Friday, July 16, 2004

furl it

Furl. Let's see, how can I describe what this is. It's kind of a favorites list that you can share if you want to. Sort of like a bookmark manager, but much much more.

I installed the FURL toolbar (it's pretty painless) to give it a whirl. So far, I think it's pretty cool since it's easy to categorize what I save and, once I need to find something, I can look at the lists by category or search them for something specific.

What I like about it is that I'm not locked into my computers -- as long as I know my FURL url, I can get to my lists. Also, FURL can keep copies of the pages if you want top so even if the original site drops into the void, you still have the information.

I also like to see what other people are adding to their lists -- I've found a couple of cool sites that way.

Furl was started in the spring of 2003 by Mike Giles. Other than he lives in Massachusetts, there's not much information on his site about what else he does.

So check it out.
posted by lee on 07/16/04 at 05:28 AM
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Monday, July 19, 2004

Smithsonian wired

HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things is an online exhibit. It's really interesting to poke around and see what's there. This is what they say about the exhibit: "Welcome to the Smithsonian Institution's HistoryWired: A few of our favorite things. This experimental site introduces visitors to some of the three million objects held by the National Museum of American History, Behring Center."

It's a java display based on the technology behind Map of the Market in SmartMoney magazine, which was created by Martin Wattenberg. Check out Wattenberg's Copernica -- it's quite fascinating.

And as long as you're poking around, go to Rhizome. It's free on a Friday, but if it really interests you, it's very cheap to join it.

I think that's enough for now.

My nephew is coming to visit for a week (from the Detroit area). I think he wants to go into Manhattan while he's here. The problem with going into Manhattan is deciding which of about a thousand things to do. Even though I lived there for years, I barely scratched the surface of things to do there. We'll see what he has in mind -- I'm actually looking forward to it even though I really don't have hooky time.
posted by lee on 07/19/04 at 05:08 AM
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Tuesday, July 20, 2004

stuff

Stanley, by way of Abberrant News, sent me this link: EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES Punctuation Game. I got one wrong, but I disagree with the judge, or whomever it was that decided "no comma" is the wrong answer. I love the book. It's making me more aware of the punctuation I should and shouldn't use. The hard part about reading the book, though, is seeing the period used outside of the closing quote. This is a British thing and, to me, just looks wrong.

But the bad thing about the book is it's made me even more aware of how much punctuation is being mangled. I don't mind this so much on blogs, but in mainstream news it drives me nuts. If I read a badly punctuated blog, I can excuse it to some degree (though I never quite trust the content). But never a mainstream newspaper.

ARE YOU QUALIFIED TO BE A CITIZEN?
The Herald Sun, which hails from North Carolina, offers a U.S. Citizenship test. Other than the name of the governor of NC (who cares?), the test is so easy I have a hard time believing this is really the one used.

INTERESTING
GasBuddy -- helps you find the cheapest gas around. I wonder how far people will drive to save a few cents a gallon?

AND
The Lost Museum is yet another virtual museum exhibit, this one a recreation of P.T. Barnum's museum. The real one burned down in 1865. It's pretty annoying to get around this museum, which is done in Flash. Once you get to the actual information about the exhibits, it's pretty well done. The question is, often, is there more information here? In some cases, it's hard to tell -- just click the word "Archive" if the Flash artifact doesn't make it apparent. There are some cute effects, such as a rat running across the floor below one display case. A good place to poke around, particularly if you're curious about the weird.
posted by lee on 07/20/04 at 04:30 AM
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cops can’t search backpacks of demonstrators without probable cause

law.com reports:
New York City police officers cannot search the bags and backpacks of demonstrators at the Republican National Convention later this summer without showing both a specific threat to public safety and an indication of how blanket searches could reduce the threat, according to a federal judge.

But Southern District Judge Robert W. Sweet also ruled that "less intrusive searches," such as metal-detecting wands, would not violate the Fourth Amendment and would not be banned under a preliminary injunction he issued on police practices Monday.

The ruling was one of several by Sweet in three demonstration-related cases filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Foundation. The lead case is Stauber v. The City of New York, 03 Civ. 9162.

Sweet also ruled on the use of "pens" by police to corral demonstrators during the Aug. 30 - Sept. 2 Republican National Convention, finding that pens may be used but they may not unreasonably restrict "access to and participation in demonstrations through the use of pens."

And they can use horses for crowd control as well, according to the judge. I have bad memories of that from my NYC union organizer days when the cops acted like fellow union members ONLY when it was contract time and they wanted us to help them.

I kind of wish we were going to be there demonstrating as well. But I'm also glad we're going to be on vacation during this convention since I want nothing to do with the spillover. (We don't live very far from Manhattan.)
posted by lee on 07/20/04 at 03:19 PM
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Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Clients in the News—and all of it good

Glass artist Candace Held had two of her wonderful pieces in a show in Guilford, CT recently. She displayed Warrior and Digital Orange. The show, which was great (we went on opening day), received a great review, and Candy's pieces were among those highlighted in the review:

Fragile beauty: A medium shows its versatility at Guilford Handcraft Center

By Judy Birke (New Haven Register)
7/18/04
GUILFORD -- Nobody asked me ... but if I were approached to select the prize winners for the best works in the 2004 glass biennial at the Guilford Handcraft Center, hands down, I would choose Bandhu Dunham's "Lustrous Blue Basket, and Gina Poppe's Checkers. I'd give runner-up awards to Edward Branson's vessels, Penny Faich's bowls and Candace Held's fused-glass "Warrior."

