The SciFi Network's new Dune miniseries begins Sunday night. According to their schedule, you have three consecutive chances to tape and/or watch each episode each night. In other scifi news, TNN (yes, formerly The Nashville Network) won the bidding for "the reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, as well as five Star Trek feature films." They are shifting away from country music... boldly going where no niche network has gone before. (Did anyone else see that episode of The Critic with "Hee Haw: The Next Generation"? The TNG characters dance in a hoedown. It's...adorable.)
11/30/2000 01:23:18 AM - name='1511891'
The computer and console game commercials are out in full force for the holidays (perhaps only with the TV shows I watch). I'll see one and think "Ooooh that is SO COOL! I want that!" and then they will show the Diablo II ad and I realize "Oh yeah. Everyone's probably just showing their cut scenes" and calm down. Not that Diablo II isn't amazing anyway -- it's just that the commercial does not show any of the actual game play, just the movies.
11/30/2000 01:12:42 AM - name='1511843'
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
Here is a lengthy essay on "The Oddness of Oz" by Alison Lurie. It delves into the background of L. Frank Baum, including his exposure to women's rights through his wife. Supposedly that explains why there were good witches in Oz along with the bad ones, and why there were many female rulers. It also accounts for Dorothy's strong and independent personality. Lurie uses specific quotes from the books to back up her statements. She reveals the oppressiveness of housework evident in the series, an unusual viewpoint at a time when heroines in other books were learning to sew and cook. There are all-girl armies and a chicken who insists on being called "Bill". She pulled out details from books that I barely remember reading, but I was nodding a lot, recalling certain plots that had stuck in my head, like the Tin Man returning to his fiancee, despite knowing that he had been given a kind heart, not a passionate one, and therefore couldn't love her anymore. Sad, strange stuff. (via Feed)
11/29/2000 02:12:24 AM - name='1500477'
You know Silicon Valley real estate prices are bad when you start looking at private islands for sale that are more affordable than anything in the local papers. This one acre island in New Jersey includes a 3 bedroom, 2 full bath house. Asking price is $599,900. And they throw in four boats and two boathouses. Of course the realities of owning your own island probably are not as romantic as the dream. And the desirable tropical islands are pricier. But it's got to be a better investment than the overpriced cottages going for bundles in this area.
11/29/2000 01:54:14 AM - name='1500404'
Delta has a PowerPuff Girls plane. How neat! I'd love to see one of those fly by. But I think it's being used only in the east coast. Airliners.net has more photos of it in action.
11/29/2000 01:40:31 AM - name='1500360'
Tuesday, November 28, 2000
I was recently reminded of the Freddy the Pig series by Walter R. Brooks. I read many of Freddy and his farm animal friends' adventures over and over when I was about his height. The stories and characters were marvelously crafted. There is now a Friends of Freddy organization and a 1994 New York Times article reminisced about the books. I remember being disappointed that Jinx the cat didn't have a more appealing personality and being upset at the stupidity of one of the cows.
11/28/2000 02:01:20 AM - name='1488476'
Government in Ancient Greece (written by 5th graders): "If citizens (of Athens) did not care for a politician, when they voted, they wrote on a clay tablet which person they wanted to leave Athens. If one person got more than 6,000 votes against him, he couldn't come back to Athens for 10 years." So bad politicians got deported, eh? I wonder how often that happened. A "citizen" in Ancient Greece was itself a priviliged office. Each city-state had its own requirements for citizenship (the common prerequisite being that you had to be male). Spartan citizens had a strict life of training and were often off at war, which, interestingly enough, meant that the women of Sparta actually had more freedom of movement than women in other more cultural city-states like Athens.
11/28/2000 01:40:52 AM - name='1488374'
Here's something to add to the ol' resume. You can actually get certified as a fragrance sales specialist by The Fragrance Foundation. Specialists have to work in fragrance sales for at least two years first. The site has images of many gorgeous perfume bottles, which I will never hope to own, even though I claim to collect them (but I find them too frivolous and breakable).
11/28/2000 01:17:19 AM - name='1488282'
Monday, November 27, 2000
My memory span no longer encompasses my life on the Internet. Vanity web searches turn up my name on the contributor list to an old rec.pets.cat FAQ and I have no idea what I did for the honor. I barely remember reading the Usenet group to begin with, though it certainly sounds like something I would have done. I must be on my fourth incarnation of using the Internet. Do I have nine Internet lives?
