Dashes Are Not Just for Running and Salt
May 31, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life
My punctuation questions provoked good comments, including a grammar correction from Meg (which created the opportunity for a [third {level of} parenthetical] comment) and two professional citations from Hannah:
Per Strunk and White, third edition, Elementary Rules of Usage #8: Use a dash to set off an abrupt break or interruption, and to announce a long appositive or summary.
A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses. . . . Use a dash only when a more common mark of punctuation seems inadequate.
I complained that the S&W doesn't seem to distinguish between varieties of dashes, and Hannah had to invoke authority:
You're just begging for me to drag out Chicago, aren't you? Seriously, man, dashes, en-, em-, or otherwise, have specific uses. En-dashes mostly replace the word "to" in a span of numbers or hyphen "in a compund adjective when one of its elements is an open compound . . ." (see CMS 15, 6.83-6.86). Em-dashes are used as S&W describe (see also CMS 15 6.87-94). Of course, when communicating with typesetters, proofreaders specify the type of dash required.
My only quibble now is wondering if "typesetter" is still the correct term, or should it be "typographer?" In either case, I guess rules are rules, which drives improvisers like me crazy. But if George Bush can be The Decider, then I guess the Chicago Manual of Style can be The Reference. And I can be Back To Work! Or at least, Back To Work.
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
May 31, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Life | People & Society
Fast Company on changing your behavior:
If you want to change something in your life, it's common to try to stop the behaviors you don't like. While this certainly seems logical, it seldom works. The reason is simple - it unintentionally creates a vacuum where the old behaviors used to be. And since nature hates a vacuum it will fill it with anything it can find - usually the very behaviors you're trying to stop since they're so familiar. Instead of stopping certain behaviors, try focusing on what you want to create - and the new behaviors you need to get there. Eventually, with practice, new behaviors will develop enough muscle to naturally replace the old ones.
Good advice.
Resonant Rice
May 30, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Science
For all the psychoacoustic shamen out there: What happens if you pour rice on a steel plate and subject it to high sound pressure? It makes interesting patterns as the frequency rises.
What Up That?—Yo.
May 29, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | People & Society
My brother-in-law said this yesterday at the Circle-Y barbecue. It made me laugh. The phrase has just enough words to convey something, yet not enough of them to resolve the ambiguity. Add the street slang (he's a law officer) coming from a white boy (though, from New Jersey) and somehow it just stuck with me.
What up that?—Yo.
The punctuation is important and I'm not sure I've got it exactly right. The first three words (What up that?) need to convey disbelief, the observational shock of the instigating incident. The italics emphasize the implausibility of the situation — its un-heard-of nature or characteristics. It is posed as a question, indicating an attempt to grasp the surprising or unfamiliar.
But the final word (Yo.) quietly expresses a slow, sad, shake of the head; a smirking "I knew it would turn out this way," and a superior arch in the eyebrows. This might be followed by a short sigh, with a second shake of the head, perhaps closing the eyes briefly, as if to mourn the dumb-ass under observation. The closing period carries the finality of judgement. Appeals are heard at the discretion of the speaker.
Connecting the two utterances with an em-dash (as above) attempts to unify contradictory – if not schizophrenic – ideas into a single sentence. The two phrases are connected, in that one prevents the other, and vise versa; but also, simultaneously, one requires the other to exist. In this view, the connecting punctuation (which probably has a technical name from grammar class [Notio: "Are there rules for this kind of stuff?" Meg: "No, you had to have been paying attention in elementary school." {grammar updated based on a comment; which also gave me the chance to use a third level of parentheses}]) – the connecting punctuation carries the flow of the whole expression.
Bringhurst says, "Use spaced en dashes – rather than em dashes or hyphens – to set off phrases." [Aside: the definition brilliantly models the correct behavior.] "What up that?—Yo." has two phrases, but that doesn't quite describe the phenomenology upon hearing them. Bringhurst provides a second clue: "Use the em dash to introduce speakers in narrative dialogue." Ah, perfect! There are two phrases, so we should separate them with an en dash surrounded by a normal word space. But the phrases are contradictory – as if they were spoken by two different people – therefore we should use a closed em dash—like this.
