Tuesday, June 29, 2004

My Way News: "The zoo's 24 apes can climb trees and see the John Hancock Center to the right and Lake Michigan to the left.

The primates also can control fans hidden in boulders, helping them moderate the effects of Chicago's muggy summers and icy winters, and touch panels in fake tree trunks that will catapult snacks toward them through grates in the walls.

(AP) A gorilla climbs around in its habitat at the Lincoln Park Zoo's new Regenstein Center for African...
Full Image
Many zoos are striving to make their ape exhibits more natural and interactive to serve an increasingly sophisticated public, said Diana DeVaughn, spokeswoman for the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, which won a top American Zoo and Aquarium Association award last year for its gorilla exhibit.

The Los Angeles Zoo, for instance, made its ape exhibit interactive by letting the animals pull ropes to ring bells near visitors or spray water at people, said Jennie McNary, curator of mammals at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens."
SPIDER-MAN 2 / **** (PG-13): "I was disappointed by the original 'Spider-Man' (2002), and surprised to find this film working from the first frame. Sam Raimi, the director of both pictures, this time seems to know exactly what he should do, and never steps wrong in a film that effortlessly combines special effects and a human story, keeping its parallel plots alive and moving. One of the keys to the movie's success must be the contribution of novelist Michael Chabon to the screenplay; Chabon understands in his bones what comic books are, and why. His inspired 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay chronicles the birth of a 1940s comic book superhero and the young men who created him; he worked on the screen story that fed into Alvin Sargent's screenplay."
Internet Archive Wayback Machine

Friday, June 25, 2004

The Daily Herald: Your town. Your neighbors. Your Newspaper.: "96 Toyota Camry, low miles. Nice, $4000. 636-5056 or 371-8955"

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Kevin Kelly -- Cool Tools: "A Framework for Understanding Poverty
Understanding the culture of poverty
Poverty is not just a condition of not having enough money. It is a realm of particular rules, emotions, and knowledge that override all other ways of building relationships and making a life. This book was written as a guide and exercise book for middle-class teachers, who often don't connect with their impoverished students--largely because they don't understand the hidden rules of poverty. In the same way, poor children misconnect with school because they don't understand the hidden rules of middle-class life. Ruby Payne, a former teacher and principal who has been a member of all three of the economic cultures of our time (poor, middle-class, and wealthy) compassionately and dispassionately describes the hidden rules and knowledge of each. I think it's useful not just for educators, but for anyone who has to deal with people of different backgrounds. Having read it, I feel a lot more confident about dealing with people as people, not as representatives of their social class.
Every class assumes that their knowledge is known by everyone, which is one reason they assume that people in other classes don't 'get it.' It's possible for anyone to shift classes, but only at the price of leaving behind your existing personal relationships.
-- Art Kleiner"
Ask MetaFilter | Community Weblog: "I've never seen a good first draft of anything from anyone. All they're good for is plucking out the real ideas which are the true themes. (And you can take the case of untutored genius you feel compelled to bring up and stuff it: I don't believe in untutored genius, even when I'm told that's what it is, the same way I don't believe in Santa Claus even though i see him at the mall.)"
Wired 12.07: I, Robocop: "What grunt work have you done in your life?
When I was growing up, I installed refrigerators in supermarkets. My father was an electrical engineer. Those big freezer cases you see in supermarkets - we would install those. A supermarket basement is the individual nastiest place on the face of the earth. Ketchup bottles busted open from 30 years ago, rats, mice. You know when you go to a really dirty movie theater, and it has that gunk on the floor? There are three or four inches of that. My father started taking us to work when I was about 6 years old, so I got a few years of grunt work in.

What did that teach you?
My father always said, 'No plan B. It distracts from plan A.' Life is lived on the edge. You definitely gotta have the balls for it. We were raised with the concept of trying to save money, and I'm telling you, no, spend every dime on whatever your dream is. Don't have a dime in the bank. Whatever your dream is, every extra penny you have needs to be going to that."

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

The Calgary Sun: 6/49 winner suffers heart attack: "NEW WATERFORD, N.S. -- A Cape Breton woman who won $10 million in a Lotto 6/49 draw last month has recovered from a heart attack believed to have been caused by the number of people asking her for money. 'I'm feeling much better now,' Ferne Hawley, 43, said from her home in New Waterford yesterday. 'Now I just tear up the letters, and if anyone calls, I tell them they need to talk to my husband.'

