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Main page May 30, 2007Words, Harry Potter, What's Cooking Grandma, Garden blogs100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know Large vocabularies grow and sprawl. The more words you know, the more specific concepts emerge. The tricky part is the concepts that emerge before there are words for them. They're like the notes between the keys on a piano. Just because you know them doesn't mean you have to use them much. Hot dates may not result from popping a question like, "Ah, but do you know 'the ineluctable modality of the visible'?"
Afraid of what: Laura Mallory, above, argued and lost her suit to have Harry Potter books removed from Gwinnett County, Ga., libraries because they promote witchcraft. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Mallory acknowledges she hasn't read any of the six books in the "Harry Potter" series. Ms. Mallory, children are powerless, ordered to do all sorts of things. Is it any wonder that fictional children with native extraordinary talents are so appealing? I remember "fairy tales" full of evil witches, friendly insects performing impossible tasks and Rapunzel's long hair, but nothing really empowering. "Harry" suggests the owl may invite you someday to join your real group, freeing you from the limits of a Muggle world that often doesn't seem too smart. Comments on the story at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Blog reactions: -- What Child Ever Wanted Easter Bunny Power “They don’t want the Easter Bunny’s power,The children in our generation want Harry’s power, and they’re getting it.” part of the argument used by Laura Mallory of Gwinnett County Georgia, in her lawsuit to ban the Harry Potter series from public schools. The one series that encouraged the most kids to read is also the most challenged series according to the American Library Association. If there are witches out there one of them should turn Ms Mallory into a newt. -- Witches used magic to control the brain of a Georgia Superior Court Judge, forcing him to support the Gwinnett County school board's decision last year to keep J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books on school library bookshelves after a parent demanded that they be removed because they were violent "and promoted witchcraft." The witches nodded in agreement, high-fiving each other while riding brooms and sywriting "Surrender Dorothy" over the parent's yard. -- If there really is a magic word, that word must be tolerance. Meanwhile, the Gryffindor Gazette (I kid you not) runs the AP story and asks, Can you imagine how embarrassed her kids are at this point? What a waste of time. We want people across the world to record Granny cooking in her kitchen and upload it here. Instructions on how to make the videos. Crossposted from the Projo Garden Blog: Updated: The Garden Blog List I started the Garden Blogs List years ago, part blog post, part bookmarks. Over the years I've kept adding to it as garden bloggers around the world found it and asked to be put on the list. It's hopelessly retro now, one long, long html page. Nevertheless, it's the top Google result if you search for garden blogs. Kathleen Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening has a different list, nearly as long, so you can imagine how many undocumented garden blogs are out there. Each gardener brings a unique voice and garden; they're all willing to document their efforts to nurture plant life for food or pleasure. Success may be one perfect cabbage after years of cabbage failure. Over the years, I've turned down only a few -- they either weren't really garden bloggers or were garden link spammers (ads in search of inbound links). Every now and then I run a link checker on the list, but few of these garden blogs have died. We garden on, ever hoping it will all come together. Meanwhile, every new bloom, fruit or resurrection is an occasion to crow and celebrate. I'm aware that the garden photos I take are largely of my successes. Later, there'll be photos of plants that are ungainly now, but will get their turn to look good enough to frame. I like it when these garden bloggers show us their diseased and bug-ridden plants, although that's rare. I'm thinking of starting a slideshow where you can show us Your Garden Failures. I've added a few more blogs to the Garden Blogs List (more to come), including a prize-winning garden blog in the Netherlands. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 29, 2007A hole in Mars the size of a football field opens on deep, vast underground room
APOD: 2007 May 28 - A Hole in Mars Explanation: Black spots have been discovered on Mars that are so dark that nothing inside can be seen. Quite possibly, the spots are entrances to deep underground caves capable of protecting Martian life, were it to exist... The diameter of the hole is about the length of a football field. And we've found seven of these holes so far. The Martians must live inside Mars. We've all seen too many sci-fi movies not to think "spaceport." More (Windows onto the abyss: cave skylights on Mars) at The Planetary Society: At its highest resolution of 25 centimeters per pixel, the HiRISE camera can see the detailed shape of the slightly scalloped edge of a hole on the flank of Mars' Arsia Mons (left), but no amount of image enhancement (right) can bring out any further details inside the hole. That means that the walls of the cave are overhanging -- the cave is larger below the ground than the entrance we can see at the surface -- and that it is very deep. Mars' dusty atmosphere produces enough scattered light that "skylight" would illuminate the floor of a shallow cavern well enough for HiRISE to detect it. The Society's astronomy blogger is Emily Lakdawalla, who has a master’s in planetary geology from Brown University. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 28, 2007The tree that swallowed a bicycle; Graduates: How to retire at 38; mp3s: Stevie Wonder '73, Wilco '05A few holiday links. Enjoy your grilling...
