It's time to take another look at this old Astronomy Picture of the Day. Some key portions of the text: "Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. ...Earth supports a large variety of life forms, including potentially intelligent species such as dolphins and humans. Please enjoy your stay on Planet Earth."
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I've read a number of stories about weddings that took place this past weekend despite the tragedy, even with victims amongst the family members and guests. The participants wanted something to celebrate, and so encouraged the hesitant brides and grooms to go ahead with their plans. I can feel that sentiment, and I think I would support it as well.
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I really wish I hadn't missed TLC's Human Face series with John Cleese. Surely they will show it again soon?
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Someone (hi Toni!) just mentioned that they wouldn't let her take her crochet hook on the plane, and I realized that there won't be any more knitting, crocheting, embroidering, sewing, any activities that need sharp objects on the plane. I am assuming they won't allow knitting needles of any kind. I'm wondering about fountain pens with sharp points. I will definitely need to carefully think through my luggage next time I fly.
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Monday, September 17, 2001

I feel minutes of normalcy and then a thought will intrude and I have a sudden pang as I remember again. Then I think about it for a while, wonder through some things, then try to go back to doing something that needs to be done. Laundry. Making dinner. Cleaning the cat box. Sometimes the intrusion of the re-realization is so strong that I want to push it away, knowing that there isn't more I can think of. So I try to distract myself with TV (comforting shows from an innocent childhood, like "The Brady Bunch", or the strict, ordered elegance of Martha Stewart). Then I forget, and channel surf, and it all comes back. Someone's talking about war. Someone's showing that video again. Some station is showing an American flag. I do want to keep learning more, so I get on the web. I read what's new. Lots of people have a lot to say. As they should. I look through the latest list of victims. Someone from my hometown died. John Iskyan. I don't know him. I probably know someone who knows him. But I feel that everyone knows someone who has died, even if they don't really. It was that harsh and loud. It's time to pet the cat again.
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The NY Times has a special Magazine issue which will be distributed in print this coming weekend. But they made it available for reading online this past weekend. The memorial to the 1993 bombing victims is now part of the rubble. The artists who spent time in a studio in the towers have conceived a "phantom towers" project that graces the cover of the magazine. And in his weekly column, William Safire takes us through some words that we probably wish we didn't have to use. The healing has only just begun.
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Friday, September 14, 2001

From the FAA FAQ: "Will armed officers be put on flights? Yes, FAA Federal Air Marshals who are armed and trained in the use of firearms on board aircraft will be flying anonymously. Federal Air Marshals are FAA civil aviation security specialists who are specially trained for deployment on anti-hijacking missions. The FAA will not reveal the number or identities of the marshals. The DOT is working with the Department of Defense to see if other highly trained agents may be deployed to augment the Federal Air Marshal force."

Here's a fact sheet on the FAA Federal Air Marshal Program. It is "an expansion of the Sky Marshal program of the 1970s designed to stop hijackings to and from Cuba". "What can be said publicly is that the Federal Air Marshals are a full-time dedicated force that continuously deploys throughout the world on all the major U.S. carriers in areas where terrorist activities indicate the highest probability of attacks. Federal Air Marshals fly every day of the year." Now I'm always going to wonder about that guy sitting in our row. What are they trained to say if you strike up a conversation? "I'm flying to New York on business." and then they pretend to read magazine? I'm guessing they always get seated at the back so they can watch the entire plane. And here's a bulletin warning about bogus sky marshals.
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Thursday, September 13, 2001

Here are some Google hits on a search for "logistics specialist". I used to joke about becoming one, often after arranging a complex social event, but now I know there are people who are trained for this, and thank goodness they do exist. FEMA's Logistics Specialist Training Manual (PDFs). Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance job listings: Disaster Logistics Officer and Disaster Logistics Specialist. Department of Health and Human Services Logistics Program Specialist (Following a Disaster when ESF-8 is activated, the incumbent of this position is required to work irregular work schedules (evenings, nights, and weekends)). This TEC webpage has a photo and listing for a local guy, Brian Beadnell, who, according to the Mercury News "left from Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento on Tuesday headed to New York" to work on logistics. And, bonus link: FEMA's Emergency Support Functions list. We didn't want an opportunity to show how prepared we are, but I'm glad we were.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2001