Ideally we'd follow the em dash with a thin space (M/5) but we're writing with web fonts; we don't get M/5 thin spaces this decade.
So that's one take on it. How else might you punctuate this construction?
Update: The jury of our commenters has specified the correct punctuation as: "What up that? Yo." It's settled. If you ever need to write that phrase, that's how you do it.
[ANN] [AD] Notio Guestroom
May 29, 2006 | Life
The Notio Guestroom is now open for reservations. Located in north-central New England, two hours north of Boston, five hours north of NYC, three hours south of Montreal. Private setting on a dirt road. 30 minutes from Hanover and the quaint home of Dartmouth College, known as the heart of liberalism in NH.
On-site or nearby: Biking, hiking, walking, water sports, skiing, theater, dance, live music, movies, art. Additional attractions: Solitude, trees, clean air, clear water, birds, insects, stars at night, diverse forest wildlife.
Accommodations: Private room with door and east-facing windows. Share single bath with owner. You are welcome to use the Guestroom as a home base for regional travel. My summer is filled with work, so I'd enjoy living vicariously by hearing your travel stories every few days.
Network: Grounds bathed in wifi connected to Adelphia cable Internet. About 450KB/sec down from iTunes. Also: Lunches, drinks, suppers, etc with cool artists, massage therapists, energy workers, pagans, Ivy Leaguer's, environmentalists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and change agents.
Cost: First three nights free. After that you have to spend an hour a day helping chip away at house projects like clearing small brush, deck repair, stone wall rebuilding, basement reorg, or interior remodeling. If you dislike the "three-free, then one-hour per day" pricing model, you may elect to pay $2,500 per day for our concierge-class service. Includes door-to-door airport shuttle, private, small-group, or "on-your-own" activities and tours, and all meals served on-site. (You will be invoiced for off-site meals and event fees.) Providing the absolute highest level of service, the hospitality of our concierge-class offering is unmatched by any traditional host in New England.
Arrangements: Leave a comment to kick off an email conversation!
So That Explains It
May 26, 2006 | Governance | People & Society
I always wondered why so many people voted for Bush when his policies are in direct opposition to their own interests. I remember this most vividly when a relative, who was pro-Bush and a big proponent of lower interest rates and taxes, realized in retirement that low interest rates meant that fixed-income returns were also low – that is, as the interest rates fell so did his income. You could hear the confusion in talking with him. Policies he'd advocated all his life suddenly worked against his own interests and lifestyle. If he got out of denial, it must have been some internal reckoning.
So this morning a summary & pointer to an essay by Jeffrey B. Perry crossed my screen which helps explain this phenomenon. It's a memorial of historian Theodore W. Allen and his book The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 1 and 2.
Specifically, Allen introduced the idea of the buffer social control group:
In 1996, on radio station WBAI in New York, Allen discussed the subject of "American Exceptionalism" and the much-vaunted "immunity" of the United States to proletarian class-consciousness and its effects. His explanation for the relatively low level of class consciousness was that social control in the United States was guaranteed, not primarily by the class privileges of a petit bourgeoisie, but by the white-skin privileges of laboring class whites; that the ruling class co-opts European-American workers into the buffer social control system against the interests of the working class to which they belong; and that the "white race" by its all-class form, conceals the operation of the ruling class social control system by providing it with a majoritarian "democratic" facade.
America is at a tipping point, but it's hard to see because in a culture it takes years to effect a change. It's happened over the last six years – which parts of peace and prosperity during the earlier Clinton years do people dislike so much? – and it's going to take a while to undo the deeper effects of the fundamentalist Bush policies. "Starving the government" through deep tax cuts and simultaneous warring is going to cut the middle class in two (this has already started) – further expanding the buffer social control group at the low-end of the elites (where my existence lies) and playing off the hopes and dreams of the top-end of the laborers (this would completely explain the email and comment spam phenomena, for instance). The increased anxiety of falling down to the lower tier, rather than simply carving out a comfortable middle-class existence, will help control people's behavior. This is why Bush/Cheney/Rove use fear so well as a political tool, and why "creating jobs" and "low prices" drive so many of our collective decisions, from local zoning and community planning to were we live and what we consume.
