MetaFilter posts by Voyageman.
Displaying 1 through 50. Subscribe: http://www.metafilter.com/user/7143/postsrss 
Squeezing more juice out of the hard drive's music library Now that the hard drive has been filled,and my music has been rated/re-rated, and categorized/re-categorized, it's time to move on, so I went looking for online services that work with the music library . So far, I have found music sharing/new music discovery sites -last.fm , Goombah, and MusicStrands. Moodlogic automates playlists based on different song features - tempo, year, etc. What else is out there? How about song lyrics, biographies, discography, upcoming shows, upcoming new releases, similar artists, whenever an artist/song is playing? What else do you do with your music hard drive?
posted on Aug-20-05 at 9:49 AM
Play with her Curiously clever.
posted on Jan-13-05 at 1:24 PM
Best "Mashups" download site? This is the most complete mash up download site I could find - other suggestions? PS This has become my #1 music choice. I know I am late to the party. This has been discussed here before. Peter Rojas of Gizmodo/Endgadget fame was way ahead. I can't see it as a political protest movement, I prefer to see it as a "cornucopia of brilliant, foolish, and brilliantly foolish novelties."
posted on Dec-26-04 at 11:06 AM
Management methods, models, thoeries Kick off 2005 sounding and/or being smarter than everyone else. Minds will spin given the amount of info available here.
posted on Dec-25-04 at 10:16 AM
"China's Records In the Eyes of Foreigners" Pick your favorite China statistic. Is it "GDP of the Shanghai region is equivalent to that of Brazil;" is it "Foreigners invest about $1 billion in China every week;" is it "China has the largest online gaming population in the world;" is it "China produces 2.3 billion condoms each year." NB article from the "People's Daily Online", although original source claimed to be the "French L'Express weekly".
posted on Dec-23-04 at 10:11 AM
Finnish police raid BitTorrent site "Around 30 volunteers who helped moderate the site were also arrested....MPAA is co-operating in criminal investigations with police in Finland, the Netherlands and France, so it is reasonable to infer that reports of raids in more European countries are likely to surface shortly." I was about to look into using BitTorrent given the positive feedback - maybe I should wait.
posted on Dec-15-04 at 2:32 AM
the short but happy life of eric humphrey gordon Forget "Do not call" lists - a better way to get your alma- mater to stop soliciting you. The Harvard Magazine obituary section had to print their retraction in the July/August 2003 issue.
posted on Jul-13-03 at 3:38 PM
MOAWW - The Mother of All War Websites Give your eyes a rest and listen instead.
posted on Apr-1-03 at 8:15 AM
Who are these neo-conservatives? Pat Buchanan tells all.
posted on Mar-30-03 at 12:10 PM
UPI Hears , Overseas Security Council News , News Insider seem to do a good job providing tasty bits of breaking news absent from mainstream media. Where else do you feed the appetite for under-reported, breaking news scoops these days?
posted on Mar-13-03 at 12:01 PM
Words of the Year 2002 Awards American Dialect Society Word of the Year : "WMD - weapons of mass destruction". Most Unnecessary: "wombanization" . Most Outrageous: "neuticles" . Most Useful (by unanimous decision): "google".....1991 Word of the Year: "mother of all."
posted on Jan-20-03 at 1:55 PM
Why We Watch TV Revisited Sure cable is great, but what should we watch? Given the proliferation of "dumb" mass-market network TV shows (Joe Millionaire being the latest abomination), it's a relief to still find interesting/entertaining niche programming, albeit relegated to hinterland TV channels/time slots. Here are 4 Indie TV Programs worth considering (if you are lucky to have a cable company that airs them): C-Span Booknotes ; History International World Conflict ; NYMetro Strictly Personal ; WNET Theater Talk - Other suggestions ?
posted on Jan-9-03 at 1:29 PM
Guide for Becoming a Modern Day Philosopher 12 essential techniques.
posted on Jan-4-03 at 12:05 AM
Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time ? No Mr Magoo no Atom Ant, although Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpson, and Rocky and Bullwinkle in top spots may well be deserved. What a vast world to choose from in Toonopedia.
posted on Dec-20-02 at 8:44 AM
The search for the perfect adjective Everyone wants to become a writer these days, it seems. And why not - with software such as this (wow), you can practically automate the process, or you can hire a novelist to write the novel for you, so you can concentrate on getting paid for touring the country to read out loud. No wonder we now have so many book clubs to sort out what to read. Hope we have enough trees.
