BestBlogPosts

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:44:06 GMT

Rotating House

I live in the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Everyone who approaches the city from the north runs up against a roundabout. This roundabout constitutes one of the most important gateways to the city. Thus it is not surprising that the municipality dedicated this location as an art location.

The roundabout is now the scene of a large-scale and unusual work of art. The Rotating House of Dutch designer John Kormeling, which looks as if it is real, rotates on the roundabout in the direction of the traffic and completes one full round in 20 hours. The house is a full-scale model and has an open and friendly look and feel. It is not fit for human habitation.



More about the Rotating House. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Fri, 09 May 2008 01:35:21 GMT

Fugitive Pieces

"Image, like identity, is always coming into focus throughout Fugitive Pieces," writes Ed Gonzalez in Slant. "Conventionally shot but artfully cut, Jeremy Podeswa''s film, based on a novel by Anne Michaels, toggles back and forth in time, honing in on the nervous psychological headspace of its main character, Jakob Beer, who escapes from the clutches of the Nazis during WWII with the help of a Greek gentleman and grows up to become a great writer."

In the New York Times, Jeannette Catsoulis finds Podeswa "disinclined to dawdle, juggling three decades and as many countries with a sure hand and an eye for candy." Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:21:59 GMT

Changing Habits

We have talked about changing habits in order to make you more successful in starting your business. However, what we have not discussed is some of the things you should avoid when trying to change those bad habits.


© debaird

The Zen Habits blog has 13 things to avoid when trying to change habits.

The first one is a biggie and that is not trying to change two habits at once. I have tried to do this a couple of times and it just doesn't work. When trying to do something like change a habit you need all your focus on one at a time.

Number two is something we have talked about when setting goals and that is not committing things to paper. As I have said before, by not writing goals on paper makes them nothing but New Years resolutions and the same thing applies to changing a habit. If you do not write them down, you are going to loose focus and will not change that habit.

Another important aspect of changing a habit is having support. You need someone to be behind your changes and to push you along. Not only does this give you support, it also has someone holding you're responsible for achieving your goal and changing that habit.

Take a look at the Zen Habits blog to get the full listing. Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:18:57 GMT

Marabou Stork

Saw this bird at the zoo yesterday, but Tay was so disturbed by it that I had to get her away from the enclosure. This is not some freak or injury, all of the birds of this species were sitting like this. I didn''t get to read the signage, because Tay was a handful at that point.... one of the sad things about her autism is that when she''s as tired as she was Saturday, she just couldn''t handle something that looked so different than her usual experiences.

If you think he just looks ugly in this picture, you should read more about his behaviors and appearance:....the Marabou''s fondness for carrion and its habit of squirting excrement onto its own legs....

The most distinctive feature of the Marabou is the nearly bald, spotted, scab-encrusted head, with its huge meat-cleaver bill. Dark, wispy hair-like feathers are scattered sparsely across the head, neck, and nape. The bare skin of the head and neck is predominantly pink to magenta in color, with spots of darker pigmentation concentrating around the face and extending down into the upper portion of the horn-colored bill. In breeding season the back of the neck turns a beautiful pale blue-green, and the spots on the face and forehead become encrusted with dried blood.Oh, no! Now I''ll have nightmares about the darn thing, too!

.... well, actually.....

You have to wonder about the ecological niche a creature like this fits into, and just be happy as can be that you''re not a female Marabou Stork. Posted by: Dori      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:23:02 GMT

Zantedeschia 'Mango'

Elizabeth asked in the comments yesterday if we had a snow shower weekend locally. Yes, a little bit on Friday and Saturday, but I didn''t really notice. I had purchased a bouquet on Friday afternoon, partly for the reason that the forecast suggested a return to wintery conditions (which didn''t really come to pass) so I would instead spend time inside learning how to use my off-camera flash unit. These are a couple of the results of that exercise. I''ve primarily categorized these photographs as "botanical art", as I''ve used much more digital manipulation than I normally would and don''t consider these images documentarian. As to what sort of manipulation, for those interested, I greatly increased the midtones using curves on both images. In the second image, I also burned a small portion of the flower to locally decrease the exposure.