... Helds fused materials blend the forms of the natural world with those of the human experience, achieving a muted sensibility that addresses the connection between person and place.


Very cool! It's great to see Candy getting the recognition her work deserves.

AT THE CONVENTION
WestportNow.com editor Gordon Joseloff was featured in the Wall Street Journal in "Meet the Bloggers:"
Gordon Joseloff, 59, editor and publisher of WestportNow.com, and Jessica Bram, 50, contributing editor of the site. Describe your blog. WestportNow.com is not a "blog" in the sense of what many have come to think of blogs. That is, it is not a compendium of one individual's opinions or observations. It is a local Web news site for Westport, Conn. It's one of only a handful of such local independent news sites on the Internet that is not affiliated with a newspaper, broadcast or other type of media company. How do you plan to cover the convention? What kind of content can readers expect? Coverage will concentrate on delegates and guests from Westport as well as from other parts of Connecticut. Why should people read your coverage? If they are interested in a (Westport) hometown perspective, there is no other place to read it. ... Moment/speaker/event you're most looking forward to covering. Any doings involving people from Westport or Connecticut ...

We're looking forward to reading WestportNow.com reports from Boston.

AN ASIDE
My niece is at the convention, as a volunteer. I think it's pretty cool that they're making space for 15-year-olds -- I hope she got to hear, in person, the great speeches by Gore, Carter, H. Clinton, and B. Clinton, etc. They were superb speeches. If the first night is any indication, this will be one hell of a good convention. Gives me hope.

NORMAN "NOBODY"
We manage a site pro bono for [takes a breath] The Umbrella Movement to Counteract the Right (http://www.therightiswrong.us), a 501(c) organization founded by Norman Sommer. (Stanley actually manages it -- it's a long story you can read about on Puppet Press Journal if you're interested. I just help out a little with bits and pieces.) It's located at therightiswrong.us. Anyway, Norman was singlehandedly responsible for outing hypocrite Henry Hyde during the Clinton impeachment days -- telling the story of Hyde's own adultery with Norman's friend's wife. You can read about Norman on the website above AND in the Miami Herald:

Posted on Mon, Jul. 26, 2004
Meet Mr. Nobody: Political junkie Norman Sommer
by Margaria Fichtner
... the 78-year-old Sommer knows he will need more than a belly full of hardy-har or scalding outrage to retune the rhythms of the universe. Especially now, given the pesky stenosis that has messed up his spinal cord, put him on a walker and dealt a cruel end to his tennis game. And, tell the truth, also given his fixed income, iffy health (''On March 1 we were having dinner . . . , and I wasn't feeling well, and Kitty reached over and took my pulse, and there was no pulse'') and penchant for solitary combat: ``I'm a voice in the wilderness. I've been working a-lone.''

Still, almost six years ago, Sommer -- yeah, that Norman Sommer -- had become a piquant footnote to the Clinton impeachment mess when he leaked the news to Salon.com that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde once had indulged in an affair of his own. Sommer had heard the dirt -- fooling around with another man's wife -- from one of his tennis partners, the cuckolded husband himself. And even though the Republican leadership lashed out at Democratic White House worker bees for besmirching the white-maned Hyde, the besieged Clintonites were not to blame. Sommer was.

Within two days crews from major networks and a German newsmagazine show had elbowed their way into his small Aventura apartment, ''and then there were all kinds of radio interviews, and then the newspapers. . . . I had 15 minutes of fame.'' Long enough. If you check the index to Sidney Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars, which devotes part of a chapter to those tumultuous days, you will find 27 references to Hyde, Henry but also three for Sommer, Norman.

Now, guess what. Mr. Nobody is at it again, this time gamely hoping to jerk his country, this land of the brave, home of the free, etc., etc., back to the left side of the political pigsty, away from what he calls, in the letter he will happily send you even if he has to use his own stamp, the far right's ''weave of nefarious programs, with pernicious outcomes'' that is sucking us all up into a . . . . Well, never mind. It is enough to know that Sommer, who tends to pronounce ''Rush Limbaugh'' with the same quiet grace he would use to utter ''spit wad,'' has a plan, a new nonprofit, nonpartisan, noncandidate, hopelessly nonlyrical initiative: The Umbrella Movement To Counteract The Right.


Norman is an interesting guy, his cause is righteous, so it's worth the time-sink any pro bono project turns into. It's our contribution to ending the coup d'etat. I hope I have as much drive and energy when I'm Norman's age. Hell, I wish I did now!
posted by lee on 07/27/04 at 04:36 AM
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