on the road again...
Eel River Cafe, Garberville, CA
meg on weblogs: "What's important is that we've embraced a medium free of the physical limitations of pages, intrusions of editors, and delays of tedious publishing systems. As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it."
Erik Benson is doing some interesting things with the Weblog Bookwatch RSS feed (+ an Amazon SCRAPI, + Google's API). I like the related books feature.
Can the RIAA have its name attached to something good? The Future of Music Coalition has joined together with several groups, including the RIAA, in a letter to the FCC and Congress. The letter proposes (among other things) that the FCC allow independent low-power FM stations. It also laments the effect that corporate consolidation has had on the airwaves: "Radio station groups have centralized their decision-making about playlists and which new songs to add to the playlist. These centralized playlists have reduced the local flavor and limited the diversity of music played on radio." With all of the work RIAA has done to stop independent musicians and Internet radio stations, this letter doesn't seem to be in line with their strategy. I guess it's another case of saying one thing publicly and acting completely different in the courts.
Update: Senator Feingold (campaign finance reformer) has seized on this issue and says he's going to introduce legistlation to change the current radio landscape. From his statement to congress: "Radio airwaves are public property. Unlike other business ventures, radio stations have acquired their distribution mechanisms – the airways – without any expenditure of capital. They were given access to the broadcast spectrum by the government for free. Since 1943, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have tried to ensure that this medium serves public good, but limiting access to information and diversity on the radio does not achieve this." (6/15)
Update: Senator Feingold (campaign finance reformer) has seized on this issue and says he's going to introduce legistlation to change the current radio landscape. From his statement to congress: "Radio airwaves are public property. Unlike other business ventures, radio stations have acquired their distribution mechanisms – the airways – without any expenditure of capital. They were given access to the broadcast spectrum by the government for free. Since 1943, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have tried to ensure that this medium serves public good, but limiting access to information and diversity on the radio does not achieve this." (6/15)
skp and I went to a friend's place to watch the solar eclipse tonight. (well, now last night.) I brought along my telescope and she provided the aluminized mylar filter that allows you to look at the sun. It was amazing just seeing the sunspots...but watching the moon block out the light and cast eerie shadows was even better. People from around the neighborhood came out to look through the telescopes, and anyone who happened to be walking by was handed a piece of welder's glass so they could see the eclipse with their own eyes. It's funny that the sun and moon look about the same size when they're crossing paths.
Solar eclipses happen irregularly, so it's not surprising that they were viewed as apocalyptic signs in the past. I like this simple quote about an eclipse in 1275 that was viewed as an omen in retrospect: "The Sun was eclipsed; it was total. Stars were seen. The chickens and ducks all returned to roost. In the following year the Sung dynasty was extinguished." [found at Eclipse Quotations]
Solar eclipses happen irregularly, so it's not surprising that they were viewed as apocalyptic signs in the past. I like this simple quote about an eclipse in 1275 that was viewed as an omen in retrospect: "The Sun was eclipsed; it was total. Stars were seen. The chickens and ducks all returned to roost. In the following year the Sung dynasty was extinguished." [found at Eclipse Quotations]
If you use snapGallery to post pictures and want to change the look/feel of the pages it creates, check out the snapGallery customizer. It sill requires some script editing to implement, but it's a step in the right direction. It's a bit easier than making the changes by hand, and you can preview as you go!
Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class was interviewed in Salon about cities that attract creative people: "[San Francisco] became very early on a kind of capitalism that recognizes that you don't have to have all this bullshit organizational, bureaucratic nonsense to be successful. San Francisco was a place where weird people could find a place...The best thing that happened to San Francisco was the damned NASDAQ collapse and the high-tech recession. That was San Francisco's saving grace." [via MeFi]
Spent the past couple of days in Lassen Volcanic National Park hiking and relaxing. It was great time, though the trail was often hidden from us by snow. The first hike was a day of map reading, terrain reading, tree-marker spotting, snow-pack climbing, twelve lakes, and patience. And you couldn't pick a better group of people to be lost in the woods with. The second day ended with a close-up view of a waterfall.
meg, preston, and pascal orienteering in Lassen
more>>
meg, preston, and pascal orienteering in Lassen
more>>
psst...blogroots is taking its first steps. We'll probably have an official launch next week sometime, but until then you can watch (and help!) the site get rolling.