Only a small number of people are able to take a systemic and long-term view of things, and therefore most behavior is short-term and self-interested. But like the relative mentioned above, when the long-term implications hit it has a big personal impact, and by then it's too late to do anything about it. America as a county is going to find out what this looks like, but it will take a few more years and the people trying to fix the mess will likely have had nothing to do with creating it. If you want to take the really long view, then perhaps we should keep electing Fundamentalists for another decade or two so they're holding the bag when the charade goes south. That would be the crushing blow to this round of delusional policies and politics, if we don't become a nation of jingoistic Nazi-like nationalists along the way.
Which is Weirder, the Beard or the Tie?
May 25, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Governance | People & Society
VT Senator Patrick Leahy with Bob Weir, May 23, 2006. It looks like a good time was had by all. More.
Nike+iPod
May 23, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | People & Society | Products & Opportunites | Science | Technology
Amazing advance in product sophistication. Apple partners with Nike on a blockbuster idea. Buy special (Nike) running shoes with a sensor in the footbed. The wireless sensor talks with a small receiver pluged into the dock connector of the (Apple) iPod. A special version of software takes over the display, and adds voice feedback cues over your music. When you get home, the iPod syncs your stats into iTunes and nikeplus.com, where you can get all kinda bling charts and razzle-dazzle trending of your sweat sessions. Of course, coming soon are Nike Sport Mixes, Workout Mixes, and informative podcasts from the iTunes online store. Rocka Rocka or what?
Pragmatic Technology Strategy
May 23, 2006 | Cooperatives | Life | Software | Technology
Yesterday Mark and I drove down to Andover MA to meet with Walden. We three are running a (pro-bono) session for a Coop consulting group next month on technology strategy. Because Kate wasn't feeling well, we went to Panera for three hours. The place was hoppin' with businesspeople!
Above you see Walden coaching Mark on the use of an important strategic technology tool – the pen and paper. They're really amazing! You can write in any light, without any battery power, on both sides of the device. You're not restricted to "documents" or linear formatting. You can create an unlimited number of pages no matter how little memory you have. There are a whole raft of accessories to collect, sort, organize, and store your notes – and they're all cheap! File folders cost a nickel or something, nothing like the cost of a hard drive upgrade. And you can use pen and paper on any surface, even including a computer tablet!
If you look closely, you can see that Walden is carrying this toolset in his front pocket! Just try doing that with your fancy new MacBook.
Best Comment Spam Ever
May 23, 2006 | Site Maintenance
Love this: "There seems to be a problem adding comments. I tried three times."
Yes, Trevor, when you're commenting on posts that are two years old, the spam filter shuts you out for moderation. When I go to the moderation page and I see that you're posting a lot of crap to a lot of old posts I delete the comments, which brings me joy.
Now, I could be mistaken. Perhaps you have an actual comment on an older post – the best thing to do there is find something relevant to say on a current post so that you become trusted, and then take a shot at the older posts.
Notio is at 50 to 100 junk comments a day, which I can manage in one or two short (2-3 minutes) sessions. It would be interesting to trendline the comment spam topics – it seems to come in waves. Oh, here are fifty hotel spams, oh look, now we've got the drug offers, wait, wait, here come the organ enhancement products, lookey there, some useless newbie test posts as they figure out the spaming software, oh this is rich, the compliments arrive ("There is much knowledge here") linking to junk sites.
Oh I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused
They Call It A Brand
May 20, 2006 | Business & Commerce | People & Society | Products & Opportunites
In contrast to privacy and civil rights, US consumerism continues to be healthy. Friday saw the opening of a 20,000 sq. ft. Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It's open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The entrance is a remarkable glass cube, which you enter to descend down to the underground store. Here's a short video of the countdown to opening, following the very first customer as he moves through security, shakes the hand of Steve Jobs, and walks down the staircase to raucous applause. You can watch time-lapse photos of the first 24 hours outside – the place was packed at midnight. Here's an interview with Steve Jobs working the media.