Neatorama: A Bicycle Eaten by a Tree: A kid's bike was left in the fork of a tree on Vashon Island, Wash., which grew to engulf it. Since this photo, it has lost its front wheel. Graduates: How to retire at 38. A readers asks The Simple Dollar, I’m Twenty Years Old And Have No Debt - When Can I Retire And Live Off My Investments? The nutshell answer: If you were to take 20% of your annual income starting at age 20 and put it in a S&P 500 index fund, that index fund continues to grow at the long-term historical rate (12%), and you received a 4% raise each year, you could walk away from your job and live off the interest at age 41 matching your current salary, or quit at 43 and be able to give yourself a 4% “raise” each year from the interest, which is probably the better plan because it combats inflation. Raise the amount to 25% and you’re done at age 38 Free mp3s at BigO, Singapore: Stevie Wonder, Berkeley Community Theater, 1973 As is their wont to do cover songs, Jeff Tweedy chose an especially intimate moment in Montreal to sing The Band’s trademark tune, I Shall Be Released. I do not recall him ever singing this ever again. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 27, 2007Indispensible Firefox extension shines on early color photos
Want to see a photo on a Web page larger? Put your cursor on it, hold down the right mouse button and use the scroll wheel to reduce or enlarge it right in the page. Or simply press the right button, then the left and the image enlarges to fit as much of the browser window as it can without cropping itself. Photos will get vaguer as they get larger, but even so, most are still easier to read than the small versions chosen to let pages load quickly. You'll see how handy this could be at the Guardian's six-photo slideshow from The Dawn of Colour: Centenary of the Autochrome at the National Media Museum. (How does it work? explains Autochrome.) Check out The dryad, c. 1910. I wanted to see that dress, so I zoomed to fit, captured that part of the screen with MWSnap, saved and uploaded the photo at right. You might also want to blow up a color photo of Mark Twain reading in bed. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 26, 200721st-century protest song; 'Flatland,' the film; Neo nursing homes"16 Words" by Margo Guryan. The British government has learned that Sadam Hussein recently sold significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Review at FensePost. Written last June, it was released as a single in the UK last month. Deep background: September 2001 story on Guryan from Mean Street magazine.
Flatland the movie/DVD. Haven't seen this, want to. Review/plot at Film Threat. Download or watch the trailer and other videos. Based on Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott, 1884. From a review at RevolutionSF: A regular guy is wrapped up in courtroom intrigue, with assassination and sedition. Then a visitor reveals there's more to the universe than he ever imagined. Telling his universe that, though, is kind of a problem. Nursing home renegades: They’ve created alternatives with names like the Green House Project, the Pioneer Network, and the Eden Alternative — all aiming to replace institutions for the disabled elderly with genuine homes. Bill Thomas, for example, is a geriatrician who calls himself a “nursing home abolitionist” and built the first Green Houses in Tupelo, Miss. These are houses for no more than 10 residents, equipped with a kitchen and living room at its center, not a nurse’s station, and personal furnishings. The bedrooms are private. Residents help one another with cooking and other work as they are able. Staff members provide not just nursing care but also mentoring for engaging in daily life, even for Alzheimer’s patients. And the homes meet all federal safety guidelines and work within state-reimbursement levels. -- New York Times, Rethinking Old Age. More, more. The Old Folks' Rock'n'Roll Rest Home, please. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 25, 2007On a day off, we step into a Summer Guide photo
I led projo.com's annual Summer Guide with this photo. There's an elegant Tall Ships photo below it on the page, but this is a scene you can step into. That can be your shore dinner (and a couple of friends' dinners, too, it seems). Yesterday, after too many long workdays, I needed a day off. So with temperatures headed to the 80s, Joe and I headed for South County.* And we stepped into that Summer Guide photo. Here's the same spot, the upper deck at Champlin's restaurant in the village of Galilee, at the southern end of Narragansett. Without the food, without the sun reflecting prettily off the ocean, without Bob Thayer's technical prowess, but with a bonus boat called the Whispering Sea and a glimpse of Jerusalem across the channel:
Joe's steamers -- full-belly, soft-shell clams, larger than hard-shell cherrystones, far smaller than quahogs chopped for chowder -- were $10.99, accompanied only by broth to wash off the sand, and melted butter for dipping. This is not a fancy restaurant -- you line up to order and pay, and get a number that will boom out of speakers when your order is ready to pick up. For a $2 deposit, they'll even let you borrow a nutcracker. After lunch, we wanted to read for a while overlooking the ocean. We ended up at a spot Ellen Albanese of the Globe described Wednesday in a travel story about Narragansett: "From the Black Point public fishing area off Ocean Road, a short path through the woods leads to a rocky outcropping overlooking the ocean and remnants of forts used during World War I and World War II to defend the coastline. There is a small parking area and a sign." Open ocean is beautiful, but hard to photograph. We didn't last long there -- my freckles started to burn.
