I haven't had my coffee yet...
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson
MASTERMIND: Aubrey Martinson
By: Amy Whitesall, 7/1/2009
Pottery appeals to Aubrey Thornton Martinson for a lot of reasons – beauty, functionality, the challenge of striving for unattainable perfection. She likes its concrete ways to measure success. Is the pot heavy? Is it clunky? People can use the things she makes, and that feels fulfilling.
"I'm really happy still when people tell me, 'I use that mug I bought every day,' or 'That's my ice cream bowl.' " she says. "That is exciting to me."
Martinson, the 30-year-old executive director of the Chelsea Center for the Arts, doesn't throw pots anymore. The studio she and her husband, Chris, set up in their Grass Lake home gave way to renovations, then to their daughter, Lily. The kiln they started building as college students is almost done, and has been for years.
Go HERE and read the rest.
Araki Nobuyoshi
Nobuyoshi Araki (Araki Nobuyoshi) is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist. He is also known by the nickname Arākī.
TouchPuppet: Photographer Spotlight: Nobuyoshi Araki
Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.
Paparazzi feeding our blood lust.
(Curious that each side of the tableau is so carefully staged.)
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)
Last time I saw this guy in my back field I thought it was just some old coarse weave tarp laying in the deep grass ... imagine my surprise when it slithered away.
fatchance: Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis),...
Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), observed at [an undisclosed location, because some people who share the same space with this harmless creature would never step outdoors if they knew he was there]. This snake was about five feet long (1.5 m). Learn more here.
[link to original | source: all creatures [great and small] | published: 3 hours ago | shared via feedly]
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I'm going back to IRC ... See you there.
If you are old(er) like me you will remember the communities in IRC. You will remember the conversations. You will remember the friends...and the feuds. You will remember when groups of people talked with each other in near-real time. You will remember full sentences. But most of all you will be a member.
irc://irc.freenode.net#Pa^PatoisI cannot promise that I will be on all the time - I do have a real job and some semblance of a life. I can promise that if you catch me there we can share more than 140 character blurts.
irc://irc.freenode.net#Joiito
irc://irc.freenode.net##Slackware
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The circle of Life and Death here at the Flying Pig Ranch
Out of the corner of my eye I caught the shadow. A fast moving dark blur.
"What the heck was that?"
I stood at the kitchen sink window and watched. There it was again. More an illusion than a fact. A large dark visage careening across the front field of the Flying Pig Ranch. I stood stock still and waited. Perhaps my aging mind was playing tricks on me.
It swooped low on broad wings. It was being chased by three sparrows and a starling. Undeterred it turned again, folded its wings and settled two thirds of the way down the driveway. The huge vulture paced. Warily eying its prize. A prize invisible from my vantage point.
Here at the Flying Pig Ranch we don't have fur bearing indoor pets. Too many allergies to 'animal dander'. So we have outdoor cats - or more specifically now, one outdoor cat - Pussin.
Anyone who has spent time with cats knows the difference between ambling and intent. When Pussin got up from her throne on the stoop and walked by me with intent I knew something was up. She made a direct line for the field behind the new shed.
Enamored with the prospect of a new species to list on the ranch roster I made my way outdoors to stand behind one of the Norway spruces closest to the driveway. The vulture was still being pestered by the smaller birds. Opening it 6 foot wing span it made a graceful leap to a nearby fence post. There it turned and kept a careful eye on the still unidentified prize. Mollified the smaller birds skittered away to their respective places.
Majestic in its stature the vulture just sat... almost as if in a cartoon segment... waiting... so we waited together ... I from my somewhat hidden vantage point and the vulture for ...
Pussin returned as intently as she had left. Proudly she presented the field mouse at my feet. As only a cat can she then accepted her accolades ... my scratching her behind the ears and compliments on her kill. Duly acknowledged she sat down with the dignity befiting her station and respect for her prey she began crunching away.
Satisfied that the time was right the vulture slipped from the fence post and settle next to its prize. Affixing it with one foot the sharp beak made quick work of the dissection. Three good tears each followed by a head-tilt swallow and the meal was over. A moment to preen and then taking wing the vulture rose in characteristic circles seeking thermals off our hillside to drift into the summer afternoon.
Pussin, having completed her repast, settled again on her throne to wash. Once properly appointed she languorously stretched out and napped.
Curiosity bested me. I went down the driveway. It took a moment of searching but there I found the lone fore claw of a mole.
Tanka, Renga and Haiku
Tanka
Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following mora pattern:
- 5-7-5-7-7.
The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase").
Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. In ancient times poems of this form were called hanka ("reverse poem"), since the 5-7-5-7-7 form derived from the conclusion (envoi) of a chōka[citation needed]. Sometimes a chōka had two envois[citation needed].
The chōka above is followed by an envoi, also written by Okura:
| 銀も | Shirogane mo | What are they to me, |
| 金も玉も | Kogane mo tama mo | Silver, or gold, or jewels? |
| 何せんに | Nanisen ni | How could they ever |
| まされる宝 | Masareru takara | Equal the greater treasure |
| 子にしかめやも | Koni shikame yamo | That is a child? They can not. |
[English translation by Edwin Cranston]
The Heian period also saw the invention of a new tanka-based game: one poet recited or created half of a tanka, and the other finished it off. This sequential, collaborative tanka was called renga ("linked poem"). (The form and rules of renga developed further during medieval times; see the renga article for more details.)
Renga (連歌 renga, collaborative poetry) is a genre[1] of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku (句) or stanzas, usually many more. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku (発句), became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry.