The Principles Underlying Our System Are Actually Better
May 20, 2006 | Governance | Life | People & Society
This post at TPM sums up my feelings on the US national security situation exactly:
[...] is just this dogmatic post-9/11 insistence on acting as if human history began suddenly in 1997 or something. The United States was able to face down such threats as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany without indefinite detentions, widespread use of torture as an interrogative technique, or all-pervasive surveillance. But a smallish group of terrorists who can't even surface publicly abroad for fear they'll be swiftly killed by the mightiest military on earth? Time to break out the document shredder and do away with that pesky constitution.
Last, there's the unargued assumption that civil rights and the rule of law are some kind of near-intolerable impediment to national security. But if you look around the world over the past hundred years or so, I think you'll see that the record of democracy is pretty strong. You don't see authoritarian regimes using their superior ability to operate in secret and conduct surveillance to run roughshod over more fastidious countries. You see liberalism prospering -- both in the sense that the core liberal countries have grown richer-and-richer and in the sense that liberal democracy has consistently spread out from its original homeland since people like it better. You see governments that can operate in total secrecy falling prey to crippling corruption. You see powers of surveillance used not to defend countries from external threats, but to defend rulers from domestic political opponents.
The U.S.S.R., after all, lost the Cold War, not because we beat them in a race to the bottom to improve national security by gutting the principles of our system, but because the principles underlying our system were actually better than the alternative. If you don't have some faith the American way of life is capable of coping with actual challenges, then what's the point in defending it?
I hope enough people are awake at the polls in November, and the flawed voting machines aren't actually rigged.
What Filmmakers Do For Fun
May 19, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites
Here's a novel idea: Make a film, and charge people $1 to be listed as a producer. The result is a one-second film with 90 minutes of credits.
THE 1 SECOND FILM is a 70mm non-profit collaborative film bringing thousands of diverse people around the world together to create film history: 'The biggest shortest film ever made.' Virtually anyone can help produce this film by donating $1 or more. Our end-credits are estimated to last 90-minutes and will include a feature-length 'making of' documentary. All profits raised by our finished film will benefit the Global Fund for Women.
It gets better:
The one-second film consists of 12 giant frames (9ft x 5ft paintings) made simultaneously by hundreds of participants during an all-night event.
These Internet denizens sure know how to have fun.
What Nerds Do For Fun
May 19, 2006 | Software
This is beautiful: Closures; an Italian Sonnet, by Bruce Williams.
What's a closure, you ask? Here's Martin Fowler's description:
Closures have been around for a long time. I ran into them properly for the first time in Smalltalk where they're called Blocks. Lisp uses them heavily. They're also present in the Ruby scripting language - and are a major reason why many rubyists like using Ruby for scripting. Essentially a closure is a block of code that can be passed as an argument to a function call.
So there you have it. The beauty of code, expressed in the form of an Italian Sonnet.
One Possible Explanation for Obesity
May 18, 2006 | Life | Nature & Environment | People & Society
I woke up this morning wondering why human muscle mass is such an attractive feature in our culture today. That is, why are fit people with defined muscles "more attractive" than couch potatoes.
My mind leaped to the idea that this taps into a primitive part of our brain that says, "If times get tough, and we have to resort to cannibalism, you want to have the right friends." Uh, okay mind, that's interesting. Then via inversion I speculated that perhaps the rise of obesity in America can be attributed to a deep-rooted fear of cannibalism. After all, who would want to eat the lumpy gristle that constitutes the body of most Americans? If it turns out that someday we're roaming the streets looking for a nice gluteus maximus to tuck into for supper a lot of people are going to be pretty safely off limits. Similarly, perhaps the popularity of garlic in blue-state cuisine is an attempt to minimize the off-chance danger of vampires.
I wonder if all this very interesting morning thought has to do with the proposals I have to write today, and the lawyer's cliché that "you eat what you kill." In any case, Good Morning!
I Feel Safer Now
May 17, 2006 | Life | People & Society
A couple of monster military jets just flew over the house. Those puppies are loud and fast. By the time you get to the window they're already cruising down the valley disappearing out of sight. Boys with toys. Practicing for the Big Day. Probably fun to do, in that all-powerful dominant I Am God way.
Also, it's cool that China is financing all this fun. Interesting to watch Eastern countries with multi-hundred-year strategic plans toy with Western "super-powers" that can't see past the next Wal-Mart sale.
