chat transcript instead (ok, if you are a Real JMS fan you were there) wherein he uses amusing phrases like "full of balloon juice." SciFi's Babylon 5 site is actually not bad. Lurker's Guide is the best, though, for actual information.
9/27/2000 1:13:44 AM - name='936287'

OK, a followup to the followup, thanks to Steve Cook. We've got cows, moose, salmon, and now Mr. Potato Head in Rhode Island. What's Mr P.H. got to do with R.I.? Hasbro is headquartered in Pawtucket. The statues are six feet tall and scattered around the state. Mrs. Potato Head is also featured.
9/27/2000 12:41:52 AM - name='936189'

Tuesday, September 26, 2000

I knew you could buy large quantities of M&Ms in special colors, and now, thanks to /usr/bin/girl, I know you can also buy a box of 64 Crayola Crayons in one color. Hmmm I think I'd like 64 boxes in each of the 64 colors packed in one special 64 box-of-boxes. Yes, that's it. Except there are actually 120 colors.
9/26/2000 1:13:38 PM - name='931684'

Followup to the cows and moose: Dru pointed me to a similar Pacific Northwest event, Soul Salmon (Dru did their nice web site). You can see some photos of the artistically decorated salmon at Bumbershoot.
9/26/2000 1:07:35 PM - name='931640'

Monday, September 25, 2000

The Japanese kimono has evolved significantly throughout the various "ages", as seen on this history of the kimono page. And here are some photos of beautiful kimono from the late Edo period.
9/25/2000 3:07:49 AM - name='919778'

There's a saying that skirt length is an economic indicator. Short skirts means the market is going up, long skirts means down. It's a correlation which may just be a flight of fancy. But in department stores and on Presidential candidate's wives right now, I'm spotting a fashion trend that is just waiting for a correlation: long jackets over skirts. And I mean really long jackets, practically the same length as the skirt itself, whether long or short. Can that be the indicator for a choppy stock market?
9/25/2000 3:01:48 AM - name='919764'

Toronto was also inspired by Chicago's Cows on Parade and produced their own Moose in the City event. Colorfully painted moose arrived in the streets this summer and will be auctioned off to benefit the Olympic team and local charities.
9/25/2000 2:36:49 AM - name='919691'

Sunday, September 24, 2000

Via memepool, here's a Slashdot style site for library and information science news. This week is Banned Books Week. How many of the 100 most frequently challenged books have you read?
9/24/2000 1:38:57 PM - name='915461'

Saturday, September 23, 2000

From the American Museum of the Moving Image, here's an online exhibit of Presidential Campaign commercials. The first ones were in 1952. The batch from 1960 includes one featuring Jackie speaking in Spanish. Color appears in 1968. (via Yahoo Daily Picks)
9/23/2000 4:53:43 PM - name='910330'

Friday, September 22, 2000

Here's a very nice article on the architecture of the new terminal at SFO. Craig Hartman was the lead architect in a joint venture of three architecture firms. Requirements were lofty: the terminal is designed not only to withstand an earthquake, but to remain functioning after one. They accomplished that, we hope, with "stainless steel sliders that sit in giant, concave dishes". Yes folks, it's not only the airplanes that can roll up to the terminal. The building itself can move 20 inches in all directions. I do think it's one of the prettiest terminals I've seen. I hope function is as good as form. (via rebecca's pocket)
9/22/2000 1:24:35 AM - name='899002'

I really did mean to personally respond to each of the wonderful birthday wishes I've gotten from readers (except the, ahem, anonymous ones), but instead I've been...working. So, an impersonal, but no less heartfelt, thank you to everyone in the interim. A Very Nice Reader gave me my very own PowerPuff doll (emphasis on the puff, as in puffy -- her head is like a blimp!).
9/22/2000 1:11:49 AM - name='898964'

