If you’re upset over Fox’s cancellation of Firefly, consider writing a postcard to encourage UPN to pick it up.

Rated PG
I went to the Peter Gabriel concert last night and had a tremendous amount of fun. He had a nice mix of old and new songs and just enough tricks and set devices to keep us wondering what was going to happen next. Bass player Tony Levin has been posting tour photos and backstage commentary. Before the show, I and another Connecticut native were staring at the tour t-shirts (at $35, no thank you!) and wondering where the heck Uncasville, CT is. It finally dawned on us that it must be where the new casinos are. Yup, Peter Gabriel played at the Mohegan Sun. It’s just not the same Connecticut I grew up with.

Wow. A collection of almost 220 flight attendant uniforms from all around the world. Cliff Muskiet is a flight attendant himself, and has been amassing this collection for many years. This site lends further credence to my theory that if it’s collectible, someone has a web page about it. And, you know, anything and everything is collectible. (via Pop Culture Junkmail)

I’ve been slowly but steadily making my way through my husband’s vast collection of John McPhee‘s books, so it was nice to see this article about him in the Globe. His 1999 Pulitzer Prize was labeled “richly deserved” and “long overdue.” You emerge from his non-fiction understanding the appreciation he has for his subject matter, not feeling that it was a chore of any sort for him to clearly and pleasantly relate the facts and personalities he encountered. You can feel his enjoyment in putting together the words. His wit comes out of nowhere to surprise you in the midst of the breadth of information he has distilled for you. You imagine that when he interviews his subjects it is less of a question and answer and more of a conversation between two enthusiasts. And the best part is that he is willing to pass along his tricks of the trade to others in his classes at Princeton.

Bargain Hunting – some of my favorite places to browse for markdowns on lovely things

Cookware & More at OutletsOnline.com: The U.S. Direct Factory Outlet for All-Clad Cookware. Save almost half off cookware with minor cosmetic flaws. Pieces still carry All-Clad’s full lifetime factory warranty for functional defects. If you can’t justify even the sale prices on All-Clad but you really want that saucier, give them a try. You can return within two weeks for a refund.

Sundance Catalog’s outlet sale: Almost 200 rings on sale and other pretty jewelry, many more than 50% off. It really makes you wonder what their markup is.

Eziba’s outlet: I get their catalog and I enjoy looking at all the pretty, often colorful, always handcrafted items from around the world. But the prices never appealed. The outlet gives me a little more hope, though it’s not usually chock-full of the ones that caught my eye.

Crate&Barrel; outlet: 8 categories of C&B; goodies that they need to move out of the warehouse so they can fill it with next season’s trends and colors.

Levenger outlet: for the person who has to be dragged away from browsing at the few remaining stationary stores (and I don’t mean the shops with “Depot” or “Max” in their names, though the way things are going now, those sometimes have to do in a pinch).

Follow up to yesterday’s Cloud Dome post: YiMay Yang sent along a page describing how to create a similar diffusion effect with a plastic milk jug.

Whistlers are “noises made by the electrons whizzing about in the magnetic fields that surround the planets of the solar system.” The Nasa Project: Sun Rings is a piece composed by Terry Riley for string quartet and a 60-voice choir, and part of it comes from the whistlers recorded by NASA’s explorations into space. (via Follow Me Here)

Taking good photographs of jewelry is difficult. You have to focus on something small, pick an angle that shows it off well, light it properly, and hope that the colors of the stones won’t look horribly off. Cindy Lichfield, plagued by problems photographing the jewelry she wanted to sell online, invented the Cloud Dome as an inexpensive way to take beautiful pictures of jewelry. As a cloud diffuses light, revealing details and colors, this device filters light to create even lighting over the subject matter. A nice little invention.

I’ve told many people about Call to Protect run by The Wireless Foundation, which takes donated phones and reprograms them for victims of domestic violence to use. SF Chronicle writer Henry Norr draws our attention to a different program that takes old cell phones, donates a few dollars to a designated charity, uses a disabled worker program to refurbish or recycle them, and sells working ones to cell phone carriers in Latin America and the Caribbean. It’s actually a for-profit operation, but they say their goal is to protect the environment and be socially responsible. So if you don’t mind someone making a few bucks off your donated phone down the line, it’s not a bad way to keep it out of the landfill. The company president, biased of course, actually thinks that The Wireless Foundation is duping people. The foundation has collected 1.4 million phones, given 48,677 to the domestive violence cause, recycled 30%, and sold the rest to cover costs. Any proceeds are split between the foundation and charity. If you don’t like either of these options, consider giving your old phone to a relative or friend to keep in their car for calling 911 in emergencies.

You have the right to feel old when…
You’ve missed the age limit of a writing contest by just a few years. The European Space Agency is sponsoring a science fiction writing contest. The Clarke-Bradbury International Science Fiction Competition is aimed at young writers and encourages innovative concepts in space technology. The contest is open to those aged 15 to 30. Time to sponsor a sci-fi writing contest for the old, crotchety, jaded, and disillusioned 31-110s perhaps?