Gratuitous Name-Dropping
May 16, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | Software | Technology
[Attention conservation notice: This post contains little of actual value.]
I spoke with Jeffrey Zeldman today. (I just have to say it again—I spoke with Jeffrey Zeldman today!)
A client is evaluating technical vendors. One of the prospects wrote a strong proposal, really kind of in-your-face for this small northern New England college, but she was from New York New York so I just took it as par for the course. I got to the last page and her first reference was Zeldman.
Well, that got my attention. Zeldman is One Of The Most Famous Web Designers In The World. He wrote a great book that introduced a lot of us to the very real possibility of standards-based web design. He operates Happy Cog Studios, a web design consultancy, and also runs a well-trafficed weekly newsletter for web developers called A List Apart.
Long story short, we're calling references. I emailed Zeldman and asked for ten minutes on the phone Tuesday morning or anytime Thursday. He wrote back and said sure. I called at the appointed time, and we chatted for about 15 minutes. He worked with The Potential Vendor (The Subject Under Discussion) on a project for the New York Public Library. He likes her. Thinks she's a good designer. Delivered the goods on the project. All that stuff she said was probably genuine, not bull.
So that was pretty much that. I thanked him and we hung up. I sent a thank you email and promised not to blog his phone number. Then I went to a six-hour project meeting and came home exhausted.
Mañana. Namaste, y'all.
Semantics
May 16, 2006 | People & Society
Seen on the back of a food bank van in Cambridge, MA:
"When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist." — Dom Hélder Camara
Dig.
Flying Carpet
May 14, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Nature & Environment | Products & Opportunites
Great idea:
This project consists of an aerial view of the Sacramento River that is woven into a carpet for the floor of a pedestrian bridge connecting the terminal to the parking garage. This image represents approximately 50 miles of the Sacramento River starting just outside of Colusa, California and ending about 6 miles south of Chico.
This is a beautiful way to connect people with the beauty of nature in a manner and location they don't expect. I wonder if this was expensive or really hard to do? I have seen architectural magazines with advertisements for putting your own photographs onto laminated ("formica") countertops. And I think you can have your own wallpaper made. So this completes the interior design customization palette.
Of course, better to just get yourself outside, but still.
Lynne's 45th
May 14, 2006 | Life
Pictures from the party.
What The President Does
May 12, 2006 | Governance | People & Society
Here is what's in store for President Bush next week:
TONY SNOW: Okay, let's do the week ahead. Here we go. And thank you all for your forbearance.
Sunday, the presentation of a White House tree at the Australian Ambassador's Residence. Monday, remarks at the Annual Peace Officers' Memorial Service at the United States Capitol.
Tuesday, South Lawn arrival ceremony for Prime Minister Howard of Australia, and Mrs. Howard. The President will meet with the Prime Minister on Tuesday, have a joint press availability with the Prime Minister. He also will be meeting with the Sacramento Monarchs, the 2005 WNBA Champions. There will be an official dinner with the Prime Minister and Mrs. Howard on the evening of the 16th. Wednesday --
QUESTION: Official, not state dinner?
TONY SNOW: It says, official dinner.
Wednesday, photo opportunity and remarks to the 2006 United States Winter Olympic and Paralympic teams. He will sign H.R. 4297, the Tax Relief Extension and Reconciliation Act of 2006 -- so we do have a -- the answer is, Wednesday; I should have read my own paper, I apologize. Attends the Republican National Committee Gala at Constitution Hall.
Thursday, TBD. Friday, attend a Thelma Drake for Congress Reception in Norfolk, Virginia, then on to Northern Kentucky, remarks on the American Competitiveness Initiative in Highland Heights, Kentucky, and a Geoff Davis for Congress Reception in Florence, Kentucky. That's the week ahead.
Wow, he's pretty busy with photo opportunities, and signing into law some more tax breaks for millionaires [hat tip, Plausible Story]. I guess everything else is pretty well under control.
I [Heart] My Clients
May 11, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Life
I have the best clients in the world. I just agreed to a large project for the summer that I had initially turned down (wherein I would participate but not lead) because the client wanted me to lead it so much they moved their deadline to fit my existing commitments. There are a lot of players involved, including other vendors in the collaboration, so this is a significant vote of confidence. Thank you.