I think these calla lilies are the cultivar ''Mango''. I called the florist yesterday, and the person answering the phone thought the name was ''Margo'' (a non-existent cultivar, from what I can tell), so I concluded ''Mango'' instead (and somewhat confirmed by the Zantedeschia photographs on the Pacific Bulb Society Wiki). Another point of evidence is the many commercial recommendations for its use as a cut flower in a search for "Zantedeschia ''Mango'' cut flower".

Certainly, one of the elements that attracted me to this particular bouquet were the orange tones (the bouquet contains orange lilies and orange gerberas, as well). The Production and Landscape Horticulture program at Massey University in New Zealand has done some research into Zantedeschia pigmentation. As you might expect from a cultivar that is mainly orange with patches of red, it is concluded that ''Mango'' contains a discontinuous layer of anthocyanins on a base of carotenoids. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:52:47 GMT

Erythrina crista-galli

Connor put together today''s write-up:

Thank you to Quimbaya@Flickr for today''s Botany Photo of the Day (original via UBCBG BPotD Flickr Pool). I also recommend taking a look at his orchid photographs , truly amazing!

Erythrina crista-galli is a member of the Fabaceae and is native to central South America. It is cultivated elsewhere, and has even been declared a noxious weed in parts of Australia. Its flower is the national flower of both Argentina and Uruguay (via Wikipedia). The epithet crista-galli means "crested comb" (from the Royal Horticultural Society who happened to feature this plant as Plant of the Month back in October), referring to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the comb of a rooster. This combined with erythros, meaning red, gives rise to one of the common names, the cockspur coral tree. Other names incude the cry baby tree and ceiba.

Like other plants in the Fabaceae Erythrina crista-galli associates with bacteria in a symbiotic relationship. The bacteria fix nitrogen for the plant in nodules found on the roots, and, in return for doing so, receive carbohydrates. This topic is a hot area of research because of the prospect of transferring this nodulation ability to other plants. In What Makes the Rhizobia-Legume Symbiosis So Special? (PDF), Hirsch et al. discuss the mechanisms by which this relationship takes place. It is thought that compounds produced by the Fabaceae called lectins play a crucial role in this process. Lectins are proteins produced by plant cells that bind to carbohydrates found on the surfaces of other cells (and are often very carbohydrate-specific). Their function is unknown but many speculate that they help plants defend themselves by recognizing invading cells. This cell-to-cell recognition also facilitates the establishment of an endosymbiotic relationship between a plant in the Fabaceae and a Rhizobium bacteria. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:30:08 GMT

The Flight of the Red Balloon

"Like his 2004 film Cafe Lumière, Hou Hsiao-hsien''s sublime new movie The Flight of the Red Balloon finds the director in a foreign country paying homage to another filmmaker," writes Chris Wisniewski at indieWIRE. "With Lumiere, Yasujiro Ozu was Hou''s reference point and Tokyo his canvas; here, Hou reimagines Albert Lamorisse''s classic 1956 short The Red Balloon as a Parisian family melodrama."

"A remarkably rich, rewarding, and restful experience, Hou''s latest is a film like no other - in the simplicity of its lines, colors, and framing, and in the complexity of how those elements compound and contextualize its emotional subject matter, The Flight of the Red Balloon can, in my mind, be compared to the works of Matisse," writes Michael Koresky in Reverse Shot. "Despite this elevation, the film, miraculously, doesn''t feel like an artist''s grand summation, but rather just another in a long line of purely wrought canvases; it never calls attention to its own technique or turns its endless flow of lovely, complicated compositions into recognizable set pieces, and instead allows its three principal characters to navigate its spaces with ease."

Updated through 4/5. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:19:26 GMT

Insecurity and Dating

Are you afraid to really get out and date? Do you think you'll make an oaf out of yourself and not get another chance?

I talked to a woman the other day that had recently been in a 20-year marriage. She met her husband while in high school, and now was telling me how she didn't want to "date" because she was looking for a "life partner."

To me, it was an insecure and uneducated response to dating. After all, the majority of singles looking to meet people want to find a committed relationship. In my friend's mind, however, she seemed to think everyone was out there for fun and sex, without commitment.

The ironic part is, her attitude tells me she very much NEEDS to get out and date if she's ever to find the right guy for her. Because she met her husband so young, she doesn't know how to act on a date. She doesn't know how to get out and meet the right guy. And because she's had so little life experience in this area, she doesn't know herself very well, either. All she knows is that she was in a long relationship with someone that wasn't right, and now she wants to meet the right one.