posted on Dec-17-02 at 2:19 PM
Laughter capital of the world? "Declining audiences, dull material, complacent comics: a crisis is looming ....London suddenly appears to be in the grip of a recession for the first time since the alternative comedy boom took off at the beginning of the 1980s." From a nation exporting Bill Bailey(live in NYC this week) ,Eddie Izzard, Ali G, can this really be happening? (BTW I always thought Canada tried to lay a claim to this crown?)
posted on Dec-16-02 at 10:10 AM
Cultural Commentary in 10 Easy Lessons "....there's an astonishing abundance of cultural criticism these days -- in magazines, newspapers, web sites, blogs, television....if you removed the five or 10 most abused forms of criticism, there would be a deafening silence. Or perhaps room for other kinds of commentary to grow..." With so much published and available these days. it's damn near impossible to sound original.
posted on Dec-15-02 at 9:12 AM
802.11b Survey Map of NYC Following the NYC Bloggers Map, what else should mapped in NYC, smoking rooms?
posted on Dec-12-02 at 6:04 AM
17 million Latin American people out of work Claimed to be the highest level since 1980. How much longer, or how many more, until nations revert to Che Guevarra or Pinochet and the US to the CIA and intervention? Will history repeat itself, or has history paved the way for an alternative outcome?
posted on Dec-10-02 at 11:25 AM
Wireimage.com's 2002 Year In Review What a damn busy year it's been - wait a minute - why don't I show up anywhere.
posted on Dec-5-02 at 6:52 AM
Can Poetry Matter ? - Part 3 "...As long as I can see, hear, feel and think, I own the tools to survive..." The Last Word, I Own All of Me by David Kearney - Body Positive, Dec 2001, Volume XIV, Number 12.
posted on Dec-1-02 at 9:56 AM
Can Poetry Matter - Part 2 (nyt reg req) "Today photography is considered by many to be the most effective way to convey the plight of war's combatants, victims and mourners. But during World War I it was through poetry that many Britons came to share the horror of life and death in the muddy trenches of northern France.....To this day, every time Britons go to war, the opening lines of Rupert Brooke's 1914 poem, "The Soldier," are remembered: "If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England."..."
posted on Nov-30-02 at 8:45 AM
Can Poetry Matter? Written 11 years ago but still relevant today. Will the spectacular $100 million gift to Poetry Magazine (see below) make a difference? Or will the spark be ignited as poetic forms muscle their way in and around other mediums, as with Def Jam Poetry which will now looks like will have another season on HBO, and has now opened on Broadway; “singing poets” such as Floetry (soon to play live at SOB in NYC), Abiyah , and revivals of classic masters The Last Poets. Purists may cringe.
posted on Nov-19-02 at 9:30 AM
Looking for those perfect noise-reducing, mini-headphones What do Wyclef Jean, Wilco, Jethro Tull, Blues Traveler, Everclear, Nikka Costa, Weezer, Pete Yorn, Tricky, Sum 41, Herbie Hancock, Barenaked Ladies, Oasis, and Phantom Planet share ? Apparently the love for Shures E-Series mini-headphones, briefly mentioned in todays NYT (reg req). The professional musician's alternative to the effete Bang and Olufsen and the monster Bose. Can personally no longer live without them.
posted on Nov-14-02 at 8:13 AM
Broadwaybox.com Share theater Discount Codes with fellow theater goers in New York. Great idea. So simple. So perfect. Everyone wins.
posted on Nov-12-02 at 10:21 AM
"Our goal is to become bigger than Yahoo" "...We don't serve banners or pop-ups...We will not rent, sell or trade your personal information... Out of the gate, we make money through Google's advertisements - Google sells the ads, Dell pays Google and Google pays us....Does it work? Yes. In fact, we will be profitable in our first month of operation." Could this be a Google back-door attempt to begin to move into Yahoo territory, or are they just starry-eyed dreamers? Their mission, and some answers from the founder, apparently the same people behind iWon.com. PS Site really does look like a Yahoo carbon copy. There must be some copyright issues.