Political Action Videos
May 10, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Governance | People & Society
Wow. Check out this political ad (1:23) from a US Senate race in PA. "Our President is a criminal...."
Handheld, black & white + color, kids, aggressive language, no holds barred. Of course, in one sense it's still cynical – taking advantage of our unrest with The System, but still, you gotta hand it to the guy for taking a stand. All too rare today. Witness this anonymous blog, for instance.
Body Echos
May 10, 2006 | Life
Saw the chiropractor this morning. I've been visiting about every two weeks for about 18 months. We've been working on some structural issues, from sacrum to mid-back to neck. Some were related to my broken ribs a few years ago (pre-blog, but worth posting) for which I never did any rehabilitation other than take the drugs and lay around for a couple of weeks zoning. But some other issues were tenacious, and were unresponsive to adjustment.
But today, even in the first body scan, she said, "Wow, all this seems to have cleared up," running her hand from my shoulders to my lower back. "A little bit still in the sacrum, and a little in the neck, but this is the best I've ever seen you." Furthering this was the ease with which my sacrum adjusted – it's never happened so easily. At the end she said the soft tissue had more elasticity, I was holding my alignment, and the patterns she had been seeing are essentially gone.
The body echos and reflects our reality in its own way.
We Put On Gloves and Dug In
May 7, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Life
Lynne and I went for a walk down the road today. Ran into neighbor S., who, like Lynne, is a massage therapist.
S: I went to a two-day cadaver workshop last month!
L: Oh, excellent!
S: There were about a dozen of us. There were four cadavers, two up, two down, cut wide open. We put on gloves and dug in. It took a few minutes to get used to it, and then it was okay.
L: That sounds awesome.
S: This one was on the sacrum and hips. The same guy is doing one next month on the neck.
L: Oh, that would be really cool.
I didn't faint, even though I have in the past hit the floor from far less explicit conversations than this.
[Note to CIA/NSA/DIA/DHS/TSA: A really good immobilization strategy for me is to describe details of the gore, or perhaps the neural sequences the pain of a specific injury would cause.] [Updated the post for clarity.]
Opening Space for Ourselves and Each Other
May 5, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Business & Commerce | Life | People & Society
Chris Corrigan posts some (great) current thinking on the Four Practices of Open Space. I hope he and Michael actually do get a book written about their experiences. Spending three days with them was life-changing, in many subtle but persistent ways. One example: staying in touch with Ashley, and thus seeing posts like this.
Glory Be
May 5, 2006 | Life | Nature & Environment
It is really springtime here in New England. Last night the bard owls, the peepers, the moon, the stars. Slept with the windows open. This morning, streaming sunshine, activity in the woods, birds galore, happy cat. I sat on the deck for over an hour entraining. It would be a fantastico day to take off for mental health, but unfortunately I already did that once this week – on an oppressive gray pouring rainy day no less – so my boss doesn't think it's a good idea today. Too bad though, it's glorious outdoors.
Birdsong
May 4, 2006 | Life
All I know is something like a bird, within her sang
It was cloudy this morning, and that bummed me out because yesterday was so difficult (probably due to precognition). I had a prospect meeting, so I dressed in costume. After the dentist I got a bagel and went to the office. Lots of calls to return. More summer project prospects. A speed bump on the road to another. I went out for lunch and there was some blue poking through the gray. Two hours later I left for the meeting and the sun was shining bright and it was hot! Or at least hot for early May. Felt like summer. Should have worn a lighter costume.
Last year around this time Lynne came home from a couple of weeks at Kripalu, and a couple of days later Black Bear died. That was the end, really, if you want to carbon-date the situation. At least the end of the middle, and the beginning of the end. Not that we knew it at the time. Only in the rearview mirror do we reflect on where we've been. Doesn't help with where we're going though. For that you need something else, and it's hard to know what.
If you hear that same sweet song again, will you know why?
Who Knew? [episode MMMDCLLXXXVIII]
May 3, 2006 | Nature & Environment | Products & Opportunites
Yesterday the mailpeople delivered a random new item to my box: The Produce News, "National News Weekly for the Produce Industry Since 1897." Headlines include "Industry groups release lettuce safety guidelines," "At Gourmet Garage, the centerpiece is produce" (here's a photo I took there in December 2000), and "Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee unveils new logo, campaign."