We ended up under an umbrella with our books and a beer on the back deck of Twin Willows in Saunderstown, probably the last time it will be so quiet until well into October. Summer starts tonight. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 24, 2007How to win a photography contest; Journalist-programmer worth a millionHow to win a photography contest A first-time contest judge found himself wondering, "What can you, as a photographer, do to maximise your chances in the battle of shutter times and lighting, against the rest of the pack?" He illustrates his answers with photos from the contest, sponsored by stock house Crestock, whose theme is The Meaning of Life. If you point and shoot, his thoughts may add another layer to your framing. At photocritic.org, blog of Haje Jan Kamps of Bristol, England. The actual winners of Round 1 were announced yesterday. The Meaning of Life seems to be found in groups, if these winners are a clue. First place, and why:
friends by chandande Newsrooms need programmers: Nothing screams this more than the announcement that Adrian Holovaty has been awarded $1.1 million by Knight News Challenge to found a startup to make tools. He's been doing that from Adrian first showed journalism what a Google mashup could do with chicagocrime.org. Later: Adrian just emailed to say he's never even been to Boulder. Oy. When the fingers have a mind of their own... Posted by Sheila Lennon May 23, 2007All 6,288 Smithsonian images now on Flickr(At the new Garden Blog, Pressure-treated wood and gardening: newer solutions) Want to see a photo of a Newport Light Infantry Miter Cap, circa 1775? Public.resource.org has liberated all 6,288 Smithsonian images and uploaded them to Flickr.
SI Neg. 2001-13419.16a. Date: 11/7/2001...Dr. Ruth Simmons, eighteenth president of Brown University speaking at the National Press Club. She's the school's first female president, and the first African American to lead an Ivy League school. ..Credit: Jim Wallace (Smithsonian Institution)Here's their explanation, which begins, We write to you today on the subject of SmithsonianImages.SI.Edu, a government ecommerce site built on a repository of 6,288 images of national significance. The site is breathtaking in scope, with imagery ranging from the historic cyanotypes of Edward Muybridge to historic photos from aviation, natural history, and many other fields. If the Smithsonian Institution is our attic, these photos are our collective scrapbook. But we taxpayers own these images. The Smithsonian Institution is a trust instrumentality of the United States of America chartered by the U.S. Congress to "increase and diffuse knowledge." Public.resource describes itself at the end of this document as, "a new non-profit dedicated to the creation of public works projects on the Internet." Enjoy browsing our American scrapbook. Here's a Union drum SI Neg. 2001-7974. Date: na....Wooden body painted with shield-breasted eagle holding ribbon with the inscription, E pluribus unum, or out of many, one. .This drum is a military issue rope-tension snare drum. It was used in the Civil War by Samuel Kyle, who served as a private in Captain James Christie's Company K, 22nd New Jersey Volunteers. The eagle embellishment on the side of the drum was a common design but varied from manufacturer to manufacturer...Credit: Don Hurlbert/Rick Babusci (Smithsonian Institution) Posted by Sheila Lennon May 21, 2007Electric cars that look like pink bunny slippersOver at our new Garden Blog, I've just added Chelsea flower show: Photos, feng shui flap, gnomelessness
At electric-car maker Tesla Motors, you'll find a sleek Roadster on the homepage. Inside, on the blog, is a pair of bumper cars for adults (at last!). The concept oozes potential, even if you'd prefer they not be tricked out as Electric Pink Bunny Slippers. Engineer Greg Solberg writes, ... my significant other Lisa suggested that perhaps we should work together on a project and combine our skills. ... If the power train interests you, it's all at the bunny link. Greg has also made electric muffins. The possibilities are endless. So why do cars look so the same? When they collide, why couldn't the sound be the soft plop of fabric skins and air, aided by repelling magnets underneath? Some Mondays are like this.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 20, 2007Smithsonian photo contest picks; TV shows, cartoons a link away
Botanical garden in Slovenia Smithsonian 4th Annual Photo Contest includes the thorny photo above in its finalists. Many thanks to everyone who entered our 4th Annual Photo Contest. Our editors spent many hours carefully reviewing 8,500 photographs from around the world. More image noodling for a bright gray day: - More of Damjan Voglar's photos.
