Quotes, URL's, Links And References-by:older Femmes, Butches, Ftms, Mtfs, Queer, Etc.

[sweetlady]

(S) (*) (S) (*) (S) (*) (S) (*)




http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/12207486.html



The Geminids Are Coming

This is an abridged version of an article that appears in the December Sky & Telescope, page 71.


The night sky offers many wonderful sights, but few are as magical as meteors. These “shooting stars” are fleeting, unpredictable, and incredibly beautiful. Every time I see one, I feel as though I’ve received a special gift from the cosmos.


Meteors happen all the time. You’re almost sure to see them any time you spend a few hours looking at a clear, dark sky. But you can improve your odds tremendously by going out during one of the annual meteor showers — bursts of meteors that take place on roughly the same dates every year.


The strongest and most reliable meteor showers are the Perseids of August and December’s Geminids. Balmy weather and summer vacations have made the Perseids well known and popular, but the Geminids are actually easier to view from mid-northern latitudes. For one thing, nights are much longer in December. And while the Perseids are best viewed before dawn (as most showers are), the Geminids offer excellent viewing starting in mid- to late evening.


In North America the 2007 Geminid meteor shower starts to pick up strength before dawn on the morning of Thursday, December 13. The best time for Americans to observe is late on Thursday night and early Friday morning, December 13-14. And there should be significant activity on Friday night too.


In Asia, the shower's peak falls at an ideal time, early on Saturday morning. That means that there will be strong activity from late Friday until sunrise on Saturday. In Europe, the nights of Thursday-Friday and Friday-Saturday should both offer good viewing.


All the meteors in a shower appear to stream at us from a single spot in the sky: the shower’s radiant. Meteor showers are named after their radiants. For instance, the Geminids stream away from a point in the northeastern corner of the constellation Gemini, which is currently host to brilliant Mars.


All other things being equal, the higher a shower’s radiant is in the sky, the more meteors you’ll see. The Geminid’s radiant is highest around 2 a.m., and it’s already well above the eastern horizon by 9 or 10 p.m. for observers at mid-northern latitudes. That means that the Geminids usually offer excellent shows in the late evening. But there are two more factors to consider.


The darker the sky is, the more meteors you’ll see — and the more spectacular they’ll appear. So it’s usually best to pick a time when the Moon isn’t up. Fortunately, the Moon is a thin waxing crescent during this year’s Geminids, setting before the shower is in full swing and not very bright even while it’s still up.


The final factor is the shower’s inherent strength: the number of meteoroids hitting Earth as a whole, regardless of your own local circumstances. Some showers stretch over many days or even weeks, but the Geminids have a very sharp peak. The curve is also strikingly asymmetric. It takes two days for the rate to climb from one-fifth of the maximum to full strength, but less than one day to drop back to the same level.


This year the Geminids’ peak arrives at 17h Universal Time on Friday, December 14th. That’s great news in East Asia, where the peak coincides with the radiant’s reaching its highest point in the sky, during the early hours of Saturday morning. But in the Americas, the peak falls right in the middle of the day, at noon Eastern Standard Time on Friday. So we’ll miss the very best part of the show.


Because the Geminid rate rises slower than it falls, prospects for North Americans are better before the peak than afterward. Activity should start out modestly around 9 or 10 p.m. on Thursday, December 13th, and then strengthen steadily throughout the night. Just before dawn on Friday morning, you might see a meteor every minute or two from a dark location.


On Friday evening, activity should start about as well as it did on Thursday evening but then decline steadily throughout the night. In fact, the predawn hours of Thursday may offer better viewing, even though they’re more than a day before the shower’s peak.


If you'd like to try not just sightseeing but doing a genuine meteor count, one worth reporting to the International Meteor Organization, see our article "Advanced Meteor Observing". It's easier than it sounds.


http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/12207486.html




(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)





Under the dark December night skies, (S)(S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_7689699




(y)(y)(y)



(f)




A warm fleece blanket, hot coffee and the night stars = Heaven.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007

http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/12/13/top-ten-astronomy-pictures-of-2007/





(S)(S)........stunning picture of a lightning storm near the Weikerscheim Observatory; the 300 second exposure is enough to see the stars streak and the observatory lit up by ambient light. Sometimes, when it’s cloudy, observing is difficult… but you can still get incredible pictures. (S)(S)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2256/2104943984_4de4a6e04a_o.jpg





Astronomical Images from the IPHAS Survey:

http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/~nwright/imaging.html





Largest digital survey of the Milky Way released:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/satf-sa121007.php




Definitely a keeper, all of these images on the various URLs are breathtaking!



(l) (S) (l) (S)




Snuggle with the one you're with,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D




Q U O T E D


"I spent years in misery
'Cause everyone who looked at me
Was thinking evil thoughts about my thighs


"Made up my mind, I'd had enough
I was determined to get slim and buff
I hit the gym, and no more fries!


"Oh yeah you bet, it was difficult
But you can't argue with my result
Now what you see, when you're lookin' at my body


"I'm a hottie now! (gimme something sexy)
I'm a hottie now! (something that barely fits me)
Worked on my body, and I'm a hottie now!"



-- Lyrics from (you guessed it) "I'm a Hottie Now" by top venture capitalist and former Apple exec Heidi Roizen, who is venturing into the motivational exercise music business



http://www.skinnysongs.com/



(y)(y)(y)(y)




(c)(c) Enjoy your weekend. We certainly are - getting ready for the holidays. Wrapping to get done and presents to be shipped......


;)



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



To All My Liberal Friends:


Please accept with no obligation, implied or
implicit, my best wishes
for an environmentally conscious, socially
responsible, low-stress,
non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the
winter solstice
holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable
traditions of the religious
persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of
your choice, with
respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or
traditions of
others, or their choice not to practice religious or
secular traditions
at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful,
personally fulfilling and
medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of
the generally
accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due
respect for the
calendars of choice of other cultures whose
contributions to society
have helped make America great. Not to imply that
America is necessarily
greater than any other country nor the only America
in the Western
Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard
to the race, creed,
color, age, physical ability, religious faith or
sexual preference of
the wishee.




To My Conservative Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!






:o:o Hey, wait a second! I don't HAVE any conservative friends.


;)



(f)





Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.

If you can read this, you are overeducated.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l) (f)




December 16, 2007

The Rural Life

World of Glass

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG


It is barely midafternoon, and the light outside is already dropping fast. By 6 it will feel like midnight, and by midnight it will feel as though we’ve slipped into a temporal crevasse. A few nights ago, a storm passed through. It began with the chattering of sleet on the skylights, and then it turned silent. The next morning, this farm was covered in ice. The wind has barely stirred since then, or perhaps I’m deceived by the new rigidity in my surroundings. Perhaps the world has frozen the way a fox does when it knows I’m watching it.


I spent some time chipping ice off the pickup. The ice fractured in thin sheets and slid down the windshield. If the wind does begin to blow, I thought, tubular fragments of ice will come raining down from all the trees. On my trip out to the mailbox this morning — crossing the toboggan chute that the road has become — I fingered some of the smallest branches on a pear tree and realized that the ice had bonded with the bark, as if it were clinging to the tree for support. In the poultry yard, the geese had given up trying to get around. The chickens were able to hover but unable to propel themselves forward. In flight, they looked like feathered asterisks.


The sun came out for a few minutes this afternoon, and it seemed a little garish. Then the light faded and it was like watching the scene in some extraordinary pop-up book fall back into the pages. Somehow, the flattening light was as gratifying as the crunching of ice underfoot, a token of mid-December’s grim seasonality.


It’s now a few days to the bottom of the trough where daylight is concerned. I’m always surprised when we get to this time of year. I remember winters being much colder and snowier when I was young — surely they were more opaque as well? Apparently not. As the solar system is constructed now, you can only drain so much light out of the year at this latitude. We do not need to worry about global darkening. Unless I’m mistaken, daylight will begin to increase, as it always does, just before Christmas.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/opinion/16sun4.html?_r=1&oref=slogin





(l) What a lovely essay. (f)






(8)(8) Silver and gold, silver and gold.........(8)(8) (g)(g)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/12/12/1212-GIFT/21054267.JPG


OR


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/11/dining/1212-GIFT_6.html



;)



(f)




"Bumbles bounce!"


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :| :| :|



What's the world coming to when you can't even trust that the person on the other end of a hot online chat is in fact a bored hacker from somewhere in Eastern Europe? Yep, not only are you unlikely to hook up with a simpatico soul via this channel, these days you may not even be exchanging titillating text with a human at all.


A Russian site, CyberLover.ru, says it's putting the finishing touches on an automated chatbot that simulates a guy looking for a good time when it's actually more interested in pumping unsuspecting women for personal information. "It's happened," crows the site, "a program to tempt girls over the Internet! Within half an hour the CyberLover program will introduce you to ... girls, exchange photos and perhaps even a contact phone number. ... Not a single girl has yet realized that she was communicating with a program!" The program reportedly can handle up to 10 simultaneous chats and can be customized to target men, persuade people to visit a particular site, or lead them into some phishing scheme.


http://cyberlover.ru/



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071213/wr_nm/russia_internet_dc



The folks at security outfit PC Tools were impressed. "As a tool that can be used by hackers to conduct identity fraud, CyberLover demonstrates an unprecedented level of social engineering," said Sergei Shevchenko, senior malware analyst. "It employs highly intelligent and customized dialog to target users of social networking systems." If the program is highly intelligent, that puts it well ahead of its likely victims.


:s:s As the Online Dating Insider says, "Anyone who gives up their phone number or other personally identifiable information in a chat room the first time the meet someone should automatically have Geek Squad come over and take away their computer because they are clearly lacking common sense. I'm sorry, but how clueless can you be?"


http://onlinedatingpost.com/archives/2007/12/chats-robots-getting-smarter/



And don't think things are any better in VoIP land. Check out Jeremy Wagstaff's brief encounter with the delectable but dense and determined Veronica on Skype chat.



http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/12/meet-veronica-s.html





^o)^o) And the lesson here? Don't give out personal info. Better yet? Don't use chat software that has "holes" - which allow virus and other malware to get "in". Doh!!








Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (l)




http://images.cafepress.com/image/7829327_400x400.jpg





(l)(l) AMEN!


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f) (f)




http://www.babelmaster.de/translation_merry_christmas.html




Very Cool:

http://advancedlanguage.com/holiday/holiday.html







Wesolych Swiat!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/12/13/cool-stuff-30-years-of-lucasfilm-christmas-cards/




8-|(h)8-|(h)8-|(h)



(f)




feliz Navidad.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o



There are lots of year-end lists on which you'd be proud to appear; this isn't one of them. PC World has chronicled "The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007" -- not the worst tech, but the stuff that significantly fell short of expectations (at least those of the PC World editors). There's some piling on (No. 1 is Vista, and the high-def DVD format war and the wireless networks also make the list), some old favorites (municipal Wi-Fi, Internet security and the Zune), and some tasty link bait (the Apple iPhone and Leopard, the latest Mac operating system).



Popular Mechanics didn't bother couching its list of infamy in terms of expectations; it just picked "The Top 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007" and had some fun doing it. This list also includes Microsoft's Zune and one Apple product (Apple TV), but also features items like the 3001 AD Trimersion HMD, a head-mounted display and gun controller for gamers ("To aim at your target, you have to use your head. That is, you literally wag your head around until the crosshairs line up with your target. This does not simulate being a real person with a real gun; it recreates the experience of being a unicorn with a rocket-launching horn.") and the $2,000 Ironman Resolution Vibration Trainer ("First, it's not an exercise -- you get on the machine, and it vibrates. You can do sit-ups or push-ups or squats, but let's be clear: Being vibrated is not an exercise. And second, we challenge anyone to 'stick with' this so-called exercise. Of the six staff members who tried it, everyone reported some level of discomfort, from near-instant headaches, to lingering nausea to, no kidding, 'stomach problems.' " Say no more -- it's off my list.




The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007: These much-ballyhooed products, sites, and services, it turned out, left much to be desired.

http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,140583/printable.html#





The Top 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4236755.html



:o


:)


;)


(f)




(8)(8) Santa Clause is coming to town. (8)(8)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D



Dear All,


My thanks to all those who have sent me emails this past year........


I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat shit in the
glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every
envelope that needs sealing.


Also, I now have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.
I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny
Brown); who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.


I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the
$15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating
in their special e-mail program ....


Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split $7 million
with me for pretending to be a long lost relative of a customer who died.


I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out
for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.


I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water
buffalo on a hot day.


Thanks to you,


I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward e-mail to
seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.


Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove
toilet stains.


I no longer can buy petrol without taking a friend along to watch the car
so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up.


I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a
aftershave sample and rob me.


I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number
for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore
and Uzbekistan.


Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown
African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it
bites my bum.


And thanks to your great advice,


I can't even pick up the $50.00 I found dropped in the car park because it
probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to
grab my leg.


If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70
minutes, a large dove with diarrhoea will land on your head at 5:00pm this
afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you
to grow a hairy hump.


I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next
door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beauticians
relative once removed.


By the way....a South American scientist after a lengthy study has
discovered that people with low IQ who have infrequent sexual activity
always read their e-mails with their hand on the mouse.


Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late!






;) I always hate getting "yearly recap letters" inside of xmas cards - but this one made me smile. (y)(y)



(f)






"The best smiles are those when I get lipstick on my earlobes."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-| 8-| 8-|



Expert Village


Watch online and learn


If you're someone who learns better from visual instruction, then this site is perfect for you. Now you can watch "how to" videos on a wide range of topics, from auto maintenance to audio production to arts and crafts.



Hey, I could do that...



http://www.expertvillage.com/





(y)(y)


:)






Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

[sweetlady]

:D:D:D



http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/



:o:o

It's a sad sign of the times that there's a link to report offensive snowflakes...........


:D FUN!!!




(f)





feliz Navidad.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)



http://www.stiltoncheese.com/simple.cfm?y=y&page_id=6




(f)





Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-|



No extra credit, but if you're a believer in lifelong learning, here's some study material. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View has posted a treasure chest of videos from its lectures and events on YouTube. Here's your chance to get Eric Schmidt's perspective on tech leadership, or listen to computer pioneer Robert Kahn talk about the birth of Arpanet, or catch last week's panel discussion on the impact of the Commodore 64.


http://www.computerhistory.org/



http://www.youtube.com/computerhistory



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFgOGgHS0Gg



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3uTKs9XZyk



http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1193702785



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBvbsPNBIyk


If that's not enough, now you, too, can enjoy the lectures of an MIT cult favorite, 71-year-old physics professor Walter H. G. Lewin, who, according to the New York Times, delivers his lessons "with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube's greatest hits." He has been known to swing on a giant pendulum, ride a fire-extinguisher-propelled tricycle, and shoot a cannon loaded with a golf ball at a stuffed monkey wearing a bulletproof vest. Lewin says that "what really counts is to make them love physics, to make them love science," and now that some of his classes are available free on MIT's OpenCourseWare, he's able to spread the love much further. As a 62-year-old florist from San Diego wrote in fan mail, "I walk with a new spring in my step and I look at life through physics-colored eyes."



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?ex=1355720400&en=78ff7cfea904d7b1&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss



http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/detail/Video-Segment-Index-for-L-10.htm



http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/detail/Video-Segment-Index-for-L-17.htm



http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/detail/Video-Segment-Index-for-L-4.htm



http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm





(*)(*) MIT's OCW has been around for a while. It is the BEST offering (around 2,000 so far) of FREE ON-LINE COURSES. There aren't any instructors facilitating these courses, but for free - it's alot of fun to learn new things. TEN STARS.



:) Tre-cool. (y)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(h) (g) (h) (g) (h) (g) (h) (g)



http://www.boakart.com/wrap/WrapArt.html




(y)(y) Very unusual - wish I were more of an artist.



(g)



(f)





"Love me, love my dog."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:s:s


;)



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071219/us_nm/usa_quotes_dc




^o)^o)






Wesolych Swiat!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D



Treadmill Racing



Japanese TV at its finest



From the same fine country that inspired superiorly weird gems such as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and ski resort prank videos, comes this Japanese game show snippet that will make everyone's sides hurt. Watch out-of-breath business-suited hopefuls run in place to the finish line!



Run, Forrest-san, run!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edY3HaVRS_Q




;)






feliz Navidad,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o


:)



Twitter



What are you doing?



Post quick, frequent notes so your friends know what you're doing. All the time (or as often as you like). Some find it incredibly useful. Some incredibly obnoxious. But it is easy—and very popular.



Start twittering...




http://twitter.com/




;)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| ;) 8-| ;) 8-| ;)





http://9to5mac.com/macworld-bloopers-0230959534





(y)(y)



(f)





Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


A big earthquake with the strength of 8.1 on the Richter scale
has hit Mexico.


Two million Mexicans have died and over a million are injured.


The country is totally ruined and the government doesn't know
where to start with providing help to rebuild.


The rest of the world is in shock.


Canada is sending troopers to help the Mexican army control the riots.
Saudi Arabia is sending oil.


Other Latin American countries are sending supplies.


The European community (except France) is sending food and money.
The United States, not to be outdone, is sending two million
replacement Mexicans.


God Bless America







Doh! :|




;)




Ancora Imparo.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-)8-)8-)8-)



Kitty Wigs:

http://kittywigs.com/wigindex.html



:|



;)




(f)

SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[Tranzman]

:D:D



Treadmill Racing



Japanese TV at its finest



From the same fine country that inspired superiorly weird gems such as Most Extreme Elimination Challenge and ski resort prank videos, comes this Japanese game show snippet that will make everyone's sides hurt. Watch out-of-breath business-suited hopefuls run in place to the finish line!



Run, Forrest-san, run!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edY3HaVRS_Q




;)






feliz Navidad,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

LMAO! What WILL they think of next?

[sweetlady]

8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l) 8-| (l)




http://www.instructables.com/id/Extreme-Business-Cards!/




WAY, way cool, IMHO. (y)(y)(y)






These web sites just get me all excited. ;)



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|


;);)




A new Pew view of Internet users indicates that lots of us do searches on our own names and those of people we know. That shouldn't raise an eyebrow. What's surprising, to me at least, is that the numbers aren't up above 90 percent. According to the latest study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, people are becoming more aware of their digital footprints, with 47 percent saying they'd run an online search on themselves, more than double the number five years ago. A greater number, 53 percent, say they've searched the names of family, friends, colleagues, or prospective dates. And about 60 percent say they don't really give a hoot what information about them is online.


http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_7741301?nclick_check=1




Amazing Article:

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/229/report_display.asp



http://searchengineland.com/071217-142031.php



Maybe it's just living in the valley, but I figured ego surfing would be the first thing a person would do upon being introduced to a Web browser, sort of like checking the new phone book to see if it got your info right, and looking up the names of past and present friends would follow closely. So if you've never run a search on your own name, I'm curious as to why. You really ought to do it, at least once, just to make sure you're not the unknowing target of a "sucks" page and to find out who among those who share your name has risen to Internet prominence (I share a results page with a prize-winning Canadian playwright, a notorious land pirate and several UK professors).



Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was also surprised that more folks weren't trying to find themselves online. "Yes it's doubled, but it's still the case that there's a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of plugging their name with search engines," she said. "Certainly awareness has increased, but I don't know it's necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us."



:|:|:|



^o) ^o) ^o)




(f)





A warm fleece blanket, hot coffee and the night stars = Heaven.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.games1.org/flash-games/Shuffle




;)





"Promise her anything, but give her Arpege."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)


Paper Toys


The gift of imagination


Remember the days when kids played with wooden blocks and carpet lint? Well, this site won't help you go back quite that far, but it will provide hours of fun with printable paper models that you and your kids can make.



Batteries not needed



http://www.papertoys.com/





(f)(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



Q U O T E D


"It will chew up bandwidth and sell a ton of racks."


-- Cisco CEO John Chambers concisely explains the business reasoning behind the company's interest in bringing TelePresence to the home



http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/11/Older-workers-dont-despair_1.html



Chambers: Older workers, don't despair


At the C-Scape conference Cisco CEO John Chambers said the rise of Web 2.0 doesn't mean that twentysomethings are going to render more established workers obsolete


By Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

December 11, 2007

Social networking is coming to enterprises, but that doesn't mean the twentysomethings are taking over, Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Tuesday.


Kicking off the company's annual C-Scape analyst conference in San Jose, California, Chambers continued the theme of collaboration and Web 2.0 that Cisco started pushing here a year ago. This time he demonstrated a set of social-networking tools being used for business. But while these technologies are more familiar to the young, the more established employees still know better how business works, he said.


"The 40-year-olds will out-execute the 20-year-olds. You bring process to this," Chambers said.


Cisco's collaboration push, including Telepresence high-definition conferencing and the company's recent WebEx acquisition, forms the core of not only what Cisco is advocating for enterprises but what's powering its own operations and, increasingly, its revenue.


After holding a panel via Telepresence with two enterprise IT executives and an economist joining in on large video screens, Chambers demonstrated WebEx Connect, a product in beta testing that is scheduled to ship in the first half of next year. It lets organizations create online spaces for collaboration: Employees can engage in text chats that stay up for future reference, describe problems and ask for ideas to fix them, create Facebook-style profile pages that others can search to find people with the expertise they need, and then check a contact's presence and engage them in a Telepresence session by clicking on their names.


"The fundamental nature of work will change" with collaboration technology and Telepresence, Chambers said. It has already made an impact at Cisco, which has already deployed hundreds of Telepresence systems internally. Technology has allowed Cisco to move from a top-down organization to a structure where task groups can be formed among all parts of the company, he said.


The new structure helped Cisco quickly decide to move aggressively into China, as it did last month when it announced $16 billion of investments there. That decision was made in just 12 months among 30 people at Cisco, whereas the same process might have taken three years in a traditional organization, he said.


Chambers also hinted at future developments in Telepresence, which the company unveiled about a year ago and has now sold for broad deployment in 100 large enterprises. He highlighted a "holographic" capability Cisco showed off in November at a meeting in Bangalore, India, and said he envisioned such a system for homes some day.


The company has prototypes of this technology, which allowed Cisco executives in California to appear to be on stage with Chambers in India, said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Emerging Markets Technology Group, at a press lunch later on Tuesday. "It's not far-fetched," he said. Ultimately, there could be meetings in which people in different places virtually gather together in a room and see each other from all angles, he said.


Cisco is also aggressively pushing its high-tech stadium concept, which it is mapping out for a proposed Cisco Field for the Oakland Athletics in Fremont, California. It would use digital signage, digital ticketing and other systems to improve the fan experience. Cisco is in discussions with 15 to 20 sports teams in the major baseball, football, basketball and hockey leagues in the U.S., Chambers said.


An offering like home Telepresence doesn't just make life easier for geographically separated families, of course. It also drives network usage and related router purchases by the carriers, Chambers added.


"It will chew up bandwidth and sell a ton of racks," he said with a smile.






:o:o And I met this guy too.


:)



(f)




Snuggle with the one you're with,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(8)(8)(8)


(y)



http://crossedcombs.typepad.com/recordenvelope/



Very cool: A reference for vinyl geeks and graphic artists.



http://crossedcombs.typepad.com/recordenvelope/animals/index.html





LOTS of categories to check out. :o:o



:)



SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


;)



Last month, we were talking about how time spent on the Web had changed from solitary to social (see "How can I miss you if you won't go away?"). Today, we have a sign that working your way through the Web, once silent as well as solitary, will be getting a lot noisier. The start-up Ribbit has hopped out of stealth mode, revealing its princely mission of seizing the throne of unified communications.



http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2007/11/how_can_i_miss_you_if_you_wont_go_away.html


http://www.ribbit.com/


http://www.ribbit.com/about/



What Ribbit has is a software switch that can take multiple types of communication -- landline phone, cell, VoIP, WiFi and instant messages -- and connect one with the other. The company also has a programming interface to let developers build all sorts of voice applications and embed them in a Web site, a blog or software, with the end product working on different networks, protocols, and devices. Ribbit's system, expected to launch commercially in the first quarter of next year, handles all the tricky back-end switching and billing in exchange for an as-yet-unspecified cut of the revenue.


http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/2007/12/17/ribbit-debuts-as-silicon-valleys-phone-company/



Taking on the telcos, an admirable and formidable task in itself, won't be Ribbit's only worry as it leaps ahead. A platform like this is only as good as the developers it attracts, and there others also in the hunt to disrupt the telecom market, like Google's Android platform and whatever Adobe has in the works. But Ribbit has a reported $13 million in venture funding and a team with a lot of telecom equipment experience, so it's at least got a fighting chance. Should things go badly, however, I've already stashed "Ribbit Croaks" in my Headlines I Hope I Don't Have To Write file.


http://gigaom.com/2007/12/17/can-ribbit-finally-bring-web-voice-together/


http://www.betanews.com/article/Can_startup_Ribbit_conquer_unified_voice_before_Go ogle_Verizon/1197910504


http://gigaom.com/2007/12/03/cat-got-adobes-voice/





8-|8-|8-|8-|



(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



Q U O T E D


"1. A true weblog is a log of all the URLs you want to save or share. (So del.icio.us is actually better for blogging than blogger.com.)


"2. You can certainly include links to your original thoughts, posted elsewhere but if you have more original posts than links, you probably need to learn some humility.


"3. If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already."


-- Jorn Barger, who coined the term "weblog" 10 years ago today, offers some of his accumulated wisdom to novice bloggers



http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/12/blog_advice




:|:| Does this guy look like Charles Manson's brother or what?!



;)




Warm wishes for a relaxing Thursday December evening.

(f)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer

[sweetlady]

:o



http://adam.sporka.eu/wiki/calendar/



;)



(f)



Veritatem dies aperit.

Time discloses the truth.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


:)



http://www.duelity.net/





Jaw-droppingly well-made! I loved this - definitely worth downloading, if you have the time as well. (y)(y) Very cool web site.




(f)




(8)(8) "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas.." (8)(8)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|



Frugalist


Go Green & Save Green!


What if you could save the planet AND save your money? This site offers great ideas on how to save both by making simple adjustments to your lifestyle. Is this cause for a "smug-alert" or what...?!


Green up your life



http://frugalist.instantcreditcard.com/2007/how-to-save-2007-in-2007-25-new-ways-to-be-frugal/






^o) ^o) Some good ideas and some are pretty cheap. :|:|



;)



(f)





feliz Navidad,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



Oh, Don't Forget


Send yourself a reminder


So simple, it's almost addictive. Just type in your cell phone number and a message, and this free site will send you a text message at any time and date of your choosing. Never forget another errand.


Better than a string on your finger



http://www.ohdontforget.com/





;) For those with "CRS" disease. ;)



(f)






Wesolych Swiat!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|





Gay Iraqis become targets after U.S. invasion of Iraq

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 / 10:06 AM

The Advocate



Religious extremism sparked by the war in Iraq has left once-comfortable gays in the Middle Eastern country feeling demonized and afraid, The New York Times reported Tuesday.


Outsiders have always been viewed with suspicion in Iraq, but gays were ignored and accepted before American troops invaded in 2003. After the war began, about 400 people were killed for being gay, according to an Iraqi gay rights group, and gays and lesbians were forced to see lovers at night and in secret, according to The Times.


A United Nations report released in January described the growing persecution, torture, and killing of Iraqi gays and lesbians. In 2005, Iraq's highest-ranking Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a decree calling for gays and lesbians to be killed in the "worst, most severe way."


The decree was lifted a year later, but Mohammed and his friends said they still don't feel safe.


"We seem suspicious because we look like a cell of terrorists," Mohammed told The Times. "But we can't tell people what we really are. A cell, yes, but of gays."


The growing influence of Iran, where homosexuality is sometimes punishable by death, has also alarmed Iraqi gays and lesbians.


"I want to get out, but not just out of Iraq, out of the Middle East," Rafi, a 25-year-old law student, told The Times. "To a country that has respect for human rights. And for us. It will never be possible here."



:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(




(f)(f)

SL & WTB

[sweetlady]

8o|8o|



Tuesday, December 18, 2007 / 11:44 AM

The Advocate


Voters may decide next year whether Florida will become the 28th state to place a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Sponsors of the proposed ban claim that they have gathered the required 611,009 signatures necessary for a referendum vote, but Florida's Division of Elections website shows the group is 253 signatures short of its goal, the Associated Press reported Friday. An election official has yet to formally verify the signatures.


Florida currently prohibits same-sex marriage, but John Stemberger, an Orlando attorney heading the group opposed to marriage equality, said a constitutional ban would prevent judges from overturning the law.


"We believe kids need a mom and a dad, very simply," Stemberger told the AP. "Moms and dads bring something different to the table. Dads are not optional."


Opponents of the measure are worried that the amendment could supersede some Florida cities' existing domestic-partnership laws, thereby affecting unmarried heterosexual couples as well.


"It's government saying this is the only sanctioned relationship that you can have," said Stephen Gaskill, spokesman for Florida Red and Blue, an opposition group.







GRRRR,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o:o


:|:|:|



Tuesday, December 18, 2007 / 11:46 AM

The Advocate


Lesbians tend to be more stressed and depressed during the holidays than straight women, according to a survey conducted by market research firm Harris Interactive.


The survey found that 80% of lesbian adults felt more stress around the holidays, compared to 64% of heterosexual women. And while 51% of lesbians said they tend to feel more depressed around the holidays, only 36% of straight women did.


"Estrangement from family, margilization within and isolation from society, separation from children (sometimes due to custody battles), and inadequate access to culturally sensitive health care practitioners are all factors that can adversely affect mood during a season so identified with family activities and belonging," Linda Spooner, a Washington, D.C., physician, said in a press release.


Smoking is also a greater problem for lesbians, according to the survey. Twenty-five percent of lesbians said they smoked, compared to 19% of heterosexual women. Half of the straight women polled said they would try to quit smoking in the next year, but only 23% of lesbians said they would try to stop.





:o Where DO they GET this stuff?



(f)(f)



SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-)8-)



Tuesday, December 18, 2007 / 03:28 PM

The Advocate


A recent amendment to California's education code has outraged many conservatives, who say the new laws push a gay agenda in public schools, according to a story in the Washington Times.


The law, which is known as SB 777 and was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October and will take effect in January, forbids any activity in school that "promotes a discriminatory bias" on the basis of sexual orientation or gender.


In recent weeks, preachers, parents, conservative lawyers and advocacy groups have launched protest campaigns, which have included pulling children out of school, circulating a petition and even filing a lawsuit.


The law's opponents argue that the amendment would allow students to decide their own gender, creating potential "havoc" in school locker rooms and bathrooms.


"If this is not repealed, the next step is to get out of California itself – it's like Sodom and Gomorrah," Pastor Vincent Xavier told The Times.


Proponents, though, say the law only clarifies and streamlines -- and doesn't expand -- existing protections for students.


"There has been no change in California law, none at all," state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, the Democrat who authored the original bill, told The Times.





Message to those " conservatives": Get a life and leave California!


Okay, off the soapbox..........;)



(f)


SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

<:o) <:o) <:o) <:o) <:o) <:o)



Philadelphia's annual Mummers Parade is a little like Pride, a Harlem Drag Ball and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade all rolled into one.



December 12, 2007


If we had to draw a comparison, Philadelphia's annual Mummers Parade would be a little like Pride, a Harlem Drag Ball and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade all rolled into one. Drawing almost 12,000 LGBT and gay-friendly devotees, the 106-year-old tradition ranks as one of the city's biggest (unofficial) gay events of the year. Considering that it kicks off at 8 a.m. on New Year's Day with many revelers coming directly from New Year's Eve festivities, that's no mean feat. "By noon, the gayborhood bars a block from the parade route are already packed," says Jeff Guarancino, Philadelphia's LGBT tourism expert. "From South Philly to City Hall," he adds, "there are men in the streets wearing costumes of sequins, boas, feathers and wigs -- many of whom are not gay at all!" Having almost $35,000 in costume prize money doesn't hurt, but true to Philadelphia's "brotherly love" motto, the Mummers Parade isn't about winning or competition. Many of the elaborate ensembles cost more than the wildest earnings, running into the thousands and taking months to construct. If you haven't made New Year's plans yet, also consider this -- Philadelphia boasts some of the gay-friendliest luxury hotels this side of Oz.


http://www.advocate.com/travel_detail_ektid50976.asp




:) Gee, my grandmother took to to several when I was quite young. I remember getting all bundled up and grandma with her "cough medicine" bottle.....


;)



:) Seems to be better-enjoyed watching on TV, especially when the weather is either brutal or just plain rainy. The costumes are breathtaking and some of the bands are really amazing. They practice all year for this parade!




(f)






"The best smiles are those when I get lipstick on my earlobes."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o



http://www.advocate.com/poll.asp




http://www.advocate.com/poll_results.asp




Yes: 18.5%


No: 71.3%


Undecided: 10.2%




:|:| Kind of sad, that so many don't believe there's been a turning point.






(f) Well here's to a wonderful 2008 filled with promise and hope.



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



http://www.advocate.com/uploadedImages/advocate/editorial/exclusive_detail/200712/JODIE_FOSTER.jpg



December 19, 2007


Did She or Didn't She?


Did Jodie Foster come out of the closet at an industry breakfast on December 4? The media seems to think so.


By Christopher Lisotta



Actress and producer Jodie Foster was just making a thank-you speech, right? Depends on who's doing the reporting.


On December 4 the two-time Academy Award winner accepted the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award at the annual Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast in Beverly Hills. Foster attending this kind of industry event is hardly news outside Hollywood, but her acceptance speech garnered global headlines when she thanked “my beautiful Cydney,” apparently referring to Cydney Bernard, the woman long assumed to be her partner.


Foster recognized her agent, publicists, lawyer, and mother before thanking Bernard, “who sticks with me through the rotten and the bliss,” she said.


The film and television website IMDB.com lists Bernard as a production coordinator, manager, or supervisor on a half-dozen films and television movies—including the 1993 feature Sommersby, which starred Foster. Both of Foster’s children, Charles and Kit, have the middle name Bernard.


Foster's December 4 comments set off a rash of media coverage, with publications from South Africa to New Zealand reporting the words, but with widely varying interpretations of what they meant. The U.K.-based website Fametastic saw the statement as a sign that Foster “may be set to publicly confirm her relationship.” Other publications went further, with The Philadelphia Daily News declaring on December 15 that Foster “has officially announced she's gay.” The British tabloid Daily Mail reported on December 12 that Foster “has finally come out as a lesbian.” The Daily Mail also ran a photo of Foster and Bernard taken at the German premiere of her 2005 feature film Flightplan.


The coverage was not just in print. Cabler CNN added a video clip to its website on December 13 titled “Jodie Foster thanks gay partner” where celebrity columnist Kiki King said in an interview with one of the network’s anchors “of course she’s been with Cydney Bernard for over 14 years now, and she has two sons, presumably with Cydney playing a sort of parental role in that relationship, as well.”


Robert Thompson, a professor at the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said the reaction shows an evolution in the way media interprets comments by individuals that merely indicate sexuality.


“Once upon a time a comment like that would have gotten absolutely no remark, because so much of that stuff wasn’t being reported,” Thompson said. “It was so submerged. Now it’s gone in a completely different direction. I suppose what it still continues to indicate is, we are still obsessed by people’s sexuality, and naming and reading all the clues.


Despite increasing acceptance of LGBT people in general society and a growing number of entertainment personalities who are living out lives, speculation over an A-lister like Foster is invariably news, Thompson said.


“There is still almost this parlor game trying to identify the sexuality of celebrities and people we know that doesn’t seem to have stopped,” he explained.


It’s usually predicated by a long season of speculation,” Thompson said, “Rosie and Ellen being prime examples.”


That long season may have begun months ago. During an interview for the August 2007 edition of More magazine, a reporter broached the subject of the ring Foster wears on her left-hand ring finger. When asked if she thought “wearing a ring raises questions,” Foster said, “I don't have any problems with anybody reporting on my life. It's just that I'm not going to bring my family into that.”


On the other hand, Foster extended a hand to the LGBT family just two days before her Women in Film acceptance speech. On December 2, the star appeared onstage at the annual Cracked Xmas benefit for the Trevor Project, which funds a round-the-clock suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth. Foster was there to give an award to the Foundation's founders, James Lecesne, Peggy Rajski, and the late Randy Stone, an out gay Hollywood executive with whom Foster shared a long, close friendship.


Although she had contributed financially to the Trevor Project and had helped to finance Trevor, the Academy Award-winning short about a gay teen who outgrows the idea of suicide, Foster had stayed behind the scenes until this year. The sustained standing ovation she received onstage appeared momentarily to startle the actress, who said she'd count the applause as a tribute to Stone.


But did that warm response prompt Foster's December 4 acknowledgment of her partner? Only Foster knows. The Trevor appearance and the Sherry Lansing Award speech could be subtle gestures, or simply random moments linked by coincidence. Regardless, the reporting continues. On December 14 gossip web site TMZ.com ran video footage of Foster and Bernard leaving West Hollywood restaurant Il Sole.


Even with the media onslaught, Foster has so far not spoken further about her relationship or sexuality. But she did make some poignant comments on the red carpet before the December 4 breakfast.


Asked by the trade publication The Hollywood Reporter what advice she would give to women aspiring to a position in entertainment, Foster said, “The one lesson is to try and be who you are, and not try and be somebody else, because you’re never going to be very good at being somebody else. And there is a lot of temptation of that. If it isn’t true, then it isn’t moving.”




http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid51180.asp




(l)(l) Regardless, I think Jody is an amazing, extremely talented actor.


(f) And I wish folks would give her the privacy she so clearly wants.




(f)






[B]Wesolych Swiat!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D




http://www.skyhighairlines.com/main.asp




(y)(y)



;)





"The Day God Made Dog, She Just Sat Down and Smiled."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oyK-2eUn88



(f)




"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." - Lao-Tzu


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (g) (l) (g) (l) (g) (l) (g) (l)




www.hasanyonetoldyou.com




(f)






"Ot dushi."

"From my soul."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l) (l)



December 21, 2007

My Manhattan

Epiphanies in a Medieval Courtyard

By HOLLAND COTTER


THE first thing I see every morning is the Cloisters tower, gray and severe, perfectly framed by the living room window of my apartment. The Cloisters, the Metropolitan Museum’s medieval outpost, is about a quarter-mile to the south, on a hill a little higher than the one my building is on, near the stony tip of northern Manhattan. In between is a valley of rooftops, garages and streets. Above, open sky, clouds, the moon, stars.


For 20 years I’ve seen the Cloisters from this vantage, in every season, all weather. The trees of Fort Tryon Park fill out around it in spring, and go gold and brown in fall. In a blizzard the tower, which looks both militant and monastic, softens to an apparition. On cold, clear nights it’s a spaceship poised for flight with a single ruby light, like a bright little planet Mars at its peak, a beacon and warning to planes.


That light is on now as I write, but I won’t be seeing it for much longer. In a month I’m moving to a new apartment, for the usual New York reason: a little more space, in my case for books. I amassed most of my library over the past two decades, though a few things are older, including a sturdy little black-and-white “Guide to the Cloisters,” which I picked on my first visit there, on a pre-Christmas trip to New York City with my family in the early 1960s.


That weekend my sister and I did what a lot of kids did back then on a holiday visit: hot chocolate at Rumpelmayer’s, F. A. O. Schwarz down the street, Scribner’s bookstore, the Rockefeller Center tree. Then there was some adult fare: a look at the new Guggenheim Museum, and an early jazz set at Jimmy Ryan’s, where, mysteriously, my father seemed to know everyone. It was on the way out of the city back to Boston that we stopped at the Cloisters. And what felt to me like a duty call turned out to be an unforgettable experience.


From the winding stone staircase up to the museum; to the Gothic chapel with its looming, sad-eyed Burgundian Virgin; to a pillared courtyard arcade — one of the four cloisters that give the museum its name — sweet with the scent of narcissus and oleander, this was one of the most romantic places I’d ever seen, and it grew more romantic when snow began to fall into the courtyard and over the Hudson below.


The Cloisters didn’t start romantic; it was a product of hard cash and shrewd decisions. And it probably looked pretty unsightly from my window in the late 1930s as it was being built. A decade earlier a turreted mansion had stood on the spot, the home of C. K. G. Billings, a self-described “capitalist at large” who kept a staff of 23 servants and a fleet of 13 cars. In 1916 he sold the place to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who offered to donate the land to the city as a park. No thanks, said the city, too much upkeep. Rockefeller rented out the house; it burned down 10 years later.