I spend more time watching the Food Network than I do cooking. I've been a happy viewer since I became addicted to Sean Donellan on "How to Boil Water" a few years ago. I also enjoyed "Taste" with David Rosengarten. With the snazzy new productions they have now, those vintage programs look quite primitive. But they are still endearing. After all, Sean had a "magical mystery oven" he would pull toys out of. They didn't actually install an oven in his studio, so he had a hidden shelf with the finished goods and other surprises (and his electric stovetop never got hot fast enough). The New York Times recently ran an article on the Food Network, noting that it no longer tries to teach people how to cook -- in prime time at least. Instead "the network for people who eat" is creating entertainment programs. No more slow-paced educational yawners. Now it's exotic locales, jerky (and they don't mean dried meat) camera shots, and glamour. Still, I've been pleased with additions like "Good Eats" with Alton Brown, a worthy, if somewhat overproduced, successor to "How to Boil Water" and "Taste". But I can only take about ten minutes of Emeril at a time.
9/22/2000 1:04:11 AM - name='898943'

Thursday, September 21, 2000

I keep getting unsolicited email from t-shirt manufacturers in places like Turkey and Egypt asking me, in overly polite English, if I would like to perhaps purchase their products for distribution in the United States. I assume that these businesses are either doing web searches or perusing Yahoo's t-shirt collection category, finding my T-Shirt Chronicles site and sending me email. But it is quite obvious, though perhaps only to someone who understands English well, that I do not sell t-shirts. I just wear them. It's neat getting email from foreign lands, but I wish people would be more careful about what they think is targeted unsolicited email.
9/20/2000 9:21:17 AM - name='884755'

All I wanted to do was find out if the squeaking noise I keep hearing at night is a bunch of bats cavorting outside. Instead I stumbled upon the vast world of bat detection. You can buy a bat detector or get details on making your own. And of course there are pages devoted to bat frequencies, recordings, and other batty links.
9/20/2000 9:16:23 AM - name='884702'

Tuesday, September 19, 2000

I am employed again. I started Monday and the outside temperature hit 100 while I happily froze in air conditioning. 105 degrees is predicted for Tuesday.
9/19/2000 12:51:26 AM - name='874097'

For my birthday, my cat got a gigantic cat tree. Yes, that's right. My birthday. Cat got a gift. You see, she got used to having me around all summer, and so somebody nice decided that a distraction was in order for my return to the daily grind.
9/19/2000 12:43:52 AM - name='874077'

Xenote is discontinuing its iTag service. I assume the company itself is also going belly-up. Now I have a cute, translucent blue keychain that just makes space-age chirps. I suppose it could be reincarnated as a cat torture device. I'll have to look out for all the surplus iTags next time I'm at HSC.
9/19/2000 12:34:28 AM - name='874051'

The Dictionary of Symbolism has some items which I never would have thought to look up for deep meaning. Like almonds, which apparently are quite, uh, symbolic.
9/19/2000 12:23:58 AM - name='874029'

Sunday, September 17, 2000

Scanned candy bar wrappers and their nutritional labels. (via Feed)

And that's it for today 'cause I'm off to celebrate my birthday! Yay!
9/17/2000 12:03:04 PM - name='861492'

Saturday, September 16, 2000

Why the extra inner envelope in wedding invitations and other formal correspondence? It actually had a practical purpose, according to Crane's. Invitations used to be hand delivered by footmen and needed protection from muddy streets and bad weather. The outer envelope would often be soiled upon arrival. So the inner envelope made for a clean presentation. Now it could be considered extraneous, I suppose. But it adds a level of importance to the contents. Crane's makes its papers from cotton and other more renewable resources than trees. They import hemp from Europe and seem active in pushing for its return as a U.S. crop. They also use clothing remnants to make papers. Denim scraps go into U.S. currency and the worn out currency is itself recycled into more paper. They have the right philosophy.
9/16/2000 10:35:34 AM - name='855133'

Friday, September 15, 2000

My favorite olympic torch lighting ceremony was in Barcelona, 1992, when an archer shot a flaming arrow over the altar to set it afire. It was a completely unexpected, entirely appropriate moment. I often wonder what happened to the arrow. Someone must have had the job of tracking it and putting it out. Perhaps it actually landed in the flames.
9/15/2000 9:40:11 AM - name='848452'