Well.... that's all anyone wants. But sometimes our insecurities get the better of us. For example, will she be nervous the next time she goes out on a date? Will she not be able to make small talk? Will she be sizing up the guy for marriage right out of the gate?

For her, and anyone like her, I came across a great article about dating insecurities. The very first item on the list described her perfectly: Dating Insecurity #1: "I'm not my date's type." Since she assumes that "guys only want one thing" she also thinks she's not the one for them. She's looking for her "soul mate" but thinks she doesn't have to date him in order to find him.

What do you think? Posted by: Cherie Burbach      Read more     Source

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:42:51 GMT

Austin Chronicle

Last night, at the end of the odyssey that brought me from Berlin to Austin, I stepped off the plane to find a stack of fresh Austin Chronicles, and there on the cover, as you can see, is the lovely and talented Greta Gerwig. "Love it or hate it, mumblecore is here to stay, as evidenced by this year''s Festival program book," writes Kimberley Jones, introducing the Chronicle''s SXSW Film package. Spencer Parsons conducts the interview.

A quick run-through of the rest, before I head off to catch Goliath (site); first, Josh Rosenblatt talks with its makers, David and Nathan Zellner. Also: an overview of the 24 Beats a Second program of music docs. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:52:49 GMT

Weekend shorts

"In almost every movie you go to these days you''ll see another screen - a television, a computer, even another movie screen - within the screen you''re watching," writes Peter Keough in the Boston Phoenix. "In 1964, when Marshall McLuhan submitted, in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, that ''We have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time..... We approach the final phase of the extensions of man - the technological simulation of consciousness,'' it might have sounded a little over the top. Not so much now."

"What is this fascinating new film theory known as cognitivism?" David Bordwell offers a primer with linkage.

FilmInFocus interviews the SpoutBlog''s Karina Longworth. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:57:33 GMT

Face In Hole

Wouldn''t it be great if you could be a different person everyday? Many of us have tried to manipulate pictures in order to try something different or just to have fun. But not only it takes loads of hard work but also the results aren''t usually all that great.

With Face In Hole you can easily create a totally ''new look'' for you and your friends. You just have to select a scenario, upload and adjust a photo (or use your webcam) and there you have it, a great picture that you can send to your friends, post in your blog or make available to the world.

That''s me in the picture above as Austin Powers. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 13:55:34 GMT

What didn't happen

When we didn’t go out to Roundrock on Sunday (because of the challenging weather conditions), we didn’t do all of the following things:

We didn’t stop at the game camera we had left on the tree across from the suet feeder, and we didn’t download all of the pictures of the many woodpeckers (including, probably, an ivory bill) that had visited. As a result, we also didn’t put in fresh batteries and move it to a new location, salted with lots of corn and peanuts that we didn’t take down there with us. And because we never went down there, we didn’t manage to set up the other game camera (the one that is still giving me fits) to give it one last chance to perform.

We didn’t check on the pine trees to see how their fences were holding up either. We would probably have found that they were holding up well, and we might have even seen some vandalizing attempts by the deer captured by the nearby game camera when it wasn’t shooting the ivory billed woodpeckers.

We didn’t go down to the lake to listen to the ice booming, and because we didn’t do that, I won’t be giving you the audio on a video clip of it this coming Saturday. Too bad about that.

Another thing we didn’t do when we weren’t down there was hike up to the unfenced part of our southern boundary line and sink a couple of fence posts in the spots where we had found two old survey stakes on recent trips. And after we didn’t do that, we didn’t try using line-of-sight to plot the direction the property line goes based on those two points that are established. Thus we didn’t try hanging temporary bits of survey tape in the trees and to see if we came out close to the southwest corner where another stake rises.

Because we didn’t go to Roundrock, we didn’t sit in the comfy chairs, shivering a bit in the weak sunlight to eat our sandwiches. We didn’t find that all of our firewood was too wet to build a fire, so we didn’t decide not to make a fire.

We also didn’t get the truck bogged down in the sloppy mud of the road across my neighbor’s meadow, in the soft area where our road turns into the trees down to the lake, or in the pecan plantation where I would have imprudently driven my truck despite admonitions from Libby that that would have been a really stupid idea.