Before that, though, an American sculptor named George Grey Barnard (1863-1938), who lived in the area, had used a stable on the property as a studio. Barnard had spent time in France, where he had supported himself largely as a dealer in medieval art. He started by selling sculptural fragments he found in the countryside or bought cheap from local dealers, then architectural elements, including complete portals and cloisters.


In 1913 the French government woke up and passed a law restricting the export of “cultural heritage.” Two days before the law took effect, Barnard sent a shipload of Romanesque and Gothic material to New York, where he built his own public museum in Upper Manhattan, calling it the Cloisters. Rockefeller was a visitor and soon became a major client, buying the entire collection for the Met.


He also gave land (and money for its upkeep) to the city, and stipulated that four acres on the northernmost edge of what would become Fort Tryon Park be reserved for a new museum. Then he bought 700 acres of land across the Hudson in New Jersey to ensure the museum would have a nice view. Building began in 1935; three years later the Cloisters opened.


The museum wasn’t so much built as assembled. Certain features, like the tower, were brand new, though vaguely based on European models. The core was four French cloisters reconstructed, with varying degrees of accuracy, from salvaged parts. Much of the rest of the interior is made up of architectural bits and pieces — a door, an arch — from northern Europe and Spain, with dates from the 9th to the 16th centuries.


From a skeptical scholar’s perspective, the result is a cut-and-paste job. To me it represents American Theme Park Style, which is by now a solid historical genre, and one with a long 20th-century pedigree ranging from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to Old Sturbridge Village to aspects of Disney World. In most cases the goal is less historical truth than atmospheric verisimilitude.


The Cloisters is an important variant on this, what you might call earnest ersatz. It offers an imaginary Middle Ages, but one with real medieval art in it. The demand for this medievalist fantasy has always been strong in the United States. The robber barons of the Gilded Age, with their castle keeps and Anglo-Saxon pieties, looked back to feudalism with a certain fondness. The first time I saw the Cloisters, “Camelot” was the rage on Broadway. Within a few years its clubby, sentimental image of a chivalrous court would define an American presidency.


Nor has the appeal of the Middle Ages — the age of holy wars, plagues, miracles, magic, religion and aristocratic rule — diminished. It was evident in the cult that grew up around Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books, and later in the game “Dungeons & Dragons,” Goth culture and the “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” franchises. In politics it echoed in the presidential call to crusade after 9/11.


Unsurprisingly, historians’ take on the medieval age is complex, with many conflicting views. Was it an era of progressive intellectual vigor and spiritual enlightenment to which the Renaissance was merely a capstone? Or was it a period of Darwinian brutality and mechanistic thinking, to which Renaissance humanism finally, mercifully, put an end?


At least on the surface the Cloisters projects the benign aspect of the story. Some of the most exquisite objects in any part of the Met’s vast collection are on permanent view here, many of them since 1938. These include monumental ensembles like the cloisters themselves, with tiny carved figures half-hidden in their capitals; the unicorn tapestries, a 1937 Rockefeller gift, with their all-over fields of flowers; and the alabaster altar carved by Francí Gomar in 15th-century Spain, its tender scenes from the lives of saints restored to mellow brightness by a recent cleaning.


What I come back for, though, are individual images. One is that Virgin from Burgundy, with her heavy, grave face, and her body hunched forward protectively over the figure of her child. (After years of sitting uncovered on the Langon chapel altar, she’s now herself protected by a plexiglass vitrine.)


A spidery stone angel hovering en pointe nearby is, in contrast, seemingly weightless. So is an almost life-size standing Virgin from Strasbourg Cathedral placed high on the wall of the Early Gothic Hall, and the two adorable beaming angels who keep her company. Downstairs the pink-cheeked head of a Virgin — a rare fragment of Bohemian Gothic terra cotta — has a comparable buoyancy, as does a painting of St. Clare reaching for a Lenten palm frond, and the tiny ivory reliefs in the Cloisters’ treasury room.


One ivory, a recent addition, is based on a fanciful secular literary theme, the assault on the Castle of Love. Cupid is on the ramparts firing darts at the charging knights, while the castle’s female defenders do their part by tossing roses and kisses down from the walls. This is the romantic, nostalgia-laced Middle Ages that C. S. Lewis wrote about in “The Allegory of Love,” a world in which, for a lustrous moment, the codes and courtesies of courtly devotion regulated all, and the profane and spiritual were one.


But the moment was brief. Then there was reality, and that’s at the Cloisters too, if you look for it. For all their thousands of flowers and Christian imagery, the unicorn tapestries are about hunting, about using spears, dogs and noise to drive an animal into a pen. The Burgundian Virgin is sad for a reason: She already sees, with her great glass eyes, the mortal future of her son, a future which, in sculptural terms, has already arrived. The figure of the child perched on her knee is physically ruined, his head broken off by rough handling or wear and tear. This is the other side of the medieval picture: base cruelty, the anguish of loss, the anxious, half-believed-in hope for renewal.


Of course I didn’t see any of this in 1960. My mind was on — what? — the tomb figures of armored knights, the moody monastic light, the snowstorm outside. You grow into art; or it grows in you. This takes immersion and time. The Cloisters, while barely changing at all, has changed a lot for me over the years, becoming a more complicated and contemplative experience — about art history, American history, pseudo-history, my history — whether I’m actually there or watching from my window.


I guess part of the experience is love. I’ll miss my neighbor. Where I’m moving I will have height and sky, the river and Palisades, and plenty of stars out the window, but not that one red lodestar, aggressive and guiding, that burns steadily through the night on the Cloisters’ rooftop. I’m looking at it now. Steady means something in the Middle Age of a life.



The Cloisters is in Fort Tryon Park, Washington Heights. Open Tuesdays through Sundays. 9:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. (through February); closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. (212) 923-3700; metmuseum.org/cloisters/events/. Admission by donation, $20; $15 for 65+; $10 for students; free for children under 12 and members.






(l)(l) I visited here a few times when I worked in the city. Beautiful respite from the chaos that IS NYC. I remember once that it snowed and it felt as if I had stepped back hundreds of years............

Ah, what the imagination can do within the right setting..............



(f)




Merry Christmas!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



Holiday Hotels in U.S. Parks: Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/21/travel/escapes/20071221_LODGES_SLIDESHOW_index.html





Been here at least nine times and would go again of course:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/21/travel/escapes/20071221_LODGES_SLIDESHOW_4.html[/U][/U]





THIS is my idea of HEAVEN around the holidays. It's a awesome place:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/21/travel/escapes/20071221_LODGES_SLIDESHOW_7.html




December 21, 2007

Deck the Parks

By AUSTIN CONSIDINE


“NATIONAL parks are the best idea we ever had,” Wallace Stegner wrote. And what’s great in the summer can be glorious in December, when snowflakes float down into the Grand Canyon and mounds of stark white ice slow the waterfalls of Yosemite Valley.


For the peace-loving merrymakers who choose to spend the holidays in the remote beauty of America’s most beloved national parks, appropriate accommodations await.


The timbered interiors and giant stone fireplaces of the grand national park lodges, some a century old, seem made for the seasonal trimmings of evergreen boughs and pine cone wreaths. And inside their comfortable guest rooms and well-provisioned dining halls, nobody’s roughing it.


The national park movement started at Yellowstone in 1872, and with powerful champions like Theodore Roosevelt, it took off in the West over the next few decades. The arrival of railroads in the remote park locales was quickly followed by the building of the luxury lodges, and many remain, often open all year.


Reservations are easier to get in winter, though some prime weeks still sell out a year in advance, but the rewards of a Christmas-week stay go beyond avoiding the summer crush. Inside the lodges, log fires crackle, fine wines flow and a convivial crowd settles in.




Ahwahnee Hotel

Yosemite National Park, California

Joseph Leal Jr., an 83-year-old retired civil engineer from Fresno, Calif., has spent Christmas at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park every year since 1967, except 1995, when the park was closed in a federal government shutdown. His two granddaughters, both in their early 30s, have known only that single Christmas — in 1995 — outside Yosemite. For him, the Ahwahnee has been a lifelong fascination.


“I grew up and I probably knew I was going to be interested in mathematics and maybe a little architecture and engineering,” he said. “It always fascinated me, those big timbers and the dining hall and the rocks — some of those rocks must be upwards of 10 tons.”


Among the most beloved of national park hotels, the magnificent Ahwahnee opened in 1927. It was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, architect of many of the country’s best known lodges. Its structure incorporates rugged materials including granite and sugar pine, and its interior mixes the rustic with a Southwest-meets-Art Deco sophistication of stained glass and Native American mosaics.


Situated in the center of Yosemite Valley, beneath the Royal Arches granite formation, the 99-room, 24-cottage Ahwahnee has stunning views to Glacier Point, Yosemite Falls and Half Dome and is perfectly placed for snow hiking and cross-country skiing nearby. But during the winter holiday season, Ahwahnee has its own particular draw — it knows how to give a party.


At the annual Bracebridge Dinner, a formal event held on eight nights from Dec. 15 to 26, performers decked out in Elizabethan-style attire sing in operatic style and clown in classic comedy. Christmas dinner, a lower-key affair with a prix-fixe menu, will this year include choices like herb-roasted Panorama grass-fed beef prime rib.


On New Year’s Eve, customers will dine on squash ravioli and oxtail consommé, and a band will play for dancing.


For popular winter dates like Christmas and New Year’s, rooms at the Ahwahnee often sell out the day they become available, typically a year and a day in advance. But if you can’t get into the hotel, you can always make a reservation for dinner. Restaurant patrons don’t have to be registered at the hotel.


Rooms and cottages at the Ahwahnee (559-253-5635, www.yosemitepark.com start at $426 a night. (All room rates in this article are for doubles without tax.) Bracebridge tickets are $375 per person. Christmas dinner is $86.50; New Year’s Eve dinner dance is $235 per person.




El Tovar

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

From the moment you step through the old wooden doors into the vaulting lobby, El Tovar’s special communion with history is palpable, as much in the quiet grandeur of its Oregon pine lodge poles as in the loving yarns told over dinner and drinks by its loyal staff.


Built by the Santa Fe Railway Company in 1905, El Tovar is a star among the park lodges, set almost at the lip of the mile-deep canyon and combining native materials and the work of Hopi craftsmen with inviting comfort.


The lobby is a masterpiece of dark woods, Indian motifs and mounted hunting trophies (popular legend has it that if the bison’s head could speak, it would name Teddy Roosevelt as its vanquisher). Wood paneling lines the cocktail lounge.


And then there’s the restaurant — a long, ornate banquet hall with fireplaces at either end and sweeping murals. The kitchen turns out dishes like roasted half duck with sun-dried cranberry port glaze ($24). Like the lobby, where a huge Christmas tree dominates during the holiday season, the dining room is decorated during the holidays with poinsettias and Christmas wreaths.


Some guests come back year after year. Dale Berry, 75, who grew up on the nearby Navajo reservation, first visited El Tovar as a child in 1935 and, with his wife, Marilyn, will be spending his 19th consecutive New Year’s Eve there this year.


“It’s not a big crowd at the party, and the nice thing about it is you don’t have to drive home,” he said. “And their entertainment — they usually have a nice band and nice dancing, and the food is excellent.”


The views out the window the next morning aren’t bad, either.


El Tovar (303-297-2757; www.grandcanyonlodges.com is on the South Rim, just north of Tusayan, Ariz., accessible via the park’s south and east gates. Rooms start at $142 a night for the rest of December, $166 in 2008.




Zion Lodge

Zion National Park, Utah

Like the Ahwahnee, the 120-room Zion Lodge at Zion National Park reflects the vision of Gilbert Stanley Underwood, who designed it in the late 1920s, infusing the more traditional, rustic materials of grand lodges like El Tovar with modern sensibilities. A fire in 1966 ravaged the original main lodge, which was quickly (some say inattentively) rebuilt within 100 days. But in 1990, a full refurbishment restored it to its former glory, in keeping with the original design.


Zion is a year-round hiker’s dream of towering pink sandstone canyon walls. And the lodge is located close to some of the best trail heads, like those for the Emerald Pools or Angel’s Landing, a dangerous, knife-edge ridge climb that provides otherworldly views.


Aside from its surroundings, the lodge’s distinctive feature is its tranquillity, particularly in winter. Rooms have no television sets or cocktail bars, almost guaranteeing quietude. Food and drink are available at the Red Rock Grill, an open, airy restaurant with light-toned wood and a wall of picture windows to let in plenty of light and scenery. Southwest-inspired dishes like chipotle tilapia ($16.25) are abundant on the menu. A buffet from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Christmas Day will include hand-carved prime rib and roast leg of lamb, and New Year’s Eve brings another special menu.


Zion Lodge (303-297-2757; www.zionlodge.com is in the interior of Zion National Park, about an hour west of St. George, Utah. Motel-style rooms and suites at Zion Lodge start at $150.85 a night. Most of the private cabins are closed for maintenance and will reopen in the spring. The Christmas buffet is $24.95.




Old Faithful

Snow Lodge

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming


Whether or not you wind up blessed with a white Christmas at the other lodges is a matter of luck. But at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge in Yellowstone National Park, it’s a virtual certainty. At a time when most of the park’s road system is closed for snow season, this lodge is open for business, a true getaway in the most secluded sense: the only access is by snow coach or a guided snowmobile trek.


Opened in 1998 to replace an earlier lodge of the same name, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge is among the newest of the national park lodges but still adheres to the traditions embodied by the grand older lodges and in its own venerable neighbor, the Old Faithful Inn, which closes in the winter.


The obvious attraction is the lodge’s seclusion, providing easy access to an otherwise unpopulated wilderness perfect for snow hiking, cross-country skiing and winter wildlife spotting.


The Old Faithful geyser itself, a quarter-mile walk from the lodge, puts on a spectacular show in winter, when steam from its eruptions collects and freezes on the needles of the nearby pines, creating what parks people refer to as “ghost trees.” During the holidays, the lodge cultivates a festive atmosphere with seasonal decorations and special menus in its dining room. The Christmas Day dinner ($19.95) includes organic roast turkey and pumpkin cheese cake with cinnamon cream. New Year’s Eve choices include broiled lobster tails ($33.95) and grilled bison tenderloin ($29.95).


Snow coaches to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (307-344-7311; www.travelyellowstone.com are provided (reservations required) by Xanterra, the lodge’s operating company, for about $125 round trip, not including the park entry fee of $10. The coaches pick up guests in West Yellowstone, Mont.; Flagg Ranch, Wyo.; and Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel inside Yellowstone, near the north gate and accessible by car. Rooms start at $87 a night.





(f)(f)




feliz Navidad,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f)



http://editorial.jpress.co.uk/web/Upload/SOS//TH1_2212200753stric.jpg



Published Date: 23 December 2007

Source: Scotland On Sunday

Location: Scotland


As Strictly Come Dancing takes to the floor for a festive extravaganza, Chitra Ramaswamy chats to Craig Revel Horwood about ballroom's new-found sex appeal....


IF ANYONE needs proof as to just how obsessed the nation has become with dancing, witness what Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood has to say to me on the matter.


"It's unbelievable. I have girls screaming at me in Leicester Square. I'm an anonymous theatre director and choreographer /no spamming of other sites/ at least I was /no spamming of other sites/ and so I'm not used to all this bizarre attention. A woman came up to me in a town square and slapped me in the face because she didn't agree with my decision."


Revel Horwood, deemed the harshest of the four on the BBC hit series, starts laughing, and adds: "I didn't slap her back."


It seems Britain, as professional Strictly... dancer Lilia Kopylova puts it to me, "has gone crazy for dancing". The feathered and sequined monster that is the Strictly... series may have finished for another year but still it waltzes on, having trounced The X Factor in the ratings war and proven that ballroom dancing, once the preserve of pensioners taking to their town halls for a tea dance, is now officially more cool than a silent disco.


The tradition of the Saturday night variety show is back, with more than 10 million on average tuning into Strictly... every week to see celebrities and their professional partners dance Viennese waltzes, jives and sambas in front of a live audience. Strictly..., after all, ticks all the boxes. Its reality show format gives viewers the chance to see C-listers humiliated following a particularly passionless rumba, and it has enough glitz and glamour to rival the Oscars. Almost. Oh, and it has Bruce Forsyth, the toe-tapping grandaddy of the British variety show.


"I'm obsessed with it, as are most of the women in my family," says Zoë Ball, who made it to the final of the third series and is currently training with ex-partner Ian Waite for the Strictly Come Dancing Live tour, also featuring Letitia Dean, Matt Di Angelo, Denise Lewis and Louisa Lytton and opening in Glasgow next month.


"It's proper old-school entertainment," Ball says. "Strictly... turned things round for me because people saw me as a bit of a ladette, but when I did the show everyone was suddenly like: 'Oh, she's actually really graceful.' People still come up to me in the supermarket and say: 'We loved your tango!'"


Ball says that, two years on, she is partial to getting up at a wedding and doing "a quiet foxtrot, and my husband, if he's lucky, gets entertained by a bit of a cha-cha-cha around the bathroom in my pants".


And it isn't over yet. On Christmas Day a Strictly... special sees previous winners Mark Ramprakash (before known for his cricketing skills, now for his salsa), and bowler Darren Gough (Kopylova's partner in the third series) dance with some of this year's top couples. This Friday, The Strictly Come Dancing Story traces the phenomenon back to its origins in the now hilariously kitsch Come Dancing, which from 1949 to 1998 was on the box every week. Mind you, judging by its successor's track record, it's not hard to imagine Strictly... gracing our screens 45 years from now, though it's unlikely Bruce Forsyth will still be presenting it.


"It really is a phenomenon," says Revel Horwood. "Think about how old-fashioned ballroom was once considered. Now it's permeated Hollywood /no spamming of other sites/ Richard Gere and J-Lo are learning ballroom /no spamming of other sites/ and the show has gone to 26 countries around the world. Mind you, there have always been fads in dance, from salsa in the Nineties, to disco when John Travolta took to the dancefloor, to the Charleston in the Thirties. What Strictly... has done, though, is get the couch potato off the couch and off to a dance class."


Kopylova started dancing aged four in her native Moscow, turning to ballroom when she was nine. She says attitudes in Britain have completely changed towards her profession. She used to travel the world dancing, but now remains in the UK because demand has increased so much since Strictly... began in 2004. "People recognise now that what we do is a really beautiful skill and not horrible and old-fashioned," says Kopylova. "It's such a British attitude as well that men don't dance but now that they've seen Darren, Matt (Dawson] and Mark they realise anyone can do it."


What makes Strictly... work, its executive producer Sam Donnelly tells me, is its pure showbiz appeal, combined with the fact that quality family entertainment has become something of a rarity. "Also, it's because it's live, it feels like a big event, a shared experience," she says. "Though Strictly... may hark back to an older era, we bring the dances and costumes up to date, and often use contemporary music, so it has a modern feel."


Some have complained, however, that because of Strictly...'s enormous success, more traditional forms of dance, such as full-length ballets that used to be broadcast more regularly on television, aren't getting a look-in. The Guardian's dance critic recently argued that "while producers can't wait to push the next series of Strictly Come Dancing on to the schedules, opportunities for the rest of the art form in mainstream television have pretty much dwindled to the occasional documentary or the annual Christmas screening of a 19th-century tutu ballet".


What does Revel Horwood make of that? "I think Strictly... has let people into dance in its entirety though," he protests. "More people go to the theatre to see dance now because of the show. I did a piece in Covent Garden recently, a ballet version of an Argentine tango with the Ballet Boyz, and every single person at the gala was a Strictly... fan. People often say to me that the show brings audiences to the ballet."


It's certainly not all Strictly... on the box this Christmas. A dance season on BBC4 includes a series exploring history through the form, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films, and two programmes celebrating Darcey Bussell, the prima ballerina who this year hung up her ballet shoes.


The Royal Ballet's recent performance of Romeo And Juliet, starring two of the world's greatest living dancers, Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo will also be broadcast alongside a documentary presented by principal Royal Ballet dancer Jonathan Cope on the ballet. The Tales Of Beatrix Potter with the Royal Ballet, and a programme about Christopher Wheeldon's new ballet at the Bolshoi will also be shown over Christmas.


Dance Britannia, a three-part series examining the 20th century through popular dance, looks set to be a highlight. Beginning at the end of the First World War, when jazz began to trickle over to Britain via American soldiers in Paris, the series travels through the dancehalls that made taking to the floor a mass leisure pursuit, the arrival of rock'n'roll in the Fifties, northern soul in the Sixties, and so on, ending with mobile discos, in which people turn up at a public place, plug themselves into their iPods and move to their own sounds.


For Revel Horwood, though, our love of Strictly... is as much about the people who can't dance as the ones who can. "The highlight for me is when Kate Garraway had tendonitis in both feet and had to walk down the stairs for her dance," he says, and then starts laughing heartily. "It took her about 10 minutes! She was hilarious, and a bloody good sport."




DANCE DISASTERS


"You were stamping on cockroaches!" /no spamming of other sites/ Everyone's favourite flamboyant member of the judging panel, Bruno, about EastEnders star Chris Parker's Paso Doble in series one

"It was like an emperor penguin trying to hold an egg between her legs /no spamming of other sites/ it didn't work" - /no spamming of other sites/ Bruno again, this time to Dennis Taylor.


"Her feet look like they were stuck in treacle" - Arlene Phillips to GMTV's Fiona Phillips


"It was more like a polka or a drunken hoedown. You were waltzing around like a drunken kangaroo" - Craig Revel Horwood to Hannah Waterman


"It was like a canary and a crow flying in from Stansted not Cuba!" /no spamming of other sites/ Arlene to Mrs Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster


"Like a whippet running round a lamppost" /no spamming of other sites/ Bruno on chef James Martin's samba routine.


"Less like a cape, more like a shag carpet. Plonky plonky" /no spamming of other sites/ Arlene to GMTV's Kate Garraway


Strictly Come Dancing Special, Christmas Day, BBC1, 8.30pm. The Strictly Come Dancing Story, Friday, BBC1, 6pm. Dance Britannia, BBC4, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 9pm. Strictly Come Dancing Live tour, Glasgow SECC, January 18-20. Darcy Bussell's Grand Finale, Christmas Day, BBC4, 9.30pm. Darcy Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments, Boxing Day, BBC4, 9.55pm





http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/features/We39ve-been-tangoed.3616171.jp




I LOVE to dance including the tango.



(l)(l)




(f)




Merry Christmas!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



Always a favorite.....anything at Lincoln Center:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/12/21/1223-STREET/21115101.JPG




Slide Show:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/21/fashion/1223-STREET_2.html






Doesn't this one put you in the holiday mood?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2007/12/21/1223-STREET/21115095.JPG




(l)



(g)




(8)(8) "Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go...." (8)(8)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:| :| :|


:o :o :o



Hotels we love: Best of 2007


by Aefa Mulholland


As 2007 sashays to a close, it's time to wade through the tinsel, sift through the year's hot hotels columns and look back on the highlights. This year's accommodating crop featured some spectacular destinations from Shanghai to Whistler, but my personal favorites closer to home included a charming, breezy stormwatching spot in Kalaloch, Washington, desert delights in a romantic resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, fun flashbacks in a former school in Portland, Oregon, the perfect pueblo getaway in Acoma, New Mexico and a diva-licious all-girl den in Key West, Florida.




Storm trooper

Kalaloch Lodge, Forks, Washington (157151 Highway 101; 360-962-2271; www.visitkalaloch.com from $92) is a gay-marketed National Park Lodge within four hours drive of Portland and Seattle.

With windswept beaches, rainforest, glacial mountain backdrop and alpine meadows, it's the perfect spot from which to appreciate the Olympic National Park's untamed beauty. Cozy wood-paneled cabins (running 400-800 sq. ft.) line the creek, and the windows give thrilling views of waves crashing on the log and driftwood-strewn beach. Most accommodations have fireplaces and kitchenettes, and all rooms come with beach guide, tide tables and his-n-his or hers-n-hers walking sticks. Want to bring the other member of the family? (l)(&)(l) Pet-friendly cabins are available, too.




Whole in one

For a sumptuous upscale escape, Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort and Spa at Gainey Ranch, Scottsdale, Arizona (7500 E. Doubletree Ranch Rd.; 480-444-1234; www.scottsdale.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/ from $179) refreshes guests with impeccable service, 10 pools, a lagoon, an outstanding golf course and the delectable Spa Avania. Avania's facilities are at the disposal of spa guests until 10 p.m., so check in for one of their incredible massages early to make the most of the facilities. Separate men's and women's sides both have spectacular amenities -- eucalyptus room, steam room, outdoor rain showers and a relaxation lounge. Outside, in the co-ed area, another lounge has an outdoor fireplace and jugs of deliciously cool iced ginger water. Down a few steps is the swimming pool-sized French mineral pool, surrounded by loungers and palm trees.




Class of its own

Blackboards, bookcases and kids' coat hooks in rooms take you back in the 35-rooms of McMenamin's Kennedy School, Portland, Oregon (5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.; 503-249-3983; www.kennedyschool.com; from $111). A hotel since 1997, The Kennedy School survived 65 years educating Portland's young. Now guests can watch a second-run movie over a beer in the old school hall, have a cigar in the Detention Bar or snack on salads and tasty burgers in the former cafeteria or in the delightful courtyard outside. As for the teachers' lounge, it's now home to a hot tub.





(l)(l)(l)

Sky's the limit

Sky City Hotel, Acoma, New Mexico (I-40, Exit 102; 888-759-2489; www.skycity.com from $59) in Acoma Pueblo, or Sky City, is the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America. In the high desert, an hour's drive along the old Route 66 west from Albuquerque, the pueblo welcomes gay and lesbian visitors. It's built atop a sheer walled, 350-foot sandstone bluff, and guided tours (800-747-0181) take visitors from Sky City Cultural Center and Haak'u Museum at the foot of the mesa to the old pueblo up top. Eighteen miles from the mesa, the 133-room Sky City Hotel offers extremely comfortable rooms, the Huwak'a Restaurant and fast-paced Las Vegas-style gaming. It's a fantastic base to explore El Malpais National Monument's ice caves and Bandera Crater, ghost town La Ventana, the cliff dwellings of Chaco Canyon, to hike or bike 11,300-foot Mount Taylor or to cruise the highway, taking in classic Route 66 signage.




Girls' night in

In quaint and quirky Key West, two-pool, two-hot tub, women-only Pearl's Rainbow, Key West, Florida (525 United St., 800-749-6696 or 305-292.1450; www.pearlsrainbow.com, from $99) is situated in a re-born 1950's-era "Surf Motel," an 1889 cigar factory and three former cigar maker's cottages. The sole exclusively women's guesthouse on the island, Pearl's is clothing optional, although not that many women seem to take full advantage of that. Pearl's wins the top slot for its excellent array of accommodations, offering options for all sorts of budgets and inclinations. Whether you want a room with the most titillating pool view or prefer to create your own excitement in more secluded surrounds, Pearl's has rooms to fit. The motel is frequented by women in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and manager Lorraine estimates that 75 to 80 percent of guests are couples, but it's a friendly place to mingle whether you've brought a date or are looking for one.





(l)(l)(l) I'll take New Mexico, Arizona and perhaps Washington (especially with being pet-friendly!) as destinations, that is.


;)





Are you ready for 2008?




"Why is it always in the very last place that you look?"


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)




(8)(8) Suede returns to Provincetown to ring out 2007 <:o)<:o)


published Monday, December 17, 2007


In addition to her existing catalog, the acclaimed pop/jazz/blues vocalist will perform songs from her upcoming CD release.


Thanks to generous sponsorships from The Fairbanks Inn and The White Wind Inn (Provincetown), Jazz Festival headliner and internationally acclaimed pop/jazz/blues vocalist Suede will bid an early joyous and fond farewell to 2007 with a return to Provincetown, MA, for one night only at The Crown and Anchor, on Sunday, Dec. 30 at 8p.m.


Suede will be joined by her NY pianist Janice Friedman, Chris Rathbun on bass, and Bart Weisman on drums. Suede and her trio will be performing songs from her upcoming CD release, currently in progress, due out in spring 2008, as well as favorites from her first three award-winning CDs and latest DVD release recorded in Boston at famous Scullers Jazz Club, currently aired on 35 PBS stations nationally.


Imagine a cross between Ella Fitzgerald, Bette Midler, and Louis Armstrong, and add a dash of Rosie Clooney, and you might get some idea of Suede's unique mix of musical talents. Suede sings original material and pop, blues, and jazz standards like nobody you've ever heard, while accompanying herself on the piano, guitar and trumpet. From unbelievable A Cappella to "bring down the house" belting blues with a steaming wa-wa trumpet and love songs that will make you swoon, Suede delivers it all with her own blend of warmth, wit and musical artistry.


Suede plays The Crown and Anchor at 247 Commercial St., Ptown, on Sunday, Dec. 30 at 8p.m. Tickets are on sale now, $50 for VIP seats and $25 for general admission, at www.Suedewave.com Tickets will also be on sale at the Crown & Anchor box office the weekend of December 27. Pre-show diners at The Central House Restaurant on the Crown and Anchor property will be given preferred seating for the performance, dinner reservations required, by calling 508-487-1430 x 229 and mentioning this offer.


http://zoom.gay.com/viewArticle.do?id=1717&selectedRegionId=7&selectedCountryId=12&selectedStateId=28&selectedCityId=64890




<:o)<:o)







(f)'s,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (l) (&) (l)




http://www.campdogwood.com/home.html




(l) (&) (l) (&) (l)







Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f)




Video:

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=b3d0fd7856a296f9175366f8854d4d1f81c8abbf




(f)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)




December 31, 2007

The Rural Life

New Year’s Eve

By VERLYN KLINKENBORG


At midnight tonight, the horses on this farm will age a year. That is the custom — every horse has the same birthday, Jan. 1. Like all things calendrical, this is a human convention. When it comes to equine conventions, I know enough to notice some of the simpler forms of precedence: who goes first through a gate, who gets to the grain feeder ahead of the others. But I can report that the horses make no fuss about their common birthday or the coming of the new year. Tonight, like any other, they will be standing, dozing on their feet, ears tipping back and forth at the slightest of sounds.


There is something deeply gratifying about joining the horses in their pasture a few minutes before the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. What makes the night exceptional, in their eyes and mine, is my presence among them, not the lapsing of an old year.


It’s worth standing out in the snow just to savor the anticlimax of midnight, just to acknowledge that out of the tens of millions of species on this planet, only one bothers to celebrate not the passing of time, but the way it has chosen to mark the passing of time. I remember the resolutions I made when I was younger. I find myself thinking that one way to describe nature is a realm where resolutions have no meaning.


It’s not that time isn’t passing or that the night doesn’t show it. The stars are wheeling around Polaris, and the sugar maples that frame the pasture are laying down another cellular increment in their annual rings. The geese stir in the poultry yard. A hemlock sheds its snow. No two nights are ever the same.


I always wonder what it would be like to belong to a species — just for a while — that isn’t so busy indexing its life, that lives wholly within the single long strand of its being. I will never have even an idea of what that’s like.


I know because when I stand among the horses tonight, I will feel a change once midnight has come. Some need will have vanished, and I will walk back to the house — lights burning, smoke coming from the wood stove — as if something had been accomplished, some episode closed.



(l) (l) (l)



(f)




Happy New Year! <:o)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the sleeping Boxer (S)(l)(&)(l)(S)

[sweetlady]

<:o) <:o) <:o) <:o)



Revelers in Times Square celebrated the end of 2007. Much of the world has now welcomed in the new year.



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/12/31/world/0101-NEWYEAR_index.html?hp




:D:D



(f)



Have a most happy and healthy 2008!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(o)(o)(o)(o)



http://newyears.earthcam.com/




http://www.webviews.co.uk/New-Year-Webcams-Celebrations/1000422.html





http://www.digg.com/travel_places/2008_New_Year_Eve_Fireworks_Sydney_Free_Webcam





<:o)<:o)<:o)



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wygt6L_3L5Y&mode=related&search=





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX_pd771ock&NR=1





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQZbm52vO4




http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=708650




(y)(y)


;);)





<:o)<:o)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)



Bhutto's son, husband to succeed her


By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer


NAUDERO, Pakistan - Benazir Bhutto's 19-year-old son was chosen Sunday to succeed her as chairman of her opposition party, extending Pakistan's most famous political dynasty but leaving the real power to her husband, who will serve as co-chairman.


Both major opposition parties also decided to run in parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 8, apparently ending the threat of a wholesale boycott as Pakistan struggles to move to full democracy after years of military rule.


But earlier, a spokesman for the country's ruling party said the vote may be delayed up to four months, claiming the parliamentary elections would lose credibility if held as scheduled. He expected a formal announcement within 24 hours.


"How long the postponement will be for will up to the Election Commission," Tariq Azim, information secretary of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told The Associated Press. "I think we are looking at a delay of a few weeks ... of up to three or four months."


Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party central executive committee met privately to choose her successor three days after the two-time prime minister was assassinated in a suicide attack that thrust the volatile Islamic nation deeper into crisis.


Her son, Bilawal Zardari, a student with no experience in politics, said he would remain at Oxford University, leaving his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who was officially designated co-chairman, as the effective leader of the country's largest political party.


"The party's long struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor," Bilawal told a news conference. "My mother always said democracy is the best revenge."


Supporters chanted "Benazir, princess of heaven" and "Bilawal, move ahead. We are with you."


Bhutto's grandfather was a senior figure in the Pakistan Muslim League, the party that helped Pakistan split from India and lead it to independence in 1947. Her father — Pakistan's first elected prime minister — founded the party in 1967 and its electoral success since then has largely depended on the Bhutto name.


Bilawal said that Zardari would "take care" of the party while he continued his studies. Zardari then told reporters to direct questions to him, saying his son was at a "tender age."


Zardari, who spent eight years under detention on corruption charges in Pakistan before his release in late 2004, is a party powerbroker who served as environment minister in Bhutto's second government. He has denied the charges of large-scale graft during his wife's rule.


He immediately announced the group's participation in the elections but said another party leader, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, would likely be their candidate for prime minister if they won.


Zardari appealed to the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to drop plans to boycott the polls. Sharif's party later agreed to the appeal and said it would take part in the elections.


Some people have called for a delay in the elections given the turmoil in the country following Bhutto's killing, but a senator from her party said it was demanding that they take place on time.


"We want elections on Jan. 8 and we will not let the government run away from the elections," said Sen. Safdar Abbasi.


The government has blamed an al-Qaida-linked militant for the murder of Bhutto but her party disputes that and claims elements in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q — the ruling party that supports President Pervez Musharraf — could have been behind the slaying.


Zardari repeatedly called the ruling party the "killer league."


He also rejected as "lies" the government's account of how his wife died, amid a dispute over whether she sustained fatal gunshot wounds or was killed by the force of the suicide blast that struck her vehicle as she left a campaign rally on Thursday.


Bhutto was buried without an autopsy and the debate over her cause of death has undermined confidence in the government and further angered her followers.


Zardari appealed to the United Nations and British government to help investigate the crime. He said the party wanted a U.N. investigation like the one probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The government has already said international involvement in the investigation is not necessary.


The killing triggered violence throughout Pakistan but there was no fresh rioting reported Sunday.


Since Thursday, unrest has killed at least 44 people and caused tens of millions of dollars of damage. Rioters have destroyed 176 banks, 34 gas stations, 72 train cars, 18 rail stations, and hundreds of cars and shops, the government says.


They have also wrecked nine election offices — along with the voter rolls and ballot boxes inside — hampered the printing of ballot slips and the training of poll workers, the election commission said. The commission has called an emergency meeting for Monday.


Zardari urged supporters to show restraint.


"We will avenge the murder of Bhutto through the democratic process after winning the elections," he said.


"God willing, when it is the Peoples Party's reign, when the Peoples Party government is formed, then we would have taken revenge for Bibi's blood and that blood would not have gone waste," Zardari said, referring to his late wife by her nickname.


In fresh militant violence, two men blew themselves up Sunday near the residence in eastern Pakistan of Ijazul Haq, the former religious affairs minister and senior leader of the ruling party, said district police chief Zafar Abbas Bukhari. Both men died, but there were no other casualties.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071230/ap_on_re_as/pakistan




(f) (f) (f) (f)




SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|


:o:o:o


|-)|-)|-)|-)



December 31, 2007

A Guide to Embracing Life as a Single (Without the Resignation, That Is)

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN


For some singles at New Year’s Eve soirees tonight, the minutes leading up to midnight will be agonizing as they ponder whom they’ll be standing next to at the pucker-up moment.


But a new Web site, www.SingleEdition.com, wants nothing more than to embrace them. And unlike dating sites that treat being single as a predicament, this one celebrates flying solo, and offers shopping, financial and other advice to help them do so with pride.


“If you Google the term ‘single,’ all that comes up is dating, dating, dating,” said Sherri Langburt, a founder of SingleEdition.com. “But what we’re saying is there’s a whole other realm of things that go on for a single person that are not dating.”


Articles on the site give advice on how to entertain in small apartments (have cheese- or chocolate-tasting parties instead of sit-down meals), how to cook for one (try freezing homemade soup in ice trays to simplify defrosting single portions) and how to select gifts for other singles (perhaps an audio book or a G.P.S. device to help a solo driver).


In November, dating sites drew more than 182 million visitors in the United States, according to comScore, an Internet research firm. Single Edition offers some dating advice, but it also serves up rejoinders for meddlers who ask why someone is not married: “Just lucky, I guess,” “It gives my mother something to live for,” and “What? And spoil my great sex life?”


While newsstands and the Internet are cluttered with publications about parenting and wedding preparation, Ms. Langburt, 35, said she had never seen a “lifestyle destination that embraces the culture of single living.”


The Web site, which caters to 32- to 45-year-olds, began on Dec. 1. It has yet to sign up advertisers, but Ms. Langburt said that traffic- and revenue-generating deals were in the works. She plans to make arrangements with retailers to put singles-oriented gift registries online.


(A growing number of chains — including Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Home Depot — already make registries less bridal-centric by highlighting categories like housewarming, birthday, graduation and, for same-sex couples, commitment ceremonies.)


In 2006, adults living alone made up 27 percent of households, more than double their share in 1960, according to census data; married couples for the first time headed just under half (49.7 percent) of households in 2005, the last year for which data is available, down from 52 percent in 2000. With divorce rates and the age at which couples marry continuing to climb, the trend toward singledom seems likely to continue.


Political campaigns, especially Senator Hillary Clinton’s, are aiming at single women — who represent 53 million voters, or a quarter of the electorate — as the likely deciding factor in the presidential race.


But marketers, like the culture at large, often pity the unwed.


“This notion that you can live a full and completely happy life as a single person is so underrecognized that people who feel that way are reluctant to say so,” said Bella DePaulo, a social psychologist and author of “Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After.”


In it, she coined the term “singlism” for how the unmarried are given short shrift by employers’ spousal health benefits and the federal tax code. “I think we have untold ma
sses of silently contented singles,” she said.


Ms. DePaulo, who serves on the advisory board of Single Edition and contributes articles, said that even a recent feature for singles about “getting the dream kitchen you deserve” was validating.


“I love that phrase — ‘the dream kitchen you deserve’ — because it’s just the opposite of the stereotype of singles who neither want nor deserve anything nice for the kitchen,” she said. “And that assumption is part of the mythology that if you’re cooking alone, why cook a nice meal if it’s quote-unquote ‘just for you?’”


Sasha Cagen, author of “Quirkyalone,” which spawned a Web site for singles www.quirkyalone.net said that Single Edition seemed like a “great concept,” but that “their challenge is very tricky: there’s this edge of pathetic-ness that you have to be careful not to go that far into.”


She gave the example of a coffee maker featured on Single Edition that brews just one cup. “Products that imply perpetual singlehood make the user feel like this is it, single forever,” Ms. Cagen said.


But a “quirkyalone” — Ms. Cagen’s term for someone who “generally prefers to be alone rather than date for the sake of being in a couple” — still kindles a romantic notion of eventually finding someone worth running toward on a beach, in slow motion.


So “any site aimed at singles needs to recognize that singledom is for most people a transitional state that people will enter and exit throughout their lives, just like being married or coupled is now in reality a transitional state,” Ms. Cagen said.