11/27/2000 01:08:22 AM - name='1477087'
Here's a great CNN article on the Blue Man Group. It concentrates on their music and instruments, which, because they don't speak (though I think they do communicate quite effectively with their eyes), are quite, uh, instrumental to their performance. Their various PVC tube instruments are tuned specifically for each song, so they are "the world's least-versatile instruments". But certainly the most offbeat. (OK, no more music puns.) When I last posted about the Blue Men, I wondered when they would be coming to San Francisco, and since then I have read a rumor that they are looking at a theatre in SF which is being refurbished. However, I have no confirmation of that, and there were other prospects for that space. (article via Follow Me Here)
11/27/2000 12:33:10 AM - name='1476942'
The Online Journalism Review has an interesting behind the scenes look at the Seattle Union Record, the alternative paper created by the striking Seattle newspaper workers. Chuck Taylor, managing editor of the strike publication, reveals how competing reporters and photographers have adjusted to working together and with the differences of online media. Getting Internet access and computers was of course a high priority. They do want the Union Record to have a "short and happy life", but they aren't skimping on creating a viable source of news.
11/27/2000 12:16:47 AM - name='1476870'
Thursday, November 23, 2000
Happy Thanksgiving! It seems my log is saying thanks for cute, furry animals this year. But, of course there is more to be thankful for. I will be traveling and may not post for a couple days. Enjoy!
11/23/2000 12:40:47 AM - name='1442756'
The National Zoo is getting two new pandas. I remember reading about the deaths of the previous pandas, but it hadn't dawned on me that this meant the zoo no longer had any pandas. I have snapshots (badly framed photos from my less artistically aware childhood) of the pandas munching on bamboo. According to The Washington Post, the pandas will arrive in Anchorage on a donated FedEx plane and head to Dulles Airport on December 6th. I hope the zoo arranges a web panda-cam like San Diego.
11/23/2000 12:38:40 AM - name='1442743'
Every year, NPR's Susan Stamberg presents her mother-in-law's cranberry relish recipe. Pavel Curtis was kind enough to introduce me to hi! monkey.net's visual step-by-step for this recipe. If you've never seen a stuffed animal operating a Cuisinart before, click on through and see how one little monkey makes it happen. It puts my Stairmaster skills to shame. This very same monkey also demonstrates how to make cheese & crackers, cocoa, and rice krispie treats.
11/23/2000 12:30:57 AM - name='1442701'
Wednesday, November 22, 2000
Clinton's final Presidential Turkey Pardon was today. The turkey, named Jerry, is from Wisconsin. Clinton made an actual recount joke in his remarks about when the first Thanksgiving occured. Jerry goes to the petting zoo in Fairfax County, Virginia. And we don't know yet who goes to the White House. (oh... so very hard to refrain from lame duck and turkey jokes in this posting! :-)
11/22/2000 10:10:37 AM - name='1435757'
Community colleges have been treated inconsistently by Network Solutions in the registration for .edu domains. This Chronicle of Higher Education article describes the community college fight for the .edu names which currently are restricted to "four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities." Apparently some community colleges have slipped through and gotten .edu. Of course, they all would like to have it as it gives them a more authentic educational domain name. The Commerce Department is figuring out who to reassign the administration of .edu to. Educause would like to take over administration from Network Solutions.
11/22/2000 10:04:50 AM - name='1435698'
Bird on a Wire, silent for over a month, blinked up an update yesterday and brought my attention to the striking Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
Both Seattle papers are affected. The striking workers, some of them rival writers, are collaborating to publish their own paper online and in print. It's the Internet age, of course, and you can put stuff on the web in a jiffy. You don't need your publishers to get the news out -- hey, what if you start selling ads and adding infrastructure to create a truly competing paper? I'm certain that is not the intent, but Internet publishing definitely gives them a leg up. The Times and Post-Intelligencer say they are going to give their papers away for free, but I wonder what they'll say to the advertisers. According to this article, "The Times put some advertising inserts planned for Thanksgiving editions in Monday papers." That can't be as good as getting the eyeballs of turkey-stuffed paper readers.