Here are some things that might have happened today though:

Missouri calendar:

• Opossum young are born and climb into the female’s pouch.
• River otter litters are born now through late March.

Today in Missouri history:

• Abraham Williams, Missouri''s third governor, born with only one leg who served a scant six months in the office, was born on this date in 1781.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:29:28 GMT

Important Numbers

Keep important numbers close at hand.

Now this seems like an easy thing, keep all your important numbers that you call on a frequent basis where you can find them very easily.

There is a many ways to do this. Rolodexes are still popular items and can be found at you local office supply store. I have put all my important numbers in on the computer in outlook so they can be easily found. Some other people like to keep their important numbers on their Blackberry's or Palms.

What every way you decide make sure that you are able to access your important numbers quickly and easily. As a busy small business person, the last thing you want to do is waste time trying to find an important number. My Organized Biz blog has some more ideas to help you out. Posted by: John Dornoff      Read more     Source

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:59:45 GMT

Happy New Year!!!

Hey everyone I wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Fabulous New Year!!! Go out there and put your best (beautifully decorated with amazing heels) foot forward and start the new (fashion) year right!! Make sure you are safe though and on top of no drinking and driving I also mean stay away from spandex!!

Can't be here? Times Square Webcam Posted by: Ryan      Read more     Source

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:56:36 GMT

Flying pig celebrates U.S. holidays

Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on holiday decorations and thousands on the new extension to store all the boxes, let''s all buy a flying pig statue this year and dress it up with the six festive costumes that come with it to celebrate the seasons.

I mean, who needs Christmas lights when they''ve got a foot-long pig attached to a "When Pigs Fly" pedestal wearing a red Christmas cape and matching mask? What''s the point of a jack-o-lantern when the pig can easily don a black Halloween cape and mask? Why dye Easter eggs when the light blue Easter cape and mask are right there? Think about it.

Appropriately available at Stupid.com for $13.

Via Nerd Approved. Posted by: Sarah      Read more     Source

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:25:10 GMT

Crappy post

Yes, this is just what it looks like. The large boulder is one of those that are supposed to be under ten feet of water in the lake. That may happen some day, but most of the year, this boulder enjoys the Ozark sunlight. This is the rock into which I carved my initials some years back. Obviously, I’ve had a series of guests who have come to admire my carving, and they’ve left their calling cards.

I’d read somewhere the coyotes will leave their droppings in obvious places as a way to claim territory. I see their scat in the middle of the road often, for example. I guess this makes sense. I make no claim to understanding coyote psychology. I wonder, though, if you can see the droppings in obvious places because they are, um, obvious. You don’t see it lost in the leaf litter or the tall grass, but maybe it’s there too. So you only see it where it can be seen, and thus you conclude that it is only left where it can be seen.

I’ve been told more than once that I think too much, so you can disregard that whole preceding paragraph if you want.

I don’t know why the coyotes have picked this boulder to stake out their territory though. I guess it is somewhat prominent, and the white stone gives a nice color contrast (do you think coyotes appreciate that kind of thing?). Maybe they just want to out do my carved initials, which are, in their way, a sort of claim to territory as well.

I’ve never seen a coyote at Roundrock, but I’m sure they’ve seen me. I wonder what they’ve seen me doing.

Missouri calendar:

• Red foxes begin mating; listen for their barks and squalls.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:03:51 GMT

The journey from farm to juice bottle

With approximately 15,000 acres of cranberry bogs, Massachusetts is the second largest cranberry-producing state. (Wisconsin is the first.) I recently spent an afternoon driving around southeastern Mass. looking at cranberry bogs and learning about cranberry farming.

Cranberries typically grow in wetland areas, thriving on the sandy, acidic soils and high-organic matter that are typically found in such ecosystems. They exist in harsh conditions such as those in bogs and other wetlands because they can withstand harsh winds and ice, and they are immune to many bacteria and diseases common in overly wet areas.

The cranberry is one of only three native American crops that are commercially produced. (The other two are Concord grape & blueberry). Indians first used cranberries as a food source, for dye, and for its healing properties. It wasn’t long before European settlers caught on to the benefits of cranberries, and they were first successfully cultivated in the early 1800s.

(To learn more about the natural history of cranberries, read my first cranberry entry.)