She said 'I wish I could give it all back.'

That's because people were lined up at her door looking for money, letters were jammed in her mailbox, and her phone kept ringing.

The hysteria became so intense, Hawley said, the family had to pack up and go into hiding in London, Ont., where she suffered a heart attack."

Monday, June 21, 2004

Justin's Links: June 2004 Archives: "Afterwards, I stood up from a greasy plastic sheet, covered hair to toe in oil. She offered me the chance to shower, but she remarked: this is good oil, you might want to just leave it on. I observed to her roommate Zoltan that I felt greasy. He was eating a bowl of blueberries, bananas, sprouted almonds and hemp seeds, topped with cranberry juice. He replied, 'It's good for you.' Why? 'It's cleansing, detoxifying.'"

Friday, June 11, 2004

Oahu on a tight budget: "he most frequent request we receive from visitors is for activity suggestions for someone a tight budget. There are lots of ways to explore and enjoy your time in the islands without spending a fortune.  Below are over a dozen Oahu adventures that wont bust your budget. Just click on the activity name to go to the island specific activity page it is featured on to find out more details."

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Honolulu Weekly - On The Cover: "Kailua beach reigns supreme as the best beach on O?ahu, with two-plus miles of white sand, a vast bay for windsurfing, small skim board waves, a reef 300 yards off shore, and islands close enough to reach by kayak. Extraordinary. Lanikai and Bellows washed up close behind. Other ideas included the secretive, ?shhh ... not supposed to tell,? the obvious, ?where no dogs take a dump,? and the appropriate, triathlete hangout Kaimana Beach."

Monday, June 07, 2004

Honolulu: Radisson Hotel Waikiki - Deals and Reviews - Excellent Staff: "The pool renovations were finished and the pool opened the day before we left. We walked out there and it appeared to look like just about every other pool we saw while we were there.

I printed out a map and directions from mapsonus.com from the airport. The route avoided alot of Waikiki traffic and most of the construction on Kuhio. We had no problems getting in and out of the driveway area.

It was a great stay. The whole family discussed it and agreed that there was not one thing we could complain about. Little annoyances have a way of disrupting an entire trip. There were none and the Radisson. We would stay here again and be happy about it. Of course, one of the joys of Priceline is the ability to check out many different places without breaking the bank."
The Honolulu Advertiser Discussion Board - Good food 4 good price?.: "if you are in the ala moana area, El Burrito on Piikoi St. is good mexican eats at a decent price. it looks like a little hole in the wall, but most people say its authentic. (although i couldn't tell you really what authentic is, closest i got was Taco Bell!! )
El Burrito is waaaayy better than taco bell though! and if you are in the Leeward area, you can try Bandito's Cantina. If on the Windward side, Los Compadres.

Hawaiian Food - what side are you on?"

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Selecting the Best Pressure Cooker: "Even though the Spanish made Magefesa was rated number one in a 1996 magazine review. The Kuhn-Rikon from Switzerland was rated a VERY CLOSE second only because the Magefesa offers one more pressure settings. However most recipes, and the majority of recipes on this website, use high (15psi) or medium (10psi), so the added 5psi setting isn't especially important. The Magefesa is a great cooker, but it is not readily available so users may find it hard to locate replacement parts. "

Thursday, June 03, 2004


Yahoo! News - No sex please - we're Japanese
: "ore and more Japanese men and women are finding relationships too messy, tiring and potentially humiliating to bother with anymore. 'They don't want a complicated life,' says Sakai, who has written a controversial bestseller, Cry of the Losing Dogs, on the plight of unmarried Japanese thirtysomething women like herself."
NCBuy Weird News: N.Z. Entomologist Is A P.R. Agent For Pests - 2004-06-03: "in the upcoming Animal Planet special 'The World's Biggest, Baddest Bugs,' he covers himself in 50,000 killer bees to show how the much-feared creatures can actually be quite nice.

Mind you, executing the stunt was no picnic: Kleinpaste admits he was so afraid one of the buzzers would turn on him that -- in his words -- 'I was sh*tting myself.'