11/22/2000 09:58:00 AM - name='1435619'
Tuesday, November 21, 2000
Is Ben & Jerry's going to lose Ben & Jerry? A new chief executive has been brought in by Unilever and the two founders expressed disappointment at the choice. Of course the press release is yummy vanilla, but a Boston Globe article quotes a statement from Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield which says that the two have not decided if they are going to stay. Other executives are reportedly on their way out. It's standard big company takes over little company politics. But it is a shame to have Ben & Jerry's culture crumble away. If they stick to their strong stances on social issues and don't just use them as marketing fluff, perhaps they can stay noble. But the bottom line will have to be profits. (Also noted: they are starting to use unbleached paper for their pint containers. Welcome the dark paper for the sake of the fish and your grandkids.)
11/21/2000 01:34:31 AM - name='1421392'
Ever noticed the phrase "meets the nutritional standards established by AAFCO" on pet food labels? Who is this mysterious AAFCO? They are the Association of American Feed Control and they keep pet food labels standardized and give nutrional recommendations. They don't enforce any laws, they are an advisory body only. It's up to each state's Department of Agriculture or equivalent to adopt and regulate any recommendations of the AAFCO. Other interesting pet food facts can be found on Petfood for Boneheads.
11/21/2000 01:10:17 AM - name='1421271'
Monday, November 20, 2000
The Online Journalism Review has a directory of "journalistic Internet resources". Divided into traditional reporting beats, the categories contain some interesting and diverse resources (with a bit of a SF Bay Area slant since it was compiled at UC Berkeley). Great for random surfing.
11/20/2000 02:05:08 AM - name='1412991'
Once in a while, I get a craving for Haribo gummi peaches. More precisely, I get a craving for a chewy form of malic acid. As I discovered from this Wired article on masochistic candy, malic acid is the sour stuff that gives tartness to apples and cherries. It is the tangy ingredient for most sour candies, and I started noticing it on the ingredients labels for many of my puckering favorites (Jolly Ranchers, Sweet Tarts). There are other acids that impart slightly different effects. This supplier's page reads "to prolong the sourness in candy or chewing cum, citric acid is used for an initial sour boost, malic acid for a lingering sourness, and fumaric acid to sustain the tartness even longer". Don't forget to brush!
11/20/2000 01:20:41 AM - name='1412846'
Saturday, November 18, 2000
Exactly one year ago, I posted the first entry to this weblog. It read "Is randomness a useful survival trait?" It is a question that raises many philosophical angles and scientific realities. And it has a humorous side. Those traits reflect, I hope, the best of what I try to present here. Thank you fellow webloggers for your support, thanks everyone who has written me with encouraging words and interesting items, and thanks to my friends for the hosting and bandwidth. Writing is incomplete without a reader, so I thank you for participating in this venture.
11/18/2000 12:42:16 PM - name='1401335'
Friday, November 17, 2000
I keep wondering how much of a domino affect the dot com closures will have. There are fewer sites to design and maintain, fewer colocation facilities and bandwidth to be used, fewer deliveries to be made, less advertising to do. But I figure these are probably not significant drops in the new Internet commerce bucket. Or are they? And I'm still trying to figure out why some of these companies had hundreds of employees. What were they all doing (besides bleeding the VCs dry?). I suppose I come from the frugal startup days of the early '90s. I just can't relate.
11/17/2000 02:35:33 AM - name='1390073'
Saturday is major college football rivalry day. "The Game" is Harvard vs Yale for the 117th time. "The Big Game" is Cal Berkeley vs Stanford for the 103rd time. That's The Crimson vs The Bulldogs and The Bears vs The Cardinal. Gore (Harvard '69) vs Bush (Yale '68). Gorden Moore (Intel) and Steve Wozniak (Apple) vs Sandra Lerner & Leonard Bosack (Cisco) and Jerry Yang & David Filo (Yahoo) (and let's not forget Chelsea). Caltech hacks vs MIT hacks. Yes, that is relevant. (By the way, Army vs Navy isn't until Dec 2)
11/17/2000 02:17:45 AM - name='1389995'
Thursday, November 16, 2000
As I mentioned in September, Pete Townshend has been posting diary entries from The Who tour. His very recent writings from their UK tour are particularly thoughtful and personal. He talks about him and Roger being uncomfortable with stage banter, being on both sides of meeting famous people, and why sometimes on stage he feels like he is being followed around by a herd of manic elephants. And there are plenty of live MP3s, free for the taking. "I HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD was obviously ironic even though written by someone who was young enough to afford to be literal. And yet I was ironic. Why? Because it is vital to the pop process."
