Accept no substitutes

Category: General (Page 32 of 135)

On the mountain, below the mountain, inside the mountain

I must really be on vacation since I’ve missed a day of blogging ;->

We’re been on several long walks or short hikes in the past couple of days. Sally has a few pictures of our encounter with a bullfrog down near the Moses Cone Manor.

We also hiked around on Grandfather Mountain and over it on the Mile High Swinging Bridge, into Linville Gorge, and into Linville Caverns. We haven’t been through a tunnel this trip — yet.

Links – Muller, Lessig, Brits email Jones, Google, pmarca

The cool rain came across the mountains last night and this morning’s breeze is clearing off the fog. Brought my espresso machine so’s I can sit out and take in nature and list a few links worth reading:

Eric Muller’s quest to learn about his Uncle Leo’s heroism and then his death in the hands of the Nazis is discussed on State of Things (archived here)

Larry Lessig leaves copyfighting to fight corruption. He tells us all here.

BBC reports that “Half of Britons are e-mail addicts” with 30 and 40-somethings more dependent on e-mail than teens. Teens and 20s are more SMS but less said there about that.

Google gets political and comes out strong on their policy blog for Net Neutrality.

Marc Andreessen explains how to do and not do startups on his blog as he also gets his dander up about Bono and Africa (with a little help from Blooker judge and Observer writer Nick Cohen).

LolCats meets Scrabble

When I tried playing panzy in Scrabble, I was quickly shutdown. But then I tried fizx and the other players really got mad. But my master stroke was changing store to ruustore for a pile of points. My making crowing noises convinced no one that I might have a new useful spelling.

Then Tucker found this lolcat and I was almost given my points back for fizx. He had tried mooter which we later that evening found on a vanity license plate. He wanted points for that…

Continuous Partial Attentions

At Fred’s bachelor party at the Durham Bull’s game yesterday, I wondered outloud about the amount of stuff going on that had nothing to do with baseball. At every break there was some contest or some mascot shooting shirts or hamburgerhelper hands into the crowd. It was a relentless assault on the senses and often made no sense at all.

Fred, who unlike me or Jimmy Wales knows a lot about baseball quipped: “Baseball is a partial attention sport.” Yes yes it made so much sense then. To be family friendly, the baseball folks have to provide attention getting activities for kids attention.

Now I’m up in Valle Crucis looking down in the valley itself — but on the net. The place here has a great connection and wireless. The breeze is cool and the view, a vista of greens of every shade.

Expect only partial attention to the net for this week. And that attention will not likely be continuous ;->

Upcomings SL, RL and otherwise

Long Leaf Opera
Tonight, The Long Leaf Opera will be putting on the world premier of “Strange Fruit” an opera in English with an American subject based on Lillian Smith’s best-selling novel which was in turn based on the Billie Holiday song. This will be in Real Life.

77 Million
Staying amongst the Long, Bryan Campen alerts us to The Long Now Foundation‘s presentation of:

The Second Life premiere of Brian Eno’s 77 Million Paintings, in partnership with metaverse services company blueair.tv.

The work will be both streamed via video at select locations inside Second Life, while a rendition of 77 Million Paintings has been created by blueair.tv creative partner Annabeth Robinson, known virtually as AngryBeth Shortbread.

Two evenings, June 29th and 30th, are open to the general public at multiple venues across Second Life, with the largest public area provided by Joi Ito (Kula Sims). The final night, July 1st, is a private event that will be held in appreciation for Long Now members worldwide (members.longnow.org) and hosted on the Leeds College of Art and Design’s Digital Media Sim. Members of The Long Now Foundation staff and board will also be visiting the Second Life sims throughout the weekend and during the member event on Sunday evening.

MacArthur
Still in Second Life, Duke’s Cristin Paul alerts us to Philanthropists in SL:

MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton and Second Life CEO Philip Rosedale are inviting us to an event we can’t miss. They will host a dialogue, in Second Life, as their avatars (yes, the President of one of the largest foundations in the world has an avatar) discuss the role of philanthropy in virtual environments. Engaging in these conversations early and directly with Second Life participants will help understand and identify ways the philanthropic sector can serve the public in the virtual world.