Another bug-promoting stunt involved being stung by a Bullet Ant, a one-inch-long creature which defends itself with a sting that's supposed to feel like a gunshot wound. Kleinpaste spent 17 hours in agonizing pain, but says he's hopeful the stunt will teach people not to hate bugs just for defending themselves."
local6.com - Education - New Spelling Bee Champ Crowned: "Tidmarsh defeated 13-year-old Akshay Buddiga -- who rallied after becoming lightheaded and collapsing on stage.




 Video



The Gamer: Kid Faints, Gets Up, Spells





But that didn't keep him from spelling his word correctly.

Buddiga stood up again after a few seconds -- and, to the amazement of judges, he immediately started spelling his word.

The word was 'alopecoid' -- and he spelled it perfectly, bringing the crowd to its feet.

Akshay went back to his seat, but was escorted off stage and given medical help.
"
Ask MetaFilter | Community Weblog: "A few years ago when a friend and I were vacationing in Waikiki, we took a bus up to the north shore of the island and spent two days bumming around up there. It's much more mellow and rural up there, which is a nice change from the frenetic pace of Waikiki Beach. We stayed at a cheap, rustic hostel, I think it was called 'Backpackers'.

One other tip: We arranged through our hotel concierge to buy two cases of pineapples (I think they were $25 each), which we then picked up at the airport on our way home. We gave pineapples to all of our friends and ate them ourselves until our mouths bled. They were fresh and perfect and amazing.
posted by bonheur at 11:30 PM PST on June 2"
Gmail - [techrhet] 10 Steps to Writing an Essay site

"Thanks for your comments, Chidsey. How did I do the interactive stuff?
Dreamweaver is the program of choice for simple interactions like this. You
can make layers appear and disappear, can make layers draggable, make pop-up
messages appear and disappear. Even animation is possible. "Coursebuilder"
is an extension you can add to Dreamweaver to give you more interactive
opportunities.

The focus of the instruction on these ten steps no doubt derives from the
type of writing assignments taught at AUC. All essays are arguments, none
personal narratives or other creative assignments. There is also almost no
literary analyses in our program either.

Although a student might learn a lot from my site, in class I don't think it
worked as a very good teaching tool. Knowing the material was written down
and easily accessible later made students lazy in class, rarely taking notes
or paying all that much attention. They found the interactive exercises
novel at first, but later learned to dread them because, lo and behold, they
required careful thought."

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Joi Ito's Web: "I recently started Kendo and had a sore left pinkie after my first practice. The proper grip of a Japanese sword relies on a grip focused on the pinkie of the left hand. Today, I learned that the tradition of chopping the left pinkie as punishment for disgrace was based on this fact. Without a left pinkie, it's quite difficult to grip a Japanese sword.

In the May 15 incident the Prime Minister of Japan, Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated by eleven young Naval Officers. After the court martial, eleven severed fingers were sent to the court house.

Today, the Yakuza continue this tradition, even though swords are no longer the weapon of choice."
CNN.com - Japanese entrepreneur spreads blogging gospel - Jun 2, 2004: "Ito joined friends from international schools in creating Japan's first Web pages.

'People thought we were crazy. But we had great confidence because we saw that it was going to be giant one day,' said Cyrus Shaoul, one of Ito's international-school buddies. 'The point wasn't to make a lot of money. The point was to change the world.'"

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Gmail to support mobile devices? Looking good! - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Engadget has gotten the early scoop on some new additions to the much-coveted Gmail:

">>>
You might be interested to hear that we are announcing these upcoming
features:

- Automatic forwarding of your email to another account
- Plain HTML version of Gmail
- Import/export Contacts

We hope you enjoy Google’s approach to email.

Sincerely,

The Gmail Team
>>>>"

I was just wondering how I was going to get my Pine contacts into Gmail. Very cool.
The New York Times > Fashion & Style > A BlackBerry Throbs, and a Wonk Has a Date: "In Washington and elsewhere, the devices are referred to as 'CrackBerries' because of their addictive quality. Philippe Reines, a 34-year-old Democrat who works on Capitol Hill (and who coined the term 'blirting,' for BlackBerry flirting), said he went through severe withdrawal after finding that Martha's Vineyard lacked BlackBerry reception. Mr. Reines wandered around the Vineyard for days looking for spots of coverage before begging an airline employee to take his BlackBerry on a round trip to the mainland, where it could send and receive messages. He got 129 new messages, many of them social."