11/16/2000 01:36:23 AM - name='1380994'
Amtrak's Acela, their new high speed "bullet" train, was scheduled to begin service a year ago. But they didn't make it. The inaugural run is Thursday, with a champagne christening in Washington and fireworks in Boston. Daily service begins on December 11, with 20 trains in service by the summer (according to their current schedule anyway!). They've been letting reporters on for test rides. Bullet trains in Japan and France were introduced in the 1960s. The U.S. has been woefully behind, even with its vaster geography. It will take a lot to catch up; most of the country's railways can't handle faster trains. If the Acela does not catch on, Amtrak will very likely go under (unless the government gives it a reprieve in the form of more hard cash), and it could take a Dagny Taggert to get another transcontinental railroad up again. (Correction 11/21: France's TGV actually started commercial service in 1981. Thanks Olivier. Can I ever trust newspaper fact checkers?)
11/16/2000 01:21:34 AM - name='1380932'
Wednesday, November 15, 2000
I've seen a few mentions of droplift.org in various weblogs recently. It reminded me of the "oldie but goodie" cement-filled teddy bear caper put on by the Los Angeles Cacophony Society. So, here (in a more readable format than the version on the L.A. site) is the story of the Cement Cuddlers, just in time to kick off the holiday shopping season. ("...beneath my plush surface lies a hardness as impervious and unforgiving as this World's own indifference to your mortal struggle.")
11/15/2000 12:37:11 AM - name='1370152'
Now I know where all that dying dot com inventory has been going, thanks to a ZDNet article. Miadora and Adornis, two unsuccessful jewelry sites, had their inventories snapped up by Overstock.com. Beautiful platinum and gold baubles are now being hawked for less than Miadora paid for them wholesale (if you believe their claims; the prices are still pretty hefty). E-luxury retailer Ashford.com, still in business, was given a chance to buy Miadora's inventory, but they passed, claiming it was last season's news and wouldn't sell. I just gotta wonder if they didn't have the budget for it. Overstock.com also purchases the pretty digital photos and lyrical descriptions to go along with the items, so they save time and overhead.
11/15/2000 12:25:57 AM - name='1370096'
Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Dogs donate blood too. It makes sense, but I've never thought about it. The Animal Blood Bank in Dixon, CA is the largest of four in the U.S. and has four kennels of dogs to supply 50 pints a day. Of course the dogs can't give consent to have their blood taken, but I'd like to think they don't really mind being good doggy heroes. (article via The Obscure Store)
11/14/2000 12:50:23 AM - name='1360571'
The iRobot wants to be the first popular home robot (or business robot). Its cog-wheels can climb stairs and it can see (camera), hear (microphone) and "speak" (speakers). You control it through an Internet connection and it acts as your avatar, representing you at meetings, grandma's house, or your own home when you're away. This boston.com article describes some other reasons for having your own personal robot and introduces the term "r-business" (robot-enabled business). At first, this robot seems like little more than a web camera on wheels. But it has an open-source OS and the company is hoping other developers will create applications that they haven't even dreamed of yet. The iRobot concept seems limited for use when you can't be somewhere. Perhaps if it can be somehow combined with a Lego Mindstorms-like kit (ie the hardware extensible and open, not just the software) then the applications can be truly limitless and the personal robot age will actually take off.
11/14/2000 12:40:28 AM - name='1360528'
Monday, November 13, 2000
Green ketchup? Yes, Heinz is launching "Blastin' Green" ketchup in new EZ Squirt bottles. It's aimed for kids and enriched with Vitamin C. Heinz has done some market research, I hope, because green ketchup does not appeal to the kid in me. Now perhaps if it was a gourmet ketchup handmade from tasty green heirloom tomatoes, then I'd perk up.
