Saturday, August 02, 2003

Heinlein has his limitations, but he came up with some stunning insights, too...here's one of them. Robert Heinlein: "An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be. A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is, and force the viewer to se the pretty girl she used to be, more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo see that this lovely young girl is still alive, prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart." [Scripting News] 6:54:09 PM  comment []  Trackback []     The Blogging Process.. Dave Pollard decomposes a day in the life of an active blogger. Very focused. Much more than this flowchart. I'm going to read it twice.  While the act of posting is trivial, the other behaviors surrounding it are not. This is a great improvement over similar work written in 2001. [a klog apart] 7:26:29 AM  comment []  Trackback []     Whacking the RIAA Over the Head with Some Common Sense. Senator Launches Investigation into RIAA Piracy Crackdown "The chairman of the Senate's permanent subcommittee on investigations Thursday began an inquiry into the music industry's crackdown against online music swappers, calling the campaign 'excessive.' 'Theft is theft, but in this country we don't cut off your arm or fingers for stealing,' said Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican who was a rock roadie in the 1960s.... In the conference call, Coleman acknowledged that he used to download music from Napster, the file-sharing service that a federal judge shut down for violating music copyrights. 'I must confess, I downloaded Napster, and then Napster was found to be the wrong thing,' he said. 'I stopped.' " [KansasCity.com, via LibraryPlanet.com] How refreshing to hear a senator speaking common sense, even admitting he downloaded music (hey, he didn't just inhale!). I can't believe I'm saying this about a U.S. senator, but I'd be interested to hear his assessment of the current state of legal online music. Of course, I'd also like to get every other elected Congressperson on the stand in a court of law and ask if they've ever skipped television commercials, made a cassette copy of some music for a relative, given a book to a friend, taped a TV show for someone else, etc. [The Shifted Librarian] 7:18:15 AM  comment []  Trackback []     It's "Oy," not "Om". This was just too funny to not share - it's Zen Judaism! "Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as the wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with posture like that. There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that? Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story. To practice Zen and the art of Jewish motorcycle maintenance, do the following: get rid of the motorcycle. What were you thinking? The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao is not Jewish. Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes." [PeteBevin.com, from the book Zen Judaism by David M. Bader] [The Shifted Librarian] 7:08:08 AM  comment []  Trackback []     Educators Turn to Games for Help. Video games offer worlds for players to explore. Parents and politicians aren't always happy with what goes on in digital realms, but now universities want to use gaming technology to build better teaching tools for schools. By Brad King. [Wired News] 7:03:52 AM  comment []  Trackback []     Current Editorials: Constitutional Amendments We'd Like to See. Since amending the Constitution whenever something doesn't go one's way is en vogue, here are some amendments to the Constitution we'd like to see... [Morons Dot Org] 7:03:31 AM  comment []  Trackback []     State by State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Information http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/State_PPAreport.htm Check this out to see whether your state government is on top of this issue. [Neat New Stuff] 7:00:27 AM  comment []  Trackback []     Reporters Desktop http://www.reporter.org/desktop/ Direct forms for searching a variety of search engines, databases, dictionaries, and free news archives. Especially check out his guide to public records searching, "Who Is John Doe and Where To Get the Paper on Him." [Neat New Stuff] 6:59:48 AM  comment []  Trackback []     Opinion-Pages http://www.opinion-pages.org/ Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal which allows you to search editorial and opinion pages from over 600 publications around the world, and over 200 Letters to the Editor pages. [Neat New Stuff] 6:59:06 AM  comment []  Trackback []     AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety Senior Driver Website http://seniordrivers.org/home/toppage.cfm A.K.A. SeniorDrivers.org, this site offers tips to keep your driving skills sharp, as well as state by state listings of available transportation programs for seniors [Neat New Stuff] 6:58:49 AM  comment []  Trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Gail Marsella. Last update: 9/1/2003; 6:00:53 PM.

Weblog Portals
EatonWeb
Weblogs.com
Weblogs Compendium

SciTech News
Eurekalert
SciQuest
Wired
The Register
SciTech Daily

Science Fiction
Locus
SFBC
Fictionwise

Commentary
Bookslut
Molly Ivins
Dissent Magazine
Mitch Albom
Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Leonard
The Onion
SatireWire
Morons.org
SoYouWanna
Slate
Salon

Bookstores
eCampus
Amazon
Mysterious Galaxy
Powell's
Bookfinder
AddAll
ABE Books
aLibris
The Fearless Independents
Blackwells (USA)

Fiber Arts
KimKat Textiles
Yoko Trading
Fabric Origami Quilting Web

Community
Blogging Truth and  Beauty
The Space Betwixt the Twain
Andrew Grumets Weblog Focused Performance EightLinks

Computers
Dans Data