posted on Nov-2-02 at 8:51 PM
Looking Back Suddenly it hits. You realize you are three, four, five decades old, and you become sentimental, nostalgic, remembering only what you want to remember. Care to share some of your memories of the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, (50s?) (40s?).
posted on Nov-1-02 at 5:39 PM
"God's boys on both sides of the Atlantic" It began back in February. Now, 6 letters, 350+ intellectuals later, the great debate rages on, though apparently and regrettably now censored in Saudi Arabia. Pity.
posted on Oct-27-02 at 7:56 AM
The New Transatlantic Project "Ultimately, Europeans, precisely because they share our values, are likely to be the most dependable allies we have..." An attempt at exploring (no, overcoming) the US-Europe divide by Ronald Asmus (Council of Foreign Relations) and Kenneth Pollack (Brookings Institution) in the Hoover Institution's latest Policy Review. Anyone taken by prior discussion re Robert Kagan's "Power and Weakness" in prior Policy Review should find this worth a read.
posted on Oct-18-02 at 12:04 PM
Berlin Love Parade - July 13, 2002 "A million and half techno fans brought together for a day is something you just don’t see in America.... It’s something every American dancer should experience." Can be seen live on VIVA.tv
posted on Jul-13-02 at 8:39 AM
Political "Greatness" (?) [nyt reg req] An attempt to measure political leadership with the "cool objectivity of science", reflecting a leader's "impact on the world, not his personal virtue". Dr. Arnold M. Ludwig, emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Kentucky says: "No American president can be regarded as great unless they've been involved in war and been responsible for the death of many." Serious BS.
posted on Jun-29-02 at 10:16 AM
2002 European Online Journalism Awards Impressively broad selection of nominees to be decided by impressively diverse roster of judges on July 4.
posted on Jun-27-02 at 12:43 PM
People, trends, and issues that most influence technology today. What Big Business is being told in The Economist's CFO Magazine. No Metafilter ? Thankfully, blogs not mentioned.
posted on Jun-26-02 at 8:39 AM
Mouse mats reveal you value system First it was office desks, then photos on the wall, now the PC holds the clue. "Analysing the computer screen, the images you use or simply the way you organise your icons can reveal much about your inner desires and ambitions." So much for ego, superego and id.
posted on Jun-24-02 at 10:59 AM
Adventures in new music discovery. [nyt reg req] Not only in taxi cabs, but playlists while you fly, playlists while you sip coffee, playlists on demand, playlists while you surf, playlists on swap . Where else can we find new music picks? Who needs commercial radio any more.
posted on Jun-21-02 at 8:26 AM
We are all snobs "I do look down on certain selected people--preferably, it's true, from a distance and until now unbeknownst to them. Yet look down I do, usually with an uncomplicated feeling of satisfaction.....Why did I need to assert my superiority, even to myself, when no one was contesting it ?" We are all snobs in one way or another.
posted on Jun-18-02 at 1:52 PM
Catholics, Jews, Muslims - all three feel suddenly embattled and isolated [nyt reg req] "This is a rare moment in history, like a planetary alignment: three world religions simultaneously racked by crisis....this confluence is highly unusual but not without precedent... — from 800 to 200 B.C., a period of tremendous violence and upheaval on many continents.... We could use this suffering to create wonderful new religious systems, as the Buddha did, or we could retreat into the spiritual barbarism of hatred ." Perhaps Karl Marx was right that religion, like opium, results only in illusion and false hope.
posted on Jun-13-02 at 4:08 PM
They Have Ways of Making Al-Qaida Talk Interrogations must be pretty damn crucial these days. Given advances in science during the past twenty years, how much more sophisticated can CIA methods have become since the 80's?
posted on Jun-10-02 at 3:54 PM
Typewriter Dependency (common disorder resulting from metaphysical thinking about punctuation) [nyt reg req] "A recent survey of the top 1,000 living English-language authors finds that more than 80 percent own manual typewriters averaging 43 years in age and three broken functions, with a per-unit resale value of $4.75 and slipping. Yet in a questionnaire about their response if brigands should invade their homes and demand either their beat-up old manual typewriters or their spouses on pain of death, a whopping 96 percent wrote ''Spouse.''