I can't process the loss of life, so my mind goes to less important things. Like the stash of New York City skyline posters I keep rolled up in a tube in my closet. I collected them in college so that I could be reminded of home. My obsession with the skyline began when I was in elementary school and my parents took me to the Twin Towers, aka World Trade Center. I was so fascinated that the next week in art class I made a miniature Twin Towers out of clay. It included a little reddish blob at the base of one tower where I remembered seeing a huge, red sculpture. I also made a pencil holder in the shape of one tower. I wanted to hold one of those ceramic objects today, feel their weight and how solid they are. Because everything was much too surreal. And I still think I am going to either wake up or see Bruce Willis run in to save us all and then have the credits roll. But that is not going to happen. So instead, to try to ease my mind, I have to gaze again at the cutest kitten photo in the world and remember that there is goodness out there.
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Tuesday, September 11, 2001

If you can, GIVE BLOOD. Update: They are specifically requesting Type O since it is the universal donor. Many centers are overwhelmed with helpful donors.
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Patent 6,285,380: Method and system for scripting interactive animated actors. The NY Times article about it is titled "Video Heroines With Personality". Co-inventor Kenneth Perlin won a technical achievement Oscar for his texturing work on Tron. This patent covers a system where a game's designer sets parameters for a character, but the character itself decides how to act within those guidelines. The character's internal workings are "making many discrete choices that are all in keeping with her personality but are nonetheless quirky and unpredictable enough to create the illusion that she is making interesting decisions on her own." This technique also speeds up the creation of animation since the animator doesn't have to specifically animate lots of non-repetitive motions. However, there's also a more practical application. Co-author Athomas Goldberg is CTO of Improv Technologies where they are using this technology for "supplying software infrastructure for peer-to-peer computer networks." I'm guessing the "actors" in this case are the different peers on the networks.
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Here's a very useful resource, The Cook's Thesaurus (I like remembering it by its url "foodsubs"). It lists equivalents and substitutes for all sorts of ingredients. It even has a page on edible flowers, and I think I may try making my own candied citrus peel and definitely my own crystallized ginger, since that is one of my expensive indulgences. (via memepool, believe it or not)
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Monday, September 10, 2001

During all of my school years, I rehearsed on Saturday mornings with the Norwalk Youth Symphony, often in a dusty room of the old Norwalk High School. There were detailed murals on some of the walls, which I thought were extremely ugly, and the layer of spitballs on them didn't help their appearance. Somewhere along the way, I learned that these murals had been part of The Federal Art Project of the WPA and were part of our depression era history. And some of the murals chronicled now forgotten aspects of Connecticut life (like the Danbury State Fair). Norwalk's city agencies rescued and restored their murals, and the Transit District has them up on a web site (here are the thumbnails). I don't find them as ugly as I used to, thanks to the meaning behind them.
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I figure that for every type of item, there's a collector, but now I've stumbled across a collectible that I didn't know was an item. Did that make sense? Anyway, I've never heard of "pie birds" (or "pie vents") before. But they are a hot collectible, at least if the price of some of them are any indication. Pie bakers can stick these little ceramic doohickeys, usually shaped like birds, into their pies so that steam can escape. Usually you just slash vents into the top crust, so they aren't a necessity. They can be found in many shapes, often cute, making for a perfect collectible category. Right now on eBay they've got 315 of them, including a few cats, a dragon, a penguin, a pregnant woman (I kid you not), Disney characters, holiday themes, and of course the ever popular blackbirds baked in a pie. And, as with many collectibles, once you start web searching for them, you find many a quaint web page. This one's got a pie cow. Which is much different from a cow pie.
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Friday, September 07, 2001

