Discovery News : Discovery Channel:
Exciting stuff for geeks like me. I’m reminded of the dreams of my boyhood, envisioning other worlds, imagining seeing the solar system up close. Silly, perhaps, but there it is.
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
World Water Day
I’ve been involved with World Water Day for several years. Colbert’s spoof on this is a delight.
Another Seattle Icon Closes – Bud’s Jazz Records
Bud’s Jazz Record’s is Closing
I first heard of Bud’s when I was studying Jazz at Edmonds Community College in the 1980’s (with Bob Nixon, Frank DeMiero, Jim Guard, amongst other luminaries) and my classmates and I would make pilgrimages. Bud’s willingness to walk me through the store and introduce me to great trombonists (my horn) was simply awesome. It was Bud who introduced me to JJ Johnson, Bob Brookmeyer, and Steve Turret (amongst many others). No way would I have heard of such performers so easily, especially not in one sitting. Having Bud’s voluminous knowledge at the ready was one of the things I worried about when he sold in 01.
The loss of such institutions does hurt our community. Though great and wonderful things have been happening because of our digital connections, this face-to-face experience is a basic, core experience. However, I think that the world will figure out what’s been lost and the pendulum will return…some day. Until then, we (and the whole world) can listen to Bud on KBCS Monday mornings at 9:00 (Pacific).
Needless to say, I will be making the walk down to the store one last time and stocking up. My sadness is deep, though.
Big Brother’s Roving Red Eye
Watch out, you’re being watched
As I develop more interest in security and its underlying systems, this story is both fascinating and disturbing. It boggles my mind that Homeland Security is monitoring random spots on the main freeway (north-south) through Washington (I5), and that they’re sensitive enough to detect radiation from a cat undergoing cancer treatment. I worry about the tighter net we cast, and, even more so, the underlying fear. Will we sell the soul of our society in a vain attempt to mollify our terror of terrorists? The thought that we’d, rather willingly, thrust ourselves into a Stalinist state rooted in distrust deeply saddens me.
Weirdness of my mind
Here's some insight into the strange things I waste brain-time with.
Why the 6 million dollar man didn't knock his head off the first time he sneezed?
Why Luke Skywalker's uncle and aunt didn't give him a different last name, or at least hide it?
How much time passed between Luke meeting Obiwan, and Obiwan's "ascentiion" on the Death Star. How was Luke able to learn do damn much in so short a time?
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Who wants to own WaMu?
A rather relevant question for me. I’ve had a WaMu account for decades, and my credit cards have become part of the WaMu family over the years through acquisition. And, as a passionate Washingtonian, I also care since they’re a local institution, at least in some semblance of the word. If nothing else, they originated here and are headquartered nearby. As they’ve gone from huge to mammoth, they’ve managed to maintain a local bank feel, at least in the branch I frequent most. Now, I’m a pretty low-demand customer. I LIKE banking online and via ATM. Heck, I hardly ever carry cash. But, when I do need to head into a branch, I’ve always felt welcome and speedily dealt with.
Anyway, so I have two core reasons to be concerned with the organization and structure of the Co. Certainly, I want the company to stay solvent. However, I don’t want it to become part of a megalith that’s so huge that the customers don’t even lightly blip their radar. Or, perhaps more properly stated, I don’t want to become part of Bank of America, er, part of a bank that supersized. I guess I’ll just need to wait and see what happens. If the Mu tanks, or gets absorbed into some amorphous corpoblob, I’ll need to decide how dissatisfied I am to vote with my feet. Gotta overcome that personal inertia, sad to say.
Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy (perhaps)
I don’t know about the veracity of this, but it’s still cute.
Deep Thoughts
by Jack Handy
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is “Probably because of something you did.”
Newsvine
Just one more thing
I always feel a need to do just one more thing. Whether it's zipping of one more email before a meeting, or trying to clean one more space before bed. It just seems that there is always one more thing to do, no matter how many things I've already done. Endless, maddening, and, actually, peace inducing, for it really speaks to the infinite, to continuity. Well, the peace comes when I accept that there will always be something undone, and that's not only fine but good.
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The Power of Cheese
A clever piece from over at Diversity, Inc. This guest editorial by Ahmed Tharwat, who’s probably best know for his Minnesota Public TV show, Belahdan, explores multicultural issues by comparing Feta and American cheese in the context of the War on Iraq and other post-9/11 cultural issues here in the States.