- Strangers in My Garden (enlarge it) - Vintage photo gallery at Consumer Reports. Thumbnail reviews of the debuts and duds, too.
If you're looking for a specific, half-remembered 1959 Twilight Zone episode, try browsing The Original Twilight Zone Episode Guide. Recent series can be found here, too. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 18, 2007Ron Paul rising; Silent Velcro; Books too good to put down
The conservative pundits are now referring to Ron Paul as a "crackpot." Hannity predictably savaged him last night (see above). The Hewitt site has an image of a man in a tin-foil hat; Dean Barnett and Hugh Hewitt both call for removing Paul from the debates, when he has been the best thing about them so far. Bill Bennett wants him out. I'm getting the usual ridicule for taking him seriously from the usual GOP apparatchiks. They're scared, aren't they? The Internet polls show real support for him. Fox News' own internet poll placed him a close second, with 25 percent of the votes from Fox News viewers. We have a real phenomenon here - because someone has to stand up for what conservatism once stood for. ... Pat Buchanan is one of them: (But Who Was Right – Rudy or Ron?): Ron Paul is no TV debater. But up on that stage in Columbia, he was speaking intolerable truths. Understandably, Republicans do not want him back, telling the country how the party blundered into this misbegotten war. Related: Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq, Ron Paul speech in the House, September 10, 2002 Invention: The New Velcro: A stronger, better grip without the incessant ripping sound. Has a long-standing dream finally been realized? at PopSci. Reader's buffet: Books Too Good To Put Down by "Librarian without Walls" Marylaine Block. Divided into 14 categories, including "good junk," most of these lists were updated at the end of last summer's reading. Most get a fat paragraph of description.
via Rebecca Blood Spooky: Bram Stoker, part of Free Public Domain Books from the Classic Literature Library. Yup, you can read the 110-year-old tale of Dracula online, along with other Stoker novels and short stories. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 17, 2007Saturday: 10th Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash; The Gnomes in Kingston and at City Farm
This year, Nick's taking the show out to a theater for a live audience. Saturday night at 7:30, Nick will host and Rick Bellaire, Fred Wilkes, Michele Wilson, John Dunn, Rich Sage and Ken Johnson will play the tunes at The Assembly Theatre, 26 East Avenue (Route 107) in Harrisville. They're all longtime Dylan fans whose own music has been influenced by Dylan's. Here's a high-quality mp3 (320kbps) of the whole group closing the 2004 show with The Times They Are a'Changin'. $10 gets you in Saturday night. More info at Nick's site, music in harmony.com or the box office the day of the show: 568-7179.
You can listen to cuts from the The Gnomes CD of Celtic and world music at CD Baby (The title cut from the CD, To The Dance Floor, is a Celtic-Portuguese tune.) Or see them Saturday at the Courthouse Center for the Arts in Kingston at 8 p.m., $15.