The Personal Injury Warning System chronicles Jonathan Corum's lifetime of injuries, from the creation of his bellybutton to a parasite in his small intestine. Each incident has its own clever warning symbol, which I suppose could be used to warn others away from similar injuries if we were a little more clairvoyant. (Thanks to Lisa, who is working on her own "thumb injured by freak yogurt accident" symbol. Perhaps she needs to eat less pointy yogurt.)
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The WB is looking for identical twins, ages 14-20. Perhaps you're a twin and would like your very own sitcom? Well, you'd have to share it with your twin too.
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Already linked from everywhere (but that's 'cause it is Good and we are all in Buffy withdrawal), The Onion A.V. Club interview with Joss Whedon. Don't miss the tiny link at the end that leads to even more Q&A with Joss. He's been through the Hollywood grind a few times more than I had thought. Hopefully Buffy will be a launching pad to even greater things on the silver screen. From his comments, he seems to want to make movies that I'd actually enjoy paying $8 to see.
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Thursday, September 06, 2001

I'm a little wary of Kermit the Frog being a spokes-amphibian for the V-Chip. I don't mind if he is promoting that parents monitor what their children watch. But I guess I'm hoping he'll be encouraging parents to talk about what is on TV with their kids and educate them about what they should be watching instead of pushing a hands-off screening device. Then again, I may feel much differently when I have children of my own. Time will tell. For now, I'd like to know what Jim Henson would have said.
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By March 2001, euro bills and coins will replace local currencies as legal tender in the participating European countries. So certain people who have been hoarding large amounts of marks, francs, or other currencies are scurrying to avoid losing wealth. A NY Times article tells of Germany's border checks, which are turning up hidden stashes in cars, and a theory that the euro has become weak because of the conversion of billions of mafia-held marks into American dollars. It's an interesting look into the concept of currency exchange and what "cash" is. (And speaking of exchanging money, I enjoyed this nicely done Flash animation that relates a bureaucratic experience of a Canadian trying to deposit a check in U.S. funds. The sound effects are great. via /usr/bin/girl)
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This guy scanned his slide rules and put the results on the web, along with self-deprecating comments ("The following pages have little, ugly images, which are links to big, ugly images. Each page also has some random, completely uninformative text.") He's got some interesting old styles, including one in ivory manufactured (we hope) before that became a no-no.
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Wednesday, September 05, 2001

Interesting news from the Tic Tac site. New flavor: Lime Mints. I love lime. I love mint. This could be good. And they also have a website for something I mentioned a year ago, Tic Tac Silvers, which come in the "cute because it's a big Tic Tac box!" box. The site includes tips on what to use the box for when it's empty. (via Yahoo's Daily Picks)
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"What news looks like when women matter" is the tagline for Women's Enews. It doesn't just have links to women-related news stories on other news sites, it's actual, researched news stories with a female slant. So it's a source, not a filter. The 'net can always use more solid sources. The site is a project of the Women, Policy and Media Program of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.
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The Dot Eaters, Videogame History 101 is a well-researched, thorough look at the evolution of video and computer games, from oscilloscopes to arcades to home gaming systems and then home computers. It includes multimedia files from old games and photos of the movers and shakers (including Nolan Bushnell, Atari and Chuck E. Cheese founder, smoking a pipe in a pool). (via kottke)
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Tuesday, September 04, 2001

