February 29, 2012
Nineteen thousand people worldwide share your birthday with you, except
if you were born on leap day.
Leap birthdays are shared by less than five thousand people.
Plus, leap people (leaplings) are much younger than they look.
Music Association: Michelle
Branch - Leap of Faith
Starving Ethiopia Exporting Food
Farmers Kicked Off Fields So That Saudi's Can Grow Rice
February 28, 2012
Ethiopia is kicking tens of thousands of its farmers off Ethiopia's
best
farmland. Trees are being cleared and unlimited water rights are being
granted, so that Saudi Star can grow a million tons of rice for gulf
nations. This
story by Cassandra Herrman and the PBS
Newshour, that aired tonight, blew me away.
I understand the need for food and money and money for food, but the
land will be worse off when the next drought comes.Villagization is
ridiculous. Ethiopia needs its farmers that know the land. Ethiopia
needs to feed Ethiopia.
Music Association: Band-Aid -
Feed the World
Copyright. Copyleft. Proceed.
February 27, 2012
Did you know that a joke can't be copyrighted? It's funny but true.
The image to the right is said to be copyright by The
Made Shop, which I am displaying as fair use (unless
this is parody... do people let you know when they're trying to be
funny?).
And yet, this animated gif probably doesn't meet the test of
being "considered
a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work only if, and only to the
extent that, such design incorporates pictorial, graphic, or sculptural
features that can be identified separately from, and are
capable
of existing independently of, the utilitarian aspects of the article."
In other words, the copyright symbol wouldn't be copyrighted,
only the endless zoom. But if the copyright symbol were excised from
the endless zoom, the result would just be white, which is also not
copyrightable since the result would be an absence of a picture, not a
picture. [source
17
USC 92 § 101]
Or they're just being funny.
Music Association: Staind -
Right Here
Minimalist
February 24, 2012
"Nothing for me, thank you."
"You sure,
Hun? We've got a great coffee cake..."
"No, thank
you."
I'm a minimalist. I don't take medicine, drugs, smoke, drink, drink
coffee, chew gum, eat cake or cookies or candy... and I rarely drink
pop.
I travel lightly. I
have confidence without an ego. I understand technology without needing
it. I don't take money that isn't due. I'm
far more concerned about what I'm learning than what I know. I
don't feel the need to write or talk about myself. Even this post is
more about what I'm not than what I am.
By the way, I don't know when I became that waitress's "hun." I wonder
if that started with Attila?
Music Association: The Beatles -
Nowhere Man
Follow
me, you know, in the sense of read me, but I'm not looking for
followers. I admire diversity. I admire a great many people who are
nothing like me. So in the post above, I list many things that I don't
do. Yet I have admired people with those traits. I am in no way
fostering my beliefs on you. Believe what you want; do what you want.
Judges will judge. I will not.
And in the post below, I admired Steve Irwin for being the "don't look
before you leap" type of guy even though that's not me. He was who he
had to be.
Ash Wednesday
Steve Irwin
Would've Been 50
February 22, 2012
Steve Irwin knew how to live. Step
first. Realize where you just stepped second.
One of my favorite moments of his show was when he was
starting to tell about this hole he found that had a snake or two.
Except he stopped and got his camera guy to step back and then he got
out of where he'd been standing because he had been in the midst of a
pile-up of big black snakes, all trying to get on camera.
Imagine the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is
surrounded by snakes in the Well of Souls. Except instead of being
Indiana Jones, it's Steve "the Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, surrounded by
snakes but focused on this one hole in the wall that has a snake or two
in it.
But he knew crocs.
It didn't matter how ridiculously large that croc was, Steve Irwin
would be all over it. It was his nature.
Steve Irwin might have been 50 today (in some space-time continuum),
but it wasn't likely. Crikey, he really lived.
Music Associations: Jim Stafford
- Spiders and Snakes & Aerosmith - Living On The Edge
Happy
Mardi Gras
February 21, 2012
Music Association: Michael
Jackson - Bead It
MÖTIVATIONAL
MONDAY
February 20, 2012
How to build a better today.
There are two types of problems: large problems and small problems. The
large problems are never so large that they can't be broken down into
small, manageable problems. So really there is only one type of problem
― little problems.
And with little problems, perseverance counts.
“Anyone who
has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert
Einstein
“Whatever the
mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
―
Napoleon Hill
“I’ve
missed more than
9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six
times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and
missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.
And
that is why I succeed.”
―
Michael Jordan
“Take
the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole
staircase, just take the first step.”
―
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Be the change you want to see in
the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Listen to the
mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the
shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never
haves, then listen close to me...
Anything can happen.
Anything can be.”
― Shel Silverstein
Music Associations: Louis
Armstrong - Wonderful World & Sam Cooke - Wonderful World
Whitney
February 18, 2012
A memorial to Whitney Houston (1963-2012) in a Quezon City
mall, east of Manila in the Philippines.
Today's memorial
service for
Whitney was good. I especially liked what Ray Watson, her bodyguard
said. And what Kevin Costner said
.
Four of the top five albums on Amazon.com today were Whitney's. [source Variety]
Music Association: Whitney
Houston - I Will Always Love You
Minnesota Spring
Less of a Shock to the Shock-Absorbers
February 17, 2012
Usually winter comes twice a year in Minnesota, once at the beginning
and once at the end.
That didn't happen last year, and it doesn't look like it will happen
this year either.
The Twin Cities
has about four snow emergencies per winter. Last winter (2010-2011),
there were nine
in St. Paul. This winter, zero.
This isn't winter.
Notice anything else missing? Potholes.
Without all the snow, snowplows, and salt (the triple S's), drivers
aren't zigzagging around the holes in the roads.
If you miss the potholes, I mean really
miss the potholes, visit Minnesota's largest
never-to-be-filled-in potholes at Interstate
State Park.
Music Association: Deftones -
Hole In The Earth
Jam
Tape
Real to Reel to Cassette to Gif
February 15, 2012
I was digitizing recordings
when I
ran across a jammed tape. Great. It had to be the best (and most used)
tape -- one that looks like a reel-to-reel tape deck in cassette form.
__
Before taking it apart, I took some pictures and turned them into this
animated gif. ☞
I'm glad I only bought one of these. It turns out these Teac
tapes have a reputation
for good looks, but poor functionality. And if I've sold you on the
double nostalgia (then,
please re-read), an unopened Teac
reel-to-reel cassette is available for $50.
Music Association: T-Love - Reel
Love
Valentine's Day
Is For Saps
Anyone
February 14, 2012
Valentine's Day is a day of romance... or
not. Take your pick.
If you are in blissful love, then every day is a day of romance -- even
last Tuesday. The calendar doesn't chart love. That would be silly.
Music Association: Paul
McCartney and Wings - Silly Love Songs
Occupy
Valentines
Make
it your own
(like
any other day).
If
someone doesn't need a heart,
but
needs a kidney...
Like Velcro
February 13, 2012
Music Associations: Dixie Chicks
- Baby Hold On, Eddie Money - Baby Hold On, & Kansas - Baby
Hold On
