Email LOL
In a video from 1997, how to use a new communication device called email and why anyone would want to! (story and video): http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49762/how-use-email-1997
Lotsa Matzoh
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David Handschuh/New York Daily News |
On the Avenue (Fifth Avenue)
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David Handschuh/New York Daily News |
Great Balls of Fire
More fascinating trivia from wisegeek.com:
"Gravity affects the shape of a flame by anchoring down the colder air at the base of the flame, while the heated gas rises up, resulting in a teardrop shape. This effect is known as buoyancy, or the floating of less dense materials in liquid and gas. In space, flames are shaped like round spheres and are commonly referred to by scientists as flame balls. This shape occurs because the heated gas of the flame expands in all directions in the weightlessness of microgravity instead of rising upward.
"More about gravity and flames:
"Gravity affects the shape of a flame by anchoring down the colder air at the base of the flame, while the heated gas rises up, resulting in a teardrop shape. This effect is known as buoyancy, or the floating of less dense materials in liquid and gas. In space, flames are shaped like round spheres and are commonly referred to by scientists as flame balls. This shape occurs because the heated gas of the flame expands in all directions in the weightlessness of microgravity instead of rising upward.
"More about gravity and flames:
- "A flame ball in space is much weaker than a standard flame on Earth. For example, a flame ball generally produces about 1 to 2 watts of thermal power. A birthday candle flame on Earth is about 50 to 100 watts.
=
Facebook stats show how the equal-marriage-rights symbol proliferated, chronologically and geographically. Also, a slideshow offers alternate versions of the sign: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/red-equal-sign-facebook_n_2980489.html?ir=Technology
Lovely As a Tree
Get ready for National Poetry Month, otherwise known as April. There's even a link to where you can sign up to get a poem a day in your inbox!: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-lundberg/national-poetry-month_b_2964168.html
Merchant on Avon
Our friend Bill Shakespeare, it seems, was more than a mere writer. Historical archives show that he was also quite the businessman, and sometimes a ruthless one at that (story and video): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/william-shakespeare-tax-dodger_n_2989137.html?ref=topbar
Meaningful Buildings
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| Peter Zumthor screen shot |
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| Brother Klaus Chapel, commissioned by a farmer in Germany screen shot |
will.he.is
"He has
the strangeness of someone who’s been famous too long, constantly surrounded
by people telling him how wonderful he is and serving his every need," writes Neil McCormick of musician and Voice judge William Adams, aka will.i.am. And yet will does serve up some interesting thoughts on pop music and the pressures on musicians in the age of the Internet: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/the-voice/9959697/The-Voice-interview-with-will.i.am.html
Beautiful and Damned
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| Zelda Sayre, 1918 |
A few months ago, I posted an excerpt from a book about Zelda Fitzgerald, who has fascinated me ever since I started reading her husband's work and, through it, learned about her (see "Just Because: 'Zelda: A Biography,' " Nov. 2012). There's a new book out about her now, whose description of her and her wild, creative, and ultimately tragic life leads one to think of her as "the original It girl." If she wasn't the first, she was certainly one of the most affecting. Her husband, F. Scott, called her "the first American Flapper." But there's another label I would give her, too, and that is "the quintessential Steel Magnolia": http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9962461/Rehabilitating-Zelda-Fitzgerald-the-original-It-Girl.html
Child of the Universe
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| "What the meaning of your life is, is what you make it." screen shot |
Power to the Panthers
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| Huey Newton poster, 1967 |
"The Black Panthers weren’t alone in theorizing that the black community
was a 'colony in the mother country' and calling for self-determination
as part of a global struggle against imperialism. What distinguished
them was their advocacy of armed self-defense against the police." A Q&A with Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., authors of Black Against Empire, the history and politics of the Black Panther party: http://harpers.org/blog/2013/03/black-against-empire-the-history-and-politics-of-the-black-panther-party/
Light in the City
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| © Julien MAUVE |
One Fish, New Fish
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| Natural History Museum, London |
Whither the Payphone?
Remember the payphone? Or perhaps the question should be, Have you ever seen a payphone? They used to be all over the place, and before the cell phone, they were crucial. Many of New York's payphones still exist, though most don't work. What to do with them? (story and video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21890031
Invisible in New York
Manhattan's sanitation workers sweep more than 6,000 miles of streets several times a week and collect 11,000 tons of household trash and 2,000 tons of household
recycling every day. Does that earn them the undying gratitude of the populace? Fuggedaboudit!: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324000704578386701635340648.html?mod=lifestyle_newsreel
Can You Hear Me Now?