posted on Jun-9-02 at 1:43 PM
Metaphysical significance of punctuation marks (a) Periods . and commas , are lovely because they are simple... Semicolons ; are pretentious and overactive...Italics rarely fail to insult the reader's intelligence..."Quotation marks" create the spurious impression of an aristocracy of sensibility...The exclamation point ! is obviously too emphatic, too childish, for our sophisticated ways...Questions ? and exclamations ! betray a sense of inquisitiveness and wonder that is distinctly unmodern....(parentheses) and - dashes - betoken stylistic laziness, a failure of discipline....(a) content footnotes are symbols of failure.
posted on Jun-8-02 at 12:54 PM
Next move - nationalizing the internet infrastructure in Europe ? 300 staff and union officials have blockaded themselves at the network operations centre in Belgium following Dutch telecoms company KPNQwest bankruptcy filing. Stocked up on provisions, taking shifts unpaid to keep the centre fully operational. "If we leave, then in three to five days there will be the largest internet slowdown in European history." From the article - KPNQwest's infrastructure covers 60 cities around Europe, estimated between one third and one half of all European internet traffic.
posted on Jun-7-02 at 9:12 AM
World-wide obsession I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted on May-29-02 at 12:18 PM
Those family and pet photos relegated to office corkboards (and screensavers) "...make us feel that we are not separate from our kids; that we are still with them, and they with us, vivid, changeable, in the flesh. They are expressions of pride, yes, and love, yes, but also of guilt and longing....the office photo is an emblem not so much of achievement as of compromise, lurking worries, remembered joys...." I never realized I was so miserable at work.
posted on May-27-02 at 10:03 PM
All worldwide conflicts to take a break until after June 30 [NYT reg req] "If the U.S. forward Clint Mathis scores a beautiful goal, Iranians, Iraqis and Libyans will rave about it. Soccer has many uses, and one of them, fleeting as it may be, is universal love." But perhaps more interestingly : " For foreigners, meanwhile, the World Cup is the one time that they get to treat the U.S. like a lightweight. " Indeed.
posted on May-25-02 at 10:54 AM
Our four helmeted kids (or four headed monsters) I recently heard a child psychiatrist say that everything he had learned was wrong - the single most important factor for parents to focus on in raising children was, not spending time with them, not giving them love and affection, not providing discipline and clear rules and responsibilities, not making sure they ate healthy meals with plenty of sleep and exercise, the most important factor was fostering their "Competence". How well do they do the things they do. From this article: "The way we realize our potential is through our activities. By ceaselessly striving to improve at the things we enjoy, we come to define, enlarge, and attain our best selves." Whatever happened to stopping to smell those roses?
posted on May-21-02 at 1:47 PM
CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs Just brushing up for this Sunday's two hour series grand finale.
posted on May-16-02 at 5:04 AM
"The smartest scientist on the planet." [NYT reg req] "Conducting experiments on a computer, where he says he has logged 100 million keystrokes in the last 10 years, Mr. Wolfram wrote simple programs that generated odd and intricate patterns to test his ideas about complexity. He argues that natural phenomena can be explored as if they were, in fact, computer programs." Stephen Wolfram's own company (Wolfram Media Inc.) is now publishing his 1,197-page book - "A New Kind Science " - which was kept secret until now. They claim "..he is proposing a paradigm shift. A new twist on everything.." in explaining how the universe operates. Sounds big. Is it really?
posted on May-11-02 at 5:22 PM
Chelsea Clinton = The New J.F.K. Jr. ?? in Vanity Fair, courtesy Page Six of the NY Post. You are no JFK. [NB LLoyd Bentsen where are you when we need you.]
posted on May-9-02 at 9:32 AM
Retro-Garage, Proto-Punk, Rock-Boogie, Glam-Rock, Alternative Hip-Hop ? From the NY Times [reg req] review of the third annual Coachella Art and Music Festival in Indio, California "...with music slightly further out on the cutting edge than predecessors like Lollapalooza and the Woodstocks of the 90's." Is so much "new" stuff really going on, or is this just reviewer's fever?
posted on May-5-02 at 8:05 PM
Maestro Virtuoso Sir Andre Previn, George Solti, Arturo Toscanini, Giuseppe Verdi. "Conductors have the liveliest, longest and most rewarding sex lives of any human organism....Toscanini loved to give as much pleasure as he took, and he lasted long and well into a lascivious old age. For the supreme maestro, sex was not so much a reward as a repayment." Even Verdi was reputed to give "a certain kind of kiss that, somehow, bestowed the benediction of genius on his indulgence." Maybe its that constant exposure to heavenly music, heavy doses of Mendelhsson instead of Sildenafil Nitrate Tablets.