This newspaper is 104 pages! Advertisements for everything related to produce, including "The #1 Executive Search Firm in Produce." What a country!
Anyway, I browsed it over a late breakfast (turkey burger with Cabot cheddar, cantaloupe, banana, water, vanilla ice creme with chocolate sauce, cinnamon Altoid). Found an interesting product called the Mosquito Patch that uses a transdermal patch to deliver 300mg of B1 (thiamine). Apparently research beginning in 1969 showed that most biting insects dislike the smell of B1.
Insect season is almost here – choose your weapons!
A Downside of Email Marketing [#000001 in a series]
May 2, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Life
I just got an email from Netflix that began:
Netflix is proud to announce the opening of its new and improved Previously Viewed DVD store!
Good idea, I thought. Sell off the low-traffic movies. So I clicked over to check out the new section. Looks just like Netflix, you browse, you search, you rate. Nice.
Then I remembered I had wanted to downgrade my account because I don't watch as many movies in the summer. So I clicked over to my account, and went from the 2-at-a time plan to the 1-at-a-time plan, reducing my monthly expense by $2. Then I realized that the action I took – decreasing their revenue – was the direct result of their marketing spam email. Ha! Thanks for the reminder guys!
$2! Two!! Dollars!!! Two Dollars!!!! Twooooooooooo Dollllllllllaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrssss!!!! Puttin' one over The Man!!!!!!
An Anti-Traction, Mobility Denial Material
May 2, 2006 | Business & Commerce | People & Society | Products & Opportunites | Technology
New Scientist describes a patent for a "riot slimer."
Riot police or troops would wear a back pack with three cylinders – one containing compressed air, another filled with plain water and a third containing a supply of very dry, finely ground, polyacrylamide powder. A nozzle, resembling a shower head, would blasts two separate jets, containing the water and the polymer powder, in the general direction of an ugly crowd.
As the two jets mix in the air, after clearing the nozzle, they create a slimy mixture that covers the ground and causes everyone in the area to fall down. Even vehicles should be unable to get a grip on the goo, the patent says. And because the gel is non-toxic, it should cause no permanent harm, besides a few bruised bottoms, that is.
Oh, hehehe, that's such a clever ending!! Okay, now then, very well; let me ask: How exactly do the riot slime backpacker police themselves stay standing, or control the crowd, or move laterally once the slime goes down? Wasn't there a scene in Ghost Busters just like this? ("I've been slimed!!") How can you get a patent on something that was in a movie 22 years ago?? Has that patent clerk not seen Ghost Busters?!?!
Just one more example of the Bush administration's incompetence.
Listening To Yourself
May 2, 2006 | Life
Almost exactly a year ago, on April 21, 2005, a friend interviewed me for her oral history course. Yesterday I read the (nearly) complete transcript.
Oh, the agaony of reading and hearing your actual words transcribed. No, no, I meant....
Plus: Wow – who knew I could be so self-absorbed? Well, some people know, but they're kind enough to clue me in. But also, who knew how much of an under-current was present in my life. Almost like a river that flows under the foundation of your house, and you never know it's there until you excavate for some other reason and discover a whole new world, that's been there all along. Here's an excerpt:
Q: Do you remember visiting the Dimetrodon?