According to a recent study by Packaged Facts, a division of the Market Research Group, most singles are younger than 45 — and are more receptive to advertising pitches. When television commercials come on, singles are less likely either to switch channels or hit the mute button.


Singles also are more addicted to the Internet, the study said: 11 percent of singles report spending less time sleeping because of Internet use, compared with 7 percent of wedded Web users.


Advertisers should increase the visibility of singles in their campaigns because unmarried people “are sensitive to couples-centric marketing efforts in much the same way that blacks are sensitive to all-white casting,” the Packaged Facts study concluded.


As for Ms. Langburt, an odd thing happened while she was developing a business plan for Single Edition: She met Mr. Right and got married. “I don’t think marriage has changed who I am as a person,” she said. “I still coach everyone around me who is single.”




;);) Hmmm, maybe start a new web site called "getalife.com"........;)





<:o)<:o)




Happy, healthy and filled-with-hope New Year!


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| (i) 8-| (i) 8-| (i) 8-| (i) 8-| (i)



December 30, 2007

Bright Ideas

Innovative Minds Don’t Think Alike

By JANET RAE-DUPREE


IT’S a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.


Andrew S. Grove, the co-founder of Intel, put it well in 2005 when he told an interviewer from Fortune, “When everybody knows that something is so, it means that nobody knows nothin’.” In other words, it becomes nearly impossible to look beyond what you know and think outside the box you’ve built around yourself.


This so-called curse of knowledge, a phrase used in a 1989 paper in The Journal of Political Economy, means that once you’ve become an expert in a particular subject, it’s hard to imagine not knowing what you do. Your conversations with others in the field are peppered with catch phrases and jargon that are foreign to the uninitiated. When it’s time to accomplish a task — open a store, build a house, buy new cash registers, sell insurance — those in the know get it done the way it has always been done, stifling innovation as they barrel along the well-worn path.


Elizabeth Newton, a psychologist, conducted an experiment on the curse of knowledge while working on her doctorate at Stanford in 1990. She gave one set of people, called “tappers,” a list of commonly known songs from which to choose. Their task was to rap their knuckles on a tabletop to the rhythm of the chosen tune as they thought about it in their heads. A second set of people, called “listeners,” were asked to name the songs.


Before the experiment began, the tappers were asked how often they believed that the listeners would name the songs correctly. On average, tappers expected listeners to get it right about half the time. In the end, however, listeners guessed only 3 of 120 songs tapped out, or 2.5 percent.


The tappers were astounded. The song was so clear in their minds; how could the listeners not “hear” it in their taps?


That’s a common reaction when experts set out to share their ideas in the business world, too, says Chip Heath, who with his brother, Dan, was a co-author of the 2007 book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.” It’s why engineers design products ultimately useful only to other engineers. It’s why managers have trouble convincing the rank and file to adopt new processes. And it’s why the advertising world struggles to convey commercial messages to consumers.


“I HAVE a DVD remote control with 52 buttons on it, and every one of them is there because some engineer along the line knew how to use that button and believed I would want to use it, too,” Mr. Heath says.

“People who design products are experts cursed by their knowledge, and they can’t imagine what it’s like to be as ignorant as the rest of us."


But there are proven ways to exorcise the curse.


In their book, the Heath brothers outline six “hooks” that they say are guaranteed to communicate a new idea clearly by transforming it into what they call a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story. Each of the letters in the resulting acronym, Succes, refers to a different hook. (“S,” for example, suggests simplifying the message.) Although the hooks of “Made to Stick” focus on the art of communication, there are ways to fashion them around fostering innovation.


To innovate, Mr. Heath says, you have to bring together people with a variety of skills. If those people can’t communicate clearly with one another, innovation gets bogged down in the abstract language of specialization and expertise. “It’s kind of like the ugly American tourist trying to get across an idea in another country by speaking English slowly and more loudly,” he says. “You’ve got to find the common connections.”


In her 2006 book, “Innovation Killer: How What We Know Limits What We Can Imagine — and What Smart Companies Are Doing About It,” Cynthia Barton Rabe proposes bringing in outsiders whom she calls zero-gravity thinkers to keep creativity and innovation on track.


When experts have to slow down and go back to basics to bring an outsider up to speed, she says, “it forces them to look at their world differently and, as a result, they come up with new solutions to old problems.”


She cites as an example the work of a colleague at Ralston Purina who moved to Eveready in the mid-1980s when Ralston bought that company. At the time, Eveready had become a household name because of its sales since the 1950s of inexpensive red plastic and metal flashlights. But by the mid-1980s, the flashlight business, which had been aimed solely at men shopping at hardware stores, was foundering.


While Ms. Rabe’s colleague had no experience with flashlights, she did have plenty of experience in consumer packaging and marketing from her years at Ralston Purina. She proceeded to revamp the flashlight product line to include colors like pink, baby blue and light green — colors that would appeal to women — and began distributing them through grocery store chains.


“It was not incredibly popular as a decision amongst the old guard at Eveready,” Ms. Rabe says. But after the changes, she says, “the flashlight business took off and was wildly successful for many years after that.”


MS. RABE herself experienced similar problems while working as a transient “zero-gravity thinker” at Intel.


“I would ask my very, very basic questions,” she said, noting that it frustrated some of the people who didn’t know her. Once they got past that point, however, “it always turned out that we could come up with some terrific ideas,” she said.


While Ms. Rabe usually worked inside the companies she discussed in her book, she said outside consultants could also serve the zero-gravity role, but only if their expertise was not identical to that of the group already working on the project.


“Look for people with renaissance-thinker tendencies, who’ve done work in a related area but not in your specific field,” she says. “Make it possible for someone who doesn’t report directly to that area to come in and say the emperor has no clothes.”


Janet Rae-Dupree writes about science and emerging technology in Silicon Valley.





8-|8-|




(f)

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (&) (l)



https://www.threedog.com/shop.aspx?catID=33





https://www.threedog.com/shop.aspx




https://www.threedog.com/Default.aspx





Woofers:

https://www.threedog.com/shop.aspx?catID=9





(l) (&) (l) (&) (l) The book "Amazing Gracie" was absolutely wonderful and provides the heart warming story of Gracie and her two canine "sisters". Also, the background and beginning of this "bakery". The Woofers, especially the peanut butter ones? Wyatt LOVES the ones he got from Santa. His mama needed to search the Internet to buy more........and above in this post are the URLs that I saved........







"The Day God Made Dog, She Just Sat Down and Smiled."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://agrowknow.org/Documents/Image/Parker/111923_Happy%20New%20Year.jpg




(o) Through the sands of time:

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3504220/2/istockphoto_3504220_new_year_2008_7.jpg





Chinese new Rat year. 2008

http://www.travelachina.com/travelimages/chinesenewyear/mouse-year.jpg





:o New Year Series. In January 2008, new U.S. postage stamp .......

http://z.about.com/d/stamps/1/7/F/3/-/-/lunarnewyear2008_300dpi.jpg






http://www.evranch.com/vimages_exp06/newyears_2008.jpg






Sydney Happy New Year 2008! <:o)

http://www.flyyy.com/flyweb/cards/28281002.jpg






RIO!!!

http://www.opcotours.com/packages/newyear/newyear1.jpg






http://www.fitnessmatters.com/WP/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/happy%20new%20year%20fireworks.jpg




http://www.chromasia.com/images/international_fireworks_2_b.jpg




http://www.drben.net/files/China/City/HongKong/HK-SiteDeco/China-NewYearFireworks-HK-BQT.jpg




http://img.alibaba.com/photo/10460936/China_Kyling_Fireworks_Display_Shell.jpg






:) Baltimore:

http://207.114.6.204/climages/IHfireworks_lores.jpg




http://www.festivalplace.ab.ca/festivalplace/boxoffice/images/shows/NewYear_Fireworks335.jpg









VERY CLEVER!

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2665092/2/istockphoto_2665092_sparklers_2008.jpg




JAW DROPPINGLY BEAUTIFUL!

http://thingsyoushoulddo.com/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/big-bay-fireworks-show.jpg




More my style:

http://www.easier.com/myads/images/137364-ChaletBlanc.jpg


;)




(f)



Best wishes for a healthy, happy and hopeful New Year.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o





http://gaylife.about.com/od/entertainment/tp/gayyear2007.htm




One of my favorite "moments of 2007" is:

Male LA Times Sports Columnist Returns As a Woman

Los Angeles Times

49-year-old Mike Penner, a long time sports columnist with the Los Angeles Times, went on a leave of absence and returned as Christine Daniels. It took Chrisine "40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy" to come out in her column and announce her transition. Talk about making the most of a vacation.


http://gaylife.about.com/b/2007/04/26/male-la-times-sports-columnist-to-return-as-woman.htm







(f)(f)'s,

Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (f) (l) (f) (l)



The crowd at Gayhane, a monthly party for Arab and Turkish gay men, lesbians and bisexuals at SO36, a Berlin nightclub. The event's name is fashioned from gay and "hane," Turkish for home.


http://img.iht.com/images/2008/01/01/01berlin.550.jpg




Gay Muslims pack a dance floor of their own


By Nicholas Kulish

Published: January 1, 2008


BERLIN: Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another's shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East. Nothing unusual given the German capital's large Muslim population.


But most of the people filling the dance floor on Saturday at the club SO36 in the Kreuzberg neighborhood were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and of Turkish or Arab background. They were there for the monthly club night known as Gayhane, an all-too-rare opportunity to merge their immigrant cultures and their sexual identities.


European Muslims, so often portrayed one-dimensionally as rioters, honor killers or terrorists, live diverse lives, most of them trying to get by and to have a good time. That is more difficult if one is both Muslim and gay.


"When you're here, it's as if you're putting on a mask, leaving the everyday outside and just having fun," said a 22-year-old Turkish man who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear that he would be ostracized or worse if his family found out about his sexual orientation.


Safety and secrecy come up regularly when talking to guests, who laugh and dance, but also frequently look over their shoulders. To be a gay man or lesbian with an immigrant background invites trouble here in two very different ways.


"Depending on which part of Berlin I go to, in one I get punched in the mouth because I'm a foreigner and in the other because I'm a queen," said Fatma Souad, the event's organizer and master of ceremonies. Souad, 43, a transgender performer born in Ankara as a boy named Ali, has put on the party for over a decade.


Souad came to Berlin in 1983 after leaving home as a teenager. She studied to be a dressmaker and played in a punk band, but discovered Middle Eastern music through a friend and began teaching herself belly dancing. Souad started Salon Oriental, her first belly dancing theater, in 1988, and threw the first Gayhane party — hane means home in Turkish — in January 1997.


The club was packed by midnight and still had a line out the front door. On stage, Souad mixed a white turban and white net gloves with a black tuxedo with tails and a silver cummerbund, her face made up with perfectly drawn eyeliner and mascara. Dancing, she was all fluid motion, light on her feet, expressively twisting her hands and swiveling her hips.


Under flashing colored lights, guests, some with dreadlocks and others with carefully gelled coifs, moved to songs by the likes of the Egyptian Amr Diab and the Algerian Cheb Mami. Beats from traditional drums crossed with electronic ones, as melodies from flutes and ouds intertwined. When several circle dances — halay in Turkish — broke out at once, the floor began to shake from the stomping.


One of the regular D.J.'s, Ipek Ipekcioglu, 35, said she got her start rather suddenly, when one of the founders of SO36 walked up to her and said: "You're Turkish, right? You're lesbian, right? Bring your cassettes and D.J."


Ipekcioglu spins everything from Turkish and Arabic music, to Greek, Balkan and Indian, a style she calls Eklektik BerlinIstan. She has been a full-time professional D.J. for six years and performs all over the world.


The space is decorated with bright yellow wall hangings depicting elephants, camels and even a flying carpet, with an intentional degree of kitsch, Souad said, and an intentional distance from anything Islamic. "We take care that religion is not mixed in here, not in the music either."


Outside the boom of loud firecrackers can be heard, the first test rounds for the annual cacophony here that leaves New Year's revelers ears' ringing. Kreuzberg has been home for decades to large populations of Turks and Kurds, many of whom have very conservative religious values. Yet they have had to share the neighborhood that formerly abutted the Berlin Wall with many counterculture types, artists and anarchists and also gays and lesbians.


According to the city's Schwules Museum, partly devoted to the history of gay people in the city and the country, "a lively homosexual subculture had developed in Berlin by the second half of the 18th century or perhaps earlier." It was known as an oasis for gay men and lesbians in the Weimar period immortalized by the writer Christopher Isherwood and in the period when West Berlin was surrounded by the wall. Today, the city has an openly gay and highly popular mayor, Klaus Wowereit.


But gay men and lesbians from Muslim families say they face extraordinary discrimination at home. A survey of roughly 1,000 young men and women in Berlin, released in September and widely cited in the German press, found much higher levels of homophobia among Turkish youth.


"These differences are there," said Bernd Simon, who led the study and is a professor of social psychology at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. "We can't deny them. The question is how do we cope with them."


"The answer is not to replace homophobia with Islamophobia," he added, pointing out that homophobia is also higher among Russian immigrants and in other, less urban parts of Germany.


Kader Balcik, a 22-year-old Turk from Hamburg, said: "For us, for Muslims, it's extremely difficult. When you're gay, you're immediately cut off from the family."


He had recently moved to Berlin not long after being cut off from his mother because he is bisexual. "A mother who wishes death for her son, what kind of mother is that?" he asked, his eyes momentarily filling with tears.


Hasan, a 21-year-old Arab man, sitting at a table in the club's quieter adjoining cafe, declined to give his last name, saying: "They would kill me. My brothers would kill me." Asked if he meant this figuratively, he responded, "No, I mean they would kill me."


"I'm living one life here and the other one the way they wish me to be," Hasan said, referring to his parents. He said he still planned to marry, but when he turned 30 rather than right away, as his parents wished. "I have to have children, to do what Islam wants me to do," he said. "I would stop with everything in the homosexual life. I would stop it."


He stood up from the table and called to his two friends. "All right, boys, let's go dance," he said. "We're here to have fun." And they marched off to the dance floor, smiling.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/01/europe/01berlin.php




<:o)<:o)




(f)

SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

...........with BEST coverage.


:D



http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/01/america/NA-GEN-US-Rose-Parade.php




On the Net:

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/roseparade/







HGTV once again offers the best seat in the house for live,
uninterrupted coverage of the 119th annual Rose Parade,
themed "Passport to the World's Celebrations." Bam! Chef
Emeril Lagasse steps in as grand marshal, and TV personality
Jann Carl joins the fun as a new guest host.


http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/pac_ctnt_988/text/0,,HGTV_22056_39188,00.html




:D What a delightful web site with lots of great links too! H&GTV rocks today.






Carpe Diem,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)



http://www.londonparade.co.uk/



http://golondon.about.com/b/2007/12/30/new-years-day-parade-london-2008.htm



http://www.londonparade.co.uk/history/gallery.asp

Photos!



http://www.londonparade.co.uk/history/participants/



:D:D



(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)



Australians celebrate the arrival of 2008 with spectacular fireworks displays.


http://www.video.news.com.au/newsinteractive/videopage/videoplayer/?Channel=National+News&ClipId=1094_217829&bitrate=300&Format=wmp




(f)(f)





Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



Canines march on dachshund walk event

Updated: 2008-01-01 14:48



http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2008-01/01/content_6362683.htm




http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20080101/0013729e4ad908e4232e2c.jpg






"China Daily"?? :o:o


;)








"The Day God Made Dog, She Just Sat Down and Smiled."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-) 8-)



Q U O T E D



''Once in the living room I observed baby Jesus face-down on top of miscellaneous items on the floor.''



-- A Palm Beach County, Fla., investigator details the recovery of a GPS-equipped manger figure (said display organizer Dina Cellini, ''I don't anticipate this will ever happen again, but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior.'')



http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/359089.html



:|:|:|



^o)^o)




"When God gave out brains, these folks thought she said trains and they asked for slow ones."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/18729528.html


:)




(f)


SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)




http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2007/12/27/music-to-your-ears/



(y)(y)





(f)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(y)(y)



http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus-tactus/



:)



(f)




Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l)


<:o) <:o) <:o) <:o) <:o)


Wednesday, January 2, 2008 / 11:43 AM


Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in New Hampshire in the early moments of New Year's Day as a new state law legalized the partnerships after midnight.


Organizers said they checked in 37 couples for an outdoor ceremony on the plaza of the New Hampshire Statehouse -- the building where the law was adopted and signed in 2007. Participants bundled up against below-freezing temperatures.


"We've been together 20 years; we've been waiting for this moment for 20 years; finally the state will recognize us as we are," said Julie Bernier, who posed for photos on the Statehouse steps with partner Joan Andresen before the ceremony. Bernier and Andresen, who both work at Plymouth State University, never sought a commitment ceremony or other symbolic recognition of their relationship before Tuesday.


"I didn't believe in doing it until it meant something," Bernier said.


As ceremonies go, the outdoors event that began at 11 p.m. Monday was equal parts political rally, party and personal triumph.


"We really didn't believe that we'd be able to see this accomplished within one year but it has happened," state Rep. Jim Splaine, a sponsor of the civil unions bill, told the cheering crowd of about 200. "One thing we have to keep in mind is that there is much more to do. We have to continue the journey to make sure that we have marriage equality, full marriage equality -- with the word marriage -- soon."


New Hampshire's civil unions law -- enacted by the Democrat-dominated Legislature early last year and signed by Democratic Gov. John Lynch in May, gives same sex couples the same rights, responsibilities and obligations of marriage without calling the union a marriage. New Hampshire is the fourth state in the nation to allow civil unions.


"We are a citizen legislature and we legislated this into being," said state Rep. Gail Morrison, a Democrat and co-organizer of the event who entered into a civil union with her longtime partner. John Davey and Mark Brodeur brought gold wedding bands to exchange during their ceremony.


Together 10 years since meeting online, Davey, 34, and Brodeur, 48, held a commitment ceremony with friends several years ago, but became the first couple to seek a civil union license in their hometown of Stratham when they became available last month.


"That was just for to say that we loved each other, that we're committed," Davey said of the commitment ceremony. "This is to show the world this is who we are, this is finally recognized in New Hampshire."


There were no protesters at the Statehouse, though one man, Michael Hein, said he drove 180 miles from Augusta, Maine, so he could "report to the people of Maine that this is going on next door." Hein also passed out statements from his group, The Christian Civic League of Maine, which denounces homosexuality.


"Without our vigilance in Maine, (civil unions are) something that could occur as soon as next year," Hein said.


After making brief group vows together, couples walked through an archway decorated with rainbow ribbons and a "just married" banner to meet officiants for individual ceremonies. As they walked through, fireworks from the city's New Year's celebration lit up the sky.


New Hampshire follows Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey in allowing civil unions.


Massachusetts is the only state that allows marriage. New Hampshire estimates that as many as 3,500 to 4,000 civil unions will be performed this first year.



(y)(y)(y)








Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:s:s:s:s:s



Wednesday, January 2, 2008 / 12:01 PM



A federal judge on Friday placed on hold an Oregon domestic partnership law that was set to take effect January 1, pending a February hearing.


The law would give some spousal rights to same-sex couples.


Opponents asked U.S. district judge Michael W. Mosman to intercede after the Oregon secretary of state's office ruled in October that they had failed to collect enough valid signatures on petitions to force a referendum on the law.


The Oregon measure covers benefits related to inheritance rights, child-rearing and custody, joint state tax filings, joint health, auto and homeowners' insurance policies, visitation rights at hospitals, and others. It does not affect federal benefits for married couples, including Social Security and joint filing of federal tax returns.


After the legislature approved the domestic partnership law this year, gay rights opponents launched an effort to collect enough signatures to suspend the law and place it on the November 2008 ballot for a statewide vote.


But state elections officials said this fall that the effort fell 116 valid signatures short of the 55,179 needed to suspend the law.


In court Friday, Austin Nimocks, a lawyer for Alliance Defense Fund, which opposes the measure, said the state's review process was flawed, disenfranchising citizens who had signed petitions.


The state's largest gay rights group, Basic Rights Oregon, criticized the judge's decision.


"It's unfair our families once again are bearing the brunt of this ongoing struggle," said Jeana Frazzini, a spokeswoman for the group.


Eight other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples -- Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.




(n)(n)(n)





I guess that Oregon if off the potential list. :|:|




(f)


Sweetlady & wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)



http://www.outzonetv.com/








Homoscopes?


http://outzonetv.com/homoscopes/



(y)(y)




(f)




"The best smiles are those when I get lipstick on my earlobes."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)



http://www.logoonline.com/shows/events/50_greatest_films/winners.jhtml




Numbers 7, 9, 12, 13, LOVE 16!, 18.......oh, there are so many more really good ones than on this list. And I have a copy of Brokeback Mountain too, and I really liked "Big Eden". What a wonderful film that was - I saw it twice towards the end of 2007.


:) Since this cable channel is owned by MTV - the films invested in for distribution are more narrow than the tremendous number of films of say, a netflix's film library. Probably because Logo's target audience is for younger viewers.





(f)



"What do I know?" ;);)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

<:o)<:o)<:o)



The Boy Genius Report states unequivocally that it is 100 percent certain Apple will introduce a new laptop of some sort at Macworld. The evidence cited by its source? Apple had some big name artists perform at a recent holiday event, and the stars worked for no pay because they were promised one of these mysterious laptops instead. Sounds like a lock, all right.


http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2007/12/26/apples-new-laptops-confirmed/






Oooh, aaaah. Oooh, aaaah.


8-| 8-|



(f)



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)




...........the magazine that sponsors the annual Ig Nobel Prizes, now free online



http://www.improbable.com/magazine




The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.


"Last, but not least, there are the Ig Nobel awards. These come with little cash, but much cachet, and reward those research projects that 'first make people laugh, and then make them think'" -- Nature


http://www.improbable.com/ig/



:)



(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)



Corvatsch, in St. Moritz, is known for its bowl skiing, but boasts that it has the “longest flood lit piste in Switzerland,” which is open every Friday night.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/06/travel/06heads600.1.jpg



January 6, 2008

Heads Up | Night Skiing

To Ski the Lights: Fantastic

By JENNIFER CONLIN


ON four nights of the year, when the moon is full and if the sky is clear, the ski resort of Zermatt in Switzerland offers the rare opportunity to journey to the 10,180-foot-high top of the Rothorn ski area, enjoy a traditional fondue dinner, and then ski down, with only the glow of the moon and stars to guide the skiers.


Similarly, on the slopes of Diavolezza in St. Moritz, a cable car stays open until 11:15 on moonlit nights, from December through April, for what they call “the souvenir of your vacation.”


On such nights, “It is so quiet, you only hear the sound of your skis on the snow,” Chantal Bittel-Käppeli, a marketing manager for Zermatt, says.

Martha Winfield, an American mother of two living in London, recalls a less romantic moonlight ski run in Zermatt last winter.

“It was both exciting and frightening,” said Ms. Winfield, who was there with her husband and children, who were 10 and 8. “At times, it didn’t appear as though anything was lit at all.”

She said her family had trouble keeping up with the guide, who led their group down with only a torch to light the way. “Anyone with kids might want to consider bringing their own headlights,” she said jokingly.


Most night skiing and snowboarding, however, does not require charting the phases of the moon. Modern lights have long been illuminating the slopes of small suburban ski resorts throughout the United States, particularly on weekends, when they turn into sporty social clubs for teenagers. Now many of the larger ski resorts in the United States, Europe, British Columbia and Japan are offering night skiing. And for those willing to brave the cold, the benefits — smaller crowds and a twinkling nighttime view — far outweigh the chill.


Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont offers 2,160 vertical feet of night skiing, keeping the slopes open every Saturday until 9 p.m. through March 15. Jeff Wise, the communications director at Stowe, said most runs are regroomed for the evening and are “perfect for skiers who like to cruise and carve away from the crowds.”


Keystone in Colorado also offers “sunset” skiing on 15 lighted trails until 9 p.m. during peak times (Wednesday through Sunday from Jan. 9 to Feb. 24, then daily Feb. 27 through March 30). Amy Kemp, a spokeswoman, said the resort offered “the largest night-skiing experience in Colorado.”


In St. Moritz, Corvatsch, known for its bowl skiing, boasts that it has the “longest flood lit piste in Switzerland,” every Friday night during the ski season. In addition, there is a mountain restaurant, the Alpetta, which stays open for dinner, as well as the Hossa Bar, where a D.J. entertains crowds and there are even occasional fireworks. Parents wanting a night out on the slopes can drop their children off at the nearby “Bambino land” from 7 to 10 p.m.


In British Columbia, night skiers and snowboarders can take in the twinkling lights of Vancouver, only a 15-minute drive away, while gliding down Grouse Mountain. It has 13 runs open daily during the winter from 4 to 10 p.m.


Across the Pacific, Niseko is one of the largest lighted ski areas in Japan and advertises some of the best night life of any Japanese ski resort. All-day lift tickets include night skiing on the final day of the ticket from early December to early April.


One advantage to night skiing is that it is less expensive then daytime skiing. A night-only lift ticket at Stowe costs $27 for an adult, less than half the cost of an afternoon (12:30 to 4 p.m.) ticket.


But for $75 a person, skiers can also take part in Stowe’s winter Cliff House Summit Series on Saturdays. These are themed dinners (a jazz evening, Valentine dinner and Dominican Republic night) at a mountaintop restaurant, with the chance to ski off your meal afterward. On the gondola ride up, guests are given Vermont cider, a fleece blanket and a camp lantern to keep them warm.


For those skiers who like the idea of exploring the mountain by night, but prefer a more peaceful setting than a brightly lighted downhill slope, the Whistler Resort in British Columbia has the Lost Lake Cross Country trail system. It offers 20 miles of groomed trails that wind around the park, the grounds of the Chateau Whistler and golf courses that are open daily until 8 p.m.


But 2.4 miles of those trails are lighted from 3 to 9 p.m. What’s more, skiing is free after 8 p.m. and every Monday after 3 p.m.


Even more slow paced, Keystone has the Full Moon Snowshoe Tour, a hike and a soup buffet dinner. It is open to anyone 12 and older for $35, including equipment rental.


Perhaps the most exceptional place in the world for night cross-country skiing is Finland, where it is dark most of the day during winter. At Kuusamo, in Lapland, about 25 of the 310 miles of cross-country ski trails are illuminated and have rest stops, some with fireplaces. Nonskiiers can take part in a two-and-a-half-hour snowmobile Starlight Safari, in search of the Northern Lights.


There are few safety issues associated with night skiing, as long as skiers follow the rules. Timothy White, a spokesman for the National Ski Patrol in Colorado, however, does advise night skiers to “add an extra layer for warmth, use the buddy system and never wander beyond the lit slopes.”


But what do you do if the lights suddenly go out when you are skiing? To his surprise, Malcolm Hobbs, a seasoned West Coast skier, found himself in that situation a couple of years ago while skiing with his three children one evening in Utah.


“We were halfway down the slope when the lights went dark for no apparent reason,” he said. “Everyone on the slope just kept laughing and talking to each other in the dark as we all tried to find our way down.”


It was, he added, “not just fun, but also one of the family’s more memorable ski moments.”




NIGHT LIFE, OUTDOORS IN THE SNOW


In Zermatt, Switzerland www.bergbahnen.zermatt.ch the moonlight ski run costs 63 Swiss francs and 47.50 francs for children 9 to 16, or about $53 and $40, respectively, at 1.18 Swiss francs to the dollar. The price includes dinner and one-way transport.


At Diavolezza in St. Moritz www.Diavolezza.ch moonlight skiing costs 9.5 to 28 Swiss francs. At Corvatsch www.bergbahnenengadin.ch it is 20 Swiss francs.


Stowe Mountain Resort (802-253-3500; www.stowe.com charges $21 to $27 for night skiing. The Saturday night Cliff House Summit Series requires reservations and costs $80.


Keystone in Colorado (800-344-8878; www.keystone.snow.com charges $51 to ski from 4 to 9 p.m. Full Moon Snowshoe Tours ($35) are on Jan. 19, Feb. 22 and March 21; reservations required.


At Grouse Mountain in British Columbia (604-980-9311; www.grousemountain.com night lift tickets cost 19 to 37 Canadian dollars, which is about the same amount of U.S. dollars based on current exchange rates.


A one-day adult high-season ticket at Niseko in Japan (www.niseko.ne.jp/en)is 5,200 yen, about $45 at 116 yen to the dollar. Tickets for children 7 to 15 range from 3,000 to 3,800 yen.


Night cross-country skiing at the Whistler Resort (604-905-0071; www.crosscountryconnection.bc.ca costs 4 to 8 Canadian dollars. Family tickets are 16 dollars.


For information on skiing in the Ruka-Kuusamo area of Finland, see www.ruka.fi/winter_eng Starlight Safari snowmobile outings are 65 euros a person, two to a snowmobile; 35 euros for ages 4 to 12.





(f)(f)







Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l) (l)




http://www.sho.com/site/lword/home.do




Marlee Matlin, Rose Rollins, and Cybill Shepherd will be back for season five! Will Bette and Tina get back together? How will Helena make out in prison?! Will Tasha win in court?





Season 5 Predictions:

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/lezberado.do





Hooking You Up with Season 5!

You've watched the promos, now get the inside info on the real thing. Every week, Ilene Chaiken invites an assortment of sexy guests to give you the lowdown on The Hookup.

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/ourchart.do





THE L WORD: LGB TEASE

In episode 501, the fifth season premiere, Shane derails plans to move in with Paige, then suffers the consequences; Jenny returns from vacation with a billionaire movie financier in tow; Phyllis has doubts about her romance with Joyce.


http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?episodeid=130336&seriesid=135





THE L WORD: LOOK OUT, HERE THEY COME!

In episode 502, Tina's obvious affection for Bette affects her dating prospects; Shane's last-minute gig styling hair at a wedding results in a series of erotic encounters; Tasha reveals her reason for not shipping out to Iraq.



http://www.sho.com/site/schedules/product_page.do?episodeid=130337&seriesid=135






Episode Schedule (including repeats during the week)

http://www.sho.com/site/lword/schedule.do




:|:| RATS!! Jenny STILL hasn't been killed or otherwise taken off the show. Her character is SO disruptive. Does anyone like her?



(l)(l) I'm absolutely delighted that Season 5 is starting............


:)



(f)(f)








Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|


:s:s:s



Tourists shun crime-hit Mexico beaches


By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 5, 1:24 PM ET


PLAYAS DE ROSARITO, Mexico - Assaults on American tourists have brought hard times to hotels and restaurants that dot Mexican beaches just south of the border from San Diego.


Surfers and kayakers are frightened to hit the waters of the northern stretch of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, long popular as a weekend destination for U.S. tourists. Weddings have been canceled. Lobster joints a few steps from the Pacific were almost empty on the usually busy New Year's weekend.


Americans have long tolerated shakedowns by police who boost salaries by pulling over motorists for alleged traffic violations, and tourists know parts of Baja are a hotbed of drug-related violence. But a handful of attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits — some of whom used flashing lights to appear like police — marks a new extreme that has spooked even longtime visitors.


Lori Hoffman, a San Diego-area emergency room nurse, said she was sexually assaulted Oct. 23 by two masked men in front of her boyfriend, San Diego Surfing Academy owner Pat Weber, who was forced to kneel at gunpoint for 45 minutes. They were at a campground with about 30 tents, some 200 miles south of the border.


The men shot out windows of the couple's trailer and forced their way inside, ransacked the cupboards and left with about $7,000 worth of gear, including computers, video equipment and a guitar.


Weber, who has taught dozens of students in Mexico over the last 10 years, plans to surf in Costa Rica or New Zealand. "No more Mexico," said Hoffman, who reported the attack to Mexican police. No arrests have been made.


The Baja California peninsula is known worldwide for clean and sparsely populated beaches, lobster and margaritas and blue waters visited by whales and dolphins. Surfers love the waves; fishermen catch tuna, yellowtail and marlin. Food and hotels are cheap.


News of harrowing assaults on American tourists has begun to overshadow that appeal in the northern part of the peninsula, home to drug gangs and the seedy border city of Tijuana. The comparatively isolated southern tip, with its tony Los Cabos resort, remains safer and is still popular with Hollywood celebrities, anglers and other foreign tourists.


Local media and surfing Web sites that trumpeted Baja in the past have reported several frightening crimes that U.S. and Mexican officials consider credible. Longtime visitors are particularly wary of a toll road near the border that runs through Playas de Rosarito — Rosarito Beach.


In late November, as they returned from the Baja 1000 off-road race, a San Diego-area family was pulled over on the toll road by a car with flashing lights. Heavily armed men held the family hostage for two hours. They eventually released them but stole the family's truck.


Before dawn on Aug. 31, three surfers were carjacked on the same stretch of highway. Gunmen pulled them over in a car with flashing lights, forced them out of their vehicles and ordered one to kneel. They took the trucks and left the surfers.


Aqua Adventures of San Diego scrapped its annual three-day kayak trip to scout for whales in January, ending a run of about 10 years. Customers had already been complaining about longer waits to return to the U.S.; crime gave them another reason to stay away.


"People are just saying, 'No way.' They don't want to deal with the risk," said owner Jen Kleck, who has sponsored trips to Baja about five times a year but hasn't been since July.


Charles Smith, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, said the U.S. government has not found a widespread increase in attacks against Americans, but he acknowledged many crimes go unreported. The State Department has long warned motorists on Mexico's border to watch for people following them, though no new warnings have been issued.


Mexican officials acknowledge crime has threatened a lifeblood of Baja's economy. In Playas de Rosarito, a city of 130,000, police were forced to surrender their weapons last month for testing to determine links to any crimes. Heavily armed men have patrolled City Hall since a failed assassination attempt on the new police chief left one officer dead. On Thursday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Tijuana police official and another man were found dumped near the beach.


"We cannot minimize what's happening to public safety," said Oscar Escobedo Carignan, Baja's new secretary of tourism. "We're going to impose order ... We're indignant about what's happening."


Tourist visits to Baja totaled about 18 million in 2007, down from 21 million the previous year, Escobedo said. Hotel occupancy dropped about 5 percentage points to 53 percent.


Hugo Torres, owner of the storied Rosarito Beach Hotel and the city's new mayor, estimates the number of visitors to Rosarito Beach since summer is down 30 percent.


In the city's Puerto Nuevo tourist enclave, which offers $20 lobster dinners and $1 margaritas, restaurant managers said sales were down as much as 80 percent from last year. One Saturday afternoon in October, masked bandits wielding pistols walked the streets and kidnapped two men — an American and a Spanish citizen — who were later released unharmed. Two people who were with them were shot and wounded.


Omar Armendariz, who manages a Puerto Nuevo lobster restaurant, is counting on the new state and city governments to make tourists feel safer. He has never seen fewer visitors in his nine years on the job.


"It's dead," he said.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_on_bi_ge/mexico_frightened_tourists




:o:o



(f)




Carpe Diem,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

^o) ^o) ^o)



January 5, 2008

Talking Business

Put Buyers First? What a Concept

By JOE NOCERA


My Christmas story — the one I’ve been telling and retelling these last 10 days — began on Friday, Dec. 21.


It was early in the morning, and I had awoken with the sudden, sinking realization that a present I had bought for one of my sons hadn’t yet arrived. It wasn’t just any present either; it was a PlayStation 3, a $500 item, and a gift, I happened to know from my sources, that he was hoping for.


Like most things I buy online, the PlayStation had come from Amazon.com. So I went to the site and tracked the package — something, thankfully, that is a snap to do on Amazon. What I saw made my heart sink: the package had not only been shipped, it had been delivered to my apartment building days earlier and signed for by one of my neighbors. I knocked on my neighbor’s door, and asked if she still had the PlayStation. No, she said; after signing for it, she had put it downstairs in the hallway.


Now I was nearly distraught. In all likelihood, the reason I hadn’t seen the package earlier in the week is because it had been stolen, probably by someone delivering something else to the building. Even if that wasn’t the case, the one thing I knew for sure was that it was gone — for which I could hardly blame Amazon.


Nonetheless, I got on the phone with an Amazon customer service representative, and explained what had happened: the PlayStation had been shipped, delivered and signed for. It just didn’t wind up in my hands. Would Amazon send me a replacement? In my heart of hearts, I knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on. I was pleading for mercy.


I shudder to think how this entreaty would have gone over at, say, Apple, where customer service is an oxymoron. But the Amazon customer service guy didn’t blink. After assuring himself that I had never actually touched or seen the PlayStation, he had a replacement on the way before the day was out. It arrived on Christmas Eve. Amazon didn’t even charge me for the shipping. My son was very happy. So, of course, was I.


It has been years since I looked in on Amazon. Once upon a time, of course, it was a highflying Internet stock, one of the handful of Internet companies — along with Yahoo, eBay and AOL —whose stock only seemed to go in one direction: up. Henry Blodget made his bones, in no small part, by being a screaming Amazon bull.


Then came the bust, and Wall Street began to see Amazon in a decidedly different light. It was just another retailer, the bears said, that happened to sell goods online — and had immense, unanticipated infrastructure and technology costs. Its founder and chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, spent huge sums of money on such “frills” as free shipping, which depressed its operating margins. Indeed, those margins — which got as low as 3 percent — were more akin to Wal-Mart’s than that of a big-time tech company. At one point, in mid-2000, a bond analyst named Ravi Suria made his bones by predicting that the company could run out of cash. The stock dropped into single digits.


So when I looked up Amazon’s stock price after my little Christmas miracle, I was amazed to see that it had risen around 140 percent last year. (It closed yesterday at $88.79.) The company grew somewhere around 35 percent in 2007 (the final numbers aren’t in yet), with revenue likely to come in around $15 billion, and well over $1 billion in free cash flow. Its margins had risen to around 6 percent, and it consistently made money.


When I spoke to analysts and investors, they had all kinds of reasons for Amazon’s performance last year. “They finally reached a point where their R&D spending was not expanding as fast as their revenues,” said Citigroup’s Mark S. Mahaney. He and others also talked about Amazon’s success in international markets, its fast-growing (and high margin) merchant market, which allows merchants to sell goods alongside Amazon, and its rapidly expanding Web services business. Mostly, though, the investing community pointed to those healthier margins as the main reason for the stock’s run-up. Legg Mason’s legendary fund manager, Bill Miller, who has made a small fortune for his investors by betting big on Amazon, told me that “Wall Street is almost fanatically focused on margin expansion and contraction.”


But I couldn’t help wondering if maybe there wasn’t something else at play here, something Wall Street never seems to take very seriously. Maybe, just maybe, taking care of customers is something worth doing when you are trying to create a lasting company. Maybe, in fact, it’s the best way to build a real business — even if it comes at the expense of short-term results.


It is almost impossible to read or see an interview with Mr. Bezos in which he doesn’t, at some point, begin to wax on about what he likes to call “the customer experience.” Just a few months ago, for instance, he appeared on Charlie Rose’s talk show to tout Amazon’s new e-book device, the Kindle. Toward the end of the program, Mr. Rose asked the chief executive an open-ended question about how he spent his time, and Mr. Bezos responded with a soliloquy about his “obsession” with customers.


“They care about having the lowest prices, having vast selection, so they have choice, and getting the products to customers fast,” he said. “And the reason I’m so obsessed with these drivers of the customer experience is that I believe that the success we have had over the past 12 years has been driven exclusively by that customer experience. We are not great advertisers. So we start with customers, figure out what they want, and figure out how to get it to them.”


Anybody who has spent any time around Mr. Bezos knows that this is not just some line he throws out for public consumption. It has been the guiding principle behind Amazon since it began. “Jeff has been focused on the customer since Day 1,” said Suresh Kotha, a management professor at the University of Washington business school who has written several case studies about Amazon. Mr. Miller noted that Amazon has really had only one stated goal since it began: to be the most customer-centric company in the world.


In this, it has largely succeeded. Millions of people instinctively go to Amazon when they want to buy something online because they have come to trust the company in a way they trust few other online entities. Amazon’s technology, its interface, its one-click buying service — they are all incredibly easy to use. Its algorithms offer “suggestions” for further buying that actually appeal to its customers. Its Amazon Prime program — for a $79 annual fee you get two-day free shipping — is enormously popular. Unlike what happens at certain other technology companies, when you have a problem, the customer service telephone number isn’t hard to find. It is even willing to correct mistakes that it didn’t make, as I discovered over Christmas.