The Gnomes will also be opening the Southside Community Land Trust's 15th annual Rare and Unusual Plant Sale Saturday at 10 a.m. at City Farm, at the corner of Dudley and West Clifford Streets in Providence. India's new courtyard is terrific, by the way, with two fountains -- a corner one of bundled bamboo and another that looks like a pan pipe, with water falling from reeds of different lengths directly down into a divider between two tables. One table has chair swings for a pair of adventurous diners. Some vines are being trained to climb to the stars. This will be a nice summer hangout -- tucked behind the restaurant, away from traffic, it could be anywhere. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 16, 2007Polar clock, Firefox keyboard shortcuts, tips on enhancing contrast in photosQuick links:
* Spacebar (page down) If you really like these, there's a list of the most common shortcuts for Firefox, and their equivalents in IE and Opera, at Mozilla.org. 5 Techniques for Enhancing Contrast in Digital Photos. Someday I'll really learn Photoshop. For now, it's piecemeal, through articles like this one. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 15, 2007Thursday is Arts Advocacy Day at the State HouseRI Citizens for the Arts hosts an Arts Advocacy Day at the State House Thursday. The schedule: 11 am – 12:30 pm: Learn about the issues and advocacy process in a workshop with special guest Dan Hunter - Massachusetts Advocates for Arts, Sciences and Humanities. Says here you can register online at that site or by email info@ri4arts.org or by phone: 401-633-6014. "Meeting with legislators will be pre-scheduled. Let us know if you would like to help in arranging a meeting with your legislator when registering." Go to ri4arts.org for more info. Posted by Sheila Lennon More details leak as Wolfowitz digs in: 'Angry Wolfowitz in four-letter tirade'Angry Wolfowitz in four-letter tirade. Guardian U.K.:
An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night. Whatever happened to resigning in disgrace for the good of the country? "We got it and we ain't gonna give it up" seems to mark remarkably unqualified Bush favorites such as Wolfowitz and Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales. Yesterday vice president Dick Cheney defended Mr Wolfowitz, saying: "Paul is one of the most able public servants I've ever known .... I think he's a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue." World Bank President owns this story. Yesterday, the blog published a letter from 37 World Bank Country Directors calling on "the Board and the President to resolve the crisis quickly in a way that demonstrates the Bank's commitment to the highest standards of integrity and accountability," and reported that Tony Blair is being suggested to replace Wolfowitz -- if he can be moved. Related: If the tip of the iceberg -- the shenanigans with Wolfowitz's girlfriend and her pay package -- seem an odd flashpoint for an international furor, here's the short list, and some backstory: Juan Cole in Salon: Paul Wolfowitz's fatal weakness: The cronyism that may cost him his World Bank job is also what caused the Iraq debacle.
Robert McNamara was able to overcome anti-Vietnam sentiment when he became president of the World Bank, earning respect for his work there. However embarrassed we may be at how Wolfowitz and his entourage have represented us there, they still refuse to acknowledge the failure is theirs. Posted by Sheila Lennon Amazon buys Digital Camera ReviewAmazon.com acquires dpreview.com: Shelley Powers notices that Amazon has bought Digital Photography Review, the place to turn when you're trying to figure out which camera to buy. Not only are its reviews thorough, a lively and knowledgeable group of camera owners contributes its expertise and experience to even the drive-by visitor. When my new Panasonic Lumix (purchased from Amazon and still under its one-year warranty) started delivering photos with horizontal white bars or day-glo purples and greens, it was here I found it was a known lens-system problem across several brands. (I wrote to Panasonic describing the aberrations, was told my camera needed servicing and where to send it. It was repaired free, and returned promptly. I had forgotten to remove the card from the camera, and it came back with the test photos of the workbench it was fixed at.) I don't know whether Amazon will enhance DPReview or junk it up, but the financial reward for founder (in 1998) Phil Askey is well-deserved. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 14, 2007Lilac time; Free mp3s: Kansas; Webby Award winners
In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings, If you're visiting southern New England, come in May when the oaks and maples are spring green, cherry, plum and apple blossoms turn neighborhoods pink, and lilacs bloom in that singular shade of pale purple named after them. A single cluster brought indoors perfumes the house. May is full light wind of lilac I did not know this: From Huntington, W.Va., columnist Perry Mann (The Year Winter Killed Spring), "The lilac (was) the flower that Ceres found in response to Jupiter’s request, when his romance was new, that she find for Juno the flower that had the ultimate beauty and fragrance..." Free mp3s: Kansas, Canada Jam, Live at Mosport Park, Ontario, Canada, August 26, 1978. Yup, Dust In The Wind is one of its 13 tracks.