I finally started reading Harry Potter (you don't need a link for that, right?). As with most good writing, the fascinating details make the story. (I'm also reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon where the interesting details actually tend to bog down the story for me -- at least in the beginning.) Harry Potter is published in the U.S. by Scholastic which I knew in grade school as the company that sold rather cheap paperback editions of various children's titles through school programs. My parents raised me on the library so I was sometimes a bit jealous when my classmates would receive their shiny new book orders. I remember them getting a lot of "pop trash" though, books about current TV shows and movies, rather than "literature". Not surprisingly, Scholastic's business has been doing better recently. They were reporting losses a few years ago which prompted a turnaround plan. Their stock price took a huge dive in 1997, right before they outbid other publishers for the right to publish Harry Potter in the U.S. The New York Times did a little looking into Bloomsbury, the British publisher who lucked out on their Harry Potter find. Their stock price languished in the dumps until Harry took off.
9/15/2000 9:37:27 AM - name='848438'

Thursday, September 14, 2000

Ever since I found out that nothing decomposes in landfills (the photo stuck in my head is of someone uncovering a 10 year old hot dog, but then, are hot dogs really organic anyway?) I have tried not only to recycle but to use the disposal for food items. I don't know if putting mashed food into our sewage system is any better then putting it into landfill, but it's almost impossible to compost (the best solution) in a condo with no yard. Recently, however, I read this Straight Dope column that says "the landfill crisis of the late 1980s was a myth propagated by the media with the aid of environmentalists". It also gives some hard facts about the reality of recycling. Now I know to get a mulching lawn mower. First, I need to get a lawn.
9/14/2000 2:12:06 AM - name='838826'

Ever wonder about Harris Tweed? I bet you didn't. Well, I did. You may recognize Harris Tweed even if you don't know what it is. The most common occurance I've noted is in the tan, brown twill of a herringbone patterned sport coat. But there are many colors, including pastels, new patterns and textures much evolved from the traditional scratchy dull stuff. Harris Tweed is protected and regulated by a 1933 act of British Parliament. It must be woven by hand in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, in the home of the weaver, using Scottish virgin wool that has been spun and dyed also in the Hebrides. Authentic Harris Tweed is labeled with a golden orb symbol. This account of learning how to weave the tweed describes the pedal powered looms used to create the various patterns. The history of Harris Tweed reveals even more interesting details about the heritage of this textile. For official screensavers and desktop patterns, visit the Harris Tweed Authority web site (Shockwave req'd). They have games too. I jest not.
9/14/2000 1:53:31 AM - name='838787'

Wednesday, September 13, 2000

Wired has an article on the special effects for the new Lord of the Rings movies. Weta Ltd, a New Zealand firm, is producing the visual effects, both physical and digital. Gollum will be completely computer generated, and regular sized actors will be shrunk into hobbits (hmm). Most of the article discusses how they are managing the processor power needed for rendering (luckily, SGI is still alive and kicking).
9/13/2000 12:20:54 AM - name='830513'

With the current realities of dotcom backlash, how many Internet companies have considered dropping the "dot com" from their name? But there are many company names that are completely dependent on the "dot com" suffix. Without it, they lose the complete meaning of what they do. For example, all the companies that have taken plain ol' nouns like "pets" and "diamond" and "giftcertificates" are pretty much stuck with having to end with ".com", while those who have either used another web-nomer like the "e" prefix (ebay, evite), or even the "i" prefix can build their own brands without mentioning ".com". Then there are the brave ones who are trying to give new meaning to known words (Amazon) or, perhaps even harder, trying to give some meaning to a completely new combination of letters. However, I suppose those plain noun guys come out ahead, .com or no, because you don't have to remember much to get to their sites.
9/13/2000 12:11:05 AM - name='830486'

