The Fan Museum in Greenwich, England has a collection of more than 3,000 fans. Closer to my home there is the Hand Fan Museum in Healdsburg, California. Within are decorative fans, functional fans, fans for advertising, commemoratives, and ceremonial fans.

Buried in the world of tech news yesterday was the announcement of the acquisition of Motorola subsidiary Starfish by Pumatech. Most notably, this deal brings together the makers of IntelliSync and TrueSync, two software products that synchronize data between computers. Less notably, this deal reminded me that I once owned a Rolodex REX device. Designed by Starfish and manufactured by Citizen (the watch people), the REX was marketed by Franklin, and eventually sold to Xircom who discontinued it in 2001. The tiny size of the REX was wonderful. It took up no space, and held all the data I really needed to take with me. To sync it, I just stuck the entire thing into my laptop’s PC Card slot. Small and convenient. Too bad I couldn’t stick it into my cell phone too.

If not for the other smart-aleck patriots of the United States, today would have marked the debut of the April Fool’s project SendBackLiberty.us. Instead, the creators were trumped by another site and had to announce early. Said other site received much attention, and eventually sold its original domain name for $199 on eBay. But capitalism and competition are foundations of our nation, so there will be no whining. I just want to say, for the record, that in times of crisis, it is good to look for some humor. The site was not meant to hurt anyone on any side, but to give a chuckle. We incensed some people who thought we were insane and drove others to further anti-French sentiments. But the wonderful part of participating in this project for me was that it took place across country boundaries. The collaborators came from 3 different nations and many parts of the U.S. Some of us have never met in person before, and yet we successfully collaborated across timezones and space. That is the true beauty of the Internet, and that is no joke. (thank you Neale and secret cabal!)

The Federal Trade Commission is rolling out a national “Do Not Call” registry this year. They will be taking online registration requests this summer, phasing in regions starting in June to better deal with anticipated demand. Many states already have unsolicited phone call legislation, and some have their own online registration sites. Some charge a fee, some don’t. Others refer you to the DMA registration page. Here’s a list of states with online registration:

Alabama
Arkansas
California (prereg for FTC list)
Colorado
Connecticut
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine (sends info to DMA)
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Missouri
New York
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas
Utah (coming soon)
Wisconsin

(You are welcome to note that I wasted some amount of time compiling a list that may be obsolete when the national registry goes online. Consider it a recognition of the work of the many web programmers who keep our government sites operational.)

It’s easy these days to quickly feed your family with prepackaged, individually portioned meals. But what about Fido and Fluffy? Well, now there’s TravelMeals, “a Disposable Feeding System for Your Pets on the Run”. Contents: 8 oz of Iams kibble, two biscuits, a pouch of purified water (what? not Pawier?), and a scoop bag or disposable litter box with litter. The travel container becomes two plastic feeding bowls. What’s next? Restaurants and fast-food/drink for your pets. Remember, you heard it here first. A Starbarks on every corner.

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum recently opened in its new location with much local fanfare. The museum owes its genesis to Chicago millionaire Avery Brundage who donated part of his extensive Asian art collection to San Francisco in the early 1960s. Meeting Brundage’s challenge to build a museum to house his donation, the city’s voters passed a $2,725,000 bond issue. The first incarnation of the museum opened in 1966. Brundage continued to donate his art and spurred the city to continue providing funds to grow the collection and pay for administration. He died in 1975, leaving the remainder of his collection to the city; his acquisitions comprise half of the museum’s 14,000 objects. A 1994 bond measure provided funds to renovate San Francisco’s former city library into a new museum building, and Chong-Moon Lee’s $15 million contribution kicked off the fundraising drive.

Galas feted top contributers prior to the March 20, 2003 opening. The architecture, by Gae Aulenti, who transformed a train station into Paris’ Musee d’Orsay, has been praised, especially for the retention of the library’s significant grand staircase and the use of light. Aulenti herself sounds pleased, although certain practical details frustrated her. An L.A. Times critic, however, feels the results lack imagination and that Aulenti did not bring out any tension between the old and the new. But although the building’s architecture was a key component of the renovation, display of art was the main goal, and everyone agrees on that success. The museum held a peaceful opening amongst the war protests outside.

The website for the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum is chock full of information on the logistics of feeding, clothing, and equipping the Army. As you can imagine, logistics management is key to successful military campaigns and Quartermaster training creates “logistics warriors.” Entire companies are focused specifically on areas such as supplying fuel and water, both vital to success in Iraq’s harsh environment. The Subsistence and Army Cooks portion of the museum site contains information on the development of rations and the procurement of fresh food from the American Revolution up to current times. (via kiplog)

I loved this NY Times headline “Sears Reinvents Itself, but What Exactly Is It?” Sears, Roebuck has decided to sell its credit card business, a mainstay of its business since the Depression era. In addition to having the Sears private-label cards, which they may decide to retain, Sears is the third-largest issuer of MasterCards. The business was generating 60 percent of Sears’ earnings, however there have been a few wrinkles recently and they want to put a focus back on retail. The profits from a sale of the credit assets could prove useful in repositioning and renovations. But Sears’ retail is a dichotomy of new higher end Land’s End clothing, affordable clothing, their respected tools and hardware, and appliances. They abandoned their catalog, an American institution, in 1993. There isn’t much to bring in shoppers unaccustomed to going to Sears to buy Craftsman tools and vacuum cleaners.

An article on Musical Injuries from the Washington Post as archived by andante.com. Hours of practice plus muscle-tightening performance anxieties often result in repetitive strain injuries. I have often been advised by co-workers to switch my mouse (trackball actually) use to my left hand to avoid RSI since I am right-handed. But I won’t take the chance of losing any violin fingering capabilities.

Becoming American: The Chinese Experience is a Bill Moyers special for PBS airing this week. Within its website are full transcripts of his interviews with five prominent Chinese Americans. Among them is a fascinating interview with Maya Lin, best known as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a competition she won as a senior at Yale. The conversation touches on much more than her Asian American experience. Lin reveals that her design process begins with writing. In creating text she “sketches” what she wants to accomplish with the piece. “If you have the pre-conceived idea of what you think it looks like before you really shape it verbally, then you’re trying to stuff function into a pre-existing form.” Moyers asks her about the creation of the Civil Rights Memorial and the wonderful Women’s Table at Yale. And of course Moyers goes in depth on her experience with the racism and resistance she encountered as the Asian designer of a monument for an Asian war. With culturally typical restraint she reigned in her emotions throughout the controversy, so as to not worry her parents.