WHEN: Friday June 22, 2007, 9 am PST (noon EST).

Mast Store
I’ll be in the mountains and off the grid for most of next week enjoying life otherwise. Light blogging at best.

Friends in the News

Sally‘s photo of the destruction of the Dey House became the poster for the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill, an organization headed by Ernest Dollar (I am not making this up).

Will Okun is on his trip to Rwanda with Nicholas Kristoff. Kristoff’s blog is here. Will and fellow traveller Lena have a blog here. Both are restricted Times Select blogs tho. Will won the trip in a NY Times essay contest. Will is also subject of today’s video blog.

Lulu-ist Bob Young is on the Sports Pages of the News and Observer as owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Guitar player and amp builder Steve Carr gets a nice write up and picture in the current Independent.

Life on Fennel

For years, we’ve been growing a little patch of fennel. The original idea was that we’d have some good fresh herbs to nibble on.

The first year that changed as our fennel became the host to two batches of Black Swallowtail caterpillars also called parsley caterpillars. Starting with the little orange eggs and continuing to the stages of caterpillar maturation from worms that look like little bird dropping to the giant green and black thumb-sized dragons with their dramatically erupting orange horns (osmeterium).

We started capturing a few and taking them inside to safely mature and to pupate and to winter over and to emerge as butterflies the next spring.

But our fennel experience didn’t stop with Black Swallowtails. Some years, a colony of praying mantis would appear. That colony would decrease in population every day — in part due to the cannibalistic tendencies of the nymphs — until by summer’s end, we had one large fat and happy mantis would be hiding in the fennel fronds.

This year, deer discovered the fennel. They nipped it back into a tighter bush. This despite all claims that fennel is rabbit and deer resistant. The rabbits, so far haven’t crossed the patch of oregano that encircles the fennel for their devastating munching.

Pirates are way out; Zombies are out. Are we left with Ninjas?

Even before Pirates 3 drove a sabre into what small amount of coolness was left in piracy, we noticed that “Pirates are so in that they are out.”

We had been wondering which of the trends hiding in the shadows of culture would become mainstream then go from cool to cold. The two top candidates: Ninjas and Zombies. This contest has Zombies replacing Pirates in the great Pirates versus Ninjas controversy.

Zombies have been having their own parties and flash mobs which makes them a good bet. A zombie novel, Monster Island, was a Blooker Prize finalist this year. Although one judge dissed the book for it’s zombie birds. We replied that we liked and somehow understood zombie birds, but we’ve never understood why the British considered Benny Hill funny.

Now Qwantz.com uses T-Rex to explain the rise and the end of Zombies begining by saying “I have some bad news: zombies are in danger of becoming old hat!” His solution: Zombie birds! and other things revealed in the strip.

I think we’re left with Ninjas!

More Answers to HDTV Question

The older answers roll off My Questions into godknowswhere, so I’ll preserve them here:

Paul asks…
If you could program an HDTV show for Internet2-casting, what would it be?

Jay Cuthrell:
Place a camera inside of a ballistic grade dome on PTZ control that is linked to Internet control that is scheduled for major concert events. Once a month would be at a random open mic night somewhere in the rural US with a sponsor decal reset position.
Babatola Oguntoyinbo:
I want to see what artist workspaces look like from NYC to the Outback, from Mexico City to the Mekong Delta. And I want them all to answer the same question, “What makes you create?”. I want to produce it too – I’ve already worked the logistics.
Aaron Fulkerson:
Documentary of college campuses.
Jeffrey Pomerantz:
Re-shoot the Doctor Who missing episodes using the original scripts, but with new actors, and period costumes and film stock.
Michael Williams:
Well-known bloggers mud-wrestling to settle ideological debates.
Daniell Krawczyk:
The best of North Carolina as created by its citizens
Lorraine Eakin:
Reality show featuring shots of a Peruvian shamanistic healer, a Wall Street Broker and an unemployed street hustler living together for a month

Earlier answers here.

All local (almost) gumbo

Fresh from the Carrboro Farmers Market, the Trinity (sweet pepper, onion, fennel (as a substitute for celery)), heirloom tomatoes, garlic, okra. From the BBQ Joint, their own sausage. From my yard, various herbs. From the freezer, hot peppers that the deer didn’t get. Rice from somewhere I donno. Bread from Weaver St Bakery. Yummmm.