For the first time ever, scientists have managed to cloak a three-dimensional object from sound waves: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349255/description/Sound_cloaks_enter_the_third_dimension
The Bittersweet Story of Chocolate
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| the old slave quarters, Roça Bombaim Getty, Mark Fletcher |
Passages
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| This student hauls goods to earn money for his tuition. Paolo Pellegrin |
Collective Conscious
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| screen shot |
Word.
The Swedish have a term for something that cannot be found with a search engine ~ any search engine: ogooglebar. Google took umbrage at this use of its name, and the Swedish Language Council backed down. Which leads us to one question: Who owns words and their meaning?: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130328-who-owns-the-meaning-of-words
Checkpoint Carlos
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| near Monumental Plaza de Toros, Tijuana Keith Skelton |
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| canyon filled in with 35,000 truckloads of dirt Maria Teresa Fernandez |
Reflections of Time
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| Tom Hussey |
Sun, Sun, Sun, Here it Comes
Amazing photograph of a solar prominence, taken by a NASA spacecraft: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/solar-prominence-sun-surface-nasa-photograph_n_2972473.html
The Book of Malala
The latest in our continuing coverage of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot by a Taliban soldier for daring to speak out about girls' right to an education: She has signed a $3 million book deal. "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education," she said (See "Malala Update," Feb. 7, 2013): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21968034
Very Public Libraries
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| photo credit: me |
Not too long ago, an adorable little structure appeared on a triangular median in Santa Monica Canyon. A little after that, I happened to be walking in the area of an evening and stopped by. Inside are a bench and a couple of shelves filled with books, mostly children's books ~ good ones. Then someone told me that there's another impromptu library in the adjacent town. Apparently, it's one of those things that seem to take people's fancy everywhere at about the same time (story and slideshow): http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/8726158/list?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u251&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1
SF Has My ♥ ~ and a Reward
For all its efforts to prepare for the effects of climate change, San Francisco has been named the U.S. Earth Hour Capital for 2013 by an international jury: http://worldwildlife.org/stories/san-francisco-named-earth-hour-capital
Basquiat's Back
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| Lizzy Himmel, B'klyn Museum/AP/AP |
Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's ex was prescient enough to keep his notebooks, postcards, and other artifacts ~ and even bought the apartment they had shared and kept the walls just the way he had left them. But "now is the time," she says, to bring it all out in the form of a book ~ and probably a show and sale: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/883285/basquiats-ex-girlfriend-reveals-major-trove-of-unseen-works
Meet Your Peeps
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| The Peeps go marching 20 by 20, hurrah, hurrah. David Handschuh/New York Daily News |
T-t-t-tat's All, Folks!
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| Boris Roessler/AP |
For Whom the Bridge Tolls
At least twice during my high school/college years, I had the happy surprise of driving up to the tollbooth at the San Francisco end of the Golden Gate Bridge and having the attendant tell me with a smile that "the young gentleman in the car ahead of you just paid your toll." I'd look up only to see whoever it was driving off with a wave in the rear-view mirror or out the window. A couple of times, I did it to my mother, though I can't for the life of me remember why we were driving into the city separately. Once, the attendant passed me a guy's business card (and no, I never called him).
Anyway, the point is that these kinds of human moments won't be happening anymore, as the attendants have collected their last tolls. Like so many people, they are being replaced by an electronic system: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21950015
Anyway, the point is that these kinds of human moments won't be happening anymore, as the attendants have collected their last tolls. Like so many people, they are being replaced by an electronic system: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21950015
Here's Looking at You, Katydid
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| a damselfly IRENEUSZ IRASS WALEDZIK / CATERS NEWS |
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| a horsefly IRENEUSZ IRASS WALEDZIK / CATERS NEWS |
That's Some Sweet Sauce, Man
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| kicking back after sniffing fuel Igor Shpilenok/Barcroft Media |
You Are a Fungus
Some people have trouble thinking that we're related to apes. Imagine how they'd feel if they knew we are also closely related to mushrooms! From wisegeek.com:
"Mushrooms are fungi, which are actually genetically closer to animals than they are to plants. Scientists use a genealogical path known as the Tree of Life to trace the evolution of living organisms, and they have determined that fungi share a common ancestor with animals and are completely branched off from plants. Fungi and animals have to turn to external sources for their food sources, but plants can produce their own nutrients. Chitin, a complex carbohydrate responsible for cell wall structure, is a molecule that is shared by fungi and animals but is not found in plants.