posted on May-3-02 at 1:35 PM
posted on Aug-20-05 at 9:49 AM
Play with her Curiously clever.
posted on Jan-13-05 at 1:24 PM
Best "Mashups" download site? This is the most complete mash up download site I could find - other suggestions? PS This has become my #1 music choice. I know I am late to the party. This has been discussed here before. Peter Rojas of Gizmodo/Endgadget fame was way ahead. I can't see it as a political protest movement, I prefer to see it as a "cornucopia of brilliant, foolish, and brilliantly foolish novelties."
posted on Dec-26-04 at 11:06 AM
Management methods, models, thoeries Kick off 2005 sounding and/or being smarter than everyone else. Minds will spin given the amount of info available here.
posted on Dec-25-04 at 10:16 AM
"China's Records In the Eyes of Foreigners" Pick your favorite China statistic. Is it "GDP of the Shanghai region is equivalent to that of Brazil;" is it "Foreigners invest about $1 billion in China every week;" is it "China has the largest online gaming population in the world;" is it "China produces 2.3 billion condoms each year." NB article from the "People's Daily Online", although original source claimed to be the "French L'Express weekly".
posted on Dec-23-04 at 10:11 AM
Finnish police raid BitTorrent site "Around 30 volunteers who helped moderate the site were also arrested....MPAA is co-operating in criminal investigations with police in Finland, the Netherlands and France, so it is reasonable to infer that reports of raids in more European countries are likely to surface shortly." I was about to look into using BitTorrent given the positive feedback - maybe I should wait.
posted on Dec-15-04 at 2:32 AM
the short but happy life of eric humphrey gordon Forget "Do not call" lists - a better way to get your alma- mater to stop soliciting you. The Harvard Magazine obituary section had to print their retraction in the July/August 2003 issue.
posted on Jul-13-03 at 3:38 PM
MOAWW - The Mother of All War Websites Give your eyes a rest and listen instead.
posted on Apr-1-03 at 8:15 AM
Who are these neo-conservatives? Pat Buchanan tells all.
posted on Mar-30-03 at 12:10 PM
UPI Hears , Overseas Security Council News , News Insider seem to do a good job providing tasty bits of breaking news absent from mainstream media. Where else do you feed the appetite for under-reported, breaking news scoops these days?
posted on Mar-13-03 at 12:01 PM
Words of the Year 2002 Awards American Dialect Society Word of the Year : "WMD - weapons of mass destruction". Most Unnecessary: "wombanization" . Most Outrageous: "neuticles" . Most Useful (by unanimous decision): "google".....1991 Word of the Year: "mother of all."
posted on Jan-20-03 at 1:55 PM
Why We Watch TV Revisited Sure cable is great, but what should we watch? Given the proliferation of "dumb" mass-market network TV shows (Joe Millionaire being the latest abomination), it's a relief to still find interesting/entertaining niche programming, albeit relegated to hinterland TV channels/time slots. Here are 4 Indie TV Programs worth considering (if you are lucky to have a cable company that airs them): C-Span Booknotes ; History International World Conflict ; NYMetro Strictly Personal ; WNET Theater Talk - Other suggestions ?
posted on Jan-9-03 at 1:29 PM
Guide for Becoming a Modern Day Philosopher 12 essential techniques.
posted on Jan-4-03 at 12:05 AM
Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time ? No Mr Magoo no Atom Ant, although Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpson, and Rocky and Bullwinkle in top spots may well be deserved. What a vast world to choose from in Toonopedia.
posted on Dec-20-02 at 8:44 AM
The search for the perfect adjective Everyone wants to become a writer these days, it seems. And why not - with software such as this (wow), you can practically automate the process, or you can hire a novelist to write the novel for you, so you can concentrate on getting paid for touring the country to read out loud. No wonder we now have so many book clubs to sort out what to read. Hope we have enough trees.
posted on Dec-17-02 at 2:19 PM
Laughter capital of the world? "Declining audiences, dull material, complacent comics: a crisis is looming ....London suddenly appears to be in the grip of a recession for the first time since the alternative comedy boom took off at the beginning of the 1980s." From a nation exporting Bill Bailey(live in NYC this week) ,Eddie Izzard, Ali G, can this really be happening? (BTW I always thought Canada tried to lay a claim to this crown?)