With the Best Homepage award going to Sony.com, and the People's Voice in the same category going to the New York Times, these aren't exactly a guide to the sites of the quirky cultural soulmates you know must be on the Web somewhere but can never seem to find. Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to David Bowie and eBay at The 11th Annual Webby Awards Gala on June 5 in Manhattan. Webby statuettes, pictured at right, are awarded by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, founded in 1998, which describes its membership as ...an intellectually diverse organization that includes over 500 members such as musician David Bowie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Internet inventor and Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vinton Cerf, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser, and fashion designer Max Azria. Members also include writers and editors from publications such as The New York Times, Wired, Forbes, Details, Fast Company, Elle, The Los Angeles Times, Vibe, and WallPaper. Other members include Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Jerry Greenfield (Jerry of Ben & Jerry's), Sister Patricia of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Free Will Astrology's Brezsny and a whole slew of other people, most of whom you've probably never heard of. (I haven't, beyond a few celebrities, and a few usual suspects of the blogosphere.) Posted by Sheila Lennon May 13, 2007Fix your mom's computer today, from wherever you are, for free; A lesser-known MadonnaFix your mom's computer for mother's day: NYC software developer Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software) is offering up to three free day passes to his Fog Creek Copilot program, today only: Why not fix your mom's computer? Sounds like an easy link: While connected as a helper, you see the desktop of the person you're helping in its own window. As you move your mouse within this window, the other's mouse pointer moves, and as you type, the text appears on both of your screens. Related (and perhaps necessary): How to fix Mom and Dad's computer from Lifehacker. Madonna: Growing up, our house had three gold-framed copies of Raphael's The Madonna of the Chair in various sizes hanging on walls. (I don't know why, and I don't think there's really an answer.) I think this one is more interesting:
Carlo Crivelli
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 11, 2007Tattoos with Mom? The Onion skewers Mother's Day; Google Maps gets wiggy; Good junk foodUpdated: I have an unusual family; I admit it. I was touched, therefore, when last year, for Mother's Day, my sister Ellen, and her youngest son Josiah kept up the non-traditional family values. To commemorate the holiday, they both set out to Yankee Tattoo in Burlington to get mother-son coordinating tattoos... Nice story. What do you expect from an onion? The Onion skewers traditional" Women's Sections." The Mother's Day E-Cards are snide, the household hints worthy of a Stepford wife. From the Women's History Timeline, "1950: – Women largely ignored for a decade." The "women's issue" is mostly unfunny -- brutal, really -- except for the Delta blues woman: Blues Singer's Woman Permitted To Tell Her Side. I do like the knockoff image -- every features editor has to do something new (new?) for Mother's Day. Yawn.
It's heartwarming that there are now advice magazines for men. Formerly, only women were thought to need a lot of help negotiating eating, sleeping and living. So... bring on the pork rinds, alcohol, beef jerky, sour cream, coconut and chocolate? Yum. Posted by Sheila Lennon Sheldon Whitehouse: 'Why (Gonzales) must go now'; David Gregory to replace Imus?Two quick items of note: Why he must go now. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island's junior senator and junior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a former U.S. attorney, writes about Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales under that headline in the current issue of National Law Journal. Excerpt: • The attorney general does not respect his own institution. Time-honored traditions and practices of the Department of Justice, vital to the impartial administration of justice, have been gravely damaged. At least three — respect for career officials; careful policing of the boundary between the White House and the Justice Department; and selecting U.S. attorneys from the home district with full Senate confirmation — are bulwarks. The man who didn't care about or didn't notice their destruction is the wrong person to rebuild them. Sen. Whitehouse won the seat over Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in November.
Variety reports, NBC has eye on David Gregory: Correspondent considered for Imus gig. The photo above shows Gregory, NBC News's Chief White House correspondent, and his wife, Beth Wilkinson, arriving at Monday's White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 10, 2007Oldies: BBC mp3s of Bobbie Gentry, Donovan, J. Taylor; Vonnegut 's novels online
"This does not exist in the archives. It was wiped by the BBC sometime in the '70s. This and the reel [off-air master, 1 7/8 ips] from which it came could quite possibly be the only existing copy. Time to set it free... " She doesn't seem to do her 1967 hit, Ode To Billie Joe, but you can watch her do that on YouTube, live on the Smothers Brothers show: Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billy Joe. Free at last: At The Kurt Vonnegut Library you can read 15 Vonnegut novels online for free: When you click on a link to a book from the “Archives” page, you will be directed to a page that contains the book in Scribd’s Adobe Flashplayer based .pdf viewer. The .pdf player allows you to view the book through TKVL’s website, or to download it in several different formats that include .doc and .pdf. Enjoy! What's there:
Kurt Vonnegut died April 11 at 84. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 9, 2007The Photobloggies -- awards to dozens of the world's best photo blogsThe 2007 Photobloggies. If I had a whole day, I would browse every one of these dozens of blogs, winners all.
This one, Daily Walks by Diane Varner, I will sink into. The photo above, Portal to Stillness, is just where I stopped clicking "previous, previous," to show you her work. On the Fence: Many categories, by continent, by age, by concept. This is what others do while I write, hunched over this keyboard or that, extruding words that seem to come from a spot near my hairline. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 8, 2007Fashions show up at White House to meet the queen
The Washington Post: White Tie and Tiara: Queen's Presence Brings an Uncommon Glow to the White House AP's Haraz N. Ghanbari photographed arriving guests:
Jockey Calvin Borel, who rode Street Sense to victory in the 133rd Kentucky Derby Saturday, and his guest Lisa Funk.