I enjoyed this account of Motorola's cell phone torture chamber. Phones are dropped, baked, frozen, shaked, bounced, and squashed with a round rubber pad (the "butt test"). As if that wasn't enough, they are also blasted with Arizona sand which Motorola buys for $30 per gallon. (And I thought gas was expensive.)
9/12/2000 1:31:52 AM - name='823033'

It looks like Buffy is going to come face to face (or perhaps neck to teeth) with the vampire granddaddy of 'em all: Dracula. Joss Whedon's vampire mythology differs somewhat from the traditional Dracula stories, so it will be interesting to see how they bring the ol' Count into the 'dale.
9/12/2000 1:27:03 AM - name='823017'

At the University College of London, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore made use of MRI to discover why we can't tickle ourselves. The cerebellum figures out the results of our movements and tells the brain to ignore the self-tickling. Test subjects also used a machine to tickle themselves with a slight delay. That did produce tickling. The Yahoo news article ends with this statement from Blakemore: "So it is possible to tickle yourself, but only by using robots." Will someone file a patent?
9/12/2000 1:22:51 AM - name='823002'

Monday, September 11, 2000

The musical Cats finally ended its eighteen year Broadway run on Sunday. I am wondering what is going to go on next in the Winter Garden Theatre which was drastically altered for the production. They've probably made back the alteration costs many times over, with funds left over to put things back for whatever goes on there next. The theatre is owned by The Shubert Organization, a non-profit performing arts foundation. Cats continues to play in London.
9/11/2000 11:48:13 AM - name='817813'

The Historic American Engineering Record documents important engineering and industrial sites in the United States. It was formed by the National Park Service, the Library of Congress and the American Society of Civil Engineers. The results of their surveys are archived along with the Historic American Building Survey at the Library of Congress. There is a searchable catalog online. So much history is lost when knowledge dies out along with individuals, and it is almost impossible to know what we important information we are losing each day. Reverse-engineering historical places and equipment before they decay and preserving what knowledge we do have available is important.
9/11/2000 11:27:05 AM - name='817672'

Sunday, September 10, 2000

It is too easy to get used to lots of bandwidth. In the past week I've been hogging up the line watching ads from AdCritic, trying to find the non-raunchy gems at iFilm, watching Space Shuttle Atlantis on Nasa-TV, and downloading software upgrades that never seemed to be worth the time before. It's amazing what a tiny, little wire can bring you.
9/10/2000 1:28:02 PM - name='811037'

Saturday, September 9, 2000

I'm intimately acquainted with music as an art form, but I had not heard the term "audio art" until I read this Feed essay by David Grubbs. He visited an audio art exhibition at P.S. 1. Visitors recline on a giant futon and put on headphones to experience works by various "sound artists". Although I am certain this is not the intent of most artists, recent legal events made me picture a world where certain composers (or, more correctly, record companies), afraid of the free digital proliferation of their works, only allow their music to be heard in protected audio museums. I'll try to shake that frightening image out of my head.
9/8/2000 10:56:14 AM - name='798043'

Bach Digital has images of the original manuscripts of Johann Sebastian Bach and fascinating facts on period instruments and ink corrosion. Unfortunately, the site is designed for a huge browser window and uses the latest bandwidth hogging technologies. Very un-baroque of them. (from Yahoo's Daily Picks)
9/8/2000 10:38:53 AM - name='797905'

Thursday, September 7, 2000

My brain has been slowly frying from various job interviews, so I may be terse for a few days.
9/7/2000 1:40:13 AM - name='787457'

I decided it was time to revisit Project Gutenberg and see what they've been up to. Their noble goal of placing public domain works into "Plain Vanilla ASCII" is progressing well. 2820 eTexts are available online, including my favorite, Jane Eyre.
9/7/2000 1:38:29 AM - name='787454'

The Merck Manual is online and searchable. I did not realize that it was a not-for-profit publication. It is the most widely used medical text in the world. When I was a pre-teen I remember looking through my parents' copy to figure out why everyone kept referring to mononucleosis as "the kissing disease". Now, I would probably just do a web search.
9/7/2000 1:13:31 AM - name='787390'