posted on Dec-16-02 at 10:10 AM
Cultural Commentary in 10 Easy Lessons "....there's an astonishing abundance of cultural criticism these days -- in magazines, newspapers, web sites, blogs, television....if you removed the five or 10 most abused forms of criticism, there would be a deafening silence. Or perhaps room for other kinds of commentary to grow..." With so much published and available these days. it's damn near impossible to sound original.
posted on Dec-15-02 at 9:12 AM
802.11b Survey Map of NYC Following the NYC Bloggers Map, what else should mapped in NYC, smoking rooms?
posted on Dec-12-02 at 6:04 AM
17 million Latin American people out of work Claimed to be the highest level since 1980. How much longer, or how many more, until nations revert to Che Guevarra or Pinochet and the US to the CIA and intervention? Will history repeat itself, or has history paved the way for an alternative outcome?
posted on Dec-10-02 at 11:25 AM
Wireimage.com's 2002 Year In Review What a damn busy year it's been - wait a minute - why don't I show up anywhere.
posted on Dec-5-02 at 6:52 AM
Can Poetry Matter ? - Part 3 "...As long as I can see, hear, feel and think, I own the tools to survive..." The Last Word, I Own All of Me by David Kearney - Body Positive, Dec 2001, Volume XIV, Number 12.
posted on Dec-1-02 at 9:56 AM
Can Poetry Matter - Part 2 (nyt reg req) "Today photography is considered by many to be the most effective way to convey the plight of war's combatants, victims and mourners. But during World War I it was through poetry that many Britons came to share the horror of life and death in the muddy trenches of northern France.....To this day, every time Britons go to war, the opening lines of Rupert Brooke's 1914 poem, "The Soldier," are remembered: "If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is forever England."..."
posted on Nov-30-02 at 8:45 AM
Can Poetry Matter? Written 11 years ago but still relevant today. Will the spectacular $100 million gift to Poetry Magazine (see below) make a difference? Or will the spark be ignited as poetic forms muscle their way in and around other mediums, as with Def Jam Poetry which will now looks like will have another season on HBO, and has now opened on Broadway; “singing poets” such as Floetry (soon to play live at SOB in NYC), Abiyah , and revivals of classic masters The Last Poets. Purists may cringe.
posted on Nov-19-02 at 9:30 AM
Looking for those perfect noise-reducing, mini-headphones What do Wyclef Jean, Wilco, Jethro Tull, Blues Traveler, Everclear, Nikka Costa, Weezer, Pete Yorn, Tricky, Sum 41, Herbie Hancock, Barenaked Ladies, Oasis, and Phantom Planet share ? Apparently the love for Shures E-Series mini-headphones, briefly mentioned in todays NYT (reg req). The professional musician's alternative to the effete Bang and Olufsen and the monster Bose. Can personally no longer live without them.
posted on Nov-14-02 at 8:13 AM
Broadwaybox.com Share theater Discount Codes with fellow theater goers in New York. Great idea. So simple. So perfect. Everyone wins.
posted on Nov-12-02 at 10:21 AM
"Our goal is to become bigger than Yahoo" "...We don't serve banners or pop-ups...We will not rent, sell or trade your personal information... Out of the gate, we make money through Google's advertisements - Google sells the ads, Dell pays Google and Google pays us....Does it work? Yes. In fact, we will be profitable in our first month of operation." Could this be a Google back-door attempt to begin to move into Yahoo territory, or are they just starry-eyed dreamers? Their mission, and some answers from the founder, apparently the same people behind iWon.com. PS Site really does look like a Yahoo carbon copy. There must be some copyright issues.
posted on Nov-2-02 at 8:51 PM
Looking Back Suddenly it hits. You realize you are three, four, five decades old, and you become sentimental, nostalgic, remembering only what you want to remember. Care to share some of your memories of the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, (50s?) (40s?).
posted on Nov-1-02 at 5:39 PM
"God's boys on both sides of the Atlantic" It began back in February. Now, 6 letters, 350+ intellectuals later, the great debate rages on, though apparently and regrettably now censored in Saudi Arabia. Pity.