11/13/2000 12:50:49 AM - name='1349596'
The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee has been formed with the mission to have the San Francisco Bay Area selected as the U.S. candidate city for the 2012 Olympics (warning, it's an all-Flash site). I can't imagine what things will look like for Bay Area residents in 2012 with the current crushing growth we're experiencing. I'm not sure having to deal with the preparations for the Olympics would necessarily help with the infrastructure that's already needed to support our population. Still, it would be a source of pride and community building. Perhaps it can galvanize the San Jose and San Francisco communities into one, though my cynical side is thinking that hostilities could arise from that front.
11/13/2000 12:34:57 AM - name='1349530'
I can plug into the Internet from many places in my condo now, but I've realized what I really need is not wireless access or a computer in every room, but a lightweight dumb terminal that has wireless access to my main computer. It would be like a laptop with a killer flat panel and decent sized keyboard, but it wouldn't need to do much besides communicate keystrokes and screen updates with my main system. Of course in order to do that, it probably needs just as much of a brain as a full computer. But the idea is that my actual computer stays protected and wired onto the Internet while I can travel around my place, heck maybe anywhere, with this interface device. This idea may not seem practical when you could just have a laptop as your main system, but the idea of keeping my "mainframe" secured is nice. Maybe one day we'll all have our real systems in data centers and be back to the dumb terminal idea, except this time they'll be good to go.
11/13/2000 12:17:47 AM - name='1349452'
Friday, November 10, 2000
Is Socks the cat still at the White House? Will he move to the posh Westchester County digs or hang out until Hillary finds D.C. lodgings? Or, perhaps, he'll join Chelsea wherever she ends up after graduation.
11/10/2000 02:17:16 AM - name='1323987'
A while ago, I linked to the Mosquito Magnet which uses carbon dioxide to lure mosquitos. I just found this indoor bug collector from Sharper Image which attracts mosquitos and other flying insects with a blue light. Blue light? It's hard to believe that would be more appealing to a mosquito than a yummy blood-filled me.
11/10/2000 02:04:13 AM - name='1323943'
I never understood the "Shipoopi" song in the musical "The Music Man". Apparently, I'm not supposed to. In fact, this writer has decided to use the word as her term for a "painfully superfluous musical number". She also names a few cliche gems from ""Ebert's Little Movie Glossary", such as "Fruit Cart!" which you've probably seen in many movie chase scenes. It's similar to "pane of glass being carried across the street" for car chase scenes.
11/10/2000 01:56:53 AM - name='1323919'
Thursday, November 09, 2000
Via Steve, 'Stop the presses!' and, uh, the 'servers' too, which chronicles the Houston Chronicle's "real, live-action 'stop the presses' order" at 3:30 a.m. This takes me back to "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" Do any newspapers still print "Extra" editions?
11/9/2000 12:49:32 PM - name='1317946'
Aimee Mann has a special message on her web site explaining how a song compilation bearing her name and her quotes is being put out without her permission and without her cooperation, which she did offer when she heard about it. "Aimee Mann--the Ultimate Collection" is, in her opinion, an inferior product, and it was not authorized by her.
11/9/2000 12:32:44 PM - name='1317772'
The close Presidential election and the importance of just a few votes in Florida reminds me of the recent Olympics where races were won in split second timings. Granted those races were a lot shorter than this drawn out ballot counting. If they had known how close it would have been in so many states, would Gore and Bush have done the election equivalent of shaving their hair and wearing skin-tight hooded suits to squeeze out every last vote? Bush took last Sunday off while Gore kept going. What extra word spoken, hand shaken, baby kissed, issue emphasized would make enough of a difference?
11/9/2000 12:28:20 PM - name='1317724'
Wednesday, November 08, 2000
It struck me the other day that Macy Gray and Carol Channing have a similar, dare I say, quality to their singing voices. It's a raspy, scratchy thing. It's not the same voice by any means, but you gotta wonder how they both made it with those rusty pipes. It's a "you gotta have heart" thing, I suspect.
11/8/2000 12:34:00 PM - name='1308039'
When I first moved to California and got a new driver's license, I noticed that the Dept. of Motor Vehicles supplies a lot of their literature, including the Driver's Handbook, in Chinese (and other languages). I thought of this again yesterday when I noticed someone with voter information and ballots in Chinese. I had mentioned the DMV literature to my mom, who obtained her license in Connecticut in the '60s without the benefit of translation. I expected her to be delighted that California was so progressive and helpful, or at least perhaps wistful that here she could have used material in her own language. But her response was "I don't think I would have learned English as well if I could have read things in Chinese." Still, I'm sure we are both glad that California does take care of its mosaic population. Perhaps if I had grown up here I would've retained more of my Chinese.