All of this, however, comes at a price. Indeed, as I’ve written before, customer service isn’t cheap. Certainly, a fair amount of the hundreds of millions of dollars Amazon has spent on R&D has gone toward developing, say, the Kindle, but a good deal of it has also gone toward improving the customer experience. Amazon is willing to lose money on some of its most popular items, like the latest Harry Potter novel. And even with Amazon Prime, it must surely swallow millions of dollars in shipping costs. Indeed, in a presentation to analysts in late November, the company’s chief financial officer, Thomas J. Szkutak, showed one slide that read, “Over $600 Million in Forgone Shipping Revenue.” And that was just for one year.


Wall Street, however, has never placed much value in Mr. Bezos’ emphasis on customers. What he has viewed as money well spent — building customer loyalty — many investors saw as giving away money that should have gone to the bottom line. “What makes their core business so compelling is that they are focused on everything the customer wants,” said Scott W. Devitt, who follows Amazon for Stifel Nicolaus & Company. “When you act in that manner many times Wall Street doesn’t appreciate it.” What Wall Street wanted from Amazon is what it always wants: short-term results. That is precisely what Dell tried to give investors when it scrimped on customer service and what eBay did when it heaped new costs on its most dedicated sellers. Eventually, these short-sighted decisions caught up with both companies.


But Mr. Bezos refused to give in. “He was spending his time on long-term value creation,” Mr. Miller said. There aren’t many chief executives who can so easily ignore the entreaties of the investment community, but Mr. Bezos turned out to be one of them. Of course it helps that he owns over 100 million shares of the stock — and is the company’s single largest shareholder.


And it also helps that his dogged pursuit of a better customer experience has turned out to be exactly right. Yes, it’s true that its international business has been growing rapidly, but that’s not the only reason Amazon is back in high-growth mode. Amazon says it has somewhere on the order of 72 million active customers, who, in the last quarter, were spending an average of $184 a year on the site. That’s up from $150 or so the year before. Amazon’s return customer business is off the charts. According to Forrester Research, 52 percent of people who shop online say they do their product research on Amazon. That is an astounding number.


There is simply no question that Mr. Bezos’s obsession with his customers — and the long term — has paid off, even if he had to take some hits to the stock price along the way. Surely, it was worth it. As for me, the $500 favor the company did for me this Christmas will surely rebound in additional business down the line. Why would I ever shop anywhere else online? Then again, there may be another reason good customer service makes sense. “Jeff used to say that if you did something good for one customer, they would tell 100 customers,” Mr. Kotha said.


I guess that’s what I just did.





:|:| I had an experience recently with a very well-respected company which had a few Gen-X, Y and Z employees - who treat Boomer customers with complete disrespect.

I found a security problem and was trying to report it. However the sales reps couldn't have cared LESS.


The president of the company called me late Wednesday.


;)







"Being relentless has its advantages."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)




Five spots in the Northeast ideal for the hardy lover of blissful winter solitude.



January 4, 2008

Camping Under a Mantle of Snow

By DAVE CALDWELL


THE great outdoors beckons, even in the dead of winter.


Yes, it is colder, windier. But the air is crisper, the views clearer, the animal tracks easier to see. And that blanket of snow on the ground and the glaze of ice on bare tree branches transform the woods. Here is the best part, though, hikers, skiers and snowshoers say: the abundance of blissful winter solitude.


So, it is the perfect time to go camping, right? Here are five spots in the Northeast ideal for the hardy lover of snow and cold. Accommodations range from lean-tos to campsites for your weather-ready tent, from modest cabins to rustic lodges. Spartan, yes. But it sure beats waiting in lift lines.


But before venturing too far, refer to the Trip Planner section of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Web site — www.outdoors.org/recreation/snow/index.cfm. Included are tips on winter camping and activities, gear and safety information, suggestions on dressing for cold-weather recreation and a winter gear list.




NORTH-CENTRAL MAINE


The first of five wonderlands for winter camping is in north-central Maine. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates two traditional camps situated in the state’s 100-Mile Wilderness region, part of the magnificent Maine Woods. The 100-Mile Wilderness is a roadless corridor that includes part of the Appalachian Trail and the Gulf Hagas loop trail.


And there are cabins equipped with gas or kerosene lamps and wood stoves. The Little Lyford Pond Camps, built in the 1870s, are remote camps reached by a seven-mile cross-country ski route. There are a main lodge, where meals are served, a bunkhouse and seven cabins, each with a wood stove. Sorry, no spa or granite countertops.


According to the mountain club’s “Discover Maine” travel guide, written by Ty Wivell, the Little Lyford Pond Camps are surrounded by woods and trails ideal for skiing and snowshoeing. The Medawisla Wilderness Camps, also operated by the club, are in the 100-Mile Wilderness as well.


Of special interest near Little Lyford is Laurie’s Ledge Trail, which is good for snowshoeing and offers, on a clear day, a stunning view of Mount Katahdin. Gulf Hagas, often called the Grand Canyon of Maine, is to the southeast of Little Lyford Ponds and can be reached by the River Trail, which follows the Pleasant River Tote Road.


Daily rates for a cabin at Little Lyford and Medawisla for the winter season, which runs through March, is $100 a day for adults who are club members and $120 for nonmembers. The rate is $120; $140 on Saturdays. Bunkhouse rates are $69 and $89 every day but Saturday. Three daily meals are included, and few things beat a hot meal after an exhilarating day on the trails. Reservations are required at both Little Lyford and Medawisla, which is on Second Roach Pond and is surrounded by 35 miles of trails.


Little Lyford Pond Camps: www.outdoors.org/lyford. Medawisla Wilderness Camps: www.outdoors.org/medawisla.




WEST-CENTRAL NEW HAMPSHIRE


Mount Cardigan, in the state’s Lakes Region, is a relatively low mountain at 3,155 feet, but “Old Baldy” offers a range of terrain, from hardwood forests to a wind-swept summit. At the mountain’s base is Cardigan Lodge and a campground run by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Another rustic retreat, High Cabin, is on the mountain.


Cardigan Lodge is in a 1,200-acre reservation, also owned by the mountain club. There are about 50 miles of trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The lodge is heated in winter and has 13 coed bunk rooms that sleep two to six. Rates range from $35 per adult in the off-season for a shared room to $41 for a private room.


High Cabin, also owned and managed by the mountain club, is a rustic retreat near the summit that was built in 1931 and renovated in 2004. High Cabin specializes in scenic views and solitude. Rates range from $69 to $125 per night for full rental of the cabin, which can accommodate up to 12 people. Club members get a discount.


Tom Fisher, who manages Cardigan Lodge, recommends a snowshoeing trip that starts and ends at the lodge. It is a 3.8-mile loop over the Manning, Holt, Vistamont, Clark and Woodland trails, and there is an ascent and descent of about 1,000 feet, but it goes through grand, open beech woods and offers a lot of afternoon sun.


Mr. Fisher recommends a four-mile loop to cross-country skiers: Leave Cardigan Lodge, go down the Lower Manning Trail to the 93Z Ski Trail. Follow the 93Z Ski Trail to the Duke’s Ski Trail, which opens to a meadow. The Manning Trail, named after three brothers who were killed while hiking in 1924, takes a skier back to the lodge.


Cardigan Lodge: www.outdoors.org/cardigan. Appalachian Mountain Club reservations, (603) 466-2727; Mondays through Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or www.outdoors.org/reservations.




NORTHWEST CONNECTICUT

Just two hours north of New York City awaits an expanse of woods that looks as if it could be in northern New England. J. T. Horn, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, recommends a part of the Appalachian Trail to cross-country skiers and snowshoers that offers a big climb, a big descent and a big river.


The route starts near Kent, Conn., a small town on Route 7. Turn onto Route 341, then right onto Skiff Mountain Road, which crosses the Appalachian Trail, the start of the tour. The trail climbs about three-quarters of a mile to the top of Caleb’s Peak. Continue another three-quarters of a mile and you reach St. John’s Ledges, with a view of Kent and the Housatonic River Valley.


Ski poles can help on the half-mile descent to River Road, which is not plowed. Pass through a gate to continue north on the Appalachian Trail, along the bank of the Housatonic River as it passes below Skiff Mountain. This section, Mr. Horn said, is nearly flat and ideal for cross-country skiing. The trail passes the Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-To and the Stony Brook Campsite, then crosses open fields before intersecting with River Road, 6.6 miles from the start of the journey.


The Stewart Hollow Brook Lean-To and the Stony Brook Campsite are both official Appalachian Trail campsites and are free to use on a first-come first-served basis. Lean-tos are three-sided structures with roofs. Campsites are for tents. Mr. Horn points out that no fires are allowed on the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut, so winter campers should plan accordingly.


Appalachian Mountain Club, Connecticut Chapter: www.ct-amc.org/trails/index.shtm




NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

New Jersey has 10 state parks and forests that offer camping facilities year round. Dana Loschiavo, of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, recommends Stokes State Forest, which has panoramic vistas, as well as winter activities like ice fishing, ice skating, sledding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing.


Stokes is off Route 206, four miles north of Branchville, virtually at the northernmost tip of the state. A 9.3-mile section of the Appalachian Trail cuts through the 16,356-acre forest along the Kittatinny Ridge.


Some of the park’s 51 tent and trailer sites are open all year and have fire rings and picnic tables. The fee is $20 a night. There are also nine lean-tos available year round with fire rings and picnic tables. The fee is $30 a night. The state advises that reservations be made.


To the south, near Blairstown and off Interstate 80, the Mohican Outdoor Center in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area has cabins and tent sites year round. This 70,000-acre area, near the Appalachian Trail, includes cross-country skiing at Blue Mountain Lakes, downhill skiing at Shawnee Mountain Ski Area and ice climbing at the Delaware Water Gap.


The Appalachian Mountain Club operates two cabins and four lodges there for rates that range from $21 a night for an adult club member Monday through Thursday night to $25 a night for a nonmember for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.


Stokes State Forest: www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/stokes.html The Appalachian Mountain Club lodges: www.outdoors.org/lodging/lodges Reservations: (908) 362-5670 or mohican@mindspring.com.




NORTH-CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

The Susquehannock Trail System is an 85-mile network of skiing, hiking and snowshoe trails through the rolling, maple-and-beech-blanketed Allegheny Mountains in remote Potter County. The terrain is moderate throughout the 265,000-acre state forest, with long ridges of even height. Besides the maples and beeches, there are stands of black cherry, hemlocks, pines and Norway spruces. According to www.visitpa.com the trails cover old and new logging roads and an abandoned logging railroad.


The network of trails traverses the Susquehannock State Forest, which includes Ole Bull and Patterson State Parks, Hammersly Wild Area and the Cherry Springs Fire Tower. There are several ponds in the region used for ice fishing. And there is star-gazing under optimal conditions at Cherry Springs State Park, especially in winter.


The forest is accessible near the county seat, Coudersport, and there are several campgrounds near the entrance to the forest. Among those recommended by Cindy Capatch, of the Potter County Visitors Association, is the Potter County Family Campground, off Route 6 east of town.


Rates at the campground, which is open year round, range from $17 a night for a campsite with no hookups to $42 for a heated camping cabin. The campground sits about eight miles west of Ski Denton, which has Alpine and cross-country skiing, snow tubing and snowboarding.


Potter County: www.visitpottercounty.com and www.pottercountycamping.com Ski Denton: www.skidenton.com






:) If the definition of "camping" can be expanded to include staying in a heated or even an unheated cabin with a big fireplace and lots of fire wood? I will take THAT kind of Winter solitude, absolutely!! I am so ready right now.




(f)






(S)(S) Pleasant dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (~) (f) (~)




Slide Show: Broadway on Main Street

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/04/travel/escapes/20080104_BACKSTAGE_SLIDESHOW_index.html




January 4, 2008

Pennsylvania Road Show

By ROGER MUMMERT


THE ghost light stood guard over the empty stage of the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster, Pa. The harsh light from its bare bulb spilled out over the red velvet seats of the dimly lighted auditorium and here and there caught ornate details on columns, plaster moldings and the faces of the cherubs on the box seats to either side of the stage.


As our group of six walked across the strangely quiet stage, I paused at what I imagined might be the very spot where Mark Twain once stood. In 1872, he appeared there before a sold-out house and read from “Roughing It.” He held his audience in “rapt admiration,” according to an account in a local paper, “convulsing them with laughter from his humorous sketches.” This was, after all, a time when communities flocked to town theaters for edification from renowned lecturers like Twain, as well as for popular entertainment from traveling shows with stars like Sarah Bernhardt and Buffalo Bill Cody.


Our guide on this recent backstage tour was Aaron Young, managing director of the theater, which opened in 1852. “Never whistle in a hemp house,” he advised us, as we stared up at the traditional hemp rope and sandbag system still employed in the Fulton’s fly space. Retired sailors once were hired to hang the rigging, he further explained, and they communicated by whistling. “Whistle on a stage, and you could get a set dropped on your head.”


Duly warned, no one tempted fate.


The Fulton is one of a number of historic — and fully operating — theaters in south-central Pennsylvania that offer backstage tours where one can step right into theatrical history. All within a few hours’ drive from Philadelphia, they can provide an easy weekend getaway for theater history lovers.


Some theaters charge for tours (at the Fulton it is $7); others (like the Majestic in Gettysburg) offer tours free, while placing show bills into the hands of visitors who are encouraged to come back that evening as theatergoers.


For theater buffs (and for a former drama club president like myself), it is a heady experience to peek into stars’ dressing rooms in gilded palaces that radiate theatrical magic in a way that modern performance spaces lack. And to pick up a few tricks of the trade.


“Hey, look at this,” said a woman on our Fulton tour, reading the label on a bottle of stage blood left on a table in the green room. “This comes in mint flavor!”


The Fulton (12 North Prince Street, Lancaster; 717-394-7133; www.thefulton.org was built as Fulton Hall, a multiuse community center that included a shooting gallery above the theater. It was converted to an opera house in 1873, and the present dimensions and neo-Classical style of the theater were set in a 1904 renovation. The theater was restored in 1995, and today its heritage shines through at every turn. Its hallways are lined with original posters from shows presented here over the last century and a half.


Far from being cobwebby vestiges of gilded glory days, the Fulton and other historic theaters in neighboring towns are vital, thriving performance-arts centers. They have undergone multimillion-dollar restorations and now offer full seasons of touring Broadway shows, pop concerts and local theater. State-of-the-art audio, lighting and projection systems have been added, and backstages and fly spaces have been expanded to better accommodate elaborate show sets.


The Majestic (25 Carlisle Street, Gettysburg; 717-337-8200, www.gettysburgmajestic.org is a showcase in this regard. It was built in 1925 in a Colonial Revival style, and today it sparkles from a $17 million renovation in 2005. The 1,200-seat auditorium was overhauled from the soft carpeting to the pressed-tin ceiling, and spacious dressing rooms and rehearsal areas were added. The renovation allows the Majestic to book national tours of traveling Broadway shows like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” or musical acts like the Cajun group BeauSoleil. The center also houses two film theaters as well as an art gallery. Off the lobby, the 1950s-style Mamie’s Cafe (named for the wife of President Dwight Eisenhower, who had a farm outside town) is a great spot for a cappuccino and slice of peanut butter pie after the curtain falls. Tours are free, but arrangements must be made in advance.


Also welcoming visitors without charge, but with prearrangement, is the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center (50 North George Street, York; 717-846-1155, www.strandcapitol.org The center unites the Capitol, a 1906 dance hall, with the adjacent Strand, which opened in 1925 as a vaudeville and silent movie house. The Strand was designed in Italian Renaissance style and features gold leaf on the domed ceiling and proscenium arch above the stage. Ringing the walls of the theater are murals of willowy maidens and childlike satyrs frolicking in meadows. The murals, recently restored, are by Willy Pogany (1882-1955), a Hungarian-born artist who decorated theaters and illustrated books in an idyllic Art Nouveau style.


A backstage tour at the Hershey Theater (15 East Caracas Avenue, Hershey; 717-534-3405; www.hersheytheatre.com in the cocoa-scented town planned by Milton Hershey, takes visitors through a building inspired by Venetian palaces. The theater’s lobbies sparkle with white marble and gold leaf, and the proscenium arch replicates the Bridge of Sighs. Painted on the fire curtain beneath the arch is a giant mural of the Grand Canal. Clouds move and stars twinkle above, in the atmospheric ceiling, and it is a gee-whiz sight, especially as the pipe organ is played before screenings of classic movies. Touring this theater while no audience is present heightens one’s appreciation of how elaborate décor (like 29 lions embedded in the cast plaster friezes) is a vital element in theatrical magic.


The Hershey Theater opened in 1933, and since then its curtain has been raised on shows with Ed Wynn, Tallulah Bankhead, Yul Brynner and Katharine Hepburn. On our tour, our guide pointed out a seat at the end of Row T where Milton Hershey, who shunned attention and liked to slip in and out a side door, used to sit.


The Sovereign Performing Arts Center (136 North Sixth Street, Reading; 610-898-7299; www.sovereigncenter.com has a huge domed ceiling that soars over its 1,800 seats. The building first housed a market and Masonic hall when it was built in 1870, but for most of its existence, it was the regional home of the Shriners, who named it the Rajah Theater. Adjoining the theater is a maze of meeting rooms, lobbies and dance halls with ornate decorations in an exotic Oriental style. The theater has had a full renovation, and coming shows include national tour productions of “Movin’ Out” and “Chicago.” Free tours are offered by advance request.


The Fulton and the Hershey theaters have extensive documentation of the performers and shows they have presented, but many theaters lack such records.


The Capitol Theater (159 South Main Street, Chambersburg; 717-263-0202; www.thecapitoltheatre.org is believed to have been host to numerous vaudeville acts in the years after it opened in 1927, but our tour guide, when asked, was hard-pressed to name specific performers.


“I thought Al Jolson played here!” shouted a stagehand within earshot of our tour. Our guide could not corroborate that.


“If you talk to enough theater managers, Al Jolson, Mark Twain and W. C. Fields played every vaudeville house in America,” mused Jeffrey Gabel, founding executive director of the Majestic. “Most theater archives were destroyed by flooded basements or thrown out in the constant change in ownership.” The Majestic has no detailed records of performers from the vaudeville era, he added.


While it is thrilling to imagine the many famed thespians who have graced the stages of these historic theaters, if only for one-night stands, it can be chilling to imagine some performers who “never leave.” Visitors to the Fulton hear about a long list of visiting stars that includes George M. Cohan, Ethel Barrymore and Helen Hayes — but also about an actress named Marie Cahill, whose spirit is said to have taken up residence in the theater after her death in 1933. She performed often at the Fulton and always wearing white, a detail that links her, in the minds of believers, to a reported visage known as the Lady in White. According to Fulton lore, explained Mr. Young, the managing director, the Lady in White has appeared so often in the stage right wing that the stage manager’s desk was moved from there to stage left to avoid disruptions.


A GHOSTBUSTER group staked out the Fulton and said it had registered high levels of paranormal activity, Mr. Young said. Aside from the Lady in White, several spirits are believed to reside in the fly space above the stage. Still another is said to have startled a man who was working in a staircase that had been sealed off for many years. The worker dropped his tools and ran outside and up the street — and refused to pass through the Fulton’s doors ever again.


On our tour of the Fulton, we did not happen upon any apparitions, cold spots or unexplainable clapping, but as we wound our way through hallways, chorus rooms and the orchestra pit beneath the stage, we stayed in close formation. Just as we refrained from whistling beneath the hemp ropes and sandbags, we were not eager to challenge theatrical superstitions.




(l)(l) I LOVE it!



(f)





(S)(S) Pleasant Dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

;);)



Small places often prove to be the best eating spots in many cities. But for historical reasons Bangkok may boast the finest street food on earth.





Street Eats in Bangkok


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/06/travel/20070106_BANGKOK_SLIDESHOW_index.html





DIM SUM PORK BUNS!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/06/travel/06bangkok.12.jpg




:)


(f)




(S)(S) Pleasant Sleep and Dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)



by Leslie Feinberg

Publisher: Seal Press (March 1, 2006)



From award-winning and best-selling author, Leslie Feinberg, comes Drag King Dreams, the story of Max Rabinowitz, a butch lesbian bartender at an East Village club where drag kings, dykes dressed as men, perform. A veteran of the women's and gay movement of the past 30 years, Max's mid-life crisis hits in the midst of the post-9/11 world. Max is lonely and uncertain about her future — fearful, in fact, of America's future with its War on Terror and War in Iraq — with only a core group of friends to turn to for reassurance. Max is shaken from her crisis, however, by the news that her friend Vickie, a transvestite, has been found murdered on her way home late one night. As the community of cross-dressers, drag queens, lesbian and gay men, and "genderqueers" of all kinds stand up together in the face of this tragedy, Max taps into the activist spirit she thought had long disappeared and for the first time in years discovers hope for her future.





From Publishers Weekly

After a harrowing encounter with a bigot on the PATH train, Max Rabinowitz, drag king and bouncer, quarrels with cross-dressing friend Vickie—who is brutally murdered that night. Soon a transgender friend with AIDS is hospitalized, the East Village club where they work closes and a friendly Muslim neighbor disappears after defending his kids from the cops. Loyal, tender and apt to paint apartment walls with Yiddish poems, Max is appealing yet strikingly isolated and quick to get enraged. At the book's beginning, Feinberg, author of the queer classic Stone Butch Blues (1993), only hints at why Max, now hitting midlife, carries pre-Stonewall armor into a post-Stonewall world of polysexuality and queer television. Though seemingly trapped in a world-weary, self-made transgender noir of tough breaks and lassitude, Max is returning to activism by book's end. Max's first person is charged and poignant, and the appealing group of secondary characters makes Max's world as desperately full as it is bleak. Still, readers who don't define themselves by their political protests are likely to want a lot more dancing to join this revolution. (May)






Reviews:



1. Building community, organizing, and practicing activism, are three strong currents in Leslie Feinberg's Drag King Dreams.


More specifically, Drag King Dreams traces the journeys of the protagonist, Max Rabinowitz.


Some of these journeys are late night/early morning commutes to and from the bar where Max works. Seemingly innocuous, Feinberg illustrates the way such commutes, which are humdrum for most, are fraught with threats and dangers, often harmful, and sometimes deadly for Max and others like him.


Some of the trips Max takes are virtual ones into a universe where even with created, cyber bodies, we manage to socialize in ways that marginalize those who are perceived as different, but where outsiders pulling from a bank of shared signs still manage to find one another and connect. These virtual worlds are also places where Max learns that though there are rules in place that have determined and constructed the worlds as such, there are other rules and ways to re-construct and build them alternatively.


Then there are the emotional journeys Max takes towards and away from his friends, those he's chosen as his family. At times the bonds of love among Max and his friends are so fierce that it's almost impossible to imagine a tighter knit, more committed, or stronger community. The way in which they pull together to protect, support, and encourage one another is a testament to the deep power of such unselfish love. And yet despite Feinberg's inclusion of this much needed glimpse into an ideal, sometimes utopian love, ze also reflects other elements of hir characters' humanity--their bursts of anger, moments of desire-driven jealousy, they fear-filled recoil from others' touches, etc. Overall, Feinberg paints hir characters in all their marvelous complexities, while never letting go of the conviction that unity is possible. In the end Max's final moves are closer towards his friends, the larger community, and perhaps most significantly towards himself.


It is these interpersonal and intrapersonal journeys throughout Drag King Dreams that showcase Feinberg's ability to tell an important and touching story about the intertwined lives we live, and the need for us to join in struggle with one another, fighting the wars (literal and metaphorical alike) side-by-side until justice is achieved. Ze doesn't make it seem as if such coalitions are easy, but does tell hir story so well that despite the difficulties, we are utterly convinced of the absolute necessity of just complicated, hard work.


(I must make clear here that these are but a minor fraction of the various journeys Feinberg takes readers on in this novel...there are just too many gems in this book to write about them all here--I will say, though, that other journeys of note included lingual journeys through Yiddish chronicling Max's connections to his Jewishness and journeys through addiction, recovery, and the accompanying struggles towards serenity.)


Feinberg's writing is beyond compelling, and anyone who finishes reading this book and isn't moved to action of some kind, well...just isn't awake.






2. This book is an outstanding piece of writing. Feinberg's controlled prose leads the reader through the twists and turns of the narrative. The characters are sketched deftly. Exactly as in real life, the details are revealing and concealing in equal measure. We tread lightly because the subject matter can be senstitive, and as the reader, I found myself almost forced to read between the lines. Not even aware that I was doing so, I filled in the blanks, made assumptions.


As the narrative unfolds, a dozen little threads emerge. Sometimes its not always obvious how they will come together. But stick with the story, for Feinberg will lead you to a dazzling climax. In the final scene of the book, (SPOILER WARNING!) as the characters' names are called out, I cringed. In that one instant, Feinberg holds a mirror to the hypocrisy of my politically correct, gender-based assumptions. Feinberg humbles us with honesty. Feinberg's triumph is that ze does not tell the reader anything that we don't want to know, ze makes us realize that identity / a sense of self, transcends social stereotypes. In that climactic moment, Max' journey of self-truth and hope resonate with the reader. The book is a tale of hope, aflame with the complexities of contemporary New York and brought to life through Feinberg's brilliant, compassionate writing.






Reviews:

http://feministspectator.blogspot.com/2006/12/drag-king-dreams.html




http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/?p=846





http://www.southernvoice.com/2006/9-8/arts/feature/feinberg.cfm




(f)(f)



Leslie's Web Site:

http://www.transgenderwarrior.org/writings/dkd/dkdhome.htm





(y)(y)(y)





(f)(f)







(S)(S) Restful Sleep and Pleasant Dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)




http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/11/travel/escapes/20080111_CRESTONE_SLIDESHOW_index.html





MY kind of town: Downtown Crestone is an old mining town surrounded by a world of spirituality.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/11/travel/11crest.02.jpg





(l)(l) (Sigh.) A ziggurat prayer tower overlooks the Sangre de Cristo Range.

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The Silver Crest Palace is the only bar in town. Monks, Wiccans, writers, artists, teachers, cowgirls and cowboys help make up the crowd debating, playing poker, exchanging books and hitting on each other. It functions less as a bar and more as town pub with a metaphysical bent.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/10/travel/escapes/11crest.12.jpg





January 11, 2008

For Many a Follower, Sacred Ground in Colorado

By FINN-OLAF JONES


“TRUST an unknown future with a known God,” urges the sign in front of the Sangre de Cristo Christian Church on the outskirts of Crestone, Colo., which is close to a four-hour drive south of Denver off Highway 17. The town might seem to be in the middle of nowhere, but if you’re seeking a taste of the divine, you’ve probably come to the right place.


At 8,000 feet on the edge of the desert plains of the San Luis Valley beneath the Sangre de Cristo Range, this town and its environs have about 1,500 residents and two dozen different religious centers, including a cluster of Buddhist monasteries, a Catholic monastery, a Taoist retreat, a Hindu ashram, a Shumei center and several American Indian sanctuaries. This forested hillside haven, nestled on an enormous aquifer below the 14,000-foot Crestone Peaks, has long been considered sacred.


“The Navajo and Hopi think of this as holy ground,” said John Milton, a naturalist who runs shamanic Indian workshops on the serene 210-acre Sacred Land Trust along North Crestone Creek. “Elders from the community still come here to worship.”


An abundance of arrowheads and spears found in the area indicate that Crestone has long been a gathering spot for Indians. “This area was probably considered holy thousands of years before Europeans ever set foot here,” Mr. Milton said.


It’s easy to see why. There’s an epic quality to these crags that rise out of the plains like ghost cathedrals of fantastic proportions. Deserts, forests and mountains figure so prominently in humanity’s quests for the divine that Crestone’s geographic hat trick seems ideal for universal worship.


But this is rugged and lonely high country that imposes a certain discipline on its visitors that doesn’t exist in the gentler landscapes and climes of other American spiritual centers.


“Places like Sedona and Santa Fe are full of healers and seekers who change what they seek every week,” said the local Zen abbot, Richard Baker Roshi, a fixture of the Beat scene in the 1960s and a major figure in introducing Zen Buddhism to the United States. “This has less distractions. Those who come here tend to be more directed in what they seek.”


And the number of those seekers has been growing by 15 to 20 percent a year for the last five years, local residents and real estate agents say. Some become permanent members of the community, others buy second homes (bungalows can still be had for under $100,000) and some are spiritual tourists.


Maybe the lure is in the twilight. At dusk, the setting sun gives the Sangre de Cristo Mountains — Spanish for “Blood of Christ” — an ethereally red hue. Standing at the 41-foot-high gold-tipped Tashi Gomang Stupa on a hillside overlooking the parched San Luis Valley transports you to Tibet, while looking up at the pine forests and snow-covered peaks from the Nada Hermitage, the Catholic monastery, brings to mind Northern Italy.


BUT Crestone itself, with its dozen ramshackle blocks of old miners’ buildings, leaves no doubt that you are indeed in the West — though the sight of Tibetan monks in flowing robes and aging hippies lugging Vedic tomes prompts the question: How far West?


“Throw a brick around here, and you’ll hit a psychic,” said Mark Elliott, a British filmmaker and Buddhist who has lived in Crestone for two decades. “When I first came here, it was practically a ghost town. I thought I would drop off the face of the earth. But Crestone has risen in the world since I’ve moved here, and I’m more connected to the worlds that interest me as a result.”


Crestone’s emergence as an international religious crossroads started in the 1970s when Maurice Strong, a Canadian power company tycoon and an international diplomat, acquired a controlling interest in the 200,000-acre Baca Ranch next to the town. While Mr. Strong’s wife, Hanne, was visiting the place, a local mystic named Glenn Anderson appeared at her doorstep.


“He was an old chap who had a lot of students in the valley,” Mrs. Strong said. “He came right up and announced, ‘I predicted in the ’60s that a foreigner would come here and build an international religious center here. What took you so long?’ ”


The Danish-born Mrs. Strong was inspired enough to start the Manitou Foundation, which allocates land grants and money for religious orders that want to set up in the area. Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhists have been the largest beneficiaries, with a half-dozen Buddhist centers in Crestone.


“This is probably one of the most important sites for Tibetans,” said Mrs. Strong, a Buddhist who lives part time in Crestone. “This is where Tibetan culture will survive.”


The hyperkinetic Mrs. Strong is far from done: At least two new Buddhist centers are being built, a hospice is planned, and she is spearheading opposition to proposed drilling for natural gas through the aquifer.


Most of Crestone’s major religious centers are sheltered in the juniper and pine forests on the lower slopes of the mountains south of town, along a murderously rutted dirt road called Camino Baca Grande, nicknamed the Holy Way. Signs and prayer flags point the way to temples and monasteries where visitors can explore a worldwide diversity of holy architecture and gardens. Many of the centers offer tours and overnight retreats for individuals and families.


One morning, having been invited by Baker Roshi to attend the 6 a.m. meditation at the Mountain Zen Center, I arose before dawn, wrestled the Holy Way to retain my kidneys, and was quietly let in the temple’s back door. I joined a group of a dozen monks and novices in a walking meditation — slow-motion steps synchronized with deep breathing punctuated by brisk walks along the temple’s outside gallery.


At first, it seemed awkward, but by the time the sun’s first rays had caught the surrounding peaks, I had fallen in line with both the communal intimacy and internalized concentration of the exercise. But a harder test waited: the 40-minute zazen meditation, sitting in lotus position facing the wall in the dim temple.


Any doubt about the discipline of being a Zen practitioner slowly, very slowly, evaporated as first one foot and then another fell asleep. I peeked at my watch 20 minutes into the meditation and the rustling of my sleeves seemed to reverberate in the silent hall. Must ... not ... move. As my thoughts and visions concentrated, the discomfort evaporated. By the time I re-emerged into a fully lit Rocky Mountain morning, I felt extraordinarily refreshed.


“Zen Buddhism is a gateway to the wilderness, so this place is very conducive to that,” Baker Roshi told me, walking me back to my car as monks scurried about, tending to their morning duties. He also shared his thoughts on Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, gardening and car transmissions. In Crestone, the sacred and profane seem effortlessly intertwined in daily conversation and activity.


Take firefighting. “The first thing I do when I see a fire is to greet it to let it know that I’m going to be present,” said Peter May, one of the area’s fire chiefs, who, as a practicing Buddhist, believes in the interconnected harmony of all elements. One of Mr. May’s jobs is to oversee the half-dozen outdoor cremations that occur in Crestone each year.


“If you can recognize the relationship between yourself and the elements,” he said, “you’d be surprised what can happen.” Mr. May then recounted the time when a Tibetan lama interceded in a local fire by meditating for rain clouds, which eventually came.


TALK like this, which might raise an eyebrow or two back in a more secular world, seems quite normal after spending a few days in the Crestone area. An innate sense of sanctity can overwhelm even the most urban of souls in these rarefied heights. Hiking Crestone’s pine-scented mountain paths, soaking under Van Gogh-ish night skies in the Joyful Journey Hot Springs, or going from temple to temple like a super-pilgrim transcending traditional cultural and geographic boundaries gradually immerse a visitor in Crestone’s otherworldliness.


But this isn’t Aspen or Sedona chic. Those seeking high-thread-count inns, extravagant New Age knickknacks, easy listening metaphysics and great sushi will be disappointed. Crestone is devoid of five-star luxuries, or even a strong sense of commerce. There, paradise arrives at everyday low prices and things are kept simple: houses and cabins sometimes still sell for five figures, dinner checks are sometimes rounded down if you lack cash and locals crack a smile when newcomers lock car doors.


Not that Crestonians feed merely their souls. Walk into Curt’s Old Country Store and you will find yourself in a health-food emporium reminiscent of those found in big college towns, with offerings ranging from organic dog food to vegetarian jerky.


Next door, the town’s go-to cafe, Shambala, is a comfortably laid-back spread of parlors in a former miner’s home. “Unattended children will be given a double mocha and a puppy,” reads a sign next to the kitchen counter, where chai, juices and delicious organic fare are liberally doled out.


If all this health and spirituality leaves one feeling a bit too earnest, then Crestone has a wonderful antidote. Duck into the purple-painted Silver Crest Palace — the only bar in town — which at first glance could be a Wild West saloon with a poker game in the main gallery and lots of drinking and smoking (“only organic cigarettes,” a regular said) around the cherry wood bar. The easygoing attitude stems from the fact that the saloon becomes a private club several nights a week. When I was there the Crestone Yacht Club was in full session. Membership: 50 cents.


But ahoy! Monks, Wiccans, writers, artists, teachers, cowgirls and cowboys were among the crowd debating, playing poker, exchanging books, hitting on each other and occasionally throwing a buck into the tip jar to finance the bartender’s pilgrimage to Peru. This unusually sociable place functioned less as a bar and more as town pub with a metaphysical bent. The great religious and cultural crossover of the Holy Way continued there, loosened by smoke, booze, flirting and a laid-back sense of fun.


Perhaps Crestone was just revealing yet another of its seemingly countless paths to paradise.



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(f)





"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

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The state’s borderlands is a place of peaks, grasslands and cowboy lore.




Cactus, Ghost Towns and History: SLIDE SHOW:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/11/travel/escapes/20080111_AMERICAN_SLIDESHOW_index.html





January 11, 2008

American Journeys

An Arizona Road Trip on the Edge of America

By KEITH MULVIHILL


AS you enter the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, it’s not the park’s namesake plant, thick with a cluster of many branches, that inspires gasps of awe, but thousands of saguaro, the iconic tall cactus of countless Western films. Upright and lanky, with whimsically outstretched arms, one after another the saguaros wave you in.


In the 1930s, when the National Park Service went searching for the best examples of each ecosystem in the country, it chose this tract of 330,000 acres, abutting the Mexican border, to represent the Sonoran Desert. Organ Pipe is part of Arizona’s larger borderland, the grand expanse of desert, grasslands and staggering peaks that make up the southern third of the state. Acquired in the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, which also included part of what is now New Mexico, it was an area where people of many kinds and cultures had long mingled: Native Americans and Spanish missionaries, miners and ranchers, cowboys and vaqueros.


In a road trip in this part of Arizona today, you’ll find vast open land, big Western sky and adventurous people — some who live there and some just passing through.


The country itself can defy expectations. “It’s so green with plants here — that’s a surprise,” Carolyn Crews, 25, of St. Louis, said, surveying the scene at Organ Pipe, as she and two friends were finishing up a campstove-cooked breakfast. They had camped overnight at the Alamo Canyon campground, a tent-only site nestled at the base of the Ajo Mountain range, an uplift of reddish rock and jagged cliff faces.


Organ Pipe, a good place to start an exploration of the Arizona borderlands, is home to 28 cactus species and numerous birds, reptiles and mammals including a handful of endangered Sonoran pronghorn antelope. It offers hours of scenic driving, but there’s nothing like getting out to walk among the towering saguaros and organ pipes. Along the Alamo Canyon Trail, near the campground, the needles of golden teddy-bear cholla glinted in the afternoon sun; the musky-sweet smell of creosote, a desert perfume of sorts, filled the air.


When you leave the park and head east along Route 86, you’ll pass through the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation. The land there is grassier, with stands of yucca plants and the deciduous desert tree called the palo verde. Homes are spread out at a distance from the highway or clustered in Sells, the Tohono O’odham capital.


Beyond the reservation, at the town of Three Points, head south on Route 286. A left on Arivaca Road leads to the tiny town of Arivaca. Depending on your predilections, you can enjoy a strong cup of joe at Caffe Aribac, where the beans are roasted on site, or a beer at La Gitana Cantina, an old cowboy bar where a sign on the wall reads “Manuell Corona Killed here June, 24, 1912. Killer captured by C. E. Bent.” On a recent Sunday, men sat at the bar and enjoyed an afternoon beer. “This place is a lot friendlier than it used to be,” an old-timer, who swayed in his seat from too much drink, told me. “Years back, we had a lot more fights.”


Nearby, the Arivaca Cienega Trail, located in a nature preserve, is a haven for wintering birds and their admirers.


Another adventure awaits just off the main drag. At the T-junction on the western edge of town, turn left onto Ruby Road and ride over rolling hills of wheat-colored grasses dotted with mesquite trees. Distant mountain ranges rise in every direction. After a few miles, the asphalt gives way to a dirt road, bumpy and slow going but passable in most cars. Twelve miles and about 40 minutes later you’ll reach the ghost town of Ruby.


Prospectors started pecking around these hills in the 1850s, but it wasn’t until after the Civil War that an actual settlement began to take hold. When profitability of the mine bottomed out in the late 1940s, the residents packed up and left. Today, Ruby, which is about four miles from the Mexican border, is privately owned and having a second life as a quasi-tourist attraction. Its collection of crumbling buildings, serenely set under the rocky dome of Montana Peak, can easily fill a couple of hours of exploring.


“It’s the quietest place I ever lived, but not the most remote,” said Ruby’s lone resident and caretaker, a 50-year-old man with Rip Van Winkle looks who introduced himself as Sundog. He explained his name with a story. Back in the late 1980s, fed up with life in Los Angeles, he got in his car and drove down to Baja California. He told his new friends that he was “like a dog following the sun.” The name stuck and is now, he said, what everyone knows him by.


Sundog has worked his way from Alaska to Chile. In these borderlands, he has hiked over many miles and into a few of the old mine shafts, and he’ll gladly share his knowledge. “Not only is the area part of a major migration corridor,” he told me, “but it’s also the northernmost range for several Central American plant and animal species.” Ruby’s visitors, he said, span the ranks of the curious from biologists and bird watchers to “ghost town people,” travelers who keep life lists of all the ghost towns they have visited.


Back on the trail, Ruby Road will take you 22 more winding miles through vistas of oak and grassland before running directly into Interstate 19, the main artery between Tucson and Nogales. About two miles south, you’ll find authentic Mexican food at Soto’s PK Outpost, and close by, the Hacienda Corona de Guevavi, a bed-and-breakfast, offers up a charming retreat in a restored adobe ranch house.


Just off Highway 82 lies another less traveled but very drivable dirt road. Forest Service Road 61 (also known as Duquesne Road) follows the border for 55 stunning miles over the Patagonia Mountains, across the sweeping grasslands of the San Rafael Valley, and up to 6,575 feet atop Montezuma’s Pass in Coronado National Memorial. As you make your way up the backside of the Huachuca Mountains, you begin to see vistas into Mexico.