posted on Oct-27-02 at 7:56 AM
The New Transatlantic Project "Ultimately, Europeans, precisely because they share our values, are likely to be the most dependable allies we have..." An attempt at exploring (no, overcoming) the US-Europe divide by Ronald Asmus (Council of Foreign Relations) and Kenneth Pollack (Brookings Institution) in the Hoover Institution's latest Policy Review. Anyone taken by prior discussion re Robert Kagan's "Power and Weakness" in prior Policy Review should find this worth a read.
posted on Oct-18-02 at 12:04 PM
Berlin Love Parade - July 13, 2002 "A million and half techno fans brought together for a day is something you just don’t see in America.... It’s something every American dancer should experience." Can be seen live on VIVA.tv
posted on Jul-13-02 at 8:39 AM
Political "Greatness" (?) [nyt reg req] An attempt to measure political leadership with the "cool objectivity of science", reflecting a leader's "impact on the world, not his personal virtue". Dr. Arnold M. Ludwig, emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Kentucky says: "No American president can be regarded as great unless they've been involved in war and been responsible for the death of many." Serious BS.
posted on Jun-29-02 at 10:16 AM
2002 European Online Journalism Awards Impressively broad selection of nominees to be decided by impressively diverse roster of judges on July 4.
posted on Jun-27-02 at 12:43 PM
People, trends, and issues that most influence technology today. What Big Business is being told in The Economist's CFO Magazine. No Metafilter ? Thankfully, blogs not mentioned.
posted on Jun-26-02 at 8:39 AM
Mouse mats reveal you value system First it was office desks, then photos on the wall, now the PC holds the clue. "Analysing the computer screen, the images you use or simply the way you organise your icons can reveal much about your inner desires and ambitions." So much for ego, superego and id.
posted on Jun-24-02 at 10:59 AM
Adventures in new music discovery. [nyt reg req] Not only in taxi cabs, but playlists while you fly, playlists while you sip coffee, playlists on demand, playlists while you surf, playlists on swap . Where else can we find new music picks? Who needs commercial radio any more.
posted on Jun-21-02 at 8:26 AM
We are all snobs "I do look down on certain selected people--preferably, it's true, from a distance and until now unbeknownst to them. Yet look down I do, usually with an uncomplicated feeling of satisfaction.....Why did I need to assert my superiority, even to myself, when no one was contesting it ?" We are all snobs in one way or another.
posted on Jun-18-02 at 1:52 PM
Catholics, Jews, Muslims - all three feel suddenly embattled and isolated [nyt reg req] "This is a rare moment in history, like a planetary alignment: three world religions simultaneously racked by crisis....this confluence is highly unusual but not without precedent... — from 800 to 200 B.C., a period of tremendous violence and upheaval on many continents.... We could use this suffering to create wonderful new religious systems, as the Buddha did, or we could retreat into the spiritual barbarism of hatred ." Perhaps Karl Marx was right that religion, like opium, results only in illusion and false hope.
posted on Jun-13-02 at 4:08 PM
They Have Ways of Making Al-Qaida Talk Interrogations must be pretty damn crucial these days. Given advances in science during the past twenty years, how much more sophisticated can CIA methods have become since the 80's?
posted on Jun-10-02 at 3:54 PM
Typewriter Dependency (common disorder resulting from metaphysical thinking about punctuation) [nyt reg req] "A recent survey of the top 1,000 living English-language authors finds that more than 80 percent own manual typewriters averaging 43 years in age and three broken functions, with a per-unit resale value of $4.75 and slipping. Yet in a questionnaire about their response if brigands should invade their homes and demand either their beat-up old manual typewriters or their spouses on pain of death, a whopping 96 percent wrote ''Spouse.''
posted on Jun-9-02 at 1:43 PM
Metaphysical significance of punctuation marks (a) Periods . and commas , are lovely because they are simple... Semicolons ; are pretentious and overactive...Italics rarely fail to insult the reader's intelligence..."Quotation marks" create the spurious impression of an aristocracy of sensibility...The exclamation point ! is obviously too emphatic, too childish, for our sophisticated ways...Questions ? and exclamations ! betray a sense of inquisitiveness and wonder that is distinctly unmodern....(parentheses) and - dashes - betoken stylistic laziness, a failure of discipline....(a) content footnotes are symbols of failure.