11/8/2000 12:15:01 PM - name='1307873'
Tuesday, November 07, 2000
I had to suppress a lot of laughter in the grocery store today. Two shelf stockers were unpacking bags of cat food and meowing repeatedly at each other. It was a precious sight.
11/7/2000 01:11:08 AM - name='1291900'
A couple years ago I read about an interesting DNA study which established that Jewish males who had been told they were part of the hereditary priesthood, or Cohanim, had similar Y chromosome elements. The "Cohens" have passed the knowledge that they were descendents of the original sons of Aaron from father to son for thousands of years. The scientific proof, while probably unnecessary to prove any religious birthrights, is still intriguing. I found one opposing viewpoint of the study which stated that any group of men with the same last name would have similarities in their Y chromosomes, but that scientist was misinformed or ignorant of the fact that the study did not use last names, but the oral knowledge that has survived an amazing length of history.
Shortly after hearing about that research project, I heard a story, probably on the radio, about a tribe in Africa that had a number of rituals which were surprisingly similar to that of Jewish traditions. I filed that away in my head, but didn't follow up on it until something made me think of it recently. Well, I found a lot of web content about these people, the Lemba. Through their oral tradition, they have maintained that they were descended from earlier Jews. There was a Nova special on their search for their true heritage. According to the soc.culture.jewish FAQ, the Lemba traditions may have come from Islam, not Judaism. But then there was an interesting twist, taking me back to my first finding. The Lemba have the same proportion of the Cohen gene marker as western Jews, and their senior clan, which would be the priesthood, has a very high frequency of that marker. This is compelling enough proof for some, and the other (as many articles will note, white) African Jews have now welcomed the Lemba into their fold. This article relates their struggle for acceptance, their beliefs, and history.
I also found a large list of Jewish genetic studies. I love how genetics can unravel mysteries; it's just like solving intricate puzzles. It seems even neater than coding, but it isn't as instantly gratifying. Which is probably why although I made it through my genetics labs OK, I was much happier in front of the terminal screen than the electrophoresis tray.
11/7/2000 12:54:21 AM - name='1291827'
Monday, November 06, 2000
I saw Best in Show and was amused. But I wonder about the two people next to us who walked out in the middle. Maybe they show dogs. Seriously. There is extra footage on the official movie site.
11/6/2000 12:03:04 AM - name='1280575'
A number of my friends who have had problems with their DSL service have switched over to cable modems. I'm still happy with mine, especially the zippy speed. Most SF Bay Area cities have @Home now, but to my surprise, San Jose, the self-proclaimed capitol of Silicon Valley does not. AT&T and the City of San Jose are embroiled in a dispute over AT&T's permits for the cable franchise in the city. In August, AT&T threatened legal action against San Jose. I haven't found any recent news online, but @Home's customer service still says that San Jose is not allowing AT&T in as their reason for not being able to provide service. According to the news articles, San Jose wants more public services from AT&T (public access channels, networking for fire, police, etc) and is holding back the permits in these negotiations. There are probably good reasons for the stalemate on both sides, but San Jose residents who want their cable modems may wish to voice their displeasure by writing the city and/or AT&T Broadband.
11/6/2000 12:02:48 AM - name='1280574'
Saturday, November 04, 2000
I just noticed one big difference between reading books and web content. I found a link to the Story of Maxis Software on Metafilter. I started reading it, but realized it was lengthy and I would rather read it later. So I saved it as a bookmark. But I saved the first page as a bookmark, not where I was, because that's how I use bookmarks in my browser. What I need is a true bookmarking system where I can save the entry page as a permanent bookmark and also easily tag where I stopped reading. Should I just make another bookmark? They're "free" after all. Could there be a better way to do this? Browser "bookmarks" just aren't really like bookmarks, unless you think of The Web as one huge book (which was the idea, I guess). Web sites are more like books and the web is a huge, interwoven library.
11/4/2000 11:53:09 AM - name='1268691'
Via the nicely uncluttered Peas & Carrots, here's a Library Cats Map. It's from the creator of a film called "Puss in Books: Adventures of the Library Cat". I often run across cats in bookstores, but haven't seen one in a library yet.