"More about fungi:
"Mushrooms are fungi, which are actually genetically closer to animals than they are to plants. Scientists use a genealogical path known as the Tree of Life to trace the evolution of living organisms, and they have determined that fungi share a common ancestor with animals and are completely branched off from plants. Fungi and animals have to turn to external sources for their food sources, but plants can produce their own nutrients. Chitin, a complex carbohydrate responsible for cell wall structure, is a molecule that is shared by fungi and animals but is not found in plants.
"More about fungi:
- "Fungal infections are difficult to treat in humans and animals because the ingredients that affect fungus can also negatively affect the host of the infection because of their shared genetic relationship.
In Living Color
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| Colored powder is thrown in honor of Krishna and Radha. Poras Chaudhary/Getty |
Slow Connections
Don't blame your son who's visiting for a few days and using your computer for how slow the Internet's been lately, like I did today. It's not his fault. It's actually bigger ~ and more disturbing ~ than that: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/biggest-cyberattack-in-history-slows-down-internet-worldwide-after-quarrel-between-webhosting-company-and-antispam-group-8551815.html
Do You See What I Saw?
Chaotic Moon's new Helmet of Justice for bicyclists video-records evidence in case of an accident. The idea was born of an employee's own experience with a hit-and-run driver (story and video): http://www.ecouterre.com/bicycle-helmet-of-justice-records-video-evidence-in-case-of-hit-and-run/?utm_source=Ecouterre&utm_campaign=b71ac257d7-Ecouterre_Weekly_March_9th3_27_2013&utm_medium=email
Hurry Up and Wait
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| Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images |
A Home of One's Own
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| © $300 House |
The Upside of Climate Change?
Melting glaciers are leaving behind some treasures for archaeologists, like a woolen tunic from circa the year 300 (story and video): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/22/pre-viking-tunic-found-glacier-climate-change_n_2932431.html?utm_hp_ref=world#slide=2018204
Rites of Spring
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| celebrating Nowruz, the Kurdish and Iranian new year AP/Getty Images |
Even the nonreligious celebrate: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/ostarathespringequinox/p/Ostara_History.htm
So You Say You Like it Spicy?
The peppers keep getting hotter, and there's always someone around who'll volunteer to eat one: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324281004578356703455812208.html?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks
Horses and People and Trains, Oh, My
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| Creative Time |
An Eyeful of Iron
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| Mathias Vejerslev |
In honor of the 124th anniversary (next year's should be big) of the opening of the Eiffel Tower on March 31, 1889, a few facts about that iconic sculpture: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/eiffel_tower.html
Also in its honor, a list of 10 famous buildings that, like the Tower, at first appalled the public and critics: http://listverse.com/2010/10/21/10-notable-buildings-people-hated/
Little Orange Street People
On the one hand, some may start to view the world as if on a screen, as if it were not entirely real. "Our memory of the place may become inextricable from that virtual experience," Miah says. On the other, being able to see a place ahead of time can be helpful. John Haas, a lecturer at Northwestern University, uses it before he travels. "It's definitely changed the way I would approach travel. ... I look at Street View first to see where I'm going, what's around me," he says: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21880217
Sometimes There's a Man
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| The original Dude, Jeff Dowd, was there. Mae Ryan/KPCC |
When This You Be, Remember Me
Animal studies and human data seem to be proving that links between a mother's health during pregnancy and her child's health later in life could be just as strong several generations down the line, nor are they confined just to the female ancestor: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/349076/description/From_Great_Grandma_to_You
Boom and Bust
How did you do during the recession? How about now? In case you're wondering how others did, here's an overview by industry and state (story, graph, and interactive map): http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/where-the-money-went/309269/
Images of the Future
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| Qahtan Ibrahim, from Iraq, was one of the finalists. |
A Pterosaur Named Daisy
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| Daisy continues to collect bones. REX Features |
Want to have a new species named after you? Simple! Just find it. Little Daisy Morris, 9, was 5 when she saw some blackened bones in the sand while vacationing with her family on the Isle of Wight. The flying reptile has been named Vectidraco daisymorrisae in her honor: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130321-vectidraco-daisymorrisae-pterosaurs-dinosaurs-science-animals/