“I’ve seen more wildlife on that road than anywhere else in the area, including a mountain lion, and once a pack of coatimundi,” noted Maggi Daly, a park guide at the visitors center. “Even after three years of being here, I am still struck by the incredible beauty all around. It’s phenomenal.”


From the parking lot at the pass, it’s a short hike up to Coronado Peak and a sweeping panorama of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Farther east, San Jose Peak rises from flat desert to 8,337 feet. Up here, the rugged landscape takes on a magical, golden-hued softness; somehow, it’s easy to imagine Vasquez de Coronado leading 350 Spaniards across the valley in the 1540s.


Nearby, the mile-long Yaqui Ridge Trail descends to the border, where a rusty barbed-wire fence stretches in both directions as far as the eye can see. For now, it’s all that separates Mexico and the United States in this remote spot. A border marker— a tall, thin white obelisk — gleams, sentinel-like, in the hot bright sun. This marker, No. 102, and dozens more like it were erected in the early 1890s. The peaceful serenity of this great, grand emptiness belies the political strife that has plagued this boundary from the day it was drawn. Overhead, a shiny black raven, free of any land-bound constraints, floats on the breeze, slowly drifting from one side to the other.


One last stretch of dirt road, about 50 miles away, is also worth a look. Driving east out of the town of Douglas, 15th Street becomes the Geronimo Trail and wends its way past rounded hills. Thickets of ocotillo and tall agave stalks spike the horizon. About a quarter-mile from the turnoff on Geronimo Trail, you see the white gate that says “Slaughter”; make a right and drive through it and into the John Slaughter Ranch, established in the 1880s.


John Slaughter’s immense cattle empire encompassed pretty much all the land you see before you. Today the collection of handsomely restored buildings, about 200 yards from the border, is part of the Johnson Historical Museum of the Southwest.


“Just out there is where Pancho Villa camped with thousands of men during the Mexican Civil War before the battle at Agua Prieta,” Bill Elliott, the resident caretaker, said, pointing beyond the barbed wire fence into Mexico. Within easy walking distance of the homestead, past the cottonwoods and willow trees that flank a natural spring-fed pond, another old border marker awaits: No. 77.


In these parts border politics is a delicate topic, and talk of the various types of fences now being erected brings passionate exchanges. Mr. Elliott, an affable man who hails from nearby Bisbee, takes a pragmatic view: “The government has a 50-foot easement along the border,” he said, “and they are allowed to do what they want.”


Mr. Elliott acknowledges that Border Patrol activities have some negative effect on the wildlife, and he hopes the vehicle barrier planned for the boundary along the ranch’s property won’t be too disruptive. “We can always plant more trees and shrubs to minimize its visual impact,” he said.


“But,” he said with assurance, “it won’t interfere with our mission here, which is to teach people about the past.”




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(f)







"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)



January 13, 2008

Weekend in New York | Libraries

A Bookworm’s Holiday

By SETH KUGEL


EVERYONE knows libraries are not just about books anymore, but no one knows it better that the women at the main information booth of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue.


The two most common questions they field: Where are the restrooms? And where’s the free Internet?


But better questions would be:


• Which way to the Kerouac exhibition?


• How can I see a Gutenberg Bible?


• Where is the current issue of the journal of Australian Aboriginal Studies?


A bleak winter weekend is a great time to haunt the city’s libraries, when they seem to serve almost as much as museums and performance halls as repositories of the written word.


Though noteworthy libraries dot the five boroughs, including the new Bronx Library Center and historic branches financed by Andrew Carnegie, the natural place to start is at the famous lions on Fifth Avenue, at what is officially the Humanities and Social Sciences Library.


This winter, the landmark library at 42nd Street is home to “Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road,” an exhibition built largely from the library’s own Jack Kerouac Archive. It traces Kerouac’s peripatetic life using unpublished manuscripts, photos, journals and notebooks, but the centerpiece is the actual scroll Kerouac used to type out “On the Road.”


By March, there will be another set of exhibitions: on John Milton, who would have turned 400 this year; on Édouard Baldus’s 19th-century photographs of French historic sites; and on French cliché-verre landscape prints. You feel more cultured just thinking about a visit. The library itself is also worth perusing. Flip through the 11,000 periodicals that are available upon request in the DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room. Or explore the popular map division, or the 440,000-item Asian and Middle Eastern division.


Two notes: though the library at 42nd Street is open (and has tours) during the weekend, many sections are closed on Sundays. You also should apply online for a free Access card, needed to request some materials, if you think you’ll be interested in rummaging. (New York City residence is not required.)


Other research libraries worth checking out are the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Library for the Performing Arts (though both are closed Sundays).


The Schomburg, in Harlem, is looking sharp after an $11 million overhaul last year, and holds, among much else, 400 black newspapers, rare books and the original manuscript of “Native Son” by Richard Wright. On Feb. 4, it will open the Abyssinian Baptist Church Bicentennial Exhibition, examining the evolution of what, at the time of its founding, was the only African-American Baptist church in the state of New York.


Though it also has exhibition halls, the most attractive feature of the Library for the Performing Arts, next to Lincoln Center, is the free screenings and performances. Coming highlights include the Russian pianist Maxim Anikushin playing Beethoven and Schubert (Jan. 31) and the African-American historian Camille F. Forbes on the pioneering black comedian Bert Williams (Feb. 2).


And again, there’s the arts library’s intriguing collection. A random search through the card catalog turned up a volume — a scrapbook, really — of 19th-century theater programs, just slightly crumbling, with a whiff of musty paper that no scanned image can evoke.


Among them is the program for the Nov. 17, 1884 performance of “Hamlet” at the Boston Museum starring Edwin Booth. He returned two days later to play Iago in “Othello,” as well as the title role in “Macbeth” later that evening. Now that’s a lot of iambic pentameter.


Finally, the Morgan Library & Museum may not be part of the public library system, but it shouldn’t be missed. The complex of buildings in Murray Hill includes (among other things) the financier J. Pierpont Morgan’s original library, completed in 1906, and a 2006 expansion by the architect Renzo Piano, who added exhibition space and a cafe. A restaurant in the original building serves lunch daily and dinner on Fridays until 8 p.m. Menus are designed to correspond with exhibitions.


In the West Room, which served as Morgan’s private study, the 16th-century coffered ceiling imported from Europe and the red damask wallpaper give the place a royal air.


In his library, three stories of books line the 30-foot walls (except where there hangs a Baroque tapestry depicting one of the Seven Deadly Sins.


Elsewhere in the building, you’ll find amazing illuminated manuscripts, a 1240 pocket Bible and even an original print of the Declaration of Independence. Oh, it also has three Gutenberg Bibles, beating the Humanities and Social Sciences Library by two.


The reading doesn’t have to end at closing time. The Library Hotel in Midtown has a collection of 6,000 books organized, and this is not a joke, by floor according to the Dewey Decimal system.


The fifth floor (like the 500s of the Dewey system) is dedicated to math and science, so guest room 506, for example, contains books on astronomy. A tip for those with allergies: opt for room 801, where the subject is erotic literature. Presumably, the books there gather far less dust.




LOST IN THE STACKS

Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; (212) 930-0830; www.nypl.org


Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard at 135th Street; (212) 491-2200; www.nypl.org


Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza; (212) 870-1630; www.nypl.org


Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road; (718) 579-4244; www.nypl.org


Morgan Library & Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street; (212) 685-0008; www.themorgan.org


Library Hotel, 299 Madison Avenue at 41st Street; (212) 983-4500; www.libraryhotel.com



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"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



"To be out under the sky on our own two feet awakens something older, more content within us, a wild creature inside itching to break out, who knows where to go to heal all ills."


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/02/travel/06pers600.1.jpg




January 6, 2008

Personal Journeys | On Foot

To Walk a Landscape Is to Know It

By HENRY SHUKMAN


“COMES over one an absolute necessity to move. And what is more, to move in some particular direction. A double necessity then: to get on the move, and to know whither.” The unforgettable opening of D. H. Lawrence’s “Sea and Sardinia,” a work written in six weeks flat. “Why can’t one sit still?” he asks.


Why can’t one? For a million years we stalked elk, monkey, crab; we gathered nut, grub and leaf. We had to move to live. Then half a minute ago we stooped to sow seeds and the rest is history. Here we are, with the stock exchange, the Internet and the Hummer. Who wouldn’t want to bust out, to taste the air of the open range, to “swagger the nut-strewn roads,” as Philip Larkin put it, to be out in the weather, to feel the lay of the land vital beneath your boots? Travel is deep in the blood.


But we can still pull on pack and boot and head to the hills. Tread the coastal paths of Wales or Cornwall, say, where the day is one long rainbow of mist, crying gulls and sour heather, and evening brings a fishing harbor clustered in a cove, and a pub with a slate roof gleaming with sea spray, where pints may have been pouring for half a millennium and more. Or hike the Appalachian Trail, the Continental Divide — anyway travel with our own locomotion, and see close up what this planet has in it. Nothing brings satisfaction like that.


As soon as I could, when I was 14 and deemed old enough, my friends and I would gather sleeping bags, an old pan from the larder, a pack of sausages and a can of beans, and walk out our front door — up the river, down the valley. In the long dusk of English summer we’d find a place to spread ourselves and build our fire. No tent: we called it sleeping out. It was the first real travel I did. Nothing had ever seemed so right as a line of smoke climbing into an evening sky while the biting aroma of a frying sausage reached the nose. And the taste of the first sweet cup of tea boiled over an open fire with water from a stream — surely this was how we were meant to live, outside. The desert tribes say a house is a tomb for the living.


On one of these rambles I met Speedy. He was that all-but-vanished British phenomenon, a true tramp. Wrapped in an overcoat tied with string, with a plastic bag or two, sometimes suspended from a pole over the shoulder, tramps were like the sons in fairy tales who set off to make their fortunes, only years on, in bulky, stiff middle age, they were still wandering. You’d see their cryptograms chalked on town pavements, telling each other in code at which houses a cup of tea was to be had. Speedy’s migrations were like a wild animal’s. You’d hear he’d come back to the valley before you ever saw him. He bedded down in the derelict mill, and was a fount of homespun wisdom. “Less you have the more you have,” he used to say, standing stiffly in his coat that reeked of straw and cow-pats, of years under hedges. “Trouble is, most folks don’t know that.”


The first thing I did on leaving college, after three years in the library, was dig out my old backpack, tie a sleeping bag to it, and a sheet of plastic in case of rain, and walk out the door. I had no plan. It was summer, and I didn’t have to think about my life until the fall. I headed west because that felt right. I didn’t even bring a map, just a compass. I slept in the corners of fields, in copses, at the foot of oaks. I swam when there was a river, and when I needed to cross one I’d walk until I reached a bridge, however far that was. Or if it was narrow enough, I’d hurl my pack to the other side, then scale a tree, teeter on the end of an overhanging branch, and launch myself to the far bank. (Sometimes I made it, sometimes I got soaked.) I hitchhiked if I felt like it, making my way through the Cotswolds into Wales. I wound up on the Pembroke coastal path, which brought me to St. David’s, the country’s smallest city, dwarfed by its 12th-century cathedral.


Even then, in the late ’80s, England was still medieval. Thatched villages, pubs on village greens, little stores where I would stock up on minimal staples, and hill after rolling hill of field and meadow. There’s no telling what you’ll find once you start walking.


That was the best traveling I ever did. I didn’t know it then, but I belonged to a backpack generation. Nothing seemed more important in this brief life than to get out into the world and see it. I worked in Argentina and traveled up the Andes in the open backs of trucks, I hitchhiked across the Sahara, I slept under olive trees in Greece — anything to be out there. I even endured five days on a “Magic Bus” that limped through Yugoslavia with a broken suspension. Along the way I discovered what seemed wildly exotic food: chicken stewed in an oil drum filled with garlic; bread baked in sand; camel’s milk; and spit-roast guinea pig. But nothing quite matched the self-sufficient delight of walking with one’s needs on one’s back.


There are many reasons to have a holiday. Reculer pour mieux sauter, say the French: draw back the better to leap. We may want nothing but relaxation and rest. But as Sherlock Holmes knew, the best form of R&R is to do something different: a change is as good as a rest, if not better; and the best kind of change is to enter another world. And while all other cultures — like Lawrence’s Sardinia — offer a different world, there’s always the wilderness, the hills, nature, waiting for us just up the road, wherever we are. In the woods and hills we find not just nature, but our own past; we remember who we used to be, we rediscover our need not just to be outdoors but also to be of no fixed abode. Is it really enough to slide self and trolley bag into a steel cylinder to be ferried a thousand miles to loll on a sun lounger?


In the 1870’s Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:


What would the world be, once bereft


Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,


O let them be left, wildness and wet;


Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.


Last summer in Scotland my two boys and I foraged for clams, mussels, samphire, wild garlic. The meals we made of them, at the end of salty, rainy afternoons on tidal lochs, with the umber hills brooding over us, tasted better than anything you could buy. To be out under the sky on our own two feet awakens something older, more content within us, a wild creature inside itching to break out, who knows where to go to heal all ills.



(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)







(f) Have a delightful Friday and weekend. (f)







"The Day God Made Dog, She Just Sat Down and Smiled."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)




http://www.funnelmill.com/Tea101.html



http://www.funnelmill.com/coffee101.html





(f)(f)









"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D :D :D




In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful
Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku
poetry has strict construction rules - each poem has only 17
syllables; 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second, 5 in
the third. They are used to communicate a timeless message,
often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight
through extreme brevity. Here are some actual error messages
from Japan. Aren't these better than "your computer has
performed an illegal operation?"




The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.




Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.




Program aborting
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.




Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.




Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.




Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.




Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.




A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.




Three things are certain
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.




You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.




Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.




Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.




Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.





:D :D :D



(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;) ;)



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/01/12/mftat112.xml




:) You thought it was something else, didn't you?



;)



(f)








"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=Here&daddr=there&sll=45.916655,2.979575&sspn=3.630568,10.217285&ie=UTF8&z=7&om=1







;)



(f)








"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-| 8-| 8-| 8-|



http://screamingduck.com/doodle.html





(l)(l)(l)


(f)




Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D



http://www.taser.com/PRODUCTS/CONSUMERS/Pages/C2.aspx






(y)(y) I LOVE it: "Fashion with a bite."





(f)





"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|


:s:s



The least popular gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show? That would be the TV-B-Gone used by staffers from the Gizmodo blog to covertly turn off scores of monitors at company displays, including one in the middle of a press presentation, causing confusion, dismay and, in some quarters, hilarity. The post bragging about the prank has stirred up a great amount of discussion in the blogosphere, which I will considerately condense for you here. Anti-Gizmodo: Grow up! Pro-Gizmodo: Lighten up!




http://store.makezine.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKTVBGOKIT




http://www.techmeme.com/080111/h1220




http://gizmodo.com/343348/confessions-the-meanest-thing-gizmodo-did-at-ces







"TV-B-Gone": I wish they would invent one to "discourage" certain people.


;)



(f)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



http://www.monsterhoodies.com/



;)



(f)




Carpe Diem,


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.bigthink.com/




a "YouTube for ideas":


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/technology/07summers.html?_r=3&ex=1357448400&en=d509ade7fcc90cac&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin





(f)



(S)(S) Have a lovely rest of your evening and weekend. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o


:)




The Merc's Dean Takahashi, Troy Wolverton and Dai Sugano are all over this CES thing in Las Vegas, and you'll want to check our roundup page regularly for fresh posts and videos, but here are a few of the nuggets that caught my eye:


http://blogs.mercextra.com/takahashi/



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ces





* Panasonic's 150-inch high-definition plasma TV (price not disclosed so as to avoid flooding coronary care units). More on Panasonic CEO Toshihiro Sakamoto's talk in a post from Dean. And speaking of eye candy, there's this curved display from Alienware.



http://gizmodo.com/341676/video-hands+on-with-the-150+inch-panasonic-lifescreen-plasma



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ces/ci_7904366?nclick_check=1



http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/2008/01/07/ces-live-panasonic-ceo-toshihiro-sakamoto-talks-up-displays-including-150-inch-plasma/




CURVED Display:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/alienware-curved-display-rocks-crysis-at-2880-x-900/






* The Starry Night Bed. Sure, it can set you back $50,000, but it has anti-snore technology and an iPod dock.



http://www.starrynightbed.com/



http://reviews.cnet.com/Starry_Night_Sleep_Technology_Bed/4660-13855_7-6826078.html






* Hey, look at this. Some company called Polaroid says it can make instant photo prints without ink.



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ces/ci_7903258





* Intel announces a slew of new laptop processors, including the first notebook chips built on 45nm technology. Or, as JP says, "Intel announces faster MacBooks."



http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080107comp.htm



http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20080107/ces-intel-announces-faster-macbooks/





8-| (h) 8-| (h) 8-| (h)





(S)(S) Have a lovely rest of your evening and weekend. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



WolfQuest, a free role-playing game from the Minnesota Zoo. Run through Yellowstone, follow scent trails, hunt hare and elk, harass coyotes and find a mate. Multiplayer option allows for packs.



http://www.wolfquest.org/index.php




"Can YOU survive the call of the wild?"




Coming installments will include features like producing and raising pups, designating territory "through raised-leg urination marking," and killing sheep on nearby ranch land. No mention whether it will incorporate the upcoming delisting of gray wolves from the endangered ranks, but that would certainly make those sheep raids more interesting.



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7861479




^o) ^o)



(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D:D



http://www.fractalartcontests.com/2007/winners.php




I must spend more time exploring all of these amazingly breathtaking creations..and from fractals!



(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)




8-|


Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|



Q U O T E D



"It's a bit like breaking wind in the elevator. Everyone suffers."



-- Peter Martin of the University of Utah's Traffic Lab, author of a new study showing how drivers distracted by cell phone conversations (hands-free or not) clog up the road.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080102/tc_nm/usa_phones_traffic_dc





:o Eeeewwww! Lame metaphor.


;);)







(f)

SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o



http://www.stayathomeserver.com/book.aspx




...good to see the Microsoft marketing folks having some fun..................NOT.



;)


(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



The votes of no-confidence in Windows Vista continue to roll in, the latest coming from the agency in charge of giving tech advice to British schools. In a report this week, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency urged schools not to deploy Vista except maybe in cases where the entire IT infrastructure is being redone -- otherwise, it's a hassle and a waste. "We have not had sight of any evidence to support the argument that the costs of upgrading to Vista in educational establishments would be offset by appropriate benefit," said the report. And Microsoft Office 2007? Same deal -- "there remains no compelling case for deployment." Furthermore, the report warned, schools that do install the newest Office should avoid using Microsoft's OOXML (Office Open XML) document format because of concerns about compatibility with other applications.



http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/11/Dont-upgrade-to-Vista_1.html



http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080111-uk-education-agency-says-no-to-vista-office-2007.html



Upgrading Britain's schools to Vista would cost an estimated $350 million, said the agency -- one third of which would go to Microsoft, with the rest soaked up by deployment costs, testing and hardware upgrades. Those upgrade costs don't include the graphics muscle to run Vista's shiny Aero interface, but BECTA didn't care because "there was no significant benefit to schools and colleges in running Aero." So there you are -- another set of quotes that will never make it into a Microsoft press release.



:o

;)





(f)


SL & WTB

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-|



http://weburbanist.com/2008/01/09/7-unusually-geeky-street-graffiti-projects-from-digitized-spray-painting-to-physical-hyperlinking/




7 Unusually Geeky Street Graffiti Projects: From Digitized Spray-Painting to Physical Hyperlinking...............



(y)(y)



(f)






(S)(S) Pleasant dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)




Not content to let the Consumer Electronics Show hog all the tech headlines until Macworld begins next week, Apple today offered a taste of what's new. The opening course included a new Mac Pro, an 8-core beast with plenty of graphics, memory and storage capabilities that, according to Apple, delivers twice the performance of its predecessor. The basic configuration starts at $2,799. Served on the side was Apple's new Xserve, also running a pair of quad-core Intel processors and also touted as twice as fast as the previous model.



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ces



http://www.macworldexpo.com/





YUMMY!!

http://www.apple.com/macpro/



http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/01/08macpro.html



http://www.apple.com/xserve/



http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/01/08xserve.html




As to the pre-expo timing of the announcements, Apple would say only that "we're very excited about these new products and we think our customers will be too, so we wanted to kick off 2008 by getting them into our customers' hands as soon as possible." But the reading of many Mac fans is that Apple cleared the decks of the pro-level news early because there are way more interesting surprises to come.



http://gizmodo.com/342110/why-is-apple-launching-new-gear-a-week-before-macworld-the-official-no+answer-reads-like-a-zen-koan



http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/01/08.4.shtml






<:o)<:o)<:o) EeeHaaaa!!! <:o)<:o)<:o)



;)






(S)(S) Restful sleep and pleasant dreams.



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:):)



Q U O T E D


"When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in. She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural. It was hilarious. William was in fits of laughter. He was enormously impressed at having such a cool gran. And although she is 81 the Queen's hand-eye coordination was as good as somebody half her age."



-- A "palace source" describes Queen Elizabeth's first encounter with a Wii



http://www.people.co.uk/news/tm_headline=make-way-for-the-q-wii-n&method=full&objectid=20276099&siteid=93463-name_page.html




(y)(y)







(S)(S) Pleasant Dreams.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D


;)




http://cgi.ebay.com/Drive-Someone-Insane-with-Postcards_W0QQitemZ320196148761QQihZ011QQcategoryZ 45208QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem



(y)




(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|



..................that lies hidden inside your software (not suitable for those who don't enjoy Quentin Tarantino dialog).




http://codeulate.com/?p=7



;);)



(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(y) (y) (y) (y) (y)



Q U O T E D


"I just could not find a spot on the spectrum that would trigger these kids' morality alarm. They listened to each example, looking at me like I was nuts.


"Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, 'O.K., let's try one that's a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don't want to pay for it. So you download it.'


"There it was: the bald-faced, worst-case example, without any nuance or mitigating factors whatsoever.


" 'Who thinks that might be wrong?'


"Two hands out of 500."


-- David Pogue of the NYT, after speaking to college students, is haunted by the Ghost of Copyright Future



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/technology/personaltech/20pogue-email.htm?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1200250936-uTDgqoGODw8sRGGWf4BiRA




(y)(y)(y)



(f)





"Kiss my Terrific Tesseract!" (k)(k)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



http://www.flickr.com/photos/poletti/sets/72157602965392887/



(f)





I wonder how old all of these womyn would be if we saw them today rather than suspended in time? Would YOU find any of them to be as attractive? Food (okay, so it's snack food) for thought.


;);)







"I said that I was "seasoned", not "sagging".


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/335/7633/1288



:o:o:o



:)


(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:D:D



http://dotnet.org.za/codingsanity/archive/2007/12/14/review-windows-xp.aspx



:)


(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o



Wednesday, January 9, 2008 / 11:56 AM

The Advocate


The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from attorney Michael McDermott, who challenged the name of lesbian motorcycle group Dykes on Bikes, saying it was "scandalous and immoral," the San Francisco Chronicle reported.


The challenge came as a result of a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granting the lesbian group exclusive rights to the name, which it has used for more than 30 years.


McDermott, who self-identifies as a men's rights advocate, said in his appeal that the term describes "hyper-militant radicals hateful toward men."


The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office initially rejected the group's application, but with a slew of once-derogatory terms now finding acceptance in the mainstream -- "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," for example -- the office re-evaluated the application.





:|:|:|


:o:o However, there ARE countless misoginysts who are extremely disrespectful towards womyn. When they are in every service business there is (okay with a few exceptions, thank goodness), how can we encourage companies to teach those "mission critical" SOFT SKILLS that family of origin did not instill? Skills such as treating another human being like a person for instance.


:'(:'(




(f)(f)




"The remote places in nature feel so comforting to me."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f) (f)



HRC lists 2008's gay-friendliest workplaces

Friday, January 11, 2008 / 03:11 PM

The Advocate


The Human Rights Campaign has released its 2008 list of "Best Places to Work for GLBT Equality." Making the list are 195 U.S. companies, and they are already taking advantage of the recognition to demonstrate their fair and open-minded policies based on nondiscrimination.


Inclusion on the list is awarded only to companies that score 100 percent on the HRC's Corporate Equality Index, which measures company policies that regulate fairness and equality in the workplace, according to an HRC press release. Among the companies listed are Disney, Google, US Airways, the New York Times Co., Ford, Nike and PepsiCo.


"Each of these companies is working hard to transform their workplaces and make them safer for millions of employees around the country," Joe Solmonese, HRC president, said in a written statement. "We can now say that at least 10 million employees are protected on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity on the job."


Thirteen states prohibit workplace discrimination against LGBT people, while seven more have extended such protections to lesbians, bisexuals and gay men.





For a full listing of companies, visit

http://www.hrc.org/issues/best_places_to_work_2008.asp



(f)(f)(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|



Q U O T E D



"I am only going to make one prediction, but one with broad impact. We will see a dot-com crash in 2008. It will be more prolonged and deeper than the crash of 2000. The crash will be driven by a recession and prolonged slow growth in the U.S. Global investment capital will flee to quality, ending the speculative dumping of cash on Web 2.0 startups.



"Venture capital firms will seek to limit their losses by forcing many of their portfolio companies to liquidate or seek a buyout. ... Startups that managed to get cash before the bubble collapses will have a cash horde, but will find little opportunity to rest on it. ... The big players will not be immune from this contagion. Google, in particular, will find its one-trick pony lame, with the advertising market suddenly stagnant or contracting and substantial new competition. ... Google and Yahoo will find their available cash dropping and will do substantial layoffs."



-- Entrepreneur and blogger Greg Linden gets in an early entry for this year's Cassandra Contest



http://glinden.blogspot.com/2008/01/coming-2008-dot-com-crash.html




:o:o



(f)




"Keep reinventing yourself and new uses for talents: Entrepreneurs DO that."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-|8-|8-|8-|8-|8-|




http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/07/monday-inspiration-innovative-designs-and-devices/






:) Innovation is a key way to pushing the envelope.......and not being unemployed. Ever.


;) Okay, okay, innovation and a passion for superb customer service. (Again with the soft skills..)







(c)(c) Have a relaxing Sunday afternoon and evening. I'm out of here soon to beat the snow storm coming tonight.








"Do you think it's easy?"


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://rulesofthumb.org/index.php



(f)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1029494/how_to_make_fire_balls/



(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


:)



............should you ever be Down Under and feel a pressing need,




http://www.toiletmap.gov.au/



;);)



(f)(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-| 8-| 8-| 8-|




http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=3811.php




(y)(y)



(f)(f)







"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


:)



1. "The Future of Ideas" by Lawrence Lessig, on the corporate threat to the Net's openness and innovation............



http://the-future-of-ideas.com/






2. "Trigger Happy" by Steven Poole, about the aesthetics of videogames.......................



http://stevenpoole.net/blog/trigger-happier/







3. The Association for Computing Machinery's library of classic computer science books................



http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=SERIES11430&type=series&coll=ACM&dl=ACM





8-| 8-|


(y)





"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)



http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/01/09/travel/13next-map.html



January 13, 2008

Next Stop | New Zealand

North Island Coast of Small Wineries and Big Pleasures

By DEBRA A. KLEIN


VISITORS to New Zealand usually plot a trip to the South Island to taste notable wines or glimpse iconic scenery. Yet an hour north of Auckland, on the North Island, you can find an alternative wine destination, on the Matakana Wine Coast, where boutique vineyards and cafes offer specialty wines and sophisticated sustenance at the end of a drive alongside dramatic bays and through sheep-dappled hills.


There you’ll find not only wineries, but also an internationally known pottery studio and restaurant, a weekend market, an artisanal bakery and opportunities to explore a rural landscape that shapes and defines this understated enclave.


While Highway 1 isn’t much of a challenge, keeping your gaze on the road is. After 20 minutes, towns melt into that other New Zealand: the leafy paradise where fern trees fan out near shaggy clusters of pandanus trees and placid Hauraki Gulf waters stretch to meet a horizon of island silhouettes.


Since the 1920s, Aucklanders have escaped to this region, known as the Hibiscus Coast, but increasingly weekenders are settling in permanently. The Rodney District, as the area north of Auckland is known administratively, is the fastest growing region on the North Island, and a partly completed highway to handle the influx will eventually bypass some of the stunning coastal views. For now you can still catch a glimpse outside Orewa, a resort town turned bedroom community.


Orewa’s paved beachfront walkway fronting Whangaparaoa Bay makes for a good leg stretch, but just north of town, Hatfield Beach is slam-on-the-brakes serene. Just a five-minute drive north, you can scramble over rounded rocks and pohutukawa tree roots for a solitary amble on flat, tan sands between dramatic headlands.


Swirls of gray, blue and yellowish geothermal waters distract from steep curves into and out of the thermal-spa resort town Waiwera, meaning “hot water” in Maori, a place where centuries of warriors soaked themselves after battle by making natural hot tubs in the sand. Today, the experience has been tamed at the Disney-like Waiwera Infinity Thermal Resort and Spa complex, where underwater sources heat the pools (21 Main Road, Waiwera; 64-9-427-8800; www.waiwera.co.nz 22 New Zealand dollars, or about $17 at 1.32 New Zealand dollars to the U.S. dollar). Beyond Waiwera, Route 1 crests, then descends into views of the Mahurangi River and headlands and Te Haupa Island.


On the left, an easy tramp among fern shadows to Pohuehue Reserve’s small waterfall will let you check “hiking in New Zealand” off the list. On the right, the first major turnoff doesn’t mention Matakana; follow the signs — and the sheep bleats — toward Leigh.


The last traffic disappears as Matakana Road bends gently through a landscape of rumpled green hills threaded with fluffy trees. Tiny signs give the names of wineries and artists’ studios. Both rely on the same underlying foundation: Matakana’s rich clay used in pottery and in the soil to grow the region’s grapes.


In the late 1980s, Matakana’s first red wine, the Antipodean, fetched high prices at auction in Europe, measuring up to the best European reds in taste tests, and a boutique industry took root. Acreage at the dozen or so wineries established since is mostly measured in single digits, their yields made into small-batch specialty wines that reflect the terroir.


With a belfry and stained glass windows, the exterior of the Ascension Vineyard (480 Matakana Road; 64-9-422-9601; www.ascensionvineyard.co.nz tastings 8 New Zealand dollars; with tour, 15 dollars) looks more like a convent than a winery. Inside, its varietals, including the Twelve Apostles (glass, 9.50 dollars ) and the Benediction (glass, 11.50 dollars) merlot-and-cabernet blends, have a nearly messianic following. These are paired at the airy, modern Oak Grill, where elaborate lamb and beef lunches start with breads and dips (26 to 39 New Zealand dollars). Save them — eating before hitting town is a rookie mistake.


Just four minutes up ahead, the modern (but made to look rustic) Matakana Village shopping complex (2 Matakana Valley Road) is ground zero for the region’s slow food movement, evident at Saturday’s popular organic farmers’ market (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.), where local musicians play as serious foodies savor organic coffees, fresh waffles, Dutch cocoa and muffins at communal tables and then haul home fresh eggs, handmade sausages and tubs of dukkah, a Middle Eastern-influenced seed and spice mix. This is no dusty-radishes Birkenstock scene. With uniform chalkboards, resort-style umbrellas and slickly packaged products, it’s more like Dean & DeLuca in a country setting.


Mingle there, or at the Vintry (64-9-423-0251; www.thevintry.co.nz tastings, 10.50 to 18 New Zealand dollars), a small upstairs tasting bar and wine education center in Matakana Village. Those thirsty for knowledge as well as wine can learn about and sample several varietals by the glass or in blind tasting flights. At the Stubbs Village Butchery (64-9-422-9650; www.stubbsvillagebutchery.co.nz also in Matakana Village, you can browse the free-range organic chicken, Taranaki lamb and beef displays and pantry items like flavored Mahurangi Estate extra virgin olive oil (19.50 New Zealand dollars). When ready for dessert, line up for organic blueberry ice cream at the boxcar-slim tween hangout, Blue (64-9-422-7797; www.blue.co.nz cones 3.50 dollars).


In a country where every corner cafe tempts with flaky pastries and dense desserts, the Matakana Patisserie (70 Matakana Valley Road; 64-9-422-9896; www.matakanapatisserie.co.nz muffins and loaves, 3.50 to 7.50 New Zealand dollars), has won prizes for some of its breads. Behind a bland exterior you might mistake for a dry cleaner’s, racks hold cushiony yet crisp olive focaccia and the chocolate helmeted cakes the bakery modestly calls muffins.


The Brookview Teahouse (1335 Leigh Road, Matakana; 64-9-423-0390; www.brookviewteahouse.co.nz a quaint 1920s bungalow on a bend in the Matakana River, offers a bit more atmosphere: a traditional tearoom with finger sandwiches on tiered platters (10 to 18 New Zealand dollars), perched over a tableau that might include a few roosters or a resident mother duck guarding her brood. Or you can backtrack to Heron’s Flight Vineyard Cafe (49 Sharp Road, Matakana; 64-9-422-7915; www.heronsflight.co.nz to sample flavor combinations like a salad of strawberries and Te Mata blue cheese in a honey yogurt dressing (14.90 New Zealand dollars) and savor vineyard views.


Rural tranquillity comes at a price in Matakana; 5 p.m. might as well be midnight, so you must decide: shopping or tasting next.


Morris & James Pottery and Tileworks (48 Tongue Farm Road; 64-9-422-7116; www.morrisandjames.co.nz trivets, 47 New Zealand dollars; pots, 215 to 465 dollars; free daily tours at 11:30 a.m.) feels like a winery compound, from the grand entrance to the ceramics for sale in the large warehouse, their popular, understated decorative pieces in earth tones made from the local clay. Within the high walls, you can refuel at Così, a sprawling country garden courtyard cafe (64-9-422-7484; seafood chowder, 10.50 New Zealand dollars; local catch, 27 dollars) serving breads baked from scratch, chowder and fresh locally caught fish.


Roll down the windows to listen to the trees rustle during the two-minute drive down the road to the modest rural Hyperion Wines (188 Tongue Farm Road, 64-9-422-9375 www.hyperion-wines.co.nz eems more like a private ranch. A scatter of converted rustic farm buildings and friendly owners are the opposite of the slick, almost corporate image projected on the vineyard’s labels. Grapes from their fields go into Eos pinot noir, Titan cabernet sauvignon and Gaia merlot, which has won medals in national competitions.


IF you’re with kids, head for the red barns at Matakana Country Park (1 Omaha Flats Road; 64-9-422-7437 www.matakanacountrypark.co.nz re they can pet llama-like guanacos, sheep and goats, and you can finger the wares at the Matakana Craft Co-op, or at Saturday’s other Matakana Market (8 a.m. to 1 p.m.), featuring arts and crafts and family activities.


One way to fill the stretch before dinner is to drive down to the neat, modern bachs (beach houses) scattered between a multihued estuary and two-and-a-half mile-long Omaha Beach.


Return to town for one last meal, perhaps seared salmon or oven-roasted lamb (each 29 New Zealand dollars) at the urban yet cozy Matakana Village Brasserie (2 Matakana Valley Road; 64-9-423-0383).


On the way back to Auckland, you might want to use the back roads to prolong the rural memory. Keep the day’s perishables nearby for snacking en route.




(f)(f)






"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|:|:|




January 17, 2008

Cyberfamilias

The Day the Internet Stood Still

By MICHELLE SLATALLA


I NEVER thought I’d pay $174.95 a month just for an Internet connection. I’m cheap. Instead, I signed up for my cable company’s three-way service — Internet, phone and cable TV — for under $200 a month.


But then a big storm hit California the other day. As all connections to the outside world went dead, my daughters reminded me that we are not a family with pioneer spirit.


“Oh, my God, what if the mall is closed?” asked Ella, 16, as she opened her laptop to check the hour-by-hour forecast at Weather.com.


“That computer isn’t going to help you,” my husband said, raising his voice to be heard above the winds rattling the windows. “We have no Internet.”


“That’s a joke, right?” asked Clementine, 10, whose relationship with instant messaging can best be described as dependence. Her typing fingers were already starting to twitch like unearthed worms.


“Don’t worry, he must mean ‘slow’ Internet,” Zoe, 18, said. “Because I need to check my Facebook.”


“No In-ter-net,” my husband repeated, adding, “Don’t you care that the lights are out, the furnace is off and my beer is getting warm?”


“No Internet,” Clementine repeated. “I am going to die.”


Tell me about it. I work at home. And like the 28 million other Americans who work from home at least part of the time (a figure provided by the Dieringer Research Group in Wisconsin), I am trying to maintain a semblance of professionalism here.


The rest of my family relies on the Internet for entertainment. I depend on it for survival. Take away my access to e-mail and online databases, and I’m nothing but a lonely woman sitting in a cold basement.


Sometimes, of course, a disruption is unavoidable. During the recent storm, when more than a million Bay Area customers lost electricity and virtually my whole town went dark, not even the local banks were online.


But for me, the real problems began the next day after power was restored: for some reason I still couldn’t get online. I looked at the cable modem. Instead of the usual mind-numbing galaxy of blinking lights, there were only two.


My heart sank because in the months since I had signed up for the Comcast cable service, I had become all too familiar with interpreting my modem’s warning signs.


Eight lights, good.


Two lights, bad.


My daughters stumbled through breakfast like zombies. Then Zoe went back to bed (“What else is there to do?”); Ella barricaded herself in her room as a protest; Clementine drew pictures of computers with screens that said, “Save me.”


I felt helpless. I’d already missed a deadline the previous day when I was unable to e-mail a magazine story I had promised to an editor. Would I ever be able to file it? And I needed to confirm the itinerary for a looming business trip. Otherwise, how would I know which plane to board?


I called Comcast for help on my cellphone. But as I listened to the recorded message — Comcast was aware of the problems in my area, but couldn’t say when they would be fixed — I started to wonder if life had any purpose whatsoever.


“No Internet,” I said. “I am going to die.”


After awhile, as I lay with my eyes closed, thinking bleak thoughts, I started to hear the cheery rattling sound of a power cord being tossed across the floor.


I risked a peek. My husband, leaning out the kitchen window to dangle a cord down the side of the house, said, “I have an idea.”


I love when he says that.


“Remember that other Internet service you were going to test a few months ago?” he asked.


Vaguely. I sat up as he fiddled with another modem, one that a technician had installed last fall when, after the sixth time my Comcast service went out in less than a year, I had decided to explore alternative Internet connections.


It was all coming back to me now. For review purposes, the data communications provider Covad, which specializes in business-class DSL broadband service, had installed a free line at my house.


I never got serious about the review, though, possibly because the arrival of a backup connection had scared my Comcast connection into behaving. In the absence of problems with the cable connection, the high price of the Covad service — which at $174.95 a month would cost nearly as much just for Internet as three-way Comcast service — seemed like an unnecessary luxury.


So the only use the Covad line had was when, for a brief period, my daughters conducted “races” to see if it was any faster than the Comcast connection when it came to watching YouTube videos. After they realized that any difference in speed could be measured only in fractions of seconds, they lost interest.


Now I asked my husband, “You mean Covad never pulled the plug on the line?”


“All the modem lights are on,” he said. “Go downstairs, pull the cord in the window and see if it reaches to your desk.”


It did.


“We have Internet,” I whispered. Actually, I might have shrieked — I don’t really remember anything but a rush of pure happiness — because within seconds, every member of my family arrived at my side. They peered over my shoulder, giddy at the prospect of the most glorious sight in the world: the Google home page.


Within minutes, my husband figured out how to transfer our entire household wireless network from the Comcast service to the Covad line. Everyone retreated to respective laptops throughout the house. My husband settled in to watch the previous night’s Democratic presidential debate on YouTube in the kitchen.


Two days later, a few hours after the cable connection finally started working again, I called Michael Doherty, a Covad spokesman, to describe the situation.


“Did I just get lucky with the Covad line or is there a reason it kept working when the Comcast cable connection failed?” I asked him.


“I have to be honest,” Mr. Doherty said. “Since we ran the line to your house over the phone wires, if a tree had gone down and severed that line, you wouldn’t have it, either. And if your electrical power stayed out, your Covad modem wouldn’t work, either.”


“Unless I bought a generator,” I said.


The main difference between the business-class Covad line and the cheaper residential-grade service I had from Comcast was customer service, Mr. Doherty said.


“You have business grade, and with that comes a service agreement that if it goes out, we’re out there within 36 hours to fix it,” he said. “We generally try to do it faster.”