11/4/2000 11:33:39 AM - name='1268567'
Friday, November 03, 2000
I'm home sick with mild flu symptoms, and as I catch up on reading and listening to the news I can't help wondering if my nauseau is caused by the overwhelmingly distorted coverage of election issues and candidates. It's all the usual stuff: quotes repeated without the benefit of the tone or situation they were made in, old dirt being dredged up, issues being refocused into items that people will emotionally react to. Everyone has the right to say what they want to say. But I do hope that everyone votes with a clear head and with attention paid to the cold, hard facts. That may result in many different opinions, but at least it's a true opinion and one to be proud of.
11/3/2000 10:53:39 AM - name='1259927'
Even more from the soda front: Readers have sent in pointers to the Dr Pepper museum, wherein I learned that the "." in Dr. was "discontinued in the early 1950s", and the oldest Dr Pepper Bottling Company, where they have stuck to cane sugar instead of switching to corn syrup. You can order a case from their online store.
11/3/2000 10:35:23 AM - name='1259785'
Outside office buildings these days I see not only the usual banished smokers, but also a growing number of cell phone yakkers. I guess they banish themselves outside, either for better reception or privacy. I suppose you also tend to talk louder on a cell phone, so it's a courtesy to others. Plus, it's kind of neat that you can wander around while you're on the phone.
11/3/2000 10:27:32 AM - name='1259728'
Thursday, November 02, 2000
Via xblog, images run through the Colorfield Insight Photoshop filter which show how certain colors look with three types of colorblindness. I sent this link to my boyfriend who is colorblind and he responded that an ex-co-worker of his worked on the filter and used him as a test subject (the world does keep shrinking, doesn't it?). He can't see my favorite color (pink) which is a bummer, but it's better than the ex-boyfriend who was allergic to many of my favorite foods (shrimp, clam chowder).
11/2/2000 01:40:02 AM - name='1246569'
Here are a few more words on soft drinks. I found out about nine years ago that root beer doesn't have any caffeine and stopped avoiding it, especially since I really like it with pizza (caffeine just makes me jittery). But I am disappointed when the root beer being offered is Barq's, because that is the one brand that does have caffeine (after all "Barq's has bite"). However, as I was poking through Coca-Cola's site looking for Mr Pibb info, I discovered that Barq's has about half the caffeine of Coke, and eight ounces has less caffeine (15 milligrams) than 1 ounce of semi-sweet dark chocolate (20 mg), which I definitely do not avoid. So I may relent and drink Barq's. According to the Coffee and Caffeine FAQ, caffeine is added to Barq's "as a flavouring agent for the sharp bitterness".
11/2/2000 01:19:31 AM - name='1246483'
Wednesday, November 01, 2000
It's amazing what just a little interior decoration can do. I replaced my dark blue comes-in-bulk office Kleenex box with a multi-colored pattern but mostly yellow box, and that corner of my desk is considerably brighter and cheerier. Ahhhh. Time to bring in some happy things for the walls.
11/1/2000 12:43:14 PM - name='1240488'
I hadn't noticed this before. Yahoo has a page listing the front page articles from the top U.S. papers. Very handy for comparing how the media is covering top issues (or not covering them). It can be deceptive, though. Although there is no article listed under the NY Times about the Singapore Airlines crash, their front page actually has a large (and sadly frightening) photo of the crashed plane.
11/1/2000 12:36:29 PM - name='1240437'
The Kansas City Star reports that Beverage Digest reports that Coca-Cola plans to replace Mr. Pibb with a new "spicy cherry" brand. Coke won't confirm this news. While researching this I found some strange information on the Ultimate Pibb Site. According to them, Dr. Pepper leases the right to bottle Dr. Pepper to various bottlers, Coke and Pepsi included. In areas where Coke has the right to bottle Dr. Pepper, they can not produce Mr. Pibb, or, perhaps the no compete states "spicy cherry soda" instead of the exact brand. If it does, I assume Coca-Cola also won't be able to produce their new version in their Dr. Pepper areas either. The site also has a Mr. Pibb availability map. The soda industry is a strange place. But I suppose many industries have their interesting quirks. (KC Star article via /usr/bin/girl)
11/1/2000 12:28:22 PM - name='1240364'