Former first lady Nancy Reagan and an unidentified military escort.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and her husband Paul.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts.
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, left, with her daughter Elizabeth L. Cheney and Philip J. Perry.
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Leonore Annenberg and Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife Alma.
David Gregory, NBC White House correspondent, and his wife Beth Wilkinson.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, left, host of The View, and her husband Timothy Hasselbeck, a New York Giants quarterback.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and his wife Ashley.
Golfer Arnold D. Palmer and his wife Kathleen.
Henry A. Kissinger and his wife Nancy. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 7, 2007Time magazine opens archives to 1923; Bill Clinton's NYT crossword; Frommer's: Gainesville best place to liveTime Magazine opens its searchable archives: You can now search back to 1923, and see the oldest results first, if you like. Here's an original, brief review of The Great Gatsby, May. 11, 1925: Incorruptible Yegg. Monday, Nov. 04, 1929 Bankers v. Panic -- an account of the "Black Friday" stock market crash.
Among the earliest Rhode Island stories, March 24, 1923, More Rum Fleets, about a 16-vessel bootleg liquor fleet that "lies between Block Island, off the Rhode Island coast, and No Man's Land. " Here, in its entirety is In Rode Island (sic), of Sept. 10, 1923:
There is not enough time to browse through all this history... Many thanks to Doc Searls for the pointer to this one. Afterlife: Celebrity Crossword: Twistin' the Oldies. The N.Y. Times crossword puzzle yesterday with clues by Bill Clinton. You can do the Java version online or print a pdf and use a pencil as you solve it. Editor's Note: The clues in this puzzle are a little more playful and involve more wordplay than in a typical crossword. You have been warned. -- WILL SHORTZ Did the former president really come up with "Slavic mark" -- 5 Down -- on his own? Insiders: Reaping the Whirlwind. In the Post, Bob Woodward reviews AT THE CENTER OF THE STORM: My Years at the CIA By George Tenet with Bill Harlow. So you'll know what the talking heads are talking about next. You can read Tenet's first chapter (and that of many other recently reviewed books) at WaPo's Chapter One archive. The Times has a First Chapters section for its reviewed books, as well. You might be interested in Gainesville gloats: City ranked No. 1: Gainesville tops list of 400 cities in U.S., Canada The Guy Who Picks the Best Places to Live Idle rich: 'I could have been Annie Warhol': Telegraph UK catches up with "Anne Lambton, the wayward daughter of Lord Lambton" who may or may not have almost married Andy Warhol. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 6, 2007520 free 'Best online documentaries'; Copyright on silenceI'm gardening today -- pruning and mulching, feeding compost to perennials. I was weeding my irises when a trying-to-be-helpful cat took a flying leap into the middle of them. Ouch. If you're not outdoors, you might want to watch some smart movies: Here's a screenshot of the fly-out menu, with the Lifestyle/Society section expanded: Noted: A Better Silence - John Cage and copyright, at Tux Deluxe. Everybody knows that John Cage, the avant-garde composer, invented silence in 1952, with his famous piece 4'33", which was premiered on 29 August of that year. Mine is real, live and therefore more profound. Back to the garden. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 4, 2007Weekend retro mp3s: Steely Dan, 1974; Van Morrison, Astral Weeks liveSteely Dan, Live at the Rainbow, London, England, May 20, 1974.
Van Morrison, Astral Weeks Live Here is a fan compilation of all the songs from Van's classic album taken from live tracks performed from 1967 to 1990. Includes some acoustic studio demos. For more at BigO, check the right-side links on either of these. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 3, 2007Providence jukebox documentary selected for Cannes festival
Last August, I wrote about a funky film's debut at the R.I. International Film Festival.
You can still see the short version -- a demo for the longer one, essentially -- here at Media Lab. Jukebox has also been nominated for a "Tinny" award for "Best American Documentary" at the Swansea Bay Film Festival in England. Matthew hopes to travel to Cannes "if I can afford it." He adds, "Still can't believe we did it. It has been a long road but worth it. I am very proud of the finished piece."