For bulletproof customer service, the higher price would be worth it. Frankly, I am tempted to cancel all three aspects of the Comcast service and rely solely on the Internet. After all, my family “watches TV” mainly at Web sites that rebroadcast — legally and illegally — television shows. We make most of our phone calls via Skype or on cellphones.


As I thought about it, I finally started to feel a surge of pioneer spirit, 21st-century style.



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/fashion/17Cyber.html?ref=style




:|:|:| I have lost count of ALL of the times that my COMCAST cable modem has been out - and more than a few times - for two days! I agree that having a back-up and eventual replacement for this NIGHTMARE of a service provider - is a MUST. I have said in the past, "COMCAST really sux both operationally as well as how they treat their customers."

:|:|








(S)(S) Pleasant dreams, restful sleep. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(~)(~)(~)(~)

(l)




January 17, 2008

Sundance Could Be a Sellers’ Bonanza

By DAVID CARR


PARK CITY, Utah — The Sundance Film Festival, which opens Thursday night with “In Bruges,” the playwright Martin McDonagh’s film debut, is one of the oddest ecosystems on earth. The festival of independent film transforms this normally quaint little village, one that offers world-class skiing and a lift smack in the middle of town, into a chilly open-air bazaar where you can hear film executives wearing mukluks and goofy hats shout into their cellphones about deal points and marketing commitments.


But at this year’s festival, which runs until Jan. 27, the dynamics driving the usual mash-up of indie art and commerce are slightly different. With no end in sight to the writers’ strike, studio specialty divisions and a slew of relatively new distribution companies will be looking for movies to fill their threatened schedules for later this year and 2009. And that could drive up prices for the undiscovered gem even more from last year’s busy — some would say overheated — market that left more than a few buyers singed.


“It would be hard for it to get any more excessive,” said Mark Urman, who leads the theatrical division of ThinkFilm. But that observation comes with a giant caveat: “The advent of studio specialty divisions has led to dramatic inflation, and now with the private equity you have more people who can afford to lose money,” he said. “We always say that cooler heads are going to prevail, and they usually don’t.”


It has been a very snowy year here in the Wasatch mountains, and the buzz seems to be piling up in drifts as well. There is a chattering class of publicists, buyers, sellers, cinephiles and yes, journalists, who create something of an echo chamber where buzz, that gauzy coin of the realm at Sundance, is created.


This year the ineffably anointed include “Choke” (a film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, with Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston), “The Wackness” (a comedy about a high-school-age marijuana dealer trading drugs for therapy), “Sunshine Cleaning” (with Emily Blunt and Amy Adams playing crime-scene cleaners), “The Great Buck Howard” (about a law-school dropout who becomes the personal assistant to a mentalist played by John Malkovich), “Pretty Bird” (a comedy about inventors who are building a rocket belt, with Paul Giamatti), “Mysteries of Pittsburgh” (based on the novel by Michael Chabon) and “Hamlet II” (about a high school drama teacher writing a sequel to Hamlet to motivate his students and save his department).


The tenor of the festival is different this year, with the movies — there are over 120 of them — offering more comedy and optimism than last year’s batch, which contained many darkly hued films about the Iraq war.


“As I watched the films, many of them about families, many of those families dysfunctional, I felt that they were not trying to solve the problems of the world, that it was a more personal group of films,” said Geoffrey Gilmore, the longtime director of the Sundance festival.


With fewer than 20 of the movies having already secured distribution, there will be plenty of deal making.


“My take is that the strike is not going to change the economics disproportionately,” said Graham Taylor of Endeavor Independent, which is bringing a number of films to the festival, including “Phoebe in Wonderland,” about a girl’s search for enlightenment from an unconventional drama teacher. “There is a lot of speculation about the strike, but ultimately I think the distributors are sophisticated, and they are not going to be pushed into paying more than what they can make work.”


That steadfastness, however, can be tested in the high-mountain adrenaline of Sundance, where the crush of movies and buyers can sometimes result in decisions that backfire. Last year “Grace Is Gone” went for an eye-popping $4 million to the Weinstein Company, partly on the strength of its star, John Cusack. But it had a short theatrical run (bringing in less than $37,000 at the box office) and will likely not be a factor in this year’s award season. Fox Searchlight paid nearly $4 million for the psychological thriller “Joshua,” but the movie made less than $500,000 domestically.


According to figures gathered by Variety last year’s market produced sales of $53 million for 20 titles, but many of those films have yet to be released, and the 14 that were produced box office grosses of $34 million, creating a bit of a math problem for those who participated in the frenzy.


But for specialty divisions of the studios and big independents like the Weinsteins, the downside risk is much less punishing than building movies from the ground up. With indie divisions routinely budgeting anywhere from $10 million to $20 million for so-called “small movies,” spending a couple of million bucks at Sundance, a huge outlay in the context of the festival, is relatively small money. Especially in a strike-addled industry.


And a boy, or a film executive, can always dream, right? Dreams do come true in the wake of Sundance. Last year “Once” was bought for a song — about $150,000 — and went on to earn $10 million and counting for Fox Searchlight. And Searchlight’s “Little Miss Sunshine” is the stuff of Sundance myth, having been snapped up for more than $10 million at Sundance in 2006, at the time an almost unthinkable number, and going on to four Academy Award nominations, including two Oscars, and earning over $100 million worldwide.


“I think that Sundance is a wonderful place to look for film,” said Peter Rice, president of Fox Searchlight. No wonder, he also bought “Waitress,” another standout from last year that went on to do very respectable business. Sundance remains a gamble, but the nickel slots are a thing of the past.


Jonathan Sehring, the president of IFC Entertainment, took a pass on “Once” because, although he loved the film, “we are in the independent film business, and that means that we have to count pennies,” he said. “And that becomes more difficult every year. This year is projected to be a seller’s market, in part because of the strike and in part because of the competition for films.”


That is music to the ears of John Sloss, a go-to seller at Sundance and principal of Cinetic Media, a law firm that specializes in marketing independent film.


“It appears to me anecdotally that a number of distributors have holes in their release slate,” Mr. Sloss said. And, he added, a number of big Sundance buys didn’t work out last year, which reflects a general glut of cinema, not a distorted market at the festival. “Everyone knew the fall was going to be a bloodbath, and so it came to pass. It doesn’t mean that a great film, and there seem to be a number of them this year, is not going to do well.”


On the continuum of dread versus anticipation, Mr. Sloss was in the grip of dread a few days before the festival. “But then I get there, and the adrenaline kicks in, and then it becomes the most fun I have all year. This is why we got into the business.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/movies/17sund.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



(l)(~)(l)(~)




(f)




(S)(S) Pleasant dreams.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(i) (i)



..........



http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/16/garden/0117-SHOP_2.html







I'll take the original miner's lantern and other assorted antique lighting..............


;)



(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



If you've been messing around online long enough, you remember the bad old days of pay-by-the-hour Internet access. It was obvious then that for the Net to reach its potential as a mass medium, browsing couldn't be discouraged by a meter clicking off the bucks as you surfed, especially at the speeds then. And sure enough, as demand grew, ISPs made the switch to unlimited data plans, with prices based on access speed, not time spent, and the Web bloomed.



But the days of the open buffet may be numbered. Time Warner, the nation's second-largest cable company, is going to experiment in Beaumont, Texas, with tiered pricing based on the amount of data downloaded. The company says it's looking for a way to get the gluttons to back away from the table, attributing up to half of its network traffic to a mere 5 percent of its customers. "Largely, people won't notice the difference," said a Time Warner Cable spokesman. "We don't want customers to feel they're getting less for more."



http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_7996763?nclick_check=1




http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN1639580720080117?rpc=44&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0




Your reaction likely depends on your own usage habits. If you're not regularly moving big files like movies around, freeing up some network capacity probably sounds like a good idea. But if you're thoroughly plugged into the digital entertainment revolution, shuffling substantial amounts of video and audio, you've got to wonder just where Time Warner and other providers would draw the line between heavy use and "abuse," especially as Apple, Netflix, Amazon and others drive movie downloads into the mainstream (including Time Warner movies, it should be noted).




Time Warner price change to punish gamers, Apple heads, movie lovers and more:

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/01/17/time-warner-price-change-to-punish-gamers-apple-heads-movie-lovers-and-more/



There's no point getting too worked up until the pricing, data caps and overage charges are revealed, but it's a development worth watching closely. You know the other big access providers will be.



:|:|:|


:o





Worry when there's a reason to.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

^o) ^o) ^o)



Q U O T E D


"So, I saw that Steve Jobs was just hanging out on the Macworld expo floor, not in conversation, not talking to anyone, and poking at his phone in the middle of the public so I walked over. Thinking a girl -- in this case, a fangirl, me -- will never get anything if she doesn't ask for it, I lightly touched his arm and said "hi". He looked at me, and I blushingly asked if it would be okay for me to ask if I could take a picture with him. I didn't say my name or anything else, I was just a girl. He told me curtly, flatly that I was rude. And turned his back to me. The small circle of people around him sniggered."


-- Sex blogger and columnist Violet Blue says Steve Jobs blew her off at Macworld (and before you click through, remember, she's a sex blogger)



http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2008/01/so_everyones_asking_what_happe.html








^o) I would have definitely walked away from her as well. Who does she think she is butting into someone's business like that? She IS rude.


;)



(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



http://www.voxtec.com/phraselator



(f)





"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)



http://www.wordsandwich.com/




:)



(f)





"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)



http://www.oldbookillustrations.com/index.php?lng=en



:)


(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



http://buglabs.net/products




(y)(y)



:)



(f)






(S)(S) Pleasant dreams, restful sleep. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|


:o:o:o



18 January 2008

The Scotsman

Scotland




High-definition, fast-forwarded, on-demand… and utter trash


By ROBERT MCNEIL


AS I predicted long after everyone else, the days of the nation sitting doon together to watch amusing and informative television shows are drawing to an end. A third of viewers regularly watch programmes "on demand", and 37 per cent devise their own schedules. It's now thought the official schedules will be obsolete "in ten years' time", which, as regular readers know, is when everything is going to happen.

Or not, as the case may be.


Even I have Sky+, and I don't have a television. However, I know that if I wanted to watch, say, The Simpsons, I could fast-forward through the capitalist adverts.


My mate Aidan says it would be great if we could live our lives like Sky+, fast-forwarding through the dull bits. But my life is nearly all dull, and if I fast-forwarded it, I wouldn't be here today. In fact, I'd already have been here today, if you get my meaning, and my life would be over far sooner than the four score years and ten I'd originally put down for.


These days, apart from reality shows and similar swill, Doctor Who is the only programme that brings the nation together simultaneously: ironic, given that the Doctor is a Time Lord.


The other evening, I was astonished to find myself watching the television news. I hadn't seen it for months, as I find the moving about of the presenters intolerable and dislike the way they keep repeating everything.


Presenter: "Our reporter, Wilberforce O'Haddock, is at the scene. The situation looks tense, Wilberforce." Reporter: "That's right, Sir Halibut. I'm here at the scene and the situation is, as you say, tense." Presenter: "Thanks for confirming that. What more can you tell us about it?" "Well, it's tense, and there's been some activity." "What sort of activity, Wilberforce?" "Basically, activity of one sort and another. Toing and froing. This and that." "Any of the other, Wilberforce?" "No, just this and that so far, though that situation could change." "Remind the viewers where you are, Wilberforce." "I don't know."


I watched the BBC news to see John Simpson reporting undercover from Robert O'Gabe's loony republic of Zimbabweshire. He didn't have much news, but the real story was his being there.


Even then, he had to do that daft walking thing, ostensibly talking to himself as, filmed from a distance, he waddled doon a busy street. Even when it endangers life and limb, broadcasters are too dim to ditch the ludicrous practices that so irritate the nation.


I'd no idea News At Ten had been revived on ITV that same night. What joy to read the Beeb had trounced it. News At Ten is tripe, like ITV itself, which was originally set up by capitalists to rival the state-run BBC. Ever since, all it has done is showcase the superiority of the socialistic methods deployed by the Beeb (I'm presuming that, while the economy in socialist Zimbabwe is a disaster, the television is excellent).


News At Ten was still milking the Diana story, with Sir Trevor McDunderheid interviewing some doctor who'd probed her intimately with his impressive stethoscope. What rot.


In the end, you can't beat newspapers for news. True, there's a BBC news website which, thanks to the miracle of the internet, can be updated every five minutes. In reality, however, it never changes from one hour to the next, and, indeed, hardly ever in the course of an entire day.


No, newspapers are best. Only they can convey the immediacy of something that happened a day earlier. Many people like to lick the ink and find that rolling up the paper makes a handy weapon for fighting off intruders, spouses and so forth. You can also still check the TV schedules, even if just to laugh haughtily at the absurdly fixed times and pity those poor boobies who cannot fast-forward their viewing lives.





http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Highdefinition-fastforwarded-ondemand-and-utter.3686915.jp





^o) ^o) Or so he says. I do not agree with his sweeping generalizations.


:)



(f)







Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|



http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Scottish-backpacker-murdered--on.3687062.jp




:|:|:|


:o


Perhaps I'll avoid the backpack route as well as stay out of bars - then walking back to my hotel room. Perhaps? This way of traveling is way, way too young for me. Yikes, what are these young peple thinking? :|:|





(f)(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/-Sometimes-the-best-things.3682190.jp




(f)(f)







Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l) (&) (l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



Pets, zoo animals and even police horses are blessed on the day of Saint Anthony Abate, the patron saint of animals.




Slide Show:

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1487&galleryName=News#a=1






http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1487&galleryName=News#a=8




(l)(l)



(f)





Stay warm snuggling - keep those frigid digits warm.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(p)(p)(p)




http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/ywslideshow?buddyJS=slideshow20080111155512YW.js&title#a=1





EeeHaaa!!

http://www.reuters.com/resources/r/?m=02&d=20080111&t=2&i=2746534&w=







LOTS more Slide Shows:

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures




(l)(l)



(f)






Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)



http://features.us.reuters.com/destinations/news/CFB642CA-C569-11DC-B60A-C5B77391.html




(f)(f)





Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)




Q U O T E D


"We make a ton of money by offering video on demand with cable operators, and we're not about to jeopardize that to help Steve Jobs start a business."



-- An unnamed studio executive explains why Apple shouldn't expect to extract preferential pricing as it negotiates to add more movies to iTunes



http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_03/b4067029127747.htm





"CONTAINING APPLE


In the end, Apple will likely offer a respectable but not industry-leading selection of movies. New releases will cost $3.99 to rent, the sources say, similar to what Comcast charges.


That may be precisely the point: Hollywood wants to make sure Apple doesn't get any preferential terms. "We make a ton of money by offering video on demand with cable operators, and we're not about to jeopardize that to help Steve Jobs start a business," says one studio executive.


Meanwhile, the competition is pressing ahead. On Jan. 8, Comcast announced it is increasing its video-on-demand library from 1,600 movies to 6,000, a massive upgrade that should put Comcast even further ahead in the video market. It also announced the online service Fancast, which will offer more than 3,000 hours of streaming videos of TV shows from CBS, Fox, and others.


Of course, Jobs has succeeded in the face of massive challenges in the past. With sales of Macs and iPods zooming, he can afford to take his time and work on the next knockout. One possibility is that Apple might add a tuner to its TV product later this year. That way, the device could handle the tasks of a cable box and provide a portal for almost any video need—from obscure clips on the Net to the evening news. "The day that happens, Apple TV sales will take off," says American Technology analyst Shaw Wu. Perhaps. But whatever happens, Apple is sure to have plenty of competition."




^o) ^o)



(f)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



Video gamers, finally emerging from the pixelated haze brought on by last year's bumper crop of best-selling titles, are now turning their attention to upcoming releases.



http://features.us.reuters.com/techlife/news/4B431B4A-C513-11DC-854B-F156BFCA.html



(f)(f)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:s:s:s


:o:o



;)



After another of Steve Jobs' masterful Macworld presentations, it took a few hours for the Reality Distortion Field to start fading, but fade it did, leading to the usual second-day slew of moans, niggles, doubts and questions. The feistiest fuss is over the sliver-thin MacBook Air, and how you rate it seems to depend on how you see it. Those who see it contending to be a primary, workhorse laptop think it falls way short (CrunchGear's post is titled "MacBook AirHead: why Apple's new laptop is basically useless"). The complaints cover the lack of an optical drive, modest processing power, a shortage of ports, the user's inability to make upgrades or change the battery, and the overall bang for buck. Those who see it as a subnotebook aimed at nomadic users with basic needs, a sense of style and another Mac at home are likely to be more understanding.



http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/f27853y2/event/index.html?internal=fj2l3s9dm



http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/01/15/macbook-airhead-why-apples-new-laptop-is-basically-useless/



http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2008/01/15/macbook-air-and-target-markets/




As Macworld's Dan Frakes says: "Subnotebooks -- laptops designed to be smaller and lighter than traditional models -- generally involve many tradeoffs. ... The MacBook Air is no exception, Steve Jobs' claims to the contrary notwithstanding. What makes the MacBook Air unique is that Apple has chosen to make different compromises than those found in most other subnotebooks. The company has essentially said, 'It has tradeoffs and limitations, but we think our tradeoffs and limitations are better than the competition's.' "


http://www.macworld.com/article/131624/2008/01/macbook_air_tradeoffs.html




Meanwhile, Engadget sorts out the details of iTunes and Apple TV movie rentals and PC World wonders if Apple will be the one to finally popularize wireless storage with its Time Capsule.



http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/16/itunes-and-apple-tv-rentals-and-purchases-what-you-can-and-can/



http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/006291.html





8-| 8-| 8-|




(f)(f)







Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;)



http://www.manilamac.com/




(f)(f)





Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/make_your_own_vaccum_tube.html



:)



(f)






(S)(S) Pleasant dreams. (S)(S)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o


^o)^o)




Virtual worlds, mobile coupons and bar-code readers on cell phones are the next technology wave that chain stores must ride if they hope to stay competitive.



Fri Jan 18, 2008 2:31am EST

By Nicole Maestri and Martinne Geller



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Virtual worlds, mobile coupons and bar-code readers on cell phones are the next technology wave that U.S. chain stores must ride if they hope to stay competitive in the fast-changing world of global retail.


Retailers, gathered in New York this week for the National Retail Federation's (NRF) annual convention, were urged to go high-tech to stand out in the crowd and improve sales, especially amid a flagging U.S. economy.


"The cell phone is shifting the way consumers shop, and U.S. retailers need to get ready," said Pat Conroy, vice chairman at Deloitte & Touche USA, in a keynote speech at the convention.


Wendy Liebmann, chief executive of consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail, points to prom dress shoppers who take pictures of themselves with their cell phone cameras, then post the photos online so friends can help pick which outfit to buy.


The Internet has also become more interactive, with consumers spending more time -- and money -- in virtual worlds like Second Life and Webkinz.


"These technologies are going to change the way you interact with your customer, they're going to change the way people shop, they're going to change the way you manage your brands," said Giff Constable, general manager at:|:| Electric Sheep Co, which designs content for virtual worlds, like Second Life.




RETAILERS RESPOND


U.S. retailers need to adopt technological advances that have already changed shopper behavior across the globe, Conroy said.


For instance, he noted that customers at McDonald's Corp restaurants in South Korea can purchase food on cell phones, which then ring when their orders are ready.


In China, mobile commerce is expected to reach $1 trillion in 2010, while in Japan, cell phones have bar-code scanners so consumers can check the freshness of food with their phones.


"Asia's leading the way," he said, but changes are also taking place in the U.S. market.


"The lines between merchandiser and technologist are certainly blurring," said Philip Schoonover, chief executive of consumer electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc, where store and call center staff use tablet PCs to search the Web alongside consumers.


Constable said corporations are putting big bucks into virtual worlds -- three-dimensional parallel universes on the Internet -- where users typically create and dress up characters, buy goods and interact with others.


Last year, Walt Disney Co purchased kids' virtual world Club Penguin for $350 million in cash plus up to $350 million more, depending on the Web site's earnings in 2008 and 2009.


While some retailers have started building stores in these virtual worlds, others should consider doing the same, Constable said, to extend their brands and eventually, boost sales.



PROGRESS FOR A PRICE


But a pervasive undercurrent at the convention was worry over the state of the U.S. economy, and what that will mean for profits.


The NRF forecasts U.S. retail sales will rise 3.5 percent this year, the lowest rate of growth since 2002.


So while new technologies are appealing, there is little room in the budget for them.


At a panel discussion, the chief information officers of Michaels Stores and Circuit City said most of their technology budgets have been eaten up by maintaining day-to-day operations -- like paying the power bills.


Retailers said their top technology initiatives for 2008 were to replace or upgrade their merchandising and inventory management systems, according to a survey by International Business Machines Corp and the NRF Foundation. No. 2 was replacing cash registers.


Though keeping costs down is key this year, retailers such as Bon-Ton Stores Inc recognize the importance of upgrades, and are still spending despite the rocky economy.


"Return on investment on some of the technology ... out there, that we're thinking that we need, is absolutely crucial for us to take the next step," said Edward Carroll, a Bon-Ton vice president of sales promotion and marketing.




http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1722258620080118?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0




|-)|-)




8-)8-) I think those of us without ALL of this connectivity stay pretty well-informed of latest trends.............and find alternative venues if and WHEN we decide to buy.


;);)



Retail consumer mavericks unite!!



:)




How about those Cheese Heads in Wisconsin?? I feel an upset coming on!! (y)(y)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

Aw.........(l)(l)(l)



http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1491&galleryName=News#a=1




(l)(l)(l)




(c)(c) When I get to my destination later this afternoon. Ah! Fresh coffee made in a home from a Keurig. (Good thing that I gave some as xmas gifts, eh?) ;);) Nothing better for the price and immediacy, IMHO........ (y)(y)


;)



(f)






"Who IS that gorgeous green-eyed lady?"


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (&) (l) (&) (l)



13 January 2008

Scotland On Sunday

Scotland


Gates is barking mad for robodog that may soon have Rover licked


By Marc Horne


MOVE over Rover. The MicroMutt looks set to be man's best friend in the 21st century.
Everyone sneered at a gawky youth named Bill Gates when he spent much of the early 1970s claiming that every home and workplace would one day have a personal computer.


Now the founder of Microsoft, whose visionary grasp of technological trends has made him the richest man on the planet, is claiming the home of tomorrow will come complete with a 21st-century version of Dr Who's trusty companion K9.


Gates has given a £60,000 grant to a British scientist to create a robot dog and research people's attitudes towards it.


Dr Shaun Lawson is convinced that within a decade technology will advance to allow cyberdogs to become an everyday reality. He is to outline his views at a major conference on artificial intelligence at Aberdeen University this year.


"The kinds of jobs that robots are being lined up to do in the future are similar to the things that we already get domestic dogs to do," said the University of Lincoln academic.


"Nobody appeared to be looking at this, so I decided to put the idea to Microsoft. They were extremely positive and came back offering me a grant of around £60,000 to carry out a year-long study."


Lawson and Microsoft share a vision that in future robot dogs will be us
ed for search-and-rescue and disability assistance as well as for companionship and entertainment.


Lawson said: "Bill Gates is very interested in robotics and believes that fairly soon everyone will have robots at home, including robotic companions.


"There are clear advantages in having a robotic dog for people who have allergies, and there are also the issues of space, mess, food and the sheer amount of time and money that looking after a real dog take up.


"There are a variety of animatronics toy dogs on the market, while the computer game Nintendogs, where the goal is to care for a virtual pet, has sold more than 10 million copies."


Lawson, who once worked at Napier University in Edinburgh, added:


"A Microsoft representative told me that if they could distil what a disability assistance dog does for a person, then use that build a robot, they would be in business."



http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Gates-is--barking-mad.3667443.jp






:|:| "A Microsoft representative told me that if they could distil what a disability assistance dog does for a person, then use that build a robot, they would be in business."



:s:s I pray that this never happens. Personally, I don't think those canine angels CAN be replaced with a robot. And I don't think it's that I have any latent Luddite tendencies either. I LOVE enabling technologies - however appropriately applied. There is no SOUL with a robot dog. :|:|



(l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (&) (l) (&) (l)





(f)


(c)(c) Stay warm.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

<:o)<:o)<:o)<:o)



A California report offers a deep look into who has broadband there and who does not and may serve as a model for other states, said an official with Cisco Systems.



Report describes broadband rollout trends, maps availability, and recommends deployment strategy.

Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Saturday, January 19, 2008 7:00 AM PST



A California report offers a deep look into who has broadband there and who does not and may serve as a model for other states, said an official with Cisco Systems.


Big on Broadband


California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Broadband Task Force, which released the report last week, found that 96 percent of Californians have access to broadband, but speeds vary significantly region to region. Only about 54 percent of Californians have access to 10Mbps (megabits per second), and about 56 percent of the state's residents subscribe to broadband service, the report said.


The report makes several recommendations, but one of the other major benefits of the study is its household-level information about broadband service availability, said Jeffrey Campbell, Cisco's senior director of technology and communications policy. An examination of broadband availability with this granularity hasn't been completed in the U.S. before, he said. Charles Giancarlo, Cisco's former chief development officer, served as co-chairman of the Broadband Task Force.


The mapping "was necessary and important," Campbell said. "It's something that other states and the federal government can learn from. It's difficult to figure out how to start solving the issue of whether there's enough broadband ... when we just don't know where there is and isn't broadband in this country."


California is "poised to become the world's leader" in broadband if it adopts the recommendations in the report, said Dale Bonner, the secretary of the state's Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and a task force co-chairman, in a statement.
Alternative to FCC Stats


Critics of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission have long complained that the agency's broadband statistics aren't granular enough. Currently, the FCC counts a ZIP code as served by broadband if just one residence has service, but many ZIP codes are only partially served by broadband, critics say. A year ago, the FCC reported that broadband providers offered service in 99 percent of U.S. ZIP codes.


Only a handful of states have also attempted to map broadband service. Kentucky has been particularly noted for its mapping effort.


The California report contains a series of maps that show where broadband is available and at what speeds. For example, most of Silicon Valley has broadband of 5M bps to 10M bps available, while some spots have faster speeds. But large chunks of California's far northern coast have no broadband availability, according to the maps.


All of California's broadband providers cooperated with the task force to create the maps, Campbell said. Broadband providers in the past have expressed concern that providing that information would give away their trade secrets, but the task force allowed the providers to give their data confidentially to a third-party aggregator.
Looking to Future


The report shows that many Californians don't have access to the 10M bps necessary for telemedicine applications, specialized gaming and high-quality video, the report says. "It's not going to be good enough to have 500K broadband going forward," Campbell said. "We have to work to get it to people who don't have it at all, but also to ensure that the people who do have it available to them continue to get faster broadband and higher quality."


The report recommends that the state build out broadband infrastructure to all residents, permit providers to work with each other and create a statewide e-health network to encourage broadband use.


Broadband provider AT&T praised the work of the task force. The economy needs a strong broadband infrastructure as its "foundation," said Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California, in a statement. Such a digital infrastructure will mean new jobs for the state and ensure that California "remains a leader in driving new, innovative technologies."




http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141536-c,broadband/article.html





Related Story:

California Leads U.S. In Broadband, But Poor Still Lack Access

A task force report found that 1.4 million state residents are without any broadband access at all.

By W. David Gardner

InformationWeek

January 18, 2008 12:48 PM


http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205901166







8-| 8-| [B]What's happening with RELIABLE, well-serviced broadband Internet service in YOUR neck of the woods?


:o


:)


(f)




"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(&)(l)


(l)(l)(l):

http://www.pets-warehouse.com/pic-d/DDFCXLG.jpg




http://www.petplanet.co.uk/shop_dev/assets/new_product_images/%5Cinterpet%5CLarge_Dog_Black_Coat.jpg


(l)(l)(l)





http://www.thepet-boutique.com/images/DogClothes/Coats/YukonDogCoatsred_small.jpg




http://www.montanadogware.com/Dog_in_Red_Coat.jpg







SWEET!

http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/pet-coat-1.jpg





(l) http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YJFBEP00L._AA280_.jpg



(l)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AF3GJMZML._AA280_.jpg






(l) http://www.dogcoat.com/assets/galleries/16/fleece-coat-left-side-low.jpg





(l)(&)(l)(&)(l)



(f)







"We're going to have a two-dog night for the next few frigid nights! We have a two dog night every night."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)




21 January 2008

Edinburgh Evening News

Scotland



Wanted: Homes for seven pigs plus these cheeky little swines


By ADRIAN MATHER

IT was always going to be a pig of a job /no spamming of other sites/ but finding homes for a group of rescued farm animals has just become doubly difficult.

Staff arrived at the Scottish SPCA's rescue shelter in Balerno to find the seven pigs they had been looking after had suddenly become 13.


The new arrivals were discovered by staff two weeks ago as they inspected the pens at the start of their morning shifts.


They now face months of looking after the piglets until new homes can be found for them.


Centre manager Diane Stewart said that, although they thought one of the sows may have been pregnant, they still did not know when to expect the young piglets to arrive.


She said: "It was a bit of a shock when we came into work two weeks ago and found the new litter of piglets.


"Their mother had been swelling up over the weeks beforehand, so we thought that she was probably pregnant, but it was still a surprise when the litter suddenly arrived.


"We thought it would be quite difficult to re-home the pigs we already have but now we've got even more of them to try to re-home.


"The piglets are still a couple of months off being ready, as they are still suckling, but as soon as they are weaned, we will need to find new owners for them too.


"They're really cute wee things and are getting on very well. Like the adults, they aren't causing us any trouble and are very intelligent, curious animals. Of course, anyone wanting to take any of the pigs we have will need to have a small-holding or outdoor facilities suitable for keeping them, which means we are looking for a very specific kind of person. It could be a while before we are able to find new owners to take all of our pigs."


In December, The Evening News reported that the seven adult kune kune pigs, a small-to-medium-sized breed, had been taken to the shelter after being abandoned in the north of Scotland.


They were believed to have been part of a circus petting zoo before being rescued by inspectors.


They are described as both "friendly and intelligent" but, as prospective owners will need a lot of space to look after them as well as a Ministry of Agriculture licence, welfare chiefs are worried they will be left homeless for months.


Doreen Graham, the Scottish SPCA's press and campaigns manager, added: "The seven kune kune pigs we had originally are great animals and we are very keen to find the right sort of person to re-home them.


"Obviously things have got a little more complicated now that six more of them have turned up as well, but we will be looking after them all until the right people come along to take them.


"Although they are not house pigs, they can be really fantastic pets. They need space to rummage about in and they need to be properly cared for, but they are great animals to have."


The pigs are just part of a wide menagerie of homeless animals currently at the Edinburgh rescue centre.


Other creatures currently waiting to be re-homed include goats, rats, ferrets, snakes, fish, horses, rabbits and hamsters.



http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Wanted-Homes-for-seven-pigs.3692929.jp




HOGGING THE LIMELIGHT: The piglets are settling in well at the SSPCA’s rescue shelter at Balerno.


http://editorial.jpress.co.uk/web/Upload/EN//TH1_211200829en21pigb.jpg





Watch video of piglets:

http://news.scotsman.com/video.aspx?VideoPath=EN/en21pigs.wmv&VideoID=11953&ArticleID=3692929




:)





(f)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o


:|



;)




http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/762696



^o)






(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

8-) 8-)


:)



Stars in Banff shine a light on Kennedy's cause

Alexandra Burroughs, Calgary Herald

Published: Sunday, January 20, 2008


BANFF - Hollywood glamour peaked in the mountains of Banff Saturday night when dozens of stars came out for a red carpet gala in support of the environment.


Susan Sarandon, one of the most highly anticipated guests of the night, arrived in a short, stunning cocktail dress with drop back that showed off a new tattoo. It is the Oscar winner's first trip to Banff to support Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Waterkeeper Alliance.


"We're really only here for today, so we just sort of took it easy and walked around town," said Sarandon, as she posed for photos with longtime partner and fellow Oscar winner Tim Robbins, who attended the event last year.


"I know that everyone understands now how important it is to keep our water clean. I've been working with Bobby Kennedy for years. I've been with him and lobbied with him and I know this organization is one I can trust."


Margaret Trudeau came to the event with an arm in a sling after separating her right shoulder in a mishap on Friday.


"I fell skiing," she said. "I had to take it easy today."


When asked what she was wearing, she replied: "I'm wearing anything that would fit!"

Inside the party, celebs such as Alec Baldwin, Alicia Silverstone, Kelsey Grammer, Justin Trudeau, Jason Priestley and Luke Perry sipped cocktails and got busy bidding on the silent auction to raise money for Waterkeepers, which protects water sources throughout the world.


"It is a good cause and it's got a lot of celebrity appeal," said Anthony Jankowski, an accountant who came with his wife, Jennifer, to celebrate her 30th birthday.


"We're from Calgary, and in southern and central Alberta we hear a lot about a water shortage, so we thought it would be a good cause to support."


After the cocktail hour, party-goers, who paid $500 each or $10,000 for a table with a celebrity, dined on salmon tartar and Alberta beef tenderloin. Vegetarian and vegan celebs, such as Baldwin and Silverstone, were treated to a special selection of organic offerings.


After dinner, Baldwin was expected to emcee the festivities, which included an incredible live auction. Among the items up for bidding were: a private concert by Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip featuring the Sadies; a luxurious week-long whitewater rafting trip with Kennedy in Chile; and a week with Mark Messier at his home in the Bahamas.


Although celebrities were willing to share their names for the event, these activists know there's a lot more to environmentalism than fundraising. Many are closely watching the presidential primaries with the hopes that change will come with the next White House.


"Edwards," said Sarandon flatly when asked who she supports. "He's the only one that's against nuclear power and
hasn't taken lobby money."


Edwards, who finished a distant third in Saturday's Nevada caucus, wasn't at the top of everyone's list, but the Democrats certainly were. With a host named Kennedy, however, that might not be a surprise to many.


"Anybody on the Democratics' side is going to be a lot more environmentally conscientious because it seems like they are not as beholden to big business corporations that are actually the polluters," said Fran Drescher.


Earlier in the weekend, Kennedy announced Waterkeepers recently won a landmark court appeal that will allow Canada to bring criminal prosecutions against American companies that pollute Canadian air and water.


"These are issues that affect everybody, so it doesn't matter if you're a Republican or a Democrat if you're breathing air that's causing cancer or drinking water that's polluted," says actor-director Chad Lowe.


This event has been running in Banff and Lake Louise for eight consecutive years, but Kennedy's connection to Banff goes back to 1966, when he visited the mountain town with his father Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president two years later.


"I remember them going fishing at Cascade in their Cadillac convertible," says Dave Moberg, a 40-year employee of the Banff Springs who's known to friends, including Kennedy, as "Mo."


"At that age, he and his brother were a little mischievous and playful. They damaged the grandfather clockin the vice-regal suite. (Kennedy) remembers and he chuckles about it. I think he thought he trashed the suite, but he didn't."


By press time, that appeared to be the consensus at the gala. Former Doobie Brother Michael McDonald was expected to take the stage following Baldwin's work as emcee.


Although final numbers won't be in until Monday, last year's event raised $1 million for Waterkeepers.


http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=a629939c-8918-4769-9bc1-5d8edab9b521





Related Story:

http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/01/20/4783119-sun.html



|-)|-)






(f)(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|



Posted January 21, 2008


OTTAWA - In terms of value for money, Canada ranks at the absolute bottom in a health-care comparison of 30 countries, according to a new report from the Stockholm/Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse (HCP) and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, released today.


The detailed comparison of healthcare in Europe and Canada ranks Canada 23rd for consumer sensitivity in healthcare. The Euro-Canada Health Consumer Index marks the first time that Canada is included in the comprehensive benchmarking exercise that analyzes consumer responsiveness among 29 national European healthcare systems.


"The news about medical outcomes is somewhat better, however," Rebecca Walberg, one of the report's researchers and the Social Policy Analyst at the Frontier Centre, said. "The 30 day mortality rate for Canadian patients who suffered a heart attack is a very low 11.1%, which indicates excellent hospital treatment. For infant mortality and cancer five-year survival rates, we are in the middle of the European pack."


Health Consumer Powerhouse President Johan Hjertqvist said that the Index, which HFC first started producing in 2005, has led to significant changes in some EU countries. "Following the release of our 2006 European Health Consumer Index, the Danish government added more money to improve Danish healthcare. In Ireland, its poor ranking caused a media outcry and intense political debate that resulted in pressure for reform. In Sweden, significant steps toward public ranking of healthcare were also taken."


The Index is based on the simple question: "How well are the needs of consumers met?"


In the area of patient rights and information, Canada lags far behind most of Europe, the report concludes.. "Because our system is oriented towards providers," Walberg said, "rather than the system's users, consumers do not receive meaningful guarantees of timely and effective treatment. In successful European healthcare systems there are strong patient rights laws. Because Canadians lacks such rights, Canadians are treated as passive patients, rather than empowered consumers."


Nowhere is this more apparent than with regard to waiting times, she said. "It's certainly not news to Canadians that diagnosis and treatment waits in Canada are long. But it is a surprise to see that we finish at the very bottom of the Index in this area."


One indicator of the generosity of a healthcare system, she added, is cataract surgery. "Canada received the highest score possible here. Unfortunately, as a whole, Canada provides much less to its residents than most European states."


Pharmaceuticals is one area, she added, in which Canada performs poorly. While the top ranked healthcare states in Europe provide public funding for over 90% of all spending on drugs, in Canada just 38% of prescription costs are publicly paid. "This level of commitment," she said, "gives us a failing grade in this area."


"Furthermore, most provinces lack a publicly available formulary that explains in layman's terms what drugs are covered, and under what circumstances. Compared to Europe, new drugs in general are available in Canada for over a year before they are eligible for public funding. Lowering the ceiling for drug subsidies, and promptly including effective new drugs in the formulary, would improve access and also outcomes."


According to the Index, Canada's performance is consistently between poor and adequate. The only countries doing worse, it points out, are rehabilitated former East Block states.


The Index includes a "Bang for the Buck" metric, which assesses each state's performance in the context of how much is spent on healthcare per capita. From this perspective, Walberg said, Canada falls to the very bottom, getting the least value for money of all 30 of the countries analyzed.


"The Euro Canada Health Consumer Index shows that we do a mediocre job of fulfilling our commitment to excellent and accessible healthcare," she said. "The Austrians, the French, and the Dutch enjoy better and more accessible healthcare than we do, and at a lower per capita cost. There is no reason why Canada cannot improve and reach a similar level, and the release of the Index marks an important new tool to use to this end."




http://www.exchangemagazine.com/morningpost/2008/week4/Monday/012124.html





Canadian health care system lags behind Europe, says study:

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ja8CwvnWmy8PctMIloXZzmZnLRuw






:o Not exactly a target for moving - at least for older folks who might have a need from time to time.






(f)(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

;);)



Saturday, 19 January 2008, 00:15 GMT


Hundreds of medicinal plants are at risk of extinction, threatening the discovery of future cures for disease, according to experts.



Over 50% of prescription drugs are derived from chemicals first identified in plants.


But the Botanic Gardens Conservation International said many were at risk from over-collection and deforestation.


Researchers warned the cures for things such as cancer and HIV may become "extinct before they are ever found".


The group, which represents botanic gardens across 120 countries, surveyed over 600 of its members as well as leading university experts.


They identified 400 plants that were at risk of extinction.

These included yew trees, the bark of which forms the basis for one of the world's most widely used cancer drugs, paclitaxel.

Hoodia, which originally comes from Namibia and is attracting interest from drug firms looking into developing weight loss drugs, is on the verge of extinction, the report said.


And half of the world's species of magnolias are also under threat.


The plant contains the chemical honokiol, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat cancers and slow down the onset of heart disease.


The report also said autumn crocus, which is a natural treatment for gout and has been linked to helping fight leukaemia, is at risk of over-harvest as it is popular with the horticultural trade because of its stunning petals.


Many of the chemicals from the at-risk plants are now created in the lab.


But the report said as well as future breakthroughs being put at risk, the situation was likely to have a consequence in the developing world.


It said five billion people still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of health care.


Report author Belinda Hawkins said: "The loss of the world's medicinal plants may not always be at the forefront of the public consciousness.


"However, it is not an overstatement to say that if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare."


And Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, added: "Nature has provided us with many of our medicines.


"Scientists are always interested in what they can provide and so it is a worry that such plants may be at risk."