My brain refuses to process the Hewlett-Packard / Compaq merger. It's still working on DEC being swallowed up by Compaq. Digital Equipment Corp was the largest employer in Massachusetts. Looks like Mass General Hospital gets the honors nowadays.
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What does it mean when your new husband keeps pointing a stud finder at himself and laughing when it beeps?
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RIP Pauline Kael. I took a writing class once where Kael's movie reviews were assigned reading. I remember thinking "what the heck are we going to learn from reading movie reviews?" A heck of a lot, as it turns out. Probably the best lesson is to not be afraid to write what you really think -- at least if you can phrase it and back it up as well as she could.
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Yippee for the wedding of Steve and Lyn! I heard their cake was scrumptious, which is wonderful. I made sure ours was yummy and I'm on a mini-crusade to abolish dry, yucky wedding cakes. I think the worst thing I heard someone say during our wedding planning was "you mean you actually expect us to eat the cake?" Well, YES.
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Andante is all about classical music, with online articles, music, a publishing label, searchable events calendar, and much more info on all things classical. (via Yahoo's Daily Picks)
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Friday, August 31, 2001

The Atlantic Monthly's September issue has an interesting, lengthy article on the early admissions process for college and how it has placed top schools at a disadvantage to ... Harvard. Because Harvard is typically the top choice for a student applying to the top notch colleges, the early acceptance and early decision processes have made life difficult for the other top schools. Also, the article supplies data to show how early acceptance has made the admissions process unfair for students and colleges (that aren't Harvard), and claims that some colleges are depending more on SATs instead of less so that their rankings and reputation can go up. I can't begin to try to explain it all here, but it was an interesting, if somewhat scary, look into the college admissions process. The Atlantic has also republished an article from 1892, The Present Requirements for Admission to Harvard, which was meant to assure people that Harvard's shift from memorized knowledge to assessment of reasoning ability in their admission criteria did not mean that the college had lowered its standards. I hope they didn't have to write something similar when they started finally giving women diplomas with Harvard on them instead of Radcliffe.
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Sister Wendy has made it to the United States, and she presents artwork from six U.S. museums in the latest installment of her PBS series. Her knowledge of the art and its creation is full of depth. And she's amusing too. It's difficult to believe that she lives in solitude amongst the cloistered Carmelite nuns (she's a sister of Notre Dame herself).
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Thursday, August 30, 2001

A legendary airplane ends its Air Force One life. Yesterday, Bush took his first and only ride in the historic Boeing 707, a short hop from San Antonio to Waco where others who had been on more memorable rides greeted it for a retirement ceremony. Nixon's pilot, Reagan's pilot, and George Bush's pilot bid the plane farewell. Airliner.net photos of the plane.
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I have been slowly accumulating girls' series books, trying to stay away from the very well known ones and instead picking up more obscure ones. Of course nothing is obscure on the 'net, so I've found bits of info on each of them. My rationale for collecting these books was reflected clearly in the statement made by the Powell's bookbuyer who rang us up. He said "I couldn't figure out who would want to buy these and read them." They are, indeed, incredibly dated, and that is why they are so interesting to me. The blatant sexism and racism of earlier eras is fading now, but in order to appreciate where we are, it's important to remember where we came from. My latest finds include The Meadow-Brook Girls In the Hills, Betty Wales Junior, the Peggy Lane Theater series (surprisingly well written), and my favorite series title of all (though the writing seems to make use of an overly abundant gush of adverbs) Polly the Powers Model and The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera.
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Wednesday, August 29, 2001

The New Yorker has a nice item about David Letterman's cue card guy. He inks and holds the cue cards. And he always laughs at the jokes, because he's in Letterman's line of vision.
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How do colleges select roommates? At UT Austin, students fill out an online form of preferences. Davidson College goes beyond the call of duty, using a Myers-Briggs personality type test and family backgrounds, in addition to the usual preferences. My first year at college, we discovered that the incoming students in our dorm had been assigned to rooms alphabetically. We were in perfect alphabetical order within the dorm (not within the entire incoming class though). Our theory was that since we were in the "co-ed" dorm (Wellesley, a women's college, had male students living on campus through the college exchange program), and we had all checked off the "I don't mind living in a dorm with male students" question on the roommate form, we had been quickly lumped together and roomed alphabetically. It wasn't any better or worse than other rooming systems. (via LTSeek)
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