Posted by Sheila Lennon GOP candidates debate tonight at 8 on MSNBCFrom the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., MSNBC's Chris Matthews will moderate the Library’s 2008 GOP candidates debate from 8-9:30 p.m. on MSNBC in partnership with Washington news site politico.com. The announced candidates who'll participate: Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo and Tommy Thompson. You can watch it on cable on MSNBC; it will also stream live on msnbc.com and politico.com. Posted by Sheila Lennon May 2, 2007Alt-headline news: Hippies, Web 2.0 map, Army bloggers, Digg, Imus, data miningThe Hippies Were Right! Brilliant and slightly mad Mark Morford at SF Chron, the land of the love child: All this hot enthusiasm for healing the planet and eating whole foods and avoiding chemicals and working with nature and developing the self? Came from the hippies. Alternative health? Hippies. Green cotton? Hippies. Reclaimed wood? Recycling? Humane treatment of animals? Medical pot? Alternative energy? Natural childbirth? Non-GMA seeds? It came from the granola types (who, of course, absorbed much of it from ancient cultures), from the alternative worldviews, from the underground and the sidelines and from far off the goddamn grid and it's about time the media, the politicians, the culture as a whole sent out a big, wet, hemp-covered apology.
Just wonderful. The Washington Post, E-Harmony and Soviet Russia are all there, and there's even a Sea of Memes in this sea of memes. To wit: The Day Digg Users Revolted. Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death. Wired: The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.... Imus won't go quietly. Fortune: ...For Imus, who made a career out of operating in the murky space between sophomoric humor and high-brow political talk, there is the little matter of about $40 million left on his contract with CBS Radio - whose boss Les Moonves fired the shock jock on April 12. CBS' lawyers contend Imus was fired for cause and not owed the rest of the money. Having Won a Pulitzer for Exposing Data Mining, Times Now Eager to do its Own Data Mining. Village Voice reports from the N.Y. Times stockholders meeting.
Posted by Sheila Lennon May 1, 2007World Bank President blog corrals Wolfowitz chatterHere's the place to track the endgame on the Wolfowitz matter: World Bank President. Alex Wilks, coordinator of the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) and headquartered in Brussels, writes in the "About" statement on the site, ...This blog was originally set up the day in January 2005 that former World Bank president James Wolfensohn announced he would be retiring. We wanted to shine a light on the medieval process for choosing the head of this very powerful institution - the fact that the position is in the gift of the US government. While Wilks posts under his own name, recents reports hail from "Deep Insider," "The Beaver" and "A Washington source" and several others. The latest post, from "Deep Insider": Leadership Everyone's favorite phrase in the otherwise indigestible statement Paul Wolfowitz so kindly emailed to everyone at the Bank yesterday (three hours after his press flaks had showered it on a bored Washington press corps) was his pleading closing complaint. He denounced the process, which was intended *Eurodad describes itself as "a network of 48 development non-governmental organisations from 15 European countries working for national economic and international financing policies that achieve poverty eradication and the empowerment of the poor." It includes Oxfam, which most Americans have heard of. Posted by Sheila Lennon |
Nick DiBiasio started the tradition in 1997 on NPR radio at WICN in Worcester, bringing musicians into the studio to celebrate the release of Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind. It was so much fun, they've gathered every year since to play Dylan tributes around the man's birthday. (He'll be 66 on May 24.)
The remarks were published in a report detailing the controversy that erupted last month after the size of Ms Riza's pay rises was revealed. The report slates Mr Wolfowitz for his "questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest", saying: "Mr Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply." 
He brought Kevin Kellems from Dick Cheney's office (where he had been communications director) and gave him a tax-free salary said to have been as high as $250,000 a year. As Wolfowitz's new senior advisor, Kellems was leap-frogged over hundreds of officials with serious credentials in development work, something about which he knew little. When representing Cheney, Kellems went to great lengths to defend the vice president's implausible conspiracy theory linking Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Wolfowitz appointee Juan José Daboub quietly began changing World Bank policy on contraception, presumably as a favor to the Bush administration, which depends heavily on the Christian right for support. Daboub, who had been close to the right-wing government of El Salvador, ordered all references to family planning removed from a strategy document for Madagascar. Bank officials were said by the Financial Times to have been afraid that the World Bank's long-standing focus on contraception in forestalling disease was being changed by Daboub, and that poor women would suffer as a result. When the story surfaced, Wolfowitz told National Public Radio that the bank had made no changes in policy on contraceptives.
Now screenwriter Matthew Turner, right, a RIC grad, emails that Jukebox has been "selected as an 
my passport photo blogging since 2002 garden blogs archived headlines  Sheila Lennon is features & interactive producer of projo.com, the Web site of The Providence (R.I.) Journal Rhode Island |
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