A: [For the listening audience, he’s smiling and dreaming in reverie!] Well, that was really interesting because it wasn’t architectural, really, it was just an amalgamation of buildings that had been built up because a bunch of hippies moved in and it started expanding as more people showed up, and had kids and stuff. There were ladders up to the bedrooms, and it was just a labyrinth of – it was unbelievable. On the other hand, the sort of, workmanship and its unity was really high on the inside. If you looked at pictures of that building, you’d say, “That’s totally fucked up.” But if you thought about it, or experienced walking through there, and probably even more-so living there, and you thought about the Pattern Language, and thought about, what it takes for architecture to support human interactions, human life, that building scored damn high. Far higher than any office building that’s ever been built, for instance. You know, far higher than the bulk of the houses that have ever been built. It was more like a hand-crafted interior that fit human life perfectly, because it sprang from human life, and it was built by people who were thinking about the impact of architecture on human life. You could tell they would have a lot of interesting conversations in those rooms, because there were a lot of places to have interesting conversations. And you could tell that – you know, you could just tell a lot. You could tell that it would be a fun place to have a kid’s birthday party. You could tell that wild sex had happened in that building in many different corners of that building. You know, you could just feel it. And it felt great. It felt like this building supports people. As opposed to the typical “buy a house” [scenario] where the people support the house. Another thousand bucks every time you turn around. Right? That’s the sort of homeownership drain where you’re now working to own the house in the guise of a retirement plan. Which is a very American idea, retirement, and even a modern idea. Why isn’t it somebody’s retirement plan to jump off the Quechee Gorge Bridge, frankly? Why is that viewed as non-rational? It sounds perfectly rational from my perspective.
Don't worry, this isn't a suicide note. Just an example of what I sound like in full riff mode. If I had any real guts I'd paste the whole 8,600 words into a blog post, but I don't think that's the right idea.
Linkfest
May 1, 2006 | Arts & Culture | Life | People & Society
Minor procrastination battle raging. Productive but difficult. Hence:
- Ever wonder what it's like to become an expert in the press? Ph.D. student Danah Boyd helps you out. "I talk to press every time i'm in my car, in the airport and walking around. I spend a good 15 hours a week addressing press right now. It's exhausting. I can only get back to a fraction of those who contact me and i've missed most TV and radio opportunities because i can't just jump when people ask me to jump."
- Kathy Sierra reports her experience with the Shangri-La Diet. "It claims to do just one thing--cause your body to want/need less food. Period. In other words, you know that feeling you have after you've eaten a huge dinner and you think, "I'll never eat another bite ever again" -- this so-called "diet" makes that feeling happen much earlier, after a much smaller meal."
- You should really check out the Stephen Colbert video. The one I pointed to yesterday was incomplete. Here's a full version. Salon comments: "Then he turned to the president of the United States, who sat tight-lipped just a few feet away. 'I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound -- with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.'"
Okay, back to work!
Douglas Ruskoff Has Had It With Religious Tolerance
May 1, 2006 | People & Society
Being a contrarian is always good for traffic.
I think it's time to get serious about the role God plays in human affairs, and evaluate whether it's appropriate to let everyone in on the bad news: God doesn't exist, never did, and the closest thing we'll ever see to God will emerge from our own collective efforts at making meaning. [...]
Like any other public health crisis, the belief in religion must now be treated as a sickness. It is an epidemic, paralyzing our nation's ability to behave in a rational way, and - given our weapons capabilities - posing an increasingly grave threat to the rest of the world.
He lays out an interpretation of the Bible and the Torah to support his argument. From his bio: "Douglas Rushkoff is an author, teacher, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other's values. He sees "media" as the landscape where this interaction takes place, and "literacy" as the ability to participate consciously in it."
.NET on OS X?
May 1, 2006 | Business & Commerce | Products & Opportunites | Software | Technology
Can someone confirm this rumor I heard last night: Microsoft is porting the .NET runtime framework to Mac OS X. [Note: Currently just a rumor!]
If this is true it's a pretty big deal. With Apple currently offering dual-boot software to run Windows XP on Mac hardware, and the likelihood that they will offer virtualization software to run Windows side-by-side with the Mac OS next year, we are apparently headed for a cross-platform world where the OS actually acts more like an application.
At least on the Mac, that is. In this scenario Macs will run the cool, well-designed, elegant, and stable Mac apps, on the best-designed hardware available today as well as whatever Windows apps you want to throw at it. And if you buy a Dell? Well, you'll get the same hacker-target OS on the same flakey hardware with the same lame customer service you've come to expect – you won't notice any difference and you can continue feeling superior that you're running with the big dogs on the best-selling platform and you won't have to spend an hour or two learning how to do things in an easier and more obvious way on OS X. Windowz Rulz!
Why would Microsoft support this? Well, because they are so large and mature they are really just a cash-machine, and all the Mac users would have to buy a copy of XP or Vista (cha-ching!), and their developers will be happy to have a larger base of users buying their apps.