MIRACLE CURES MOST AT RISK


Yew tree - Cancer drug paclitaxel is derived from the bark, but it takes six trees to create a single dose so growers are struggling to keep up


Hoodia - Plant has sparked interest for its ability to suppress appetite, but vast quantities have already been "ripped from the wild" as the search for the miracle weight drug continues


Magnolia - Has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years as it is believed to help fight cancer, dementia and heart disease. Half the world's species threatened, mostly due to deforestation


Autumn crocus - Romans and Greeks used it as poison, but now one of the most effective treatments for gout. Under threat from horticulture trade



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7196702.stm




:o:o






(f)(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|



21 January 2008

Edinburgh Evening News

Scotland


BARACK Obama is stepping up his effort to correct the misconception that he is a Muslim, now the US presidential campaign has hit the Christian Bible Belt in the south of the country.
At a rally to kick off a week-long campaign for the South Carolina primary for Democrats to be held on Saturday, Mr Obama tried to set the record straight from an attack circulating on the internet, that is designed to play into prejudices against Muslims and fears of terrorism.


"I've been to the same church /no spamming of other sites/ the same Christian church /no spamming of other sites/ for almost 20 years," Mr Obama said, stressing the word Christian. "I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the American flag.


"So if you get some silly e-mail, send it back to whoever sent it and tell them this is all crazy. Educate."


Mr Obama was referring to a chain e-mail circulating suggesting he is hiding his Islamic roots and may be a terrorist in disguise.



http://news.scotsman.com/world/Obama-steps-up-efforts-to.3692914.jp




|-)|-)|-)






(f)(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



21 January 2008

Edinburgh Evening News

Scotland


If you want streetlights, you'll have to buy your own


By HAZEL MOLLISON


RESIDENTS who have not had streetlights outside their homes for 20 years have been told they will have to pay £6000 to install them themselves.

People living in Long Craigs, Port Seton, are fighting to have lighting in the car park, which is also a through-route, behind their houses.


They claim they have suffered years of vandalism and disorder, with youths banging on doors and setting fire to wheelie bins.


Several residents say they are frightened to walk home at night.


Local police recommended installing two lampposts to help solve the problem. But East Lothian Council says that since it is private land, it is not its responsibility, and the residents will have to pay for the lighting themselves.


Lynne Nicol, 50, who works for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, was unaware of the problem when she moved to the street six years ago.


She said: "We have to use this route to get home, but you can't see anything at night.


"We've just been told 'buy it yourselves' but I don't have that kind of money to buy lampposts. Unless we can dig the holes ourselves and install the lamps, there's nothing we can do.


"The sad thing is we've had a huge problem with vandals. If we can at least get lighting that would help. We don't want people to think it is a no-go area.


"We've been promised lots of things over the years. We even had plans drawn up as we were told there would be funding, but it fell through."


She said they often had youths hanging around drinking after dark, and in one incident they set seven wheelie bins on fire.


Isobel Black, a community councillor who also lives in Long Craigs, said: "It's been a nightmare at times. There's been vandalism, fire raising and people banging on windows.


"The police report said lighting was needed. It's quite unbelievable that no-one has done anything."


Her neighbour Linda Johnstone, 40, has written to her local councillors and MSP asking for street lighting. She said: "It's just so intimidating at night walking through the car park when you can't see anyone.


"As a tax payer I thought that street lighting was something we wouldn't have to pay for, but the council told us that we would.


"We just don't want to drive into a black hole every night."


Long Craigs was built by George Wimpey in the 1980s and is part of the Dene Estate. But the developer no longer owns the land and says additional lighting is the residents' responsibility.


East Lothian council confirmed that it had "adopted" a small piece of greenery in the car park, which was normal when private estates were built.


Councillor Stuart Currie, who represents Prestonpans and Port Seton, said he had met residents to try and find a solution.


He said: "The council is under no obligation to provide lighting on private land. This is something the developers should have put in at the outset.


"We're trying to find a way through it. I'm looking at this from a public safety point of view. But ultimately the council can't spend money on putting up lighting in a private car park."


A police spokesman said: "Our community beat officers are aware of the problems, and they are working closely with local residents to address them."




http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/If-you-want-streetlights-you39ll.3692907.jp




^o) ^o)






(f)(f)

Sweetlady

[sweetlady]

<:o)<:o)<:o)



Friday, January 18, 2008 / 02:28 PM

The Advocate


The first LGBT nursing home in Europe is opening in Berlin, The Age newspaper reported Thursday.


The city's gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, has backed the project from start to finish. The four-floor facility is built to accommodate 28 residents in its high-tech rooms with private bathrooms.


"When you're old, you certainly don't want to give up your identity and live in some hostile environment, possibly sharing a room with someone who despises you," said Christian Hamm, an architect and board member of the new nursing home.



(y)(y)(y)(y)




(f)(f)



(S)(S) Pleasant dreams.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer(l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(y)(y)(y)



Planned Parenthood to Push Candidacies

By BRODY MULLINS

January 22, 2008; Page A6A

Wall Street Journal


WASHINGTON -- For the first time, abortion-rights advocate Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. is launching a major effort to elect pro-abortion-rights candidates to Congress and the White House in November.


The nation's largest reproductive-health-care provider plans to spend $10 million in hopes of persuading one million people to vote for abortion-rights candidates in the 2008 election. Planned Parenthood will roll out its election plans today to mark the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that made abortion legal.


With its "One Million Strong" campaign, Planned Parenthood becomes the latest Washington interest group to launch an independent effort to elect candidates who back its priorities. Since Congress enacted a campaign-finance-reform law banning large financial contributions to the Republican and Democratic parties, a growing number of individuals, labor unions, corporations and other interest groups have started or boosted their own campaigns to elect like-minded candidates.


In the presidential primaries, the fiscally conservative Club for Growth has aired television advertisements against Republican candidates who have backed tax increases in the past. Labor unions have spent heavily to support Democratic candidates they endorse. And Emily's List, a group that supports pro-abortion-rights female Democrats, has funded a campaign to get women to go to the polls for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primaries.


In all, Emily's List hopes to exceed the $46 million it raised for the 2006 election. Another abortion-rights organization, Naral Pro-Choice America, plans to spend $10 million on the general election.


Together, the efforts by the three abortion-rights groups are the most aggressive attempt by abortion-rights advocates to elect like-minded candidates -- most of whom are likely to be Democrats.


The campaign spending by Planned Parenthood and the other groups will compete against conservative organizations who are spending money to elect antiabortion Republicans, so it isn't clear how much impact the efforts will have on turnout and voters' choices.


The efforts come at a time when many abortion-rights advocates feel they are under attack. Since President Bush took office, he has nominated federal judges who have chipped away at abortion rights and installed two antiabortion justices to the Supreme Court. Two of the oldest justices on the current Supreme Court are liberal. If a Republican wins the 2008 presidential election, two more conservative judges could be added to the court.


Until recently, Planned Parenthood hadn't played a role in elections. In 2004, the organization endorsed Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry for president, marking the first time it had endorsed a presidential candidate in its 90-year history. In 2006, Planned Parenthood lent its backing to a handful of Democratic candidates for governor.


Officials at Planned Parenthood say they decided to move into the campaign arena because they say reproductive rights are under assault by Republicans. The political effort will be led by Cecile Richards, the organization's president, who has a long history of working in Democratic politics. "To keep our doors open," Ms. Richards said, "it's clear that we need to step into the electoral arena."


A former aide to Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, Ms. Richards took over Planned Parenthood last year. She is the daughter of Ann Richards, the former Democratic governor of Texas.


Ms. Richards said she believes Planned Parenthood can rally an important demographic that has proved to be elusive to the traditional political parties and candidates: young, unmarried independent and Democratic women.


"Women voters and young adults already trust Planned Parenthood's health information -- and this year they'll be able to rely on the Planned Parenthood Action Fund for election information," Ms. Richards said.


This year's presidential primaries underscore the importance of women and younger voters. In New Hampshire, women made up 57% of the Democratic vote and helped to deliver a surprising win to Mrs. Clinton. In Iowa, younger voters are credited with propelling Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois to victory.


Planned Parenthood has a potent political tool to reach its target voters: a database of nearly four million people. About five million women visit Planned Parenthood clinics across the country each year and 10 million people browse Planned Parenthood's Web site, the organization says.


Planned Parenthood will fund political advertisements for candidates and organize paid staffers and volunteers to go door-to-door seeking votes.




(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)(y)







"Kindness is the highest form of intelligence."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f) (f) (f)



http://news.smh.com.au/hillary-inspired-thousands-funeral-told/20080122-1nap.html




(f) (f) (f)






"There doesn't seem to be as many heroes and heroines to look up to today."


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)



Tue Jan 22, 2008 10:14am EST


NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters Life!) - Gay and lesbian couples are just as committed in their relationships as heterosexuals and the legal status of their union doesn't impact their happiness, according to new research.


In two new studies that compared same-sex and heterosexual couples using different factors and methods to assess their happiness, scientists found few differences.


"Among the committed couples, there were very few differences that we were able to identify either in terms of how satisfied these couples were, how effectively they interacted with one another or how their bodies responded physiologically while they were interacting with one another," Glenn I. Roisman, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, said in an interview.


He and his colleagues compared 30 gay male and 30 lesbian couples with 50 engaged heterosexual couples, 40 older, married heterosexual couples and dating heterosexual couples.


They found that regardless of sexual orientation, as the level of commitment increased, so did the ability to resolve conflict -- debunking the myth that same-sex relationships are not built on the same level of commitment as heterosexual ones.


In the second study researchers, who focused on how legal status affected relationship quality, followed 65 male and 138 female same-sex couples in civil unions, 23 male and 61 female same-sex couples not in civil unions and 55 heterosexual married couples over a three-year period.


The researchers from the University of Washington, San Diego State University and the University of Vermont found that same-sex couples, regardless of their legal status, were more satisfied with their relationships and reported more positive feelings toward their partners and less conflict than heterosexual married couples.


But gay and lesbian couples not in civil unions were more likely than same-sex couples in civil unions or heterosexuals who were married to end their relationships, according to the study.


Both studies were published in the journal Developmental Psychology.


"My personal view is that I think it's very hard to make the case as has been made that these same-sex relationships are fundamentally different from opposite-sex relationships in the presence of data like these and other data in the developmental literature," said Roisman.




http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2140631220080122




(f)(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(~) (f) (~) (f) (~)




AWARDS SEASON 2008


By Popjournalism Staff | Posted on January 22, 2008


Canadian talent earned top notices as the 80th Academy Award nominees were revealed today.


Two Canadians were nominated for their part in Juno (which was also nominated for Best Picture), including Halifax’s Ellen Page for Best Actress and Montreal-born Jason Reitman for Best Director.


Toronto’s Sarah Polley earned two major notices for her directorial debut, Away from Her, with Polley earning a nod for Best Screenplay and British actress Julie Christie for Best Actress.


Both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood earned eight nominations (including Best Picture and Best Actor notices), followed by Atonement and Michael Clayton with seven nominations each.


Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett has the possibility to add two more acting awards to her mantle, as she is nominated for both Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Best Supporting Actress for I’m Not There.


The Academy Awards are still planned to held on February 24, to be hosted by Jon Stewart, despite the continuing Writers’ Guild of America strike.


Here is a list of the top nominees:


BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Juno



BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno



BEST ACTOR
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton



BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Jason Reitman, Juno
Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly


http://www.popjournalism.ca/magazine/2008/01/22/academy-awards-nominees-announced/





For the full list of nominees: Academy Awards web site:

http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=printer






(~) (l) (~) (l) (~) (l) (~)




(f)





Thank goodness for www.netflix.com..... Gems I never would have experienced! (l) (~) (l)


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:|:|:|:|:|


:s:s:s



January 13, 2008

Lives

Consumer Man

By PAUL MECURIO


I’m one of those people who yell at store clerks. Not just any store clerks, but the ones who are rude, incompetent or indifferent. In other words, all store clerks. I’m the guy who always has to speak to the manager. In my head, I’m “Consumer Man”: a superhero fighting on behalf of oppressed consumers the world over. In my wife’s head, I’m crazy.


“Someday you’re going to scream at the wrong person,” she says. “And you’re going to get shot.” This “wrong person” has figured into so many of our conversations that I feel as if I know him, even though I really know only two things: 1) he’s “wrong” and 2) he’s going to shoot me.


One day I called a computer company and tried to reach a human in customer service. As I ran a gantlet of voice prompts, I couldn’t get the automated female voice to understand me when I said “yes.” Repeatedly, she asked if I’d like customer service. Each time, I said “yes.” She kept asking. I could feel consumers everywhere being oppressed. So, standing there in my superhero costume (boxers and T-shirt), it was Consumer Man to the rescue. Instead of saying “yes,” I tried other one-word responses.


“Would you like customer service?”


“Idiot!”


“Would you like customer service?”


“Moron!”


“Would you like customer service?”


“Whore!”


As this insane tirade took place, my wife and 8-year-old son looked on in shock. I vowed to change my ways — or at least to tell my wife that I was changing them. A new, more tolerant me was born. Someone else would have to fight for the rights of consumers. I had a family to not “frighten to death” anymore.


With this new approach, one day I found myself with eight items in the express lane at the supermarket. I felt great. Then the guy at the register asked, “Would you like a bag for these?”


He was kidding, right? No — he ag. Who carries eight loose items? He asked again: Would I like a bag? I wanted to say: “No, I’m from Africa. I’ll just balance these on my head as I walk barefoot 126 miles to my village.” But the “new Paul” politely said, “Yes, I’d like a bag,” and I was on my way.


Being passive wasn’t so bad. Although I did feel a pain in my chest and a tingling in my left arm. But if repressing my true feelings caused a heart attack, so be it. It was better than being shot. My wife would have been proud.


On the way home I stopped at a little newsstand to buy a paper. It’s owned by a nice Indian gentleman I had given my business to for years. With him I never needed to “speak to the manager.” Besides, in his stand there wasn’t room for one.


It was raining, so I asked for a plastic bag for my paper. He lashed out at me: “We have no bag, just go, we don’t have a bag, go, go, no bag!!” I was shocked, first at his hostile refusal, then at his use of “we.” Denied a bag again! Had the supermarket guy called the newsstand guy to tell him I was coming?


In my new, positive tone I asked again if I could please have a bag. He said: “No! I only make 5 cents on the paper.”


Since when was rain protection given for only periodicals with a healthy profit margin? In other words, I needed a bag. I saw a big pile of bags behind him. I was crestfallen. After all the business I had given him, I earned the right to encase my news in plastic. “New Paul” was gone. “Consumer Man” was back.


“I want to speak to the manager,” I bellowed.


“What? No manager, no bag, just go!!”


I said he was rude, incompetent and indifferent. Although not in those words. He responded, “I’m going to kick your butt, properly!” He said “properly.” I had never been told off so politely. “Go or I’ll kick your butt!” he repeated.


“Do it!” I screamed and dropped my drawers right there on the sidewalk in Midtown Manhattan. While slapping myself on the backside I yelled: “You want it? Here it is! I demand a bag!”


Soon we were being watched by a large crowd — if they only knew I was doing this for them! — and two police officers.


“What’s going on?” asked one cop. With my pants around my ankles and a tone of complete justification, I explained, “He won’t give me a bag!”


Unbelievably, the officers made him give me one (“I hate it when my paper gets wet,” explained the cop), but they gave us both summonses. “Looks like you picked the wrong person to tangle with,” they said to the newsstand guy. “You’re lucky he didn’t shoot you.” I couldn’t wait to tell my wife. I had finally met the wrong person — and he was I.




http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/magazine/13lives-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin




:o:o




"Where have all the people committed to GREAT customer service gone? Long time gone."






(f)






Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)(f)(f)



Monday, 21 January 2008, 17:25 GMT


Five dead in US mid-air collision


A mid-air crash between two small planes has killed five people in California, including one on the ground as debris crashed on to a town.


Witnesses described seeing the two Cessna planes hit each other and pedestrians running as debris landed on car dealerships on Sunday afternoon.


Two bodies were thrown from one plane in the collision near Los Angeles and an employee on the ground was killed.


Investigators have not yet said what caused the accident.


The crash took place over the town of Corona in southern California, about 45 miles (70km) south-east of Los Angeles.


An investigator said the Corona airfield was "uncontrolled", with no flight control tower.


'Run! Run!'


Doug Champion, an off-duty policeman, said he saw the planes on a collision course.


"They looked like they would run into each other," he told the Los Angeles Times.


He assumed they were at different altitudes but then he saw one plane strike the other.


"There was no explosion or fire," he said. "They just hit, broke up and fell from the sky."


A Nissan salesman, Pete Argueta, said he saw a colleague and customers dashing for cover, screaming: "Run! Run! Run!"


The cockpit of one of the planes landed on his dealership, with a dead body inside, he told the LA Times.


Police said two bodies were thrown out of one plane on impact, one landing on a car and the other in a car park.


At the Chevrolet dealership across the road, an employee was killed by falling debris.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7201059.stm





Related Stories:

http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_8032208?nclick_check=1





Corona Municipal Airport, Corona, California, USA

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KAJO







(l)(l)(l)(l)(l) My goodness I know this airport really well. Really well, over a long time as I worked towards getting my private pilot's license.


:o:o





(f)(f)





"Take time to smell the roses. Life really IS quite short.


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (p) (l) (p) (l) (p)




http://www.earthcam.com/topten.php





Most are really nice...........including Patagonia, Chile............(y)


Enjoy!




(f)




(um)(um) Let Your Smile Be Your Umbrella. (um)(um)


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l)



Climbing Kilimanjaro

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/20/travel/20080120_EXPLORER_SLIDESHOW_index.html





<Gasp....> Sunrise at Stella Point, at the lower lip of Kibo’s summit crater.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/20/travel/20080120_EXPLORER_SLIDESHOW_7.html





Literally walking in the clouds:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/20/travel/20080120_EXPLORER_SLIDESHOW_9.html






Trekkers at Uhuru on Mount Kilimanjaro’s Kibo peak. At 19,340 feet, it’s the highest point in Africa.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/16/travel/20kili395.1.jpg





“I had wanted to climb to the roof of Africa before climate change erased its ice fields and the romance of its iconic ‘Snows of Kilimanjaro’ image.”





January 20, 2008

Explorer | Mount Kilimanjaro

On Africa’s Roof, Still Crowned With Snow

By NEIL MODIE


A THICK veil of snow had settled on Kilimanjaro the morning after my group arrived in Tanzania. Over breakfast, we gazed at the peak filling the sky above the palm trees of our hotel courtyard in Moshi, the town closest to the mountain. It was as Hemingway described it: “as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun.”


I had wanted to climb to the roof of Africa before climate change erased its ice fields and the romance of its iconic “Snows of Kilimanjaro” image. But as we trudged across the 12,000-foot Shira plateau on Day 2 of our weeklong climb and gazed at the whiteness of the vast, humpbacked summit, I thought maybe I needn’t have worried.


An up-and-down-and-up traverse of the south face of Kibo, the tallest of the mountain’s three volcanic peaks, showed us a panorama of the summit ice cap and fractured tentacles of glacial ice that dangled down gullies dividing the vertical rock faces. And four days later, when we reached 19,340-foot Uhuru, the highest point on Kibo, we beheld snow and ice fields so enormous as to resemble the Arctic.


It looked nothing like the photographs of Kibo nearly denuded of ice and snow in the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Nor did it seem to jibe with the film’s narrative: “Within the decade, there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro.”


As it turned out, we had simply been lucky.


This was the last week of January — nearly a year ago — and the middle of the dry season. But several weeks of heavy rain and snow preceded the arrival of our group, 10 mountaineering clients and a professional guide from International Mountain Guides, based near Seattle. That made for a freakishly well-fed snow pack and the classic snowy image portrayed on travel posters, the label of the local Kilimanjaro Premium Lager and the T-shirts hawked in Moshi’s tourist bazaars. But to many climate scientists and glaciologists who have probed and measured, the disappearance of the summit’s ice fields is inevitable and imminent.


Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University who has studied Kilimanjaro’s ice fields for years, photographed the summit a year to the week, coincidentally, before we were there. He found only a few, isolated snow patches in shaded areas, a drastic difference from what we encountered. Even on the world’s highest free-standing volcano, seasonal snow doesn’t remain on a peak so close to the Equator.


One of our Tanzanian guides, John Mtui, a tall, bespectacled and soft-spoken Chagga — the people who inhabit Kilimanjaro’s southern foothills — began climbing the mountain as a porter 25 years earlier, when he was 18. “When I first started climbing, we had big snow, big glaciers,” Mr. Mtui said. “The glaciers were bigger and taller than now. And also, the weather changed. We had heavier rain than we have now.”


Like other exotic destinations widely believed to be threatened by degradation from climate change, the mountain’s precariousness has become a marketing opportunity. The adventure travel industry sends about 30,000 climbers a year toward Kilimanjaro’s summit. Scientific and outdoor magazines mention the imminent loss of the ice fields. So do guide services and outfitters on their Web sites. Our climb leader, Justin Merle, a mellow 6-foot-4 man in his late 20s who has a world-class mountaineering résumé, said of the typical adventure-travel article: “It’s like, ‘See Kili Before the Snow Is Gone.’ That’s almost a catchphrase.”


Given Kilimanjaro’s snow, glaciers and volcanic upbringing, it didn’t look all that different from peaks I’ve climbed in my native Northwest. From my living room in Seattle, I can gaze at Mount Rainier, which I’ve climbed a dozen times. Even in the dead of summer, it retains a mantle of ice that makes it seem like a hulking life form. Kilimanjaro is almost unimaginably bigger: nearly a mile higher, it covers 1,250 square miles abutting Kenya.


And yet, unlike Rainier, climbing Kilimanjaro required no real mountaineering skills, no ice axes, ropes or crampons, merely strong legs, hearts and lungs for trudging more than three and a half vertical miles above sea level. That, and a supply of Diamox, to fend off altitude sickness.


Our approach was on the Machame, the most scenic and second-most heavily traveled — a distant second — of the six designated routes to the summit. Even so, our six camps along the way, five on the ascent and one on the descent, were 200-tent metropolises.


The most heavily congested approach is the Marangu, called the “tourist” or “Coca-Cola” route, a reflection of its overcrowded, touristy ambience and the ubiquitous soft drink, which is sold at camps along the way. Our longer, more macho Machame is known as the “whiskey route.”


The trip to the summit and back down again covered 39 miles. Most of my companions were seasoned hikers and backpackers but had scant mountaineering experience. Two exceptions were Todd Ziegler, an orthopedic surgeon from an Atlanta suburb, and his friend, Julie Nellis, a physical therapist from Atlanta, a diminutive but tireless, multisport athlete and the only woman on the trip. Both had climbed Rainier and major summits in the Sierra Nevada, the Rockies, Mexico and elsewhere.


Mr. Merle had already guided expeditions to four of the Seven Summits — Aconcagua, Everest, McKinley and Vinson Massif in Antarctica. Kilimanjaro was his easiest. We 11 Americans were the pampered tip of a human iceberg that included three Tanzanian guides and 38 porters and cooks, all Chaggas. They cooked and served our meals, boiled our water and carried much of our individual gear along with cook pots, food, our sleeping tents and a walk-in dining tent. As we’d trudge with our day packs up the mountain, the porters — some in their midteens — would overtake us while hauling on their backs our duffels containing our sleeping bags and extra clothing, tents and plastic armchairs. “Jambo,” they’d murmur, Swahili for “hello”; it was a polite way of saying, “Coming through. Step aside.”


We passed through ecological zones of spectacular diversity: equatorial rain forest, followed by misty heath and moors dotted with outsize, otherworldly flora, then alpine high desert and finally the frigid, dry summit zone. It was all on trail, but several steep stretches required grabbing handholds on near-vertical rock.


At 5,718 feet at the trailhead Machame Gate, we set out on a muddy track in the rain forest, thick with vines, old-man’s-beard and trees perched atop giant above-ground roots. The cloudy sky abruptly gave way to heavy rain, which ceased once we made our way up a misty hogback ridge onto the Shira plateau, covered with giant heathers and sprinkled with glossy volcanic obsidian.


As we traversed the plateau, gaining, losing and regaining elevation between 12,300 feet and 15,200 feet, four of us took Mr. Merle’s offer to make a side trip to the Lava Tower, a black volcanic plug rising some 300 vertical feet above the plateau, while the others hiked on to the next camp.


I get spooked scrambling up even nontechnical vertical rock. But when Mr. Merle asked if any of us wanted to ascend the tower, and Ms. Nellis instantly chirped, “I want to go,” the rest of us followed, assisted by Mr. Merle and Mr. Mtui in finding each handhold and foothold.


In the moors were the region’s most distinctively weird plants: colonnade-like, eight-foot lobelias and clusters of tree-size senecio kilimanjari, or giant groundsels, with clumps of cabbage-shaped leaf clusters atop withered-looking trunks.


Kilimanjaro’s abundant wildlife was rarely visible. Small snakes and monkeys scurried away from us in the rain forest. Jet-black, white-necked ravens — sturdy, hatchet-beaked, mean-looking — uttered guttural croaks as they fought over food scraps at the higher camps.


At our highest camp, austere Barafu (ice in Swahili) on a cliff top at 15,200 feet, the only permanent residents were primitive lichens and mosses. From there, starting at midnight with headlamps, we clambered, gulping thin air, up frozen scree the final 4,100 vertical feet to the summit. “Pole-pole,” the porters counseled, Swahili for slowly. As if we could do otherwise.


On several steep, single-file stretches, we waged elbow and expletive duels with Italian, American and Russian parties trying to crowd past us and other teams who were slowed by traffic jams of climbers above us.


Patchy snow covered the upper slopes above approximately 18,500 feet. At dawn, as we reached Stella Point at the lower lip of Kibo’s summit crater, the fluted walls of the flat-topped Rebmann Glacier stretched out to our left.


Snow blanketed the summit area, a mile and a half wide and hemmed by glaciers. Uhuru, the highest point in all Africa, was a 45-minute slog ahead.


From there, we gazed toward Kenya, obscured by clouds, on the mountain’s northern flank. In the distance to the southwest rose the volcanic cone of Mount Meru, 15,000 feet. Seven miles to the east, yet still part of the Kilimanjaro massif, was its fanged, eroded, second-highest peak and Africa’s third highest, 16,893-foot Mawenzi. (Mount Kenya, about 90 miles north of Nairobi, is No. 2 at 17,058 feet.)


All 10 of us reached the summit, even two stragglers fighting altitude sickness. That let International Mountain Guides continue to boast of a 100 percent success rate in getting its Kilimanjaro clients to the top. That flies in the face of the mountain’s overall record, thought to be roughly 50 percent failures, mainly on the less acclimatization-friendly Marangu route.


After the ascent, we dropped 4,100 feet back down loose scree to Barafu for a brief rest. Then we descended another 5,000 vertical feet, the last hours in a downpour, to muddy Mweka Camp, our final overnight, in the rain forest.


There, we beheld a most welcome namesake of the mountain: Kilimanjaro Premium Lager, sold by the Mweka park ranger out of his tiny hut.


Descending the final 4,800 feet of elevation to Mweka Gate, we found a clamorous gaggle of local entrepreneurs hustling T-shirts, souvenirs and services. Two dollars bought me an incomparable bargain: a thorough scrubbing, rinsing and wiping of my mud-caked boots, gaiters and trekking poles.


Back at the Keys Hotel in Moshi that night, the local lager was the official beverage of our victory celebration. On its label, at least, Kilimanjaro’s snows would never disappear.


IF YOU GO

Kilimanjaro has two main climbing seasons: January through February and mid-June through mid-October, typically the most stable weather periods. The mountain has six established routes to the summit, some of them demanding mountaineering routes. The most heavily used trekking route is the Marangu, but other routes take longer to reach the summit and allow for more gradual acclimatization.


Numerous adventure travel companies in the United States and abroad offer guided climbs of Kilimanjaro. International Mountain Guides (360-569-2609; www.mountainguides.com which has led treks to the summit since 1989, takes the Machame route. There are a 7-day climb for $3,600 and a 15-day trip for $4,975 that includes a wildlife safari to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti Plain. Prices include park fees and in-country travel.


Alpine Ascents International (206-378-1927; www.alpineascents.com has scheduled 2008 winter climbs at about $5,600, via Machame and including a safari in a 15-day trip. There are climb-only ($4,700) and safari-only ($2,500) options.


Rainier Mountaineering (888-892-5462 or 360-569-2227; www.rmiguides.com offers a 13-day climb via the Machame route and a safari for $4,895 or a 9-day climb-only trip for $3,495.


Mountain Travel Sobek (888-687-6235 or 510-594-6000; www.mtsobek.com takes trekkers on a less traveled route, the Rongai, to Kilimanjaro’s summit in a 14-day trip that includes a wildlife safari and a stay on Kenya’s coast. Prices start at $5,995 plus $1,050 for park fees and $300 for in-country airfare, or a 10-day climb-only option for $3,995 plus $975 for park fees and $200 for in-country airfare.




http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/travel/20Explorer.html?ref=travel




(f)(f)(f)






"Ancora Imparo." - "I am still learning." - Michelangelo



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



<sigh...........onsen ryokans..................>



http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/16/travel/20next650.2.jpg



January 20, 2008

Next Stop | Japan


A Relaxing Tradition Dips a Toe in the 21st Century

By DANIEL ALTMAN


WHAT happens when Japan’s deeply rooted traditions and its insatiable appetite for new technology collide? The results are on show in a recent wave of hot spring hotels, or onsen ryokans, that merge ancient ideas with concepts from modern design.


Though some Japanese might shudder at the idea of tampering with their age-old retreats, the new features may help ensure the survival of onsen ryokans.


The basic aspects of the onsen ryokan experience haven’t changed in centuries. Customers can enjoy long soaks in the hot spring baths, often with a view of the outdoors, in a remote, natural setting. They stay in a simple, elegant accommodations and can savor meals composed of as many as a dozen small, seasonal courses. And the spaces where they eat, sleep and, especially, bathe have many traditional cues.


“The most essential elements of an onsen ryokan are its location and quality of onsen water,” Hiroshi Ebisawa, an architect and designer who is a specialist in hot springs, said in an e-mail interview. “An architect usually struggles with how to create a cozy and comfortable ‘yu-kukan,’ or bathing space, between its surrounding landscape and onsen facility.”


Onsen ryokans have always been constructed of natural materials, Mr. Ebisawa said, including timber, earth, paper, bamboo, grass and cloth. Together with dim lighting, he said, they combine to form an environment that encourages “traditional behavior” — the personal, relaxing rituals of the Japanese bath.


But younger Japanese may see the onsen ryokan as too stuck in the past, especially with the expansion of their travel options.


“Some people have always loved going to onsen, no matter what their age or background,” said Peter M. Grilli, president of the Japan Society of Boston, who has lived half his life in Japan. “But it’s become so much easier for people to travel outside Japan — to go to Hawaii, or to ski in Vancouver — that young people tend to go abroad.”


Moreover, he said, prices at onsen ryokans can be high enough to make an overseas trip look cheap.


Enter the modern onsen ryokan, where tradition and technology combine for an experience that is no less Japanese. Into the austerity of sparsely furnished rooms have come liquid crystal TVs and programmable toilets. Mood lighting and frosted glass that would make a New York boutique hotel proud have arrived in the hot spring baths. And don’t forget the listening rooms, private libraries and cocktail menus.


But is it possible to modernize the onsen ryokan without disrupting tradition? It helps that despite the prescriptions for materials and lighting, there’s still quite a bit of flexibility built into the experience. Mr. Ebisawa said the standard for design could be like the ideal of “an ambiguous Japanese expression” sought by Kenzaburo Oe, the Nobel-winning writer; it is neither white nor black, but somewhere in between.


An example of this happy ambiguity is Otaru Ryotei Kuramure, an onsen ryokan that has welcomed guests since May 2002 west of Sapporo on Hokkaido, Japan’s large northern island. A shuttle from the train station takes guests to a group of low cement buildings with peaked roofs the color of charcoal, sitting behind wire-encased stone walls. The combination of old and new begins right away, as one heavy door of stained wood and then another slide open automatically, revealing a lobby adorned with Mies-inspired rectangular couches and rugs made of leather shreds.


In the rooms, the modern and traditional are practically indistinguishable among the rice-paper screens, pale wood staircases, tatami rugs, rough granite bathroom surfaces and austere private gardens. But there’s just enough of a high-design feel to soften the jolt of a liquid-crystal TV and Ethernet jacks.


The baths offer more contrasts and complementarities. The changing areas are as plush as those of a modern luxury hotel’s spa, with Baroque orchestral music wafting in. The outdoor bath, however, is a simple rectangular pool lined with gray-green stone. Above a half-wall of frosted glass is a timeless vista: a towering, tree-covered slope near a burbling stream, all filtered through the haze of steam rising off the hot spring water.


Besides a smooth fusion of traditional and modern in its bathing setting, said Mr. Ebisawa, who was not involved in the project, Kuramure blends sleek architecture with familiar old styles like Ito-koshi, a fine latticework characteristic of houses in the middle of Kyoto.


The same goes for Hoshinoya, a larger resort that opened in July 2005 near Nagano, on the main island of Honshu. If Kuramure is a solitary, flawless diamond, then Hoshinoya is a necklace from Tiffany — still luxurious, but bigger and a touch less exclusive. Its villas are arranged around a small creek in a style that Mr. Ebisawa said echoes Asaba, a famed onsen ryokan near Shizuoka.


At Hoshinoya, dark woods replace light, and gray stone floors stand in for tatami. Private baths look out on the water and fill with onsen water at the touch of a button.


Other technologies are more of a departure from the traditional, though. Hoshinoya’s maze of low-ceilinged, dark-walled baths culminates in a room lighted only by six underwater halogen spots. Mystical music in the background, together with the heat and the sulfurous vapors, give the bathing experience an almost psychedelic feel.


To Mr. Ebisawa, this makes Hoshinoya more of an “onsen theme park” than an onsen ryokan. In a true onsen ryokan, he said, guests are looking for natural harmony, so invisible technologies like heated floors, air-conditioning and water-recycling systems are more appropriate. “We must make them not recognize the existence of these new technologies and equipment” in onsen ryokans, he asserted.


YET other innovations may help to attract a new generation of visitors.


“They’re getting more international clients, because there are more things written in English that are making the ryokan a little bit more accessible,” said Elizabeth Heilman Brooke, an author of books on Japanese spas and ryokan hotels. “But also, their Japanese clientele are global travelers, so even the people who have gone to the same ryokan year in and year out have a sophistication from all their travels that is sort of pushing the ryokan to change with the times.”


Those international customers often demand access to network connections, television and even mobile phone reception. Younger Japanese, too, may value the modern conveniences.


“If you were a young Japanese in your 20’s, wouldn’t you rather do your blogging sitting out in the woods by a hot spring than in your cramped little apartment in Nishi-Shinjuku?” said Mr. Grilli, the Japan Society president.


The modernizations have even taken hold at some of the oldest onsen ryokans, like the new Kaga Modern wing at the 380-year-old Shiroganeya ryokan in Ishikawa prefecture.


Yet one aspect of the experience has evolved seamlessly: the food. Meals at the top onsen ryokans have always been decadent, drawn-out affairs with luxurious ingredients blended in creative ways. If anything, that style is influencing the rest of the wealthy world’s cuisine, rather than the other way around.


At Kuramure, dinner one night included a pairing of marinated lotus root and whelk, sea urchin custard in broth, langoustine sashimi and a chilled, free-form crème brûlée served with mint over warm baked apples. Hoshinoya offered up smoked salmon tartare with flying-fish roe and black seaweed, sea bream served in paper in its own broth and lime, and tofu made with celeriac and topped with wasabi. Both meals had at least 10 courses, served on lacquered trays and local ceramics.


These luxuries come at a very modern price, up to $500 a night including meals. But connecting all of the facets of the onsen ryokan is the deliberate, refined service that has defined the hotels since the first ones opened their doors hundreds of years ago.


“I can’t think of anything that is more humane,” Ms. Brooke said. “It’s very personal and traditional pacing, and for people who want something quick and fast, it’s the opposite.”



VISITOR INFORMATION

GETTING THERE


Flights to Sapporo leave daily from several Japanese airports; flights from Narita, near Tokyo, take about 90 minutes. From the airport, a train takes roughly an hour to reach Otaruchikko, where a 10-minute shuttle ride brings guests to Kuramure.


Hoshinoya is easily reached on the Shinkansen bullet trains bound for Nagano, which travel from Tokyo to the town of Karuizawa in about an hour; fares start at 2,520 yen each way, or about $23 at 110 yen to the dollar. The resort is a short taxi ride from the station. Shiroganeya is 25 minutes by car from the Komatsu airport, or two hours by train (plus transfer) from Kyoto or Nagoya; train fares from Kyoto and Nagoya start at 2,610 yen and 2,820 yen, respectively.


WHERE TO STAY

Otaru Ryotei Kuramure (81-134-51-5151 www.kuramure.com/english charges 36,750 yen a person, double occupancy, with dinner and breakfast included. A 150 yen bathing tax also applies.


Rooms at Hoshinoya (81-267-45-6000, www.hoshinoya.com/en start at 13,000 yen a person, double occupancy. Meals at the three restaurants are extra; dinner entrees at the best start at 12,600 yen, but at 1,200 yen at the most casual one.


The ancient Shiroganeya ryokan (81-761-77-0025; www.shiroganeya.co.jp offers rooms from 28,000 yen a person, double occupancy, in its classic wing, and from 32,000 yen in its modern wing.




http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/travel/20next.html?ref=travel





(l)(l)(l) After having a delightful early sushi supper Wednesday, I'm ready to enjoy an onsen ryokan!



(f)(f)






Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes,


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



Fondue is simple to make and satisfying.


http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/23/dining/23fondue190.jpg



January 23, 2008

A Good Appetite

A Little Nostalgia, a Long Fork and Lots of Cheese

By MELISSA CLARK


ONE chilly afternoon, my mother dropped by with a small shopping bag filled with fondue forks.


“I thought you might find a use for these,” she said before rushing out the door.


But wait, I called after her, what happened to the fondue pot?


“Oh, I used it to plant an amaryllis,” she said.


I think she meant for me to use the forks for tasks like removing the last olive from a tall, narrow jar, or spearing a stray cherry tomato that had rolled onto the oven floor.


But I had another idea. Why not make fondue?


Although I hadn’t made fondue since graduate school, when I lived with a friend and her parents’ vintage fondue pot, I remembered the recipe being as simple as a toasted cheese sandwich, but more satisfying. After all, be it an oozing wedge of baked Camembert, the puddles of mozzarella atop a pizza, or a bubbling Welsh rabbit, few foods are as compelling as melted cheese.


But did fondue always have to be the centerpiece of what inevitably comes off as an I Love the ’70s theme party? What if I wanted to make fondue for two? Would we have to wear bell-bottoms?


And, most pressingly, could I substitute another pot for the one currently housing my mother’s flowering plant?


I called Terrance Brennan, the chef at Artisanal, where fondue is on the menu year-round. He was reassuring. “You can use any pot for fondue, as long as you eat it fast enough, before it gets cold and hard,” he told me.


I told him I doubted that would be a problem. Besides, a heavy, enamel-lined cast-iron pot, like the ones at Artisanal, would retain heat far longer than my mother’s lightweight fondue pot, giving me plenty of time to devour a fittingly gluttonous portion before the melted cheese lost its allure.


Mr. Brennan assured me that almost any cheese could work in a fondue. After all, fondue isn’t one particular recipe. I’ve seen it on menus to describe any number of preparations, including a lush blanket coating snails at Anthos and a thick sauce for apple salad at One Sixtyblue in Chicago.


As long as it is primarily made from copious quantities of melted cheese (the word fondue comes from the French fondre, to melt), then, at least to me, it qualifies.


But I did want to start with something fairly classic, so I searched my shelves for a Swiss cookbook. I eventually came across a chapter on Switzerland in a 1970 Time-Life Foods of the World cookbook titled “A Quintet of Cuisines,” a wide-ranging farrago that juxtaposed chapters on Bulgaria, Poland and all of North Africa.


Its fondue recipe called for an equal amount of Gruyère cheese, for its depth of flavor, and Emmenthaler, for its supple texture; a shot of kirsch, for its cherry aroma and alcoholic oomph; and a little garlic, for bite.