And who, exactly, is this child, and what has she been up to since her significant find?: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/21/dinosaur-discovery-girl-daisy-morris_n_2923191.html?just_reloaded=1
Lights Out All Over the World
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| Earth Hour as celebrated in Jakarta, Indonesia AP Photo/Dita Alangkara |
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| Greece's Parthenon temple, before and after 8:30 p.m. AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis |
All for One
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| The Coronado house was purchased in 1991 for $1.15 million. NBC 7 San Diego |
While Mexican authorities are preparing their case against Gordillo, the question that surfaces here, says attorney John Owens, formerly head of the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego, is, “Did anyone in the United States help to facilitate these crimes? These types of crimes are not usually committed alone”: http://m.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/23/suspicious-home-purchase-went-unnoticed/
Live and Help Live
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| In 1993, Peterson (left) visited the "Hanoi Hilton" prison with John McCain. Getty Images |
Apple Doesn't Fall Far From TV
Steve Jobs was working on it; Tim Cook is working on it. Television cable and satellite companies, of course, don't want anything to do with it, but it's predicted to be the company's next big thing ~ Apple TV. Says one exec at a digital media investment company, “This will be Tim Cook’s first ‘holy shit’ innovation”: http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/511091/apples-next-innovation-tv/
Hand-Crafted Humans
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| BGI technicians at work from MIT Technology Review |
Excerpts from the documentary DNA Dreams, by Bregtje van der Haak, about the work of BGI (and which, btw, is screening at USC on April 8, for those who think they can stomach it). "The advantage of China," says one researcher there, "is that the regulations in this field are relaxed" (video ~ CAUTION: a lot of this work is with animals, and the footage ~ as well as its implications ~ can be upsetting and distressing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXPWUm0PmY
Go Further
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| Timothy Leary (left) and Neal Cassady on board c. Allen Ginsberg Estate. licensing via Corbis |
This is not the first time the old bus has been given a chance at a second life. Back in 2006, Kesey's son Zane and others pulled it out of a swamp on the Kesey family farm, picked off the moss, and fixed it up: http://www.today.com/id/10792061/ns/today-entertainment/t/ken-keseys-original-magic-bus-being-restored/#.UU4BCBmgHgc
Extra! Punxsutawney Phil Indicted!
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| Phil's in big trouble. Keith Srakocic/AP |
A Ship in Time
How to build the world's largest ship in 76 seconds (video): http://www.laboiteverte.fr/construire-le-plus-grand-bateau-du-monde-en-76s/
Light Board
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| screen shot |
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Evidence that individuals' DNA can change in a lifetime call into question theories about the dates of early human migration and human evolution: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130322114856.htm
Black in the Wild West
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| Vincent Jacobs, rodeo rider Sarfraz Manzoor |
"I bet you nine out of 10 people in this country think that cowboys were all white—as I did," says Jim Austin. So he and his wife, Gloria, founded the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum, in Fort Worth, Texas, to put that particular piece of misinformation to rest. In reality, it is now believed, about 25% of cowboys were black: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21768669
Braveheart's Revenge?
On Sept. 18, 2014, the voters of Scotland will be asked one question: Should Scotland be an independent country? Announcing the date of the referendum, First Minister Alex Salmond said, “I believe it will be the day we take responsibility for our country,
when we are able to speak with our own voice, choose our own direction
and contribute in our distinct way.”
Some of the many other questions that will have to be answered: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/series/reality-check-scottish-independence
P.S., I can't help but call your attention to the fact that the first minister is a Salmond and his deputy is Nicola Sturgeon. I'm sure I'm not the first to comment on this finny coincidence. Nonetheless ...
Some of the many other questions that will have to be answered: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/series/reality-check-scottish-independence
P.S., I can't help but call your attention to the fact that the first minister is a Salmond and his deputy is Nicola Sturgeon. I'm sure I'm not the first to comment on this finny coincidence. Nonetheless ...