The first stanza of the renga chain, the hokku (発句), is the forebear of the modern haiku. The stand-alone hokku was renamed haiku in the Meiji period by the great Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki. Shiki proposed haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai[6].
Reference
Wikipedia: Waka (poetry)
Wikipedia: Renga
RIP KODACHROME
© Steve McCurry
Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, at Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984.
A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon
They say all good things in life come to an end. Today we announced that Kodak will retire KODACHROME Film, concluding its 74-year run.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
OR318 - Let the first blogger to die in prison be the last.
The March 18 Movement was born out of a tragedy. On this day in 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin Prison in Tehran. The December before his death, he was sentenced to two and half years in prison for allegedly insulting religious leaders, and engaging in “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Omid Reza was the first blogger to die in prison and his death reveals that getting censored is far from the worst thing that can happen to a blogger.
The irony is that, as more members of both the public and the media praise the ability of bloggers to inform, the more these de facto journalists around the globe become victims in fact. The March 18 Movement aims not only to make sure that Omid Reza is remembered, but also that other persecuted bloggers around the world do not disappear into interrogation rooms and prison cells. The March 18 Movement would like to become a voice for bloggers everywhere who are in risk of being crushed under the heavy machinery of repression.
This day, in memorial to Omid Reza, is dedicated to all bloggers around the world who run real risks simply to tell the truth as they see it. The March 18 Movement seeks to actively expand our sense of self to encompass those of us who are in danger and to extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who spend their time and intellectual capital in sharing information about our world.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
More moving parts? You gotta be kidding me!!!
Reported in Tom's Hardware that referenced Register Hardware, excerpted below...
You have got to be freakin' kidding me!!! More moving parts??? DUMB!British boffins ditch spinning media for ultra-fast storage tech
Not SSD, not HDD. Say hello to 'Hard Rectangular Drive'
19th June 2009 11:48 GMT
. . .
The read-write layer comprises a grid of millions of read-write heads created using the same lithography process used to make silicon chips. Each head is controlled by sending a signal along the appropriate row and column of the grid.
Inside HRD
There's not, however, a 1:1 correspondence between head and data bit on the media layer. Instead, the middle part is moved in the horizontal plane by piezo-electrics to allow a head to read a selection of bits, grouped as a sector.
Most amazing photos ...
Please, if you don't do anything else today go here and see the rest of these photos...
|
by R J Evans, Jun 17, 2009
In 1909 a remarkable project was initiated by Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky. His mission was to record - in full and vibrant color - the vast and diverse Russian Empire. Here, with his story, is a selection of his amazing century old full color pictures.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Blu-Death-Ray FAIL
If this picture, borrowed from
,is any indication then ...
yes,
Blu-Ray is a Failure!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
How much is enough?
Steve Ruble At Micro Persuasion touched on a subject near and dear to me...
This trip was unusual. For only the second time I left my laptop at home and traveled with just a smartphone (in my case an iPhone), a Verizon Mifi router and an 8gb Lacie Iamakey USB drive. Nevertheless, I was remarkably able to do just about everything I needed.Steve gives a real-world example of 'How much is enough?' More importantly this example shows what the constituent elements of 'enough' are. We are finally seeing computing platforms that offer the applications and services that make them truly useful.
At the same time we are beginning to recognize the difference between what we were taught to want and what we really need. This distinction is of major importance. In previous times it was the limits technology (8088, 80286, Desktop PCs, Laptop PCs. et al). With the advent of current processor technology the device is sufficiently powerful to support every application we might want.
Now we are being liberated from the hulking behemoths not by the PC makers but by market forces that have demanded functionality in hand-held devices. With this freedom comes the understanding that an iPhone or Palm Pre will not do everything that a desktop system will. Rather our expectations are coming more inline with our needs instead of our 'wants and desires'.
Thr real freedom that we are enjoying is not the small form factor computational platform but rather a realistic assessment of our true needs.
Getting out of the mainstream...
I am not going to the walled garden to eat 140 char worms!
I am going to cut off my media nose to spite my social face.
I am no longer going to wear my cyber heart on my digital sleeve.
I am going back to posting exclusively on this blog: Pa^2 Patois. This is where all of my views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda will emanate from. I won't be tweeting or retweeting or FF commenting or any of those micro posting things.
I have found that I cannot afford the time it takes to swim in the mainstream of social media connectivity. I cannot afford the distraction of everyone else's continuous views, thoughts, observations, blitherings, insights, blatherings, and blah-blah-blah-yadda-yadda-yadda in real time.
Now before everyone's knickers get twisted let me acknowledge the worth of your individual contributions - each insight you offer is beyond measure. My answer is to include your weblog feeds in my blogroll. If, however, you don't choose to commit it to your weblog then it will slip away, just another tiny diamond in the great information sandstorm of life.
Some one recently said that keeping a blog was a lot of work. That person observed the amount of work was most likely the imputus for favoring the micro-blogging venues. Certainly it is easier to formulate a 140 character (or less) message and flitter off to the next important topic. Blogging, done well, requires larger and longer periods of time devoted not only to thought but expression as well. Hard work indeed.
So my commitment is to try and honor your hard work by setting aside large and respectively long periods of time to read what you do commit to your weblog(s).
Now, here is the irony of my circumstance - although my intent is to only post to Pa^2 Patois I believe that my dabbling in the FaceFriendBookTwitterFeed melange is so almost incestuously interconnected that I will still appear to be present and active. Ironical, wouldn't you say...er, tweet, er... uh... Shut up Papa!
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