The recipe came with a warning: do not drink any cold beverages with fondue, or the cheese will ball up and wreak havoc on your intestines.


The information sounded suspect. So I called my Swiss informant in New York, Ralf Kuettel. At his restaurant, Trestle on Tenth, one can order pizokel, traditional Swiss dumplings, and any of 10 Swiss wines, but conspicuously not fondue. “I’m trying to avoid the stereotype,” he explained.


And what about that ban on cold liquids?


“That’s what people always say, but then, most people drink fairly cold white wine with fondue, so it’s a dish that’s full of contradictions,” he said, adding that he never encountered any intestinal distress from the combination.


He approved of the recipe, though. So that night I made it in my trusty cast-iron Dutch oven. It took all of 15 minutes, and emerged as magnificently creamy, smooth and velvety as custard, but with a funky, deep flavor that dazzlingly enriched anything I dunked in the pot: bread cubes, apple slices, clementine sections, nuggets of salami, pretzels, tofu. It was even marvelous spooned onto a romaine lettuce salad in place of dressing.


When the cheese started to cool and congeal, which took a good 30 minutes, all I did was stick it back on the stove, stirring until runny.


Although I had gobbled the better part of a fondue dish meant for four, days later I was ready for another. A friend was coming to dinner, and I couldn’t think of a simpler or more inviting dish to serve on a winter night.


This time I used a good extra-sharp Cheddar cheese and stirred in a little Irish whiskey in place of the kirsch. We devoured it in minutes, and my friend didn’t even notice the absence of a Sterno can beneath the pot.


When the pot was nearly empty, I put it on the stove to brown the thin layer of cheese that remained. It became as crisp and salty as a potato chip. Called la religieuse, according to my multi-culti sourcebook, it made an appropriately miraculous finale. My friend was unduly awed by my culinary prowess; I never mentioned that fondue was one of the easiest company dishes I’d made.


After those accolades, I realized that most people are charmed by a vat of gushing, aromatic cheese. Fondue became my go-to dinner party hors d’oeuvre, and I tried to concoct every possible combination.


I played with whatever was left over in the cheese drawer, and it was all divine. I used a port wine once instead of a white to make a delectable, shockingly purple rendition. Beer, dry red wine and cream also worked as the liquid component. I gleefully tossed in herbs and extra garlic, fennel seeds and cumin, caramelized onions, chipotle chilies, chopped pickle.


Remembering that I once dined on an extraordinary Stilton and Sauternes fondue at Artisanal, I made a variation with Passito di Pantelleria and Gorgonzola. I even reached out to fondue’s molten sisters and whipped up a chorizo-laden queso fundido and an elegant white-truffle-oil-suffused fonduta with a good, pungent fontina. It seemed I couldn’t fail.


Until the day I did. I watched, horrified, as a mass of gorgeously nutty, aged Gouda seized and curdled into a stringy, unappetizing mass. What had gone wrong? I phoned the cheese maven Max McCalman, an author of books on cheese and a consultant to Artisanal.


He wasn’t surprised. Crumbly, dry cheeses don’t melt as readily as smooth, semifirm ones, he said. But, he added, a little bit of acid, like a high acid wine or lemon juice, will do wonders in smoothing out intractable curds.


So I gave Gouda another try, this time using a two-year-old chunk (the first one had been aged for three years) and a bright, high acid wine. I also threw in some caraway seeds because I love few things more than melted Gouda on rye.


Yet again, the fondue gods were on my side. It was bubbling perfection: rich, pungent, resinous from the caraway and buttery from the runny cheese.


As I was lapping up the last few drops, my mother called. Her amaryllis died. Did I want the fondue pot?


I thought about it for a minute, then declined. I had everything I needed already here.




http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/dining/23appe.html



(l)(l)(l)(l)




(f)(f)






(S)(S)

SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)





http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/18/travel/escapes/20080118_URBAN_SLIDESHOW_index.html





(f)(f)






Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (~) (l) (~) (l)



Between Two Women (2000)


Barbara Marten gives a bravura performance that tugs at the heartstrings in this drama co-starring Andrina Carroll and Andrew Dunn. Marten plays Ellen, a working-class mother in Northern England who struggles mightily with her feelings for another woman (Carroll) -- who happens to be her 10-year-old son's (Dunn) exuberant teacher. A fine smoldering portrait of repressed sexuality and the courage it takes to "come out of the closet."



(~) Review:

It's best for the interactions between the two women, supported by a rich background of family, class and subtle visuals. More languorous than slow, we see their burgeoning love rooted in the context of their lives. More focus on the women (the women/context mix is too heavy on the latter) and their development as a couple would have helped, but it's a Sapphic story that slyly grips you. No sex or even kissing, but it's stronger for it. What a lovely couple.




(l)(l) I really enjoyed this wonderful film - especially with it being filmed in the U.K. - quite extraordinary! I forgot what a delight this little gem is. Definitely worth watching with someone. (y)(y)



(f)(f)







(S)(S) Have a lovely rest of your evening and Thursday morning! (f)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (~)



Everything's Jake (2000)


Although he's homeless in New York, the remarkably well-centered Jake (Ernie Hudson) finds peace in his daily routine, a routine that's disrupted when he discovers a newly destitute man (Graeme Malcolm) in distress. Taking an interest in the stranger, Jake befriends him and shares his survival techniques. A film festival favorite directed by up-and-comer Matthew Miele, this gently comic drama co-stars Debbie Allen, Robin Givens and Lou Rawls.




(y) Three stars. I really liked this unusual film. I felt grateful as I watched as well as afterwards.




(f)




(S)(S) Have a lovely night.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(y)(y)(y)



www.sciplus.com




:) Really unusual stuff!



(f)





Scientia non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem.

Science has no enemies but the ignorant.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o:o



Q U O T E D


"There'll be times when you just want to reach through the screen and choke them or slap them. To think they could talk that way to a girl."



-- Retired Missouri police chief Jim Murray, 69, who, posing as a 13-year-old girl in chat rooms, has figured in 20 arrests and 10 convictions of online predators.




http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_8077062?nclick_check=1



(y)(y)(y)



(f)






Si decem habeas linguas, mutum esse addecet.

Even if you had ten tongues, you should hold them all.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:) :) :)




http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2008/01/a-list-of-regional-pizza-styles.html




Talk about a Gold Mine of links! (y)(y)



Have fun.........


(f)









Vasa vana plurimum sonant.

Empty pots make the most noise.


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)




http://www.digyourowngrave.com/flight-of-the-hamsters/




:)



(f)






Carpe pugam.

Grab ass. ;)


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

8-| 8-| 8-|



http://www.worldtaximeter.com/




(y)(y)



(f)




Carpe carpio.

Seize the carp.


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o:o



http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925371.700-teach-your-brain-to-stretch-time.html




(y)(y)



(f)






Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules.

If I were you, I wouldn't walk in front of any catapults.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)




http://www.swisstrains.ch/




VERY cool. (y)(y)




(f)(f)







Nil illegitimi carborundum.

Don't let the bastards grind you down.


Sweeetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o


;)


Fortune's annual list of the 100 best companies to work for is out, and I'll give you exactly one guess at No. 1 (hint: it cranks out millionaires, provides perks galore, and rhymes with "kugle"). Yes, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Google holds the top spot for the second straight year, but it's hardly the only tech company to fare well. Online mortgage lender Quicken Loans, based in Livonia, Mich., checked in at No. 2, and Genentech made its traditional appearance, this time in the 5 spot. Also in the top 10 were Cisco (which has made the list every year since 1998) and Qualcomm.


For your convenience, here's the link to Google's employment page, a few books you should read, and some general tips on getting hired there.




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/



http://www.news.com/2100-1030_3-6226900.html




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/1.html




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/2.html




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/5.html




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/6.html




http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/8.html




http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/




http://1-800-magic.blogspot.com/2007/12/recipe-for-getting-employed-by-google.html




http://www.bladam.com/main/entry/google-interview-tips/





8-|8-|8-|




(f)





Nil significat, nil oscillat.

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(h) (h)



http://www.sciencecafes.org/




http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8042208




Serving up lattes and a quick lecture

LARGE AND DIVERSE CROWDS TURN OUT FOR SCIENCE CAFES

By Jackie Burrell

Bay Area News Group

Article Launched: 01/22/2008 01:34:03 AM PST


Ten minutes before showtime, the crowd is already spilling out the doors of San Francisco's Axis Cafe. A high-energy buzz fills the air - until the star of the evening steps on-stage and fires up his PowerPoint presentation.


A hush descends upon the crowd in the Portrero Hill venue as Terrence Deacon, a University of California-Berkeley biological anthropology professor, begins holding forth on Fibonacci numbers and finches. As audience members sip tomato-basil soup, they're also listening intently and thinking ahead to the Q&A section where they'll ask questions like, What was that about the lazy gene?


The scene at the Axis Cafe is part of San Francisco's monthly "Ask a Scientist" salon, where science buffs and average Joes alike gather to get the lowdown on everything from brain development, to global warming, to the physics of monster waves.


The combination of a casual setting that includes beverages and articulate scientists who don't assign homework seems to have struck a chord not just with geeks, but everyone, everywhere. The "cafe scientifique" movement that began in England a decade ago has now spread to science cafes around the world, in coffeehouses, bars, even bowling alleys.


The Bay Area alone boasts five such salons, as well as special math and science events sponsored by Berkeley's Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the local American Chemical Society and other groups. Last week you could catch Deacon's language
Advertisement development talk in San Francisco, a "Darwin and Buddha" discussion in Sebastopol - where the science cafe meets every week - and Alan Alda of "MASH" and "Scientific American Frontiers" fame, waxing eloquent on math and curved space in Berkeley.


It's been a delightful, though dizzying whirl for Juliana Gallin, the graphic designer who launched Ask a Scientist five years ago, before she'd even heard of the European movement.


"I was looking for some kind of volunteer work to do just for fun," said Gallin. "I like science and I wanted to do something kind of social and interesting. This idea came up almost out of thin air."


Audiences poured in, and returned the next month with friends in tow. Last Wednesday, for example, less than a quarter of the audience were newbies. The rest were a diverse crowd of devoted repeats - men, women, fifth-graders, 70-somethings and scientists. The common denominator, says Gallin, is that they're "randomly curious."


"It's really moving to me that people come out on a weeknight to hear something interesting," she said. "One cute lady comes in on her walker every month. Some teachers bring their students."


The success of these events doesn't surprise Robert Osserman, who runs special projects for Berkeley's Mathematical Science Research Institute. Osserman hosted MSRI's "Conversation with Alan Alda," as well as math-related talks with comedian Steve Martin, composer Philip Glass and the writers of "The Simpsons." And his forum on Fermat's Last Theorem not only sold out the Palace of Fine Art's 1,000-seat theater, it had scalpers hawking tickets in the parking lot.


Math and science soirees are not exactly new, Osserman said. They're just new here. Any self-respecting salon hostess in Napoleonic France included a mathematician or scientist in her intellectual mix.

"People's salons all had to have a mathematician," said Osserman. "There were all kinds of prizes for mathematical essays, and Napoleon surrounded himself with top scientists of the time."


In this country, math and science's cachet has gotten a significant boost in recent years from pop culture, thanks to television shows such as "CSI" and "Numb3rs," which features a tousle-haired math professor as an FBI consultant.


Now, there's a movement afoot to spread the cafe gospel further. The second national conference of cafe organizers is planned for this summer. And science cafe organizers from Berkeley, San Francisco and Lamorinda met last weekend to share tips, ideas and the results of those casual questions they ask at the start of their events - "Where are you guys from?"



IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

For information on starting or finding a science cafe, visit

www.sciencecafes.org




(y)(y)(y)




(f)(f)






Veni, vidi, vegi.

I came, I saw, I had a salad.


SL & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l) (l) (l) (l)


8-| 8-|



http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~demo5337/s97b/art.htm






Gold Mine of Links including a "Things to Do" Section:

http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibInArt.html






Slides and enlargements suitable for downloading:

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/jbgoldslide.htm






The Parthenon was perhaps the best example of a mathematical approach to art:

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/gold05sm.jpg




Once its ruined triangular pediment is restored, ... the ancient temple fits almost precisely into a golden rectangle.

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/gold07sm.jpg






The Medieval builders of churches and cathedrals approached the design of their buildings in much the same way as the Greeks. A good geometric structure was their aim. Inside and out, their buildings were intricate constructions based on the golden section.

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/gold10sm.jpg



http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/gold11sm.jpg







One of my own favorites: Rose Window - Chartres Cathedral - ...

http://andrewhammel.typepad.com/photos/paris_march_2006/chartres_rose_window_north_transept.JPG



http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Chartres_Rose_window_North.jpg



http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/Issue3/images/bet08.jpg



http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/images/chartres/cathedral/rose-window-north-cc-andreakkk-350.jpg





From the outside:

http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu/photobank/1-4/24.jpg


http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/gothic/chartres/chartres_ext05.jpg




(l)(l)(l) 8-|8-|




(f)





Post Tenebras Lux.

After the darkness the light.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:)


(y)(y)




http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_rd/episode/0,2857,FOOD_26716_45959,00.html



http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=102796





Wicked Whoopies:

Isamax Bake Shop
621 Main Ave
Gardiner, ME 04345
Tel: (877)447.2629


www.wickedwhoopies.com







Root Beer, Ginger Beer, etc.:


Maine Root
9 Libby St
Scarborough , ME 04074


www.maineroot.com





Lobster Ice cream??


Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium
66 Main St.
Bar Harbor , ME
Tel: (207) 288-3281
Tel: 1-800-806-3281


www.benandbills.com







;)



(f)






Post cenam non stare sed mille passus meare.

Do not rest after dinner, but walk a mile. (No kidding.) ;)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(~) (l) (~) (l) (~)



We Are Marshall (2006)


After a plane crash takes the lives of most of Marshall University's football team, new coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) must rally the surviving players and a grieving community to victory. Based on true events, this inspiring drama follows Lengyel and his assistant coach (Matthew Fox) as they try to renew Marshall's football program and help the close-knit West Virginia town find new hope. David Strathairn and Anthony Mackie.



Cast:

Matthew Fox, Matthew McConaughey, David Strathairn, Anthony Mackie, Ian McShane (SWEARENGEN ON DEADWOOD!!); Kate Mara, January Jones, Kimberly Williams, Robert Patrick, Brian Geraghty, Tommy Cresswell, Nina Jones




(~) Reviews:


This film is about we shall overcome, get back in the saddle, etc. It's a movie not about winning, but playing with heart. A story about an inspirational coach. It's about a tragedy and dealing with grief. It's about coming together for a common goal. It's about hope. Oh yeah, and it's about football. Based on a true story. And, thankfully, it's not glamorized or hollywood-ized. No sex or drugs or gore or foul language. The gruesome plane crash details were left to the imagination. Good acting. I recommend.


(~)


This is sensitive look at people recovering from tragedy and living in the shadow of an unbearably painful memory. Fans of the Rocky sports genre might be a little disappointed because there isn't a scene where you stand and cheer so much as a series of scenes where you admire an ability to trudge through hardship. McConaughey does a great job as an eccentric coach rebuilding a team despite the odds. An interesting, and seemingly barely connected, subplot about a surviving fiancee and embittered father runs through the film.



(~)



This film is about the rise from the ashes of Marshall University after loss of nearly its entire varsity football team in a tragic plane crash. For a film over two hours long about a college football team there is surprisingly little actual on-field action here. But then the film is not really about football. It is about surmounting loss, about going forward beyond incomprehensible devastation, about the indomitable human spirit. It is a focused film, concentrating on the reactions and actions of a handful of the main principals involved and is very well done. All the acting is inspired but special mention must go to Anthony Mackie as Nate Ruffin, the surviving team member who will not accept the planned end of football at Marshall and does what it takes to keep the game alive there, Matthew Fox as Red Dawson, the assistant coach, saved from death by a quirk of fate, who understandably has great difficulty continuing in the position of recruiting coach after the loss of all those young men he had personally recruited and whose mothers he had promised he would take care of, and Matthew McConaughey who is a revelation as Jack Lengyel, the outsider who accepts the seemingly impossible task of rebuilding the Marshall football team from scratch, a man who will accept "no" as an answer if he must but who always seem to know how to get to "yes." Special mention must also be made of the stirring musical score which adds so much to the emotional content of this film. For the men reading this review who love football but whose wives don't share that passion, you need not fear bringing the wife along for this one. Just don't forget the tissues. You'll need them as much as she will.



(y)(y) I gave it five stars. I also LOVED the music - the songs used in the film were from that period of time and brought back good memories..........(8)(8)



(f)(f)








Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu.

How well you live makes a difference, not how long.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)



http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&wname=Frank%20Church-River%20of%20No%20Return%20Wilderness





Few places in America, and nowhere outside of Alaska, provide a Wilderness experience to match the sheer magnitude of the Frank Church-River of No Return, the second largest unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the Lower 48 (second in size only to California's Death Valley Wilderness). This area combines the old Idaho Primitive Area, the Salmon Breaks Primitive Area, territory on six national forests, and a small swath of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Senator Frank Church played a key role in the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, and his name was added to the Wilderness in 1984, shortly before his death.


It is a land of clear rivers, deep canyons, and rugged mountains. Two white-water rivers draw many human visitors: the Main Salmon River, which runs west near the northern boundary; and the Middle Fork of the Salmon, which begins near the southern boundary and runs north for about 104 miles until it joins the Main. Reaching 6,300 feet from the river bottom, the canyon carved by the Main Salmon is deeper than most of the earth's canyons--including the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River--and this fast-moving waterway has been dubbed the River of No Return. In the northeastern corner of the Wilderness, the Selway River flows north into the nearby Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (see below). Trout fishing usually rates from good to excellent, and I've had some of the best fly-fishing trips of my life here. The Middle Fork, the Selway, and a portion of the Main Salmon are Wild and Scenic Rivers. Unlike the sheer walls of the Grand Canyon, these rivers rush below wooded ridges rising steeply toward the sky, beneath eroded bluffs and ragged, solitary crags.







A Wilderness Paradise:

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/location/id/thefrank.htm





http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/recreation/fcronr/fcronrindex.shtml





http://www.forwolves.org/ralph/wpages/frank.htm





The three Lake Creek Lakes are about 5 miles north and
one mile above the main fork of the Salmon River.

<GASP.......>

http://www.forwolves.org/ralph/wpages/graphics/lakecrlake.jpg





http://www.visitidaho.org/thingstodo/view-attraction.aspx?id=30674




:) I've never been but this seems like a lovely place to visit.


(l)




(f)





Quantus il cannus in es fenestru?.

How much is that doggy in the window? ;)


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)



http://www.thoreauwabanakitrail.org/





(l)(l) One of my favorite activities:

http://www.thoreauwabanakitrail.org/images/bookcover.jpg





http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.1563675/k.99D5/Side_Trails.htm


Nice theme: "Join the Journey."






Conservation at its peak

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sun Journal


LEWISTON - Katahdin, Katahdin Lake and the Baxter State Park region, a majestic wilderness that has shaped the culture, history and soul of Maine, are the focus of two exhibitions at the Bates College Museum of Art.


"Taking Different Trails: The Artists' Journey to Katahdin Lake" and "Wildness Within, Wildness Without: Exploring Maine's Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail" will open Thursday, Jan. 17, with a 6 p.m. panel discussion and 7 p.m. reception at the museum in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.


Open to the public free of charge, the exhibitions and associated programming are part of a yearlong series at the museum exploring sustainability, conservation, wilderness, landscape and other environmental issues.


The Jan. 17 panel in Olin's Room 104 will examine the history, philosophy, planning and implementation of land conservation in Maine. Scheduled participants are Carl Straub, professor emeritus of philosophy and religion at Bates; Pat McGowan, commissioner of the Maine Department of Conservation; State Rep. Ted Koffman (D-Dist. 35); and Jym St. Pierre, director of the environmental organization Restore: The North Woods.


In "Taking Different Trails," 20 contemporary artists show scenes of and from Katahdin Lake, a pristine body of water known for its views of Maine's tallest mountain. Artists David Little, Chris Huntington, Abbott Meader and others took part in a historic 2006 fundraising effort to preserve nearly 7,000 acres of land, including the lake and old-growth forests around it. The exhibit will run through May 24.


"Wildness Within, Wildness Without" is an exhibition of photographs by Bridget Besaw depicting locations along the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail, an initiative of the organization Maine Woods Forever. Looping through and around the Baxter State Park region, the trail traces Henry David Thoreau's three Maine visits, which followed ancient Native American canoe routes through the wilderness.


The exhibition was timed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Thoreau's final journey through Maine. It will be up at Bates through March 4.


"Taking Different Trails" was a result of an initiative begun in 2003 to permanently preserve the Katahdin Lake area as public land. The Maine Department of Conservation and The Trust for Public Land worked with landowners and others to arrange land purchases and swaps that led to a $14 million fundraising effort and ultimately to the state's accession of the land in 2006.


Some 4,100 acres of land in the arrangement, including the 649-acre lake, were transferred by deed to Baxter State Park, thus fulfilling Maine Gov. Percival P. Baxter's original vision for the park.


Artists in "Taking Different Trails" helped raise $27,000 by donating artwork for an auction. "The artist as conservationist is just such a natural mix," Evelyn Dunphy, a West Bath artist who has painted at Katahdin Lake for years, told The Trust for Public Land.


The area's rich history encompasses logging, trail making, sporting camps and visits by such notables as the young Teddy Roosevelt. Accompanying the artwork in the Bates exhibition will be a display describing the Katahdin Lake Campaign and works by two renowned artists associated with the lake, Marsden Hartley and James Fitzgerald.


The Bates exhibition was organized by Bill Low, Bates Museum of Art curator; David Little, artist; and Marsha Donahue, artist and owner of the North Light Gallery in Millinocket.


"Wildness Within, Wildness Without" was an outcome of the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail project, the first initiative of Maine Woods Forever, an organization founded by Roxanne Quimby and others to protect the integrity and accessibility of the Maine Woods. The project reflects the historic, cultural and spiritual importance of Thoreau's Maine journeys, guided and influenced by the Penobscot Indians.


"Wabanaki" translates as "people of the dawn land" and refers collectively to the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Maliseet and Abenaki tribes. For thousands of years, the Wabanaki canoed throughout what is now north-central Maine, using portages to connect among the numerous waterways in this vast wilderness. Their canoe routes would later be used by explorers, lumbermen and recreational canoeists.


Thoreau visited this region in 1846, 1853 and 1857. He climbed "Ktaadn" in 1846 and with Penobscot guides visited Chesuncook Lake in 1853 and distant Eagle Lake in the Allagash in 1857. In his book "The Maine Woods" he wrote of Katahdin, "I looked with awe at the ground I trod on. ... This was the Earth of which we have heard, made out of Chaos and Old Night."


In 2005, Maine Woods Forever commissioned photographer Besaw to create a series of images depicting the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail and to organize an exhibition. Her photographs conjure up a romantic, almost surrealistic landscape of magnificent light effects, saturated colors and adventurers caught in an ideal moment.


"Like Thoreau the photographer envisions not a wilderness free of people but a wilderness populated with people who would be ever mindful of its fragility," writes curator Henry Barendse in the exhibition catalog. "These photographs suggest how that might be done."


A newspaper and magazine photographer, Besaw has traveled on assignment for U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, Newsweek and other publications. She has won numerous national awards. Her current focus is on creating imagery to advocate for environmental protection.


Her Thoreau-Wabanaki images are collected in the book "Wildness Within, Wildness Without," published by Maine Woods Forever with a forward by noted environmentalist Bill McKibben.


The Bates College Museum of Art is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and is closed on major holidays. For more information, call 786-6158 or visit the museum Web site at www.bates.edu/museum.xml



http://www.sunjournal.com/story/245502-3/Entertainment/Conservation_at_its_peak/




:) Another place where I have yet to experience. (y)(y)



(f)(f)







Qui audet vincit.

Who dares wins.



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;););)



The big guns of Apple product reviews have finished weighing in on the new MacBook Air, and if you've been following the reaction since its announcement (see "Per tradition, the keynote is followed by the sournote"), you won't find anything unexpected among their conclusions. The consensus: It's freakin' beautiful, but it's not for everyone. Gizmodo has put together a matrix comparing points from the reviews of the NYT's David Pogue, the WSJ's Walt Mossberg, Newsweek's Steven Levy, and USA Today's Ed Baig, and even if you've already decided whether you're in the target market or not, it's fun to read the gushy parts.



http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2008/01/per_tradition_the_keynote_is_followed_by_the_sourn ote.html



http://gizmodo.com/348361/our-macbook-air-review-matrix




* Pogue: "This laptop's cool aluminum skin and smooth edges make it ridiculously satisfying to hold, carry, open and close. You can't take your eyes or your hands off it."


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/technology/personaltech/17pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin





* Mossberg: "It's impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand. It's so svelte when closed that it's a real shock to discover the big screen and keyboard inside."



http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080124/apples-macbook-air-is-beautiful-and-thin-but-omits-features/





* Levy: "The Air is a lithe sheath of aluminum so slim that it can slide under my office door. ... The gentle curves and the absence of protrusions make this an instant object of techno-lust, another notch in Apple's belt of design triumphs."


http://www.newsweek.com/id/101113





* Baig: "There are other small and slender computers on the market. Only none as sexy."


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2008-01-23-macbook-air-review_N.htm




In each case, that love is followed by the list of compromises Apple made to get into that shape. Bottom line: Beautiful, with a big "but."



;);)

(y)(y)




(f)





Qui multum habet, plus cupit.

He who has much desires more.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(l)(l)(l)(l)(l)



what's felucca?


A felucca is a sea-craft, made to a traditional design, with broad canvas sails. Essentially, the craft is reliant on wind-power with no motor, and are dependent upon the wind factor to propel forth, so itineraries are subject to change from time to time. The craft carries between 5-10 passengers comfortably and the deck is strewn with soft colorful cushions and rugs and equipped with a canopy that offers shade and protection from the elements. Your felucca will cruise from picturesque Aswan through to Kom Ombo, taking in some stops at points of interest en-route with various stops, planned or impromptu, the peaceful routine of life aboard allows us to escape the stress of everyday life! We dock at shoreline for dinner and later sleep under the stars


All meals are included in the cruise and cooked on board by the crew. Accommodation is on the cushioned boat deck itself. There are no ablution facilities aboard, however the captain makes regular stops en-route, for both sightseeing, ablutions and indeed swimming in safer areas of the Nile River, where the water is fast flowing and the swimmer is at minimum risk of contracting bilharzias.


Traveling down the Nile by felucca is a 'must-do' in Egypt. The sun setting across the Nile in the evening aboard a graceful felucca can't be beaten!


http://www.nilefelucca.com/




http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Egypt/Felucca/Felucca.htm




(l)(l)
Travel like Cleopatra:

http://www.travellady.com/Issues/June04/793SailingDowntheNile.htm



http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/749/tr7.htm





(l)(l)



(f)





Quid est veritas?

What is truth?



Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:s:s:s



:o:o



Q U O T E D


"We are the first citizens in the state of California to be convicted of a crime for growing redwood trees."


-- Carolynn Bissett, who, with Richard Treanor, is appealing a conviction under a little-known law for refusing to cut down trees that a neighbor says cast shade on his solar panels.



http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8063034



^o)^o)^o)



8-)





Quidquid discis, tibi discis.

Whatever you learn, you learn it for yourself.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)(f)




Ross Lake was created by the damming of the Skagit River and is in the recreation area of the North Cascades National Park. The elevation of the lake is 1600 feet and it is over 20 miles long. The climate is similar to Seattle's.


In existence since 1950, Ross Lake Resort is situated in a line of twelve individual cabins and three bunkhouses built on log floats. The resort is located on the west side of Ross Lake, just north of Ross Dam. It is the only facility on the lake and characterized by its remoteness (no direct road access).



http://www.rosslakeresort.com/



(l)(l)




(f)





Sapere aude.

Dare to be wise.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

(f)(f)



http://www.salmonlake.net/




http://www.salmonlake.net/history.htm




http://www.salmonlake.net/map.htm




http://www.salmonlake.net/cabins.htm




http://www.salmonlake.net/links.htm




:)



(f)



(c)........(S).......I'm off to take Wyatt for a walk and then get the Keurig fired up for some fresh coffee before figuring out what to make to go with the roasted boneless chicken breasts (with chipotle and other spices.) in the oven.

Have a lovely rest of your Sunday evening and start of your week. (f)(f)






Sapientia est potentia.

Wisdom is power.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



Necessity may be the mother of invention, but invention can be a real mother itself, especially when it comes time to assign credit. Pick your favorite world-changing technology and somewhere behind the inventor whose name you learned in school are usually a handful of others with a claim on the breakthrough and a loyal group of advocates. And whatever goes on today in the way of business espionage, patent chicanery and power plays can look like patty-cake compared to earlier times.



The latest reminders are on stage in New York and coming soon to bookstores. Merc columnist Vindu Goel recently took in a Broadway showing of "The Farnsworth Invention" by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, which looks at the two men most responsible for the creation of television: self-taught inventor Philo Farnsworth, who won some early patents and recognition but faded into obscurity, and immigrant telegraph operator David Sarnoff, who commercialized the technology, built RCA and NBC and eventually took credit for the invention. Goel says the episode still has lessons for tech entrepreneurs, most poignantly that "in the end, a smart inventor can rarely win against a shrewd business strategist."



http://www.farnsworthonbroadway.com/



http://www.siliconvalley.com/opinion/ci_7809858



Meanwhile, there's a book coming out that takes a new look at an old controversy -- whether Alexander Graham Bell poached his design for the telephone from rival Elisha Gray. The key piece of new evidence in Seth Shulman's "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret" comes from Bell's lab notebook, which was restricted by Bell's family until 1976, then digitized and made widely available in 1999. The notebook details the early stumbling blocks that Bell and assistant Thomas Watson ran into in their early research. Then there's a 12-day gap in the entries, during which Bell was in Washington, ostensibly dealing with some issues regarding his patents. Shulman alleges that with the help of a corrupt patent examiner, Bell got a look at some of Gray's filings. On his return, Bell said something like, "Mr. Watson, come here -- I want to run something new past you," and sketched out a person talking into a new type of voice transmitter, a sketch very much like one in Gray's patent material. The rest is history, at least as it's told.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisha_Gray_and_Alexander_Bell_telephone_controver sy



http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_7812567




Gray, incidentally, didn't help his cause any by focusing not on voice, but on transmission of multiple telegraph messages over the same line. Suffering under the curse of the inventor who can't quiet see over the edge of the box, Gray once wrote to his attorney, "Bell seems to devote all of his energy to the concept of vocal telegraphy. Certainly, this is of certain scientific interest but is of no commercial interest at the present time. I do not want to spend time and money at this stage on something that will not provide a profit." Hey, sometimes even visionaries can be blind.



http://www.ericssonhistory.com/templates/Ericsson/Article.aspx?id=2106&ArticleID=1914&CatID=374&epslanguage=EN





Whoa! Talk about a blind visionary!





Here's another one:




"I think there is a world market for, maybe, five computers."


-- IBM chief Thomas Watson, in 1943.



:o :o :o



;) ;) ;)




(f)





Major e longinquo reverentia.

Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

;);)



Uplift at the SAG Awards

Monday, Jan. 28, 2008 By RICHARD CORLISS

Time


The Golden Globes was turned from a Hollywood party to a ragtag fake-news conference that should have been on pubic-access cable. The Oscar telecast may be missing many of its top attractions. The writers' strike has crippled or threatened other awards shows, but last night the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild bash went on — the first trophy mart of the year to be televised, thanks to a waiver from the writers. It is also the one show with no "little people" awards: no sound editors, no writers or directors, just the beautiful people on the screen. Thus the SAG show had the sacred duty of reminding people what these orgies of self-congratulation are for: to parade famous flesh. It meant to brand on viewers' minds the impression all Hollywood actors want to make: We look faaaaabulous!


They did, too, and not just your familiar stunners like Vanessa Williams, Diane Lane and a younger-than-springtime Tom Cruise. Ellen Burstyn, 75, seemed as fresh and buoyant and prominently apple-cheeked as she did three decades ago in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Ruby Dee is 82, and has been in movies (and a lot of places more important, like the civil rights struggle) for 60 years. But when her brief role in American Gangster made her a surprise winner of the supporting actress award — sorry, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — she glided on stage to display all the class and radiance of a perennial American beauty.


And Julie Christie, who took the Most Notable Movie Thesping by a Person of the Female Persuasion prize for Away from Her, looked preternaturally glamorous at 66. Christie was 42 years removed from her first Oscar nomination, for the swinging Londoner of Darling, but she could have passed for that seductive bitch's older sister, not the elderly lady fading into Alzheimer's she played in her little Canadian movie. Reeling off the names of a dozen producers and fellow actors from the film, she smiled and added, "And if I've forgotten anyone, it's just because I'm still in character."


Javier Bardem, the cool Spanish dude who plays a mean malefactor in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, won for Best Supporting Actor Who Happens to Have a Penis. (No Country also took the Best Film Ensemble prize.) Bardem reminded the crowd that, in his country, actors used to be deprived of a Christian burial because they were suspected of being prostitutes and homosexuals. So, we've come a long way, baby. (He apparently hasn't read the showbiz gossip columns lately.) Bardem also thanked for Coens for hiring him and, since they were also the film's editors, "for the hard work of choosing the good takes, instead of ... the ones where I really sucked."


As expected, Daniel Day-Lewis' role as a deranged oilman in There Will Be Blood won him the award for Best Performance by Someone Who Kills a Guy in a Bowling Alley. Day-Lewis introduced a somber note by speaking of his admiration for Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old actor who died last week. He praised Ledger's performances in Monster's Ball and Brokeback Mountain, and dedicated his award to the late Australian.


The SAG awards appeared to confirm the status of Day-Lewis, Bardem and Christie as front-runners for their respective Oscar awards. Dee was a sentimental favorite among the membership: Ossie Davis, her actor husband of 57 years and another lion for racial equality, died two years ago. But she still has stiff competition from Cate Blanchett, who impersonated Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, and Amy Ryan, multi-award-winner as the rotten mom in Gone Baby Gone.


As for No Country, it's the favorite for the Best Picture Oscar, but is still susceptible to a late charge by There Will Be Blood, which opened in a limited run Christmas day and is just now going into wide release. The SAG Ensemble prize is nice, but not conclusive. In only five of the past 12 years has the Ensemble award coincided with the top Oscar. (Last year Little Miss Sunshine won at SAG, but The Departed got the nod from the Motion Picture Academy.) The reason for the discrepancy is simple: acting awards are all about acting; movie awards aren't. And in the final Oscar ballot, actors may be the largest voting bloc, but they represent no more than 30% of the Academy membership.


One other thing, SAG. If you're going to de-sex the awards into subdivisions of Best Actor — if you're all actors, and the gender doesn't matter — then why not just give one prize, eligible to every performer in a leading role? You could call it Best Actperson.


But I shouldn't end on a rancorous note. As a moviegoer and a TV watcher, I'm truly grateful that the Screen Actors Guild invited us to their party. And thanks, everyone, for dressing up so nice.



http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1707372,00.html




:)




(f)





Vasa vana plurimum sonant.

Empty pots make the most noise.


Sweetlady & WTB (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o



Best and Worst Places to Buy a House

by Danielle Babb

Thursday, January 24, 2008


provided byEnterpreneur


Whether you're looking for an investment property or a place to live, here's a look at the cities you should seek out and avoid in 2008.


The housing crunch and the excessive inventory -- exceeding 10 months on resale homes -- continues to take its toll on housing prices. But over the long term, housing is still a good investment. In fact, it's more than an investment; it's a home. Plus, you're not really saving anything by renting, as the costs of renting and owning are about equal (well, owning may be a little more). The tax benefits of home ownership far outweigh renting, too. With good housing prices in many great areas, this may indeed be the time to buy.


So now that I've convinced you this is a good time to buy a home, the next question is, Where do you buy one? No matter where you look, you should check out some basic economic fundamentals before buying. Is job growth stable in the area? Is income keeping up with inflation? Is crime above the national average? Is there a higher-than-average rate of foreclosures? These issues and others play a factor when deciding where to buy a house.


As a real estate investor and analyst, it's my job to provide buyers with qualified information on where to buy -- and where to stay away from. Here are my thoughts for 2008 based on the indicators noted above.


The Top Places to Buy


Whether you're an investor like me or you're looking to purchase that next move up, here are my picks for the best areas to buy a home:



* Killeen, Round Rock, Austin, Texas:

Killeen has the lowest average home price in any market in the nation while still maintaining quality. Round Rock and Austin have seen incredible job growth and very stable home prices despite the downturn nationwide. Jobs continue to grow here -- a factor for keeping inventory low and prices stable.



* Mission Viejo, California:

Mission Viejo has the lowest crime statistics in the nation. With no murders in 2007 and a low rate of violent crime, this is a good place to raise a family. Prices are relatively stable, and the job market in the nearby cities of Irvine and San Diego means there is consistent demand from job seekers.



* Palm Beach, Florida:

I'm taking a risk here because this area has been pummeled by foreclosures in 2007. But there are also a lot of boomers retiring, and Palm Beach is looking mighty attractive. If you don't like this high of a risk (which translates to great prices), check out Tampa or Clearwater in the same state.



* Las Vegas, Nevada:

Yes, Las Vegas has been hit hard by incoming investors, who watched their home values disappear and then left those homes empty. Las Vegas comes in quite high on the national foreclosure list, almost always within the top three metro areas. But there's an upside -- a very strong job market. In 2007, Las Vegas experienced a 12 percent increase in population, partly driven by retirees looking for Sunbelt states to move to. Coupled with low prices, we could see inventories reduced here, which would also stabilize prices. Be careful what you buy, but I like it.




Places to Avoid

And now for the places you definitely want to avoid:


* Detroit, Michigan:

The job market is in chaos. People are getting laid off left and right. National statistics seem to point to a significant problem with job loss and job income not keeping up with inflation. As a result, many nice neighborhoods are now abandoned due to people leaving their homes. Inventories exceed one year (under six months is what we want to see), and the foreclosure problem hit Detroit hard. With fewer jobs to support home purchases, I don't see Detroit turning around anytime soon.



* Miami, Florida:

Palm Beach is different than Miami, which sits in its gorgeous aqua water with half-built and abandoned condos, a shrinking job market, a tough time getting insurance against hurricanes and a job problem. Yes, you can get a good deal, but do this only if you don't need the appreciation from the home in the next decade.



* Riverside/San Bernardino, California:

Even those lucky homeowners that bought before the boom are feeling it now. Riverside and San Bernardino counties in Southern California consistently lead California in foreclosures and rank in the top three metro areas nationally. The prices have plummeted, and jobs in the area are scarce. People moved there due to lack of affordability in Orange and Los Angeles counties (where their jobs were), so it's a commuter's area. Now that prices in the two counties have dropped, people can live close to their jobs. Although I grew up in Riverside County, I could never recommend it to anyone looking to buy a home.



http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/104278/Best-and-Worst-Places-to-Buy-a-House





:|:| I am very skeptical.


^o)



(f)(f)







Quidquid discis, tibi discis.

Whatever you learn, you learn it for yourself.


Sweetlady & Wyatt the Boxer (l)(&)(l)

[sweetlady]

:o:o:o



January 31, 2008

Basics

Stretching the Truth Just Became Easier (and Cheaper)

By PETER WAYNER


WHEN Carlo Baldassi came home from vacation and looked at a picture he took of his girlfriend on the Charles Bridge in Prague, he was torn. She looked beautiful, but the proportions of the picture were all wrong. It seemed tight and constrained, and it would not fill his widescreen monitor.


An artist is never satisfied.


Mr. Baldassi may not have an official title of an artist — he studies computational neuroscience at the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Turin, Italy. But he could fix the problem with some automatic photo-editing software he was writing with several friends. With one click, the tool stretched the uninteresting parts of the landscape — the water and the hills — while leaving the face of his girlfriend just as it was. The result was, he thought, more open and panoramic.


“Reality is a lie,” said Mr. Baldassi.


Automated tools like Mr. Baldassi’s are changing the editing of photography by making it possible for anyone to tweak a picture, delete unwanted items or even combine the best aspects of several similar pictures into one.


The tools are giving everyone the ability of the Stalin-era propagandists, who edited the photographic record of history by de