The Unknown Climber
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| the Everest expedition, with Lowe (third from left), Hillary (second from right) AP |
Greening the City ... or Not
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| a sidewalk-strip garden in West Seattle West Seattle Blog |
Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News
Fascinating statistics about the cost of healthcare, from our friends at wisegeek.com. Do with them what you will:
"The United States had the highest healthcare spending of any country in 2011, spending more than $2.7 trillion US Dollars (USD). That's almost 18% of its gross domestic product (GDP) and more than the entire GDP of Great Britain. The United States' healthcare spending is equal to roughly $8,223 USD per person, which is more than two-and-a-half times the average of $3,200 USD per person in developed countries. Other countries that have the highest healthcare spending per person include Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland and Canada followed the US in terms of healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP, with each country spending 11-12% of its GDP on healthcare.
"More about healthcare spending :
"The United States had the highest healthcare spending of any country in 2011, spending more than $2.7 trillion US Dollars (USD). That's almost 18% of its gross domestic product (GDP) and more than the entire GDP of Great Britain. The United States' healthcare spending is equal to roughly $8,223 USD per person, which is more than two-and-a-half times the average of $3,200 USD per person in developed countries. Other countries that have the highest healthcare spending per person include Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland and Canada followed the US in terms of healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP, with each country spending 11-12% of its GDP on healthcare.
"More about healthcare spending :
- "Among developed countries, Mexico and Turkey spend the least on healthcare per person, with each spending a little more than $900 USD per person in 2011.
For Sale: 1 Wedding ~ Mint Condition
There's a new online service in town, and it recycles weddings. Say you've been stood up at the altar or were the one doing the standing up, or let's say you both got cold feet at the last minute. The situation needn't be a total bust. You can sell it all ~ all that planning, the flowers, the site, the gown ~ to this company, which in turn will sell it at a discount to some starry-eyed couple that may actually go through with it: http://www.pri.org/stories/business/online-bridal-business-sells-canceled-weddings-13290.html
The HItchhiker's Guide to Neutrality
A survey of English-language books of the 20th century points to a decline in the number of words describing emotion. Specifically, the study focused on words describing anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. One of the many interesting findings was that fear-related words made a comeback in the '70s and continued to grow in number from then on: http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/less-emotion-british-english-american-books-literature-54182/
Dawn's Early Light
New data from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite seem to prove that the universe is about 80 million years older than previously believed and that it contains more matter and less dark energy than scientists had thought: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349098/description/Universe_is_a_teeny_bit_older_than_thought
Fahrenheit 2013
Remember the wall-size screens that captivated Montag's wife in Fahrenheit 451? Welcome to the 2013 version, and of course, it's all about advertising. "We believe that in the future all surfaces in urban areas could be interactive displays," says Robert Walter, a member of the Technical University of Berlin team that is working on two interactive applications. "This presents great opportunities and challenges as it will need to be attractive and work in an intelligent way" (story and video): http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729096.100-how-vast-advertising-displays-will-grab-your-attention.html
Reinventing the Egg Carton
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| the one we're used to (left) and Valicsek's ©BBC/Nora Denes |
Abuse and Autism
A new study ~ of almost 55,000 women ~ shows a link between a mother's childhood abuse and her chances of having an autistic child. While it may not be a simple cause-and-effect connection, it does seem to be a connection of some sort: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23299-women-abused-as-children-likelier-to-bear-autistic-child.html
Tokyo Trending
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| screen shot/HBNAM of Streetfsn |
March of the Cherry Blossoms
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| a sign of things to come photo credit: me |
All Owl, Owl the Time
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| screen shot |
Spring Hath Sprung
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| photo credit: me |
It is a common misconception that the day and night are each exactly 12 hours long on the spring equinox — the day when the center of the sun crosses over the Earth's equator, which is typically about 20 March. On the spring equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, there is slightly more daylight than darkness. It is actually two to three days before the equinox when the days are nearly equal parts day and night. For example, three days before the equinox, there is about one more minute of darkness, but on the day of the event itself, there might be about eight more minutes of daylight.
More about the spring equinox:
- The spring equinox and the fall equinox, or autumnal equinox, are the only days of the year when the sun rises from due east and sets at due west.
The World's Watering Hole
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| screen shot |
Sew Some Good
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| Michael Swaine at work in the Tenderloin Gil Regio, Jr. |
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