The first commercial cranberry beds were constructed in wetlands, but now they are usually built in areas with a shallow water table. An unflooded cranberry bed looks like a low field surrounded on all sides by a dirt berm. The topsoil is scraped off and used to build the berm, which serves as a dike. The topsoil is replaced with 4-8 inches of clean sand, which is shaped to have a slight hill in the center to promote drainage. The beds are installed with irrigation equipment and planted with cuttings from established plants.

A lot of people think that cranberry beds are constantly underwater but that isn’t so. Beds are irrigated regularly, but are only flooded twice — in the fall to facilitate easier harvest, and in the winter to protect them from freezing. Though it might sound counterintuitive, ice actually helps protect the plants. Sand is spread on the top of frozen bogs to protect them from frost damage and for pest control; when the ice melts, the sand settles to the bottom of the bog and helps replenish the sandy bottom.

Late September and October are peak cranberry harvesting months. When the berries are ripe, the beds are flooded and mechanical harvesters remove the berries from the plants. The ripe berries float in the water and are raked into a corner of the bed, where they are mechanically pumped from the bed. Because they’re harvested in water, helicopters are often used to transport the crop to a separate area for sorting.

I’m not through with cranberries. Stay tuned, a post on the environmental aspects of cranberry production is coming up. Posted by: Caroline Brown      Read more     Source

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:13:41 GMT

Ear Candles

Also called ear cones, ear candles are long, hollow tubes made of wrapped muslin. Ear candles are used for ear wax removal. They are believed to help with ear infection and ear problems such as lack of hearing by removing the wax in which various bacteria and parasites live.

Using ear candles is called ear candling. It is generally more comfortable and less expensive than conventional ear cleaning where water is forced into the ear canal. Ear candles are considered a folk medicine. The practice of ear candling is actually an ancient art from many other countries such as China, Czechoslovakia, Mexico and Italy. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:52:15 GMT

SAIF Partners is China's Number One Venture Capital Firm

Zero2IPO recently released the China Venture Capital & Private Equity Annual Ranking for 2007 and this year's number one venture capital firm is SAIF Partners.

SAIF Partners describes itself as being focused on providing growth capital to companies in Asia that operate in the areas of business services, financial services, communications, consumer services, education services, healthcare, & manufacturing. Founded in 2001, the company manages over $2 billion in assets across three funds. It has been involved in more than 60 investments over the last 6 years, making it one of the largest and most active funds in the region.



Currently SAIF is invested in 43 companies in China. Their portfolio includes companies like China's largest home TV shopping channel, Acorn, and Joymedia, a privately held media company focused on TV program production and distribution. Also in the company portfolio: Joymedia and Shanda, both involved in online games and virtual worlds in China. Posted by: Greg Cruey      Read more     Source

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:10:03 GMT

China, US Ink Deal on Some Drugs

China and the U.S. signed an agreement Tuesday that could improve the safety of some commonly used drugs in the U.S., including Lipitor, Viagra, a flu drug called oseltamivir, and an antibiotic used for eye infections called gentamicin sulfate.

A recent Associated Press story notes that "The global pharmaceutical industry increasingly uses drugs either made or containing ingredients sourced in China."



The agreement was one of several signed as part of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT)meeting that just ended. The JCCT meets twice each year. The agreement, according the Forbes, will see China register producers of drugs and medical devices and "ensure they meet US safety standards and notify the US when safety problems surface."

While the new agreement may be a small step in the right direction, healthcare blogger Barbara Duck points out that "the accord covers only a tiny fraction of the pharmaceutical ingredients being marketed worldwide by thousands of unlicensed chemical companies. "

Another Blogosphere resident, Ellroon, was more cynical: "This should last about two minutes..... "

Under the agreement, U.S. food and drug inspectors will gain increased access to Chinese facilities where the drugs in questions are actually being produced. A working group of U.S. and Chinese officials is supposed to meet with 120 days to develop a plan to implement the new agreement. Posted by: Greg Cruey      Read more     Source

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:12:59 GMT

Chamaedorea pinnitafrons

Today''s photograph is courtesy of van swearingen@Flickr (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool), who took the image at the New York Botanical Garden. Thank you!