Literary and other readings

Just back from a reception for Pauline Kaldas who will be reading from her Letters from Cairo tomorrow at the NC Art Museum. I also had a great chat with her husband, the poet T. J. Anderson III who practices poetry up at Hollins University.

Escaped from the heat by reading Nobel prize winner Gunter Grasspersonal story of his experience in the Waffen SS, “How I Spent the War” in a recent New Yorker.

But let’s not leave out Tim Lee‘s great Op-Ed in the New York Times — “The Patent Lie”. Tim has a very odd logo for a Cato Institute Scholar! The article is also getting Slashdot attention.

The Curse of Pachebel

The first time I heard Vitamin C’s Graduation (Friends Forever), I thought it had a catchy melody even tho it became increasingly inane. Today it’s being sung at school graduations all over the country including the middle school graduation that I attended this morning. It isn’t the lyrics that get to me but something in the melody that says “You’ve heard this over and over until you are completely numb.”

Nassib sends this YouTube link in which Rob Paravonian explains exactly why.

ALERT: N and O’s David Menconi would like us to know that he wrote about the Paravonian video on Friday December 22, 2006 on his blog On the Beat. Dave finds it mysterious that none of us read about it there. Dave, check the posting date — err, the weekend of Christmas and I wasn’t rushing to my computer to read your blog? I guess I’m a loser.

Questions (and Answers)

I was in a meeting this morning about HDTV over Internet2 and National Lambda Rail with a bunch of folks. Part of the brainstorming was about content for such streams and the various audiences for that content.

The new My Questions app for FaceBook came to my attention during the meeting and I added it to my FaceBook profile. I already have answers, some that might even work.

In case you’re not on FaceBook, here’s a sample:

Paul asks…
If you could program an HDTV show for Internet2-casting, what would it be?

Howard Rheingold:
Docudrama about the life of Descartes and his adventures with the Rosicrucians.
Thomas Vander Wal:
I would really like to see a global music show that goes to the artist, shows their envirtonment, brings their music to life
Jackson Fox:
Besides “The Animated Adventures of LOLCAT?” I’d like to see short-form indie content. Animation in particular.
David Matusiak:
It would probably be “The Money Pit 2” — the dark side of home renovation.

[more just added]
Paul asks…
If you could program an HDTV show for Internet2-casting, what would it be?

Jimmy Wales:
All Rocketboom, All the Time 🙂
Mike Conway:
live indy music
Ian Meyer:
loltrek
Jack Lail:
Zadia Diaz
Chris Liang:
Japanese comedy
Doug Whitfield:
And1 basketball with punk rock/hardcore…maybe some metal in the background instead of the stupid hip-hop stuff
Travis Mason:
The secret lives of cats. Where do they go all day?
Paula Le Dieu:
mm HD – I think I would stay traditional and say natural history. I have seen some great footage of heligimbal captured landscapes that are just gorgeous.

Discovering Cleveland County, NC

I had a good meeting with historians, folklorists, and a lot of good people for Shelby, NC who are planning the “Earl Scruggs Center: Music and Stories of the Carolina Foothills” to be established in the beautiful old Cleveland County Courthouse there.

One of the special pleasures was meeting Earl Scruggs and his son Gary, but then there were some interesting discoveries about Cleveland County, which were pleasurable in themselves.

Associated with the Scruggs Center will be the Don Gibson Theater. Gibson, who wrote a good number of hits including “I can’t stop loving you,” is buried there in Shelby with a Masonic marker on his memorial.

Also from Shelby are Heavyweight Floyd Patterson, “The Clansman” author Thomas Dixon, B Movie Maker Earl Owensby and NBA star David Thompson.

In foodways, Shelby is truly mysterious. Until recently Shelby hosted an annual Liver Mush Festival as well as a whole food, meatfree, Biblically correct Hallelujah Diet retreat center, Hallelujah Acres. Neither of these should be confused with the Shelby Hamfest, which is not about eats, but about Amateur Radio.

The downtown of Shelby was the first National Register of Historic Places Main Street Community.

Now I need to get down there and check out Cleveland County myself.

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