Wednesday, September 6, 2000

"Mobile cows are being monitored using mobile phones." British farmers need to carefully record their cattle movements because of the "mad cow" epidemic. Braidgrove uses cutting edge technology to free farmers from the hassles of recording information about their livestock, and they have added WAP so that mobile phones can access their system.
9/6/2000 12:54:13 PM - name='782935'

I didn't feel a particular need to revisit the bitter past, but the Mercury News feature on the demise of Interval, from which my former employer Purple Moon spun out, was enlightening. There was further information on the last minute deals that our CEO tried to get in place, and also her insistence that our creditors be paid through Chapter 11 bankruptcy instead of ditched in a Chapter 7 liquidation. It was a nice feeling to find that regardless of what we went through there, she always tried to do the right thing up to the sad end.
9/6/2000 12:48:17 PM - name='782895'

Tuesday, September 5, 2000

There must be a rule that every new snack and candy bar introduction must be accompanied by silly factoids. Or perhaps the accompanying website content developers and press release writers are just sapped dry for interesting ways to pitch sugar and partially hydrogenated fats at us. At any rate, Nabisco doesn't want you to miss these fascinating Mini-Oreo facts: "There will be enough Mini Oreo cookies produced during the next year to cover a two-lane highway from New York to Los Angeles. If every Mini Oreo cookie made in the next year were placed side-by-side they would encircle the world 36 times." Here's one about regular-sized Oreos: "Research also shows that 84 percent of men prefer to eat their Oreo cookies intact, while 41 percent of women like to pull them apart." Hmmmm. (Health note: McDonald's old method of frying in beef tallow may actually be healthier than their use of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. I hope trans-fat labeling happens.)
9/5/2000 2:38:37 AM - name='771728'

WebExhibits is a collection of "high quality exhibits on the Internet." Sites are organized into various topics and given star ratings. There is also a handy search feature. I could log items from this for weeks! But no, instead I will let you browse on your own. I found the History and Meaning of Hatwear in Canada, Endangered Species of the Next Millenium, and the Bad Fads Museum. Oddly, unicycles are listed as a bad fad. But it doesn't sound bad: "the unicycle has recently been found to [have] beneficial qualities including a reduction of stress and an increase in mental capabilities." I think the people I know who ride unicycles already have quite enough mental capabilities, thank you.
9/5/2000 1:38:21 AM - name='771560'

Monday, September 4, 2000

I'd been wondering about the effects of no TV on the residents of Moscow, and a Boston Globe article satisfied my curiousity. Cable operators, ISPs, video stores, and hourly hotels are enjoying a surge in business. People are realizing that the car needs work, the dog can use a longer walk, the garden needs weeding, but they are also missing their news and soaps. There is a Simpsons episode where, for some reason I can't remember, television (or perhaps just Krusty the Clown) goes away and all the children exit their homes, zombie-like, eyes blinking at the bright shiny globe in the sky. Gradually, they spread out into various outdoor endeavors: skipping rope, playing in the sandbox. Idyllic classical music plays in the background. (via randomWalks)
9/4/2000 11:36:26 AM - name='766843'

I didn't see The Who this summer because I couldn't justify paying the outrageous ticket prices. But Pete Townshend posted diary entries regularly on his site from various tour locations, along with some decent MP3s of live performances.
9/4/2000 11:26:45 AM - name='766799'

Always on, big bandwidth has changed my behavior. I don't think as much before I click on a link. Recommended software upgrades can be brought down in a jiffy. Sites with Flash and large images bother me only on an intellectual level. I don't have to sit down to an Internet "session"; I can just pop on and off whenever I feel like it to get what I need. I'm not sure yet if that means I'm cumulatively on the 'net more or less. I suppose I'm saving some time downloading things, but there are many things I'm downloading which I wouldn't have before. I also have my place wired for access from any room now, which includes guest ports. Except for the kitchen and bathrooms, though I suppose if one were desperate enough, one could easily drag a wire over, which, one just isn't -- yet.
9/4/2000 11:17:42 AM - name='766755'