Often, you will hear of insect pollination (entomophily) or wind pollination (anemophily), but I''ll wager you rarely hear about insect-induced wind pollination — the pollination mode used by this understory palm of Mexico, Central America and northern South America (see: Listabarth, C. 1993. Insect-induced wind pollination of the palm Chamaedorea pinnatifrons and pollination in the related Wendlandiella sp.. Biodiversity and Conservation. 2(1): 39-50). I''ll quote from the abstract: “In C. pinnatifrons both sexes flower synchronously during the dry season. Prior to anthesis, the pendulous male inflorescence is inhabited by numerous thrips (Thysanoptera) and Ptiliidae (Coleoptera). Staminate flowers open by a small basal slit between the petals. At anthesis pollen is shed and the movements of the insects inside the flowers trigger pollen release in small clouds. Thus, the powdery pollen becomes airborne and finally air currents act as a vector, carrying pollen to the inconspicuous female plants, which usually are not visited by insects.”

Today''s photograph is significantly post-pollination, as these are the ripening fruits on a female plant. An image of the male inflorescence, though, is available via the Palm & Cycad Societies of Australia: Chamaedorea pinnitafrons.

A fact sheet on the species is available via PalmBase, or the Palms of Ecuador database: Chamaedorea pinnitafrons. The image on that page is somewhat broken, but if you click on the area where it is supposed to be, you''ll witness another image of a male inflorescence. The fact sheet, in addition to providing details on morphology and distribution (seemingly limited to South America, so that''s a bit of a discrepancy), also provides a list of Spanish, Siona and Cofán common names. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:59:27 GMT

Charities and governance

On one reading, not-for-profit have really lifted their governance since the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley.

According to Grant Thornton's fifth annual National Board Governance Survey for Not-for-Profit Organizations, 75 percent of not-fot-profits say their organization has a code-of-ethics policy, compared to 17 percent in 2003. And 89 percent have a conflict-of-interest policy, a substantial increase from 24 percent several years ago. Almost nine out of 10 (87 percent) respondents have adopted a written investment policy, compared to 63 percent in 2006 and 92 per cent have implemented new accounting policies and procedures, compared to only 59 percent in last year's survey.

As Sarah Johnson at CFO.com points out, a lot of that is due to the Internal Revenue Service asking for more detailed financial information.

Still, it's not convincing if the track record of charities and non-profits outside of the US is anything to go by. Keeping in mind that they are all struggling with the same forces, there is some way to go.

In Britain, The Guardian reports that a report from the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organizations has found that charities are having real trouble with transparency and governance.

And in Australia, I have written a piece detailing how the Perpetual Foundation, which holds the biggest charitable trust book in the country, found that the non-profit sector had bad governance and little accountability. And the problem started with the boards.

"According to the report, directors of non-profit boards were inept at strategic planning and financial management, were ineffective at dealing with government and had been put there because of their political connections. They tended to fight with chief executives, interfered with management, got involved in petty issues and were self-serving. They lacked appreciation of their legal responsibilities, did not have the right skills and struggled to do their job, particularly if they were doing it after-hours." Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:40:02 GMT

The Golden Compass. London premiere

"If Darth Vader wore a blond wig, a slinky dress and a dab of Chanel behind each ear, he could hardly be as evil as Nicole Kidman, playing the gorgeous villainess Mrs Coulter in this spectacular new movie version of [The Golden Compass], the opening episode of Philip Pullman''s fantasy series His Dark Materials," writes the Guardian''s Peter Bradshaw. "This is the very best sort of part for her: statuesque, elegant, seductive, with a hint of cold steel. In many ways, it''s her juiciest character since the sociopathic meteorologist in To Die For."

"When she walks down the hall of fictional Jordan College in a figure-hugging gold lame gown, her honey-blonde locks permed into place, the men on screen fall silent - and my mouth fell open and an involuntary ''wow!'' fell out," confesses Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail. "Now, that''s what I call a movie star entrance, and I haven''t seen it done with such aplomb in years."

Updated through 12/2. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 01:31:49 GMT

Sea Organ

In 2005, architect Nikola Basic created the musical Sea Organ on the shores of Zadar, Croatia. It is the world''s first musical pipe organ that is played by the sea. Simple and elegant steps, carved in white stone, were built on the quayside.

Underneath, there are 35 musically tuned tubes with whistle openings on the sidewalk. The movement of the sea pushes air through, and – depending on the size and velocity of the wave – musical chords are played. The waves create random harmonic sounds.

Listen to the Sea Organ.

(thanks Stanley) Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source