posted on Jun-8-02 at 12:54 PM
Next move - nationalizing the internet infrastructure in Europe ? 300 staff and union officials have blockaded themselves at the network operations centre in Belgium following Dutch telecoms company KPNQwest bankruptcy filing. Stocked up on provisions, taking shifts unpaid to keep the centre fully operational. "If we leave, then in three to five days there will be the largest internet slowdown in European history." From the article - KPNQwest's infrastructure covers 60 cities around Europe, estimated between one third and one half of all European internet traffic.
posted on Jun-7-02 at 9:12 AM
World-wide obsession I am told these sports betting sites are readying themselves for an onslaught of World Cup Soccer traffic never seen in history. Will you play? Does it make the sport uplifting or uncouth?
posted on May-29-02 at 12:18 PM
Those family and pet photos relegated to office corkboards (and screensavers) "...make us feel that we are not separate from our kids; that we are still with them, and they with us, vivid, changeable, in the flesh. They are expressions of pride, yes, and love, yes, but also of guilt and longing....the office photo is an emblem not so much of achievement as of compromise, lurking worries, remembered joys...." I never realized I was so miserable at work.
posted on May-27-02 at 10:03 PM
All worldwide conflicts to take a break until after June 30 [NYT reg req] "If the U.S. forward Clint Mathis scores a beautiful goal, Iranians, Iraqis and Libyans will rave about it. Soccer has many uses, and one of them, fleeting as it may be, is universal love." But perhaps more interestingly : " For foreigners, meanwhile, the World Cup is the one time that they get to treat the U.S. like a lightweight. " Indeed.
posted on May-25-02 at 10:54 AM
Our four helmeted kids (or four headed monsters) I recently heard a child psychiatrist say that everything he had learned was wrong - the single most important factor for parents to focus on in raising children was, not spending time with them, not giving them love and affection, not providing discipline and clear rules and responsibilities, not making sure they ate healthy meals with plenty of sleep and exercise, the most important factor was fostering their "Competence". How well do they do the things they do. From this article: "The way we realize our potential is through our activities. By ceaselessly striving to improve at the things we enjoy, we come to define, enlarge, and attain our best selves." Whatever happened to stopping to smell those roses?
posted on May-21-02 at 1:47 PM
CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs Just brushing up for this Sunday's two hour series grand finale.
posted on May-16-02 at 5:04 AM
"The smartest scientist on the planet." [NYT reg req] "Conducting experiments on a computer, where he says he has logged 100 million keystrokes in the last 10 years, Mr. Wolfram wrote simple programs that generated odd and intricate patterns to test his ideas about complexity. He argues that natural phenomena can be explored as if they were, in fact, computer programs." Stephen Wolfram's own company (Wolfram Media Inc.) is now publishing his 1,197-page book - "A New Kind Science " - which was kept secret until now. They claim "..he is proposing a paradigm shift. A new twist on everything.." in explaining how the universe operates. Sounds big. Is it really?
posted on May-11-02 at 5:22 PM
Chelsea Clinton = The New J.F.K. Jr. ?? in Vanity Fair, courtesy Page Six of the NY Post. You are no JFK. [NB LLoyd Bentsen where are you when we need you.]
posted on May-9-02 at 9:32 AM
Retro-Garage, Proto-Punk, Rock-Boogie, Glam-Rock, Alternative Hip-Hop ? From the NY Times [reg req] review of the third annual Coachella Art and Music Festival in Indio, California "...with music slightly further out on the cutting edge than predecessors like Lollapalooza and the Woodstocks of the 90's." Is so much "new" stuff really going on, or is this just reviewer's fever?
posted on May-5-02 at 8:05 PM
Maestro Virtuoso Sir Andre Previn, George Solti, Arturo Toscanini, Giuseppe Verdi. "Conductors have the liveliest, longest and most rewarding sex lives of any human organism....Toscanini loved to give as much pleasure as he took, and he lasted long and well into a lascivious old age. For the supreme maestro, sex was not so much a reward as a repayment." Even Verdi was reputed to give "a certain kind of kiss that, somehow, bestowed the benediction of genius on his indulgence." Maybe its that constant exposure to heavenly music, heavy doses of Mendelhsson instead of Sildenafil Nitrate Tablets.
posted on